Naked Giants are back on tour with Shine Away
Seattle trio and long time ListenSD favorites Naked Giants, Grant Mullen (vocals and guitar), Gianni Aiello (vocals and bass) and Henry LaVallee (drums), are back on tour with their new album Shine Away. We had an exclusive interview with Henry LaVallee ahead of their April 23rd show at The Casbah.
ListenSD: Thank you for taking time for this interview, we’re super stoked you’re coming back to San Diego to play the Casbah! You’ve played in San Diego several times before, is there a particular beach, restaurant or record store you like to visit while in town?
Henry NG: Yes actually! We love going to Record City, I remember the fellow working the register commented on Gianni’s striped shirt and said he looked like “a merry prankster”. This was well before Gianni became hip to the Grateful Dead. We still knew to take it as a compliment and we had a wonderful time at the shop. This time around, I hope we’ll get to Folk Arts Rare Records. Looks to me like they would have some great vintage records!
LSD: We highly recommend hitting Folk Arts! Do you remeber the last time you played at the Casbah? You did the One Chip challenge and then played a song (I provided the pepto after!) Do you have any new challenge in mind for this show?
Henry NG: HAHAHA OHMYGOD I blocked that from my memory. Did you hear that shortly after that show somebody was hospitalized and the “Blue Chip” was removed from the market? SO WILD oh wow. Thank you for the pepto! I really needed it. I was going through it after that…and I normally love spice! Hmm new challenges for this show? Well, my goal is to have a varied setlist for this tour (like the Dead) so I think the challenge is already laid in front of us.
LSD: I didn’t know that! We actually have video of the whole thing haha, it’s on YouTube! We’d love to know about the cover of your album Sluff from 2018. It has a picture taken inside the bathroom of one of our favorie venues, Soda Bar. Can you tell us the story behind that?
Henry NG: I love the lore that took place in SD! the chip, the album cover! too good. We were playing with a Seattle band, Acid Tongue, that night. Their tour manager was mainly a photographer, Stephanie Severance, and we did a little photoshoot around the venue that night. The photo just had the energy we were feeling at the time, so we went with it when getting our album packaging sorted out!
LSD: You obviously enjoy your time here, so we have to ask, are there any artists in San Diego or Tijuana you really like or would like to collab with?
Henry NG: If we ever become successful enough, I’d love to jam with Los Tucanes de Tijuana. Maybe it will turn into an epic norteño-pysch album! Any band that can record something as fire as La Chona I think would be an honor to play music with.
LSD: Hahaha, I LOVE that! Now I totally think you should at least cover it at Casbah!
Lastly, we’d love to know what are you all listening on repeat lately?
Henry NG: I’ve been vibing with Natanael Cano, Grupo Frontera, and just rediscovered Santana’s Abaxas. Also Becky G‘s Encuentros was on repeat for a while.Thanks for the questions! Come say hey at the show if you can make it!
LSD: Thank you so much for this fun interview!
