Gambling Hearts are a power trio from Salisbury, Wiltshire who mix angst and melody into a simple, ragged alt/rock sound. Raw and honest, the band’s heartfelt lyricism is reminiscent of Neil Young and Elliot Smith, with the music taking its sonic inspiration from BRMC, Blur and Nirvana.
The earliest incarnation of Gambling Hearts toured for a good 10 years during the band’s late teens, early twenties. They played on uni tours, doing their bit for the Rock Against Racism movement, but broke up in 2004. The next iteration of Gambling Hearts started out as guitarist Simon Rowe’s solo project on a small indie label called Carmandie Records. According to Simon, the only good thing about the record he made with a collection of hired hands and uninterested producers was that “it had blood on the tracks”.
Simon called up his old band mates Sam and Will to see if they wanted to start a new band. Living in Salisbury, Wiltshire at the time, they found a great chemistry between them and, as a result of the ever increasing amount of time spent on the road to and from London, decided to relocate to the capital.
Quickly obtaining residencies at The Hope in Angel and the Dublin Castle in Camden Town, the band played all over town, often 2 or 3 times a week, until the big smoke inevitably, inexorably took its toll and the band slowly stopped breathing.
Fast forward many years and the guys were living thirty something lives with proper jobs, when a chance meeting in a pub got the guys thinking that maybe, just for fun, they could book a rehearsal room and jam together.
Of course it was ragged and raw. Of course the fire that had fed them 10 years earlier rekindled to lick old wounds. Of course they play a gig. Of course they made a record.
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