Synthwave pioneers Gunship — Dan Haigh, Alex Westaway, and Alex Gingell — today release a special cover of Real Life's 1980s smash hit, "Send Me An Angel," an otherworldly, heavy synth-rock rendition available to stream in time for Halloween.
The defining soundtrack to legendary BMX movie RAD is back with a vengeance and in the care of Gunship and their signature synth sounds and powerful modern production. Hop on your tricked out BMX and shred the night away to this retro modern take on one of the biggest songs of the '80s.
Gunship says, "'Send Me An Angel' is a cornerstone of '80s synth pop — its driving synth bass and mesmeric lead lines remain an influence on GUNSHIP's production style to this day. However, the song's involvement in the classic BMX movie RAD truly heightened the song's resonance with us to a whole other level. Endless summer, BMX upgrades, and Helltrack… definitely 'Rad' times."
Stream Gunship's "Send Me An Angel" here.
Watch the lyric video below.
To celebrate the release of "Send Me An Angel," Gunship have launched an exciting BMX-themed competition. Fans are invited to post video clips of their best BMX tricks to their socials and use the hashtag #GUNSHIPBMX. The band will select three winners to receive some Gunship swag, and will also repost good tricks on their socials.
This isn't the first time the band have released a cover in the spirit of Halloween. In 2020, they released a modern-day "Eleanor Rigby," having found themselves continuously drawn to the iconic Beatles' lyric "Look at all the lonely people." The track reimagined the character of Eleanor alive today and experiencing the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Send Me An Angel" comes fresh off the back of the band's third studio album, UNICORN, released last month. Gunship invite their listeners to celebrate the power of imagination on the record, named after the international icon of fantasy and imagination, it's emblazoned with the tagline "Imagination Is A Weapon." The trio's trademark, synth-laden atmosphere and transportative soundscapes continue to evolve to include more rock, industrial, and EDM influences, allowing the listener to revel in an alternative reality on a 14-track electric thrill ride.
Unicorn boasts a diverse array of special guests, who each bring something different to the project. Collaborators include: John Carpenter, Gavin Rossdale (Bush), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Carpenter Brut, Tim Cappello (Lost Boys, Tina Turner, Ringo Starr), Health, Tyler Bates (John Wick, Guardians of the Galaxy etc), Lights, Power Glove, Charlie Simpson, Britta Philips (Jem), Milkie Way (Wargasm) and Stella Le Page.
Embodying the saying "it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness," Gunship seek to curse the darkness as well as to provide illumination with their darker and more positive material respectively, while consistently evolving the synthwave genre they helped to pioneer.
With the album's release came new single "Empress of The Damned," featuring Canadian powerhouse, Lights. Opening with a spooky John Carpenter-esque horror aura, the damnation quickly resolves into a pounding synthwave and EDM-fused tour de force. Returning collaborator Tim Cappello (The Lost Boys, Tina Turner) blasts blazing saxophone lines evoking some of the best '80s classics, while on vocals, fresh from recent collaborations with Deadmau5, i_o, Felix Cartel and Illenium, Lights delivers the powerful melodic hooks she is famous for. "Empress Of The Damned" boasts cultural and video game references abound, in hypnotic and bass heavy verses which give way to soaring choruses filled with Gunship's signature '80s pop sensibility. It's a fiery take on the classic 1980s duets of yesteryear.
Elsewhere, bass-driven, industrial-rock offering "DooM Dance," is a vivid sonic experience. On the track, rock icon and Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale delivers searing vocals, while synthwave powerhouse Carpenter Brut serves up some devastating electronic riffs. "DooM Dance" is inspired by the frenetic ‘dance’ gamers perform when vastly outnumbered and battling wave after wave of enemies in the now legendary video game DooM.
Gunship make a name for themselves by linking their music and video releases with popular culture, whether that be film, like the Blade Runner x The Terminator dystopia in the new era's first release, "Monster In Paradise" (Feat. Milkie Way, Dave Lombardo, Tim Cappello, Tyler Bates) or the gaming world, as with "DooM Dance" and previous album single "Taste Like Venom," which paid homage to Sega's classic arcade game Outrun.
Milkie Way (the fiery frontwoman of Wargasm), pays homage to the indomitable Sarah Connor from The Terminator films, on "Monster In Paradise," a key highlight. Driving Sarah's classic 1983 Jeep CJ-7 Renegade and providing a Terminator style voice over, Milkie initially appears to be giving a performance true to Sarah Connor's character, although perhaps things are not quite as they seem… Are the machines recruiting humans with a mind-altering silver liquid? Watch the music video here.
In an equally cyber-futuristic offering, "Ghost" (Feat. Power Glove), released later last year, asked artificial intelligence to show the world "What happens after we die?" The cyberpunk tune was accompanied by an AI-generated video. Cutting edge and psychedelic, the video was created via various emerging artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, including OpenAI's DALL-E, the open-source Stable Diffusion as well as Midjourney.
Dive into the full, fantasy world of Unicorn now…
ABOUT GUNSHIP:
GUNSHIP are Dan Haigh, Alex Westaway, and Alex Gingell. The band’s sound is created with vintage analogue synthesizers and other retro electronic gear from the 1980s. Driven and inspired by nostalgia for a bygone era, Gunship harness this retro approach to birth something fresh and new. Their sound is sonically diverse — blending sweeping fluorescent synth lines with fever pitched and adrenalizing electric bass arpeggios. Dan Haigh from Gunship describes their sound as "a neon-soaked, late night, sonic getaway drive, dripping with luscious analogue synthesizers, cinematic vocals and cyberpunk values, exploding from the front cover of a dusty plastic VHS case which has lain forgotten since 1984." Gunship was formed in 2014 as a new musical venture for Westaway and Haigh, also members of post-hardcore band Fightstar with Charlie Simpson (Busted) and Omar Abidi, going on hiatus in 2010. Unicorn follows their critically acclaimed self-titled debut (Gunship, 2015), and 2018 follow-up Dark All Day.
