guiding light are ready to take over the world beyond austin

Guiding Light were shocked to find that anyone outside of Austin had heard of them, let alone a Brooklynite on vacation who wanted to sit down for an interview. But the band’s self-titled 2024 EP was impossible for the discerning punk to ignore. Their tight, wiry sound is strengthened by an intuitive sense of rhythm and the unexpected punch of semi-German lyricism. With the new vinyl release of Guiding Light on Tall Texan Records and the band’s imminent rise to glory, it was time to share their story.

I met the band at Tweedy’s, a local dive with a monochrome portrait of David Lynch on the wall and a specials menu themed to, well, the Specials. “I work here so I’ve been here all day,” says bassist Rachel Kirk, “but a lot of people like to hang out here, so I mean, it’s a nice spot to gather. We’ve played here before as Guiding Light.” 

“I was here the other day and ran into like a million different people. It’s that kind of place where you just see everyone,” says Elise Cook, the vocalist behind the band’s Teutonic tongue. “I grew up in the UK, moved to the Bay Area with my parents when I was a kid because of my dad's work, and then we ended up in Austin.” 

Guitarist John Morales and drummer Daniel Powell round out the group, both members of another great Austin act, Touch Girl Apple Blossom. In a booth away from it all earlier this year, we laughed over cheap beer, mezcal palomas, and the eternally binding force of great music.

Before you guys were Guiding Light, how were you involved in music? What got each of you into music?

John Morales: I saw Sonic Youth on Letterman. They played the song “Incinerate,” and that kinda just changed my life. That's pretty much it, I just wanted to play guitar. 

Elise Cook: What got me into music was my dad. He was in bands and put me onto a bunch of stuff. I never really thought, oh, I would be in a band, ’cause I didn’t really play any instruments, and then... I was in a band. 

Daniel Powell: I was a metalcore kid growing up, so that's what made me want to play drums.

Rachel Kirk: Both my parents were classical musicians. But then, when I was in high school, I got really into rock and started playing bass. And I always wanted to be in a band, but I didn't know anyone when I lived in Houston growing up. I moved here to Austin for college, and I really wanted to get in the music industry, and here I am now, booking shows, working at three different spots. And I've been in a few bands here in Austin, and that's how I met John, with the band I had most recent to Guiding Light. After that band broke up, John asked me if I wanted to do something, and I was like, hell yeah, and that's kind of how Guiding Light started. 

Daniel Powell: Me and John play in another band and I felt like we needed an outlet to play a different kind of music together because that band is a lot more like, rock’n’roll-ish. We just wanted to play something faster. 

Rachel Kirk: We were trying to figure out who to do vocals, and I was thinking about it for a long time and Elise used to be in a band here in town that I thought was really cool, and I knew that they weren't playing anymore. And I kind of knew Elise because we met in L.A. for the first time. 

Elise Cook: We were both in L.A. for Cruel World, and we met at Billy Idol.

Rachel Kirk: So I just texted them, hey, we’re starting this project with John and Daniel. And I was like, I don't know if they'll want to do it. But I got a response pretty quick, and we practiced the next day. 

Elise Cook: When Rachel reached out to me about being in Guiding Light, she kind of described what the sound was this kind of like jangly post-punk. I was like, OK, I’m in. It was immediate.

What was your original thesis idea for the band? What sounds were you playing with?

John Morales: I was super influenced by Johnny Marr, but more dissonant or less poppy. More kinda Gang of Four-y. And Television, I really liked a lot of the guitar playing from Television. 

Elise Cook: That was the joke at first, that we would be a Television cover band. That’s how we got the name. I had that first practice, and you guys were like, “By the way, we have a show in a month.” 

Daniel Powell: Sounds like movie shit!

Elise Cook: And we came up with the name a week before. 

Rachel Kirk: Because we had to get a name on the flyer. The first show we played was a showcase of all bands that were playing their first show. So that's why we wanted to do that. We had songs mostly ready, but we just needed vocals.

Elise Cook: And weren’t you three fucking lucky that I had a bunch of shit already written. 

Rachel Kirk: I knew you were ready to go. 

Elise Cook: Cause like, the month leading up to you asking, I was finally in the space where I was like, I do want to be in a band again. I really want to do this, but I don't know who I want to be. I'd been talking to people, and they were like, we should chat, we should hang, we should play together sometime, we should write. And I just never really felt the pull with anyone I talked to. But then you hit me up, and I was like, oh yeah, we'll do this.  They had songs already. And then I was just like, I think these lyrics would go over this, and then I did it. 

