An introduction to Guro can best be described via their Spotify bio:
"Step into the haunting realm of Guro, the blazing sensation of doomgaze sweeping through the St. Joseph, Missouri music scene! Prepare to be engulfed by a sonic tempest that will leave you learning for more. Guro beckons you on a ghostly journey where their macabre poetry and mesmerizing stage presence draw you into a twisted dimension. Yet, don't be deceived by the shadows, for Guro revels in pure euphoria. They master the art of igniting your heart and moving your body. Brace yourself for an adrenaline-soaked frenzy, where the devotees of doomgaze intertwine in a blissful mosh pit of synchronized pandemonium."
Guro's most recent release is their single "Turn On the Dark." The band released the single September 29, with a music video quickly following. Filmed by Mark Milton, the music video exhorts pure, simple chaos.
GURO is
Teddy Carpenter — performance and programming
Robert Miller — performance and programming
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LP: How did the band get started?
Teddy: I created the Guro Facebook page in 2013. I had plans to start releasing industrial music as a solo project. Being a bedroom musician for about a decade at that point, I had written a lot of music but didn’t release any — or finish most — of it until I met Bob. While I had plans to release music, I lacked the confidence to really follow through.
I met Bob in December 2022 when he played a show at Sk8bar in St. Joe. We ended up jamming, and it felt right. Still feels right. Some of the songs I started working on in my earlier years have stuck around. Some have been released, like "Necrovore" and "Bliss." Some will be upcoming releases — "Poughkeepsie" and "Hollow."
LP: What’s the origins behind the band name?
Teddy: I had gone by other band names in the past, but none of them stuck until I came across the word Guro. Guro is taken from the Japanese phrase “Ero guro” — a phrase that describes the erotic and grotesque. Ero guro as a genre takes things to the extreme, and that’s what I want this music to be. Through Guro, Bob and I take the concept and create music that is abrasive and dense — music taken to the extreme. "Necrovore," for example, has somewhere around eight synths in it. The macabre lyrics found throughout our releases are another example.
LP: Who are your influences?
Teddy: I think if Guro were a hand, the fingers that make up our influences would probably be Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Big Black (R.I.P. Steve Albini), Blaq Audio, Beavis and Butthead, and Christian Death.
LP: Tell me about your single “Turn on the Dark.” What was the writing/recording process like?
Teddy: This past May, we committed to playing Gothicon up in Omaha in August. They asked us to play for an hour and 20 minutes. We were up for the challenge. We had 40 minutes of material written when we booked the show three months out. We needed to create another 40 minutes of material in those three months to fill out our set. “Turn On the Dark” was one of the songs that came about during those manic, late-night writing and recording sessions. Bob hit a synth riff and then it was fuckin’ on, son.
“Turn On the Dark” is also the first single that we have turned into a music video. We thought it was strong enough to work as a single, and we had been wanting to create a music video for one of our songs. This one felt like a natural fit. We thought this video would take our band to another level, and we haven’t been wrong. Shout out to Mark Milton for professionally filming our goofy-ass ideas.
LP: What’s next as a band?
Teddy: We’re going back up to Omaha on October 26 to play at the Haunted Hollow Theme Park. Our EP “Abusement Park” will be released in November on all your streaming platforms. We plan to release two music videos to accompany that EP. And then another EP, called “God’s Unholy Rivet-head Orchestra,” will be released in spring 2025. And then, you guessed it, yet another EP, “Guroboros,” a reworking and remix of previous releases. We haven’t committed to a date for that release.
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