Interview from Guitar World
After touring the globe for 41 shows with a reformed Oasis, Gem Archer says he is ready for a break.
When the band announced its return in August 2024, fans were stunned and many questioned whether Liam and Noel Gallagher could truly make it work again.
When the band announced its return in August 2024, fans were stunned and many questioned whether Liam and Noel Gallagher could truly make it work again.
Against the odds, they did. Archer knew the Live ’25 tour was going to be something special. "Those songs, played in that order, are just unbeatable." With the tour now complete attention has turned to what Oasis will do next.
For now, Archer is taking time out. "I still don’t know my ass from my elbow. It’s time to decompress." This mirrors the band’s official statement that there will be "a pause for a period of reflection."
Here are a few questions and answers from the interview:
What can you say about Bonehead as a guitarist?
"I joined in ’99, but with how things played out, I wasn’t replacing him, it was just taking a different turn. Obviously Oasis needed two guitars, but it certainly wasn’t like Noel said, "You’ve gotta play barre chords and that’s it." It was completely open when I joined.
At the first rehearsal, when we didn’t even have a bass player, we were in a tiny room running through about six songs, and Noel said, "You know the bit in Cigarettes and Alcohol? Can you do that?" I was like, "Well, this opens everything up."
We developed that side of Oasis. They’d just recorded Standing on the Shoulder of Giants and the first single was Go Let It Out. I ended up playing the lead lines on that live. And songs like Gas Panic! were just different, it had taken a different turn.
So it wasn’t replacing Bonehead because it was different. Now, playing with him, it’s like he’s the bedrock, he’s the glue that makes everything else sound great. He’s overlooked as a rhythm guitarist in a way ’cause he has this feel. I don’t want to speak for him, but it’s like he’s playing acoustic with a really gainy electric sound. He just has his own way. Whereas some of us, if we put that guitar through those amps, you wouldn't play with the kind of freedom he does."
There was a lot of speculation about how Oasis with three guitarists would play out – but it really came together beautifully. You were able to capture the guitar layers as they were on the records.
"It really did open up, it opened everything up. During our first get-together Noel said, "Have you ever been in a band with three guitars?" I’m like, "Are you kidding?" He said, "We’ll let Bonehead do Bonehead, and we’ll fit around it."
And you’re not trying to capture every nuance anyway. You don’t want to get in the way of the songs. Like on Cast No Shadow I’m playing slide guitar. In the past, there never would have been any space to do that."
What was it like seeing Noel and Liam come together again as brothers and musical partners?
"I hadn’t seen them together until the first day we all rehearsed. Just looking over and seeing them like five feet apart, it really felt like we’d never split up. But of course I’ve got a guitar in my hand, we’ve got stuff to get on with, so that was it. It wasn’t all lovey-dovey or, "What do you want for Christmas?" or any of that stuff. It was serious business we were getting down to."
Read the full interview here.
Read the full interview here.