That’s kind of magical. 

Daniel Powell: You know we're a hardcore band, apparently? 

Elise Cook: Apparently. A weird hardcore band. 

Has someone told you that?

John Morales: It was in writing! 

Rachel Kirk: My boyfriend was like, hey, look at this review, and he was really confused. Cause he’s a metal guy, he was like, that’s not hardcore. 

Elise Cook: Cool bands won’t play with us cause we’re not hardcore, what? 

Daniel Powell: And those are our shows. Those are the shows we play!

What do you call yourselves? 

Elise Cook: I’d say it’s post-punk. 

Rachel Kirk: But we played one show, and someone came up to us, and they were like, I thought you were a post-punk band. 

Elise Cook: And then just like walked away. And we were like, huh? We were so confused. But it's funny because I feel like every time we play, someone has something different to say. I'm gathering a list of all the things that people have said. 

Rachel Kirk: Someone said that we were kind of like a ska band. 

Elise Cook: Oh, that hurts. 

John Morales: I like that. We should put it on our Bandcamp.

Rachel Kirk: A lot of times I’ve been in bands, we’re like, oh, let’s try to sound like this. But I feel like with this band, we just sound the way that we sound. Everyone has their own style, and we bring it together.

John Morales: Yeah, it’s a weird crossover. We all like weird shit on our own, but like, it’s always some random weird band that we all like.

So you get together, you’re playing shows, at what point do you decide you need to record this stuff? 

Rachel Kirk: It was very quick. We played the first show in December 2023 and then we recorded in February 2024.

John Morales: I feel like we were just waiting to get the last song done. We had a fifth song, I remember we didn’t even want to do it at first. Then we just decided to record it. That was kind of a last-minute song.

Daniel Powell: Yeah, before that we were playing a fuckin’ 10-minute set. 

Elise Cook: The first show, yeah, probably less than 10 minutes. I miss it! 

Daniel Powell: Now we're at 20-something minutes, and I’m fuckin’ dying every day. But it’s great, it’s great. They’re all good songs.

How did you get involved with Stucco and Down South Tapes for the initial cassette release? They’re elusive. I cannot find a lot of info about them. 

Rachel Kirk: Well, it’s a friend of ours that’s involved with this umbrella of people. He saw us play at Hotel Vegas, he works there, and was like, I'll put out your tape. And then it was just serendipitous that he did it for us.

Elise Cook: He’s very elusive. I've never really spoken to him in person. We'll be like [waves], but that’s it. 

Now you have vinyl out with Tall Texan—also an elusive label.

Rachel Kirk: He is maybe more elusive. I’m the only one that’s talked to him. 

Elise Cook: Someone asked me about it last night and was like, so what's up with Tall Texan and like, who is it? I don't even know. That's not a question for me. 

Rachel Kirk: When we released the cassette and put our stuff on Bandcamp, it was like, two days after, you know how people can contact you through your Bandcamp page and it goes to your email, but you don't like see all of their information? It was just like, Hey, any plans to put this on vinyl? Like that was it. And then we just organized that with the Tall Texan guy and now it exists. 

John Morales: The turnaround was pretty quick. I couldn't believe it. 

This weekend you start a mini-Texas tour to support the vinyl version of the album. How do you guys feel about touring and live shows? Is it invigorating? Is it scary? 

Rachel Kirk: I love it. 

John Morales: Touring is my favorite. I love, like, sleeping on people’s floors, waking up kind of early, getting a coffee, driving to the next place. Yeah, I like all of it. 

Elise Cook: I've only been in one other band and I've never played a show outside of Austin, so I'm really excited. I love playing shows except for the six hours leading up to the set where I feel like I'm gonna shit myself, regardless of whatever is going on. 

You're not the first person to tell me that. 

Elise Cook: I literally feel like I'm gonna actually shit my pants. Hasn’t happened yet. But I don't know, I feel psycho until we play. And then I black out while we're on stage. Don’t remember anything. I get off stage and I feel insane. And then everyone goes, great job, great job. I'm like... 

Daniel Powell: What did I do?

Elise Cook: Yeah, exactly. I literally will ask, how was that? 

Daniel Powell: Touring’s my favorite thing ever, I can't wait. I think this band needs to get out of Austin. ’Cause I feel like other places in this world would really appreciate this band. 

Elise Cook: I want to play the East Coast so bad. Yeah, I think we will. 

John Morales: Anywhere that wants us, we’re going!

If you could tour anywhere, where would you go?

Daniel Powell: Japan! That's gonna be the cherry for me. 

Rachel Kirk: We really want to go to the UK. We were just talking about it. 

Elise Cook: We'll stay with my grandparents. 

Rachel Kirk: We daydream about the kind of tours we want to do one day. 

Elise Cook: We’re planning a tour for this summer. So, Midwest for the summer.

What other big plans do you have for the band?

Rachel Kirk: New release. We're trying to write some new stuff. 

John Morales: An LP is probably the next step.

Do you even have time to write new music? Sounds like you’re all so busy!

John Morales: Yeah, I have like voice memos for stuff. 

Elise Cook: John will show up to practice and be like, guys, I’m having a creative block, I'm having a creative block, I like, I can't think of anything. And then he gets his guitar out, and then he's like, wait! Wait! I have a new song! Let me record it! It happens every time, always. 

Daniel Powell: It’ll be like four sections of a song in ten seconds, and he just looks at me, and he's like, can you do this? And I'm just like, what the fuck did you just do? Play it like ten more times.

Elise Cook: And that’s usually how it goes, that’s how we write.

I know you like to do covers so could I pitch one? Would you ever do “99 Luftbaloons” by Nena? 

Elise Cook: You know I would. You know I already got that shit on lock. That is my go-to karaoke song. Fuck the English version. The English version is fucking dumb, it’s not the same song at all. It makes me sad that they felt they had to make an English version because there was a lot of that Neue Deutsche Welle where it was like if they just sang in English, maybe it would go places. And it just bums me the fuck out cause a lot of the stuff coming out of Berlin around that time where the singing in English and it just doesn't do the same thing. 

Have you seen B Movie: Lust and Sound in West Berlin? You should watch it. It's like my favorite movie ever. It's kind of a documentary, but it's kind of a mockumentary. Basically, this English guy moved to West Berlin in the late '70s and early '80s, and he filmed a bunch of stuff while he was there. He hung out around a bunch of musicians, so like Malaria!, Ideal, all those kinds of bands. And there's a part where the vocalist of Ideal talks about how she feels like she can hide when she sings in English, which is funny because I have the opposite thing because I'm not in a German audience. So I feel like I can hide when I sing in German because no one knows what the fuck I'm saying. Anyways, it's awesome. We should cover it. Maybe we will, just for you. 

John Morales: Yeah, we'll do it at our eventual New York show one day. 

With SXSW coming up, how do you feel about that whole event?

Rachel Kirk: I like it because it gives me work and I make money, but the lead-up to it is the most stressful time of my life. Although it is fun when it's going on, there's cool bands. I don't think we're gonna play this year. If we did, we would only do unofficial. We only did unofficial last year, we played with our friends. We played here at Tweedy's, which was really fun.

Elise Cook: Daniel was the real trooper of last year's SXSW. He played...

Daniel Powell: It was ten shows in seven days. 

Elise Cook: And the day we played here, Daniel played three times. That was actually our best set.

Daniel Powell: It was horrible. I was trashed the whole time. And the Guiding Light set is the fucking hardest set for me. I don't know how it worked.

John Morales: I actually loved that set. 

Elise Cook: That was one of the sets we played where I was like, wow, I feel good about this. 

John Morales: I have a last thing to say. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate my bandmates. Because, like, the previous band that I was in, I thought of the songs that I was writing that didn't materialize, and it was going to go to Guiding Light. I couldn't really think of any drummers who could play it, not that it's super technical or anything, but you need stamina and endurance to do these kind of drum parts. I thought of Daniel, and then Rachel. The stuff that Rachel puts into Guiding Light is shit that I would never would have thought. And then, Elise is an amazing writer, I love the lyrics. 

Daniel Powell: John's the best. 

Rachel Kirk: This band exists because of John. 

Elise Cook: Shout out John, legend. 

Rachel Kirk: Texas legend right there! It really came together. 

Elise Cook: I’m excited. I also feel very, very grateful for Guiding Light and for being asked to join and do vocals because I really needed it at that point in time and it has given me such a great outlet. For lack of a better word, over the last year things have been a little bit cuckoo bananas in my life, so I feel honored to play with great people. Thank all of you.