Gianni Scalera And The Jury

 

 

 

(Gianni) The band are Gianni Scalera (lead vocals/guitar), Liam Ponder (bass/backing vocals) and Harley Dighton (drums). We met when we were in our teens playing in separate bands in the local Medway music scene, we all knew of each other separately and it wasn’t until 2022 that Harley and Liam wanted to start a band and were looking for a singer/guitarist and were stuck for ideas until a mutual friend suggested me so Liam and Harley were like “oh of course why didn’t we think of Gianni in the first place?”.

 

 

We started as a covers band but I had my own songs that I need a band for and instead of looking for a whole separate band, we all agreed to make it all one band doing cover gigs and doing original material at other gigs and the rest is history!

 

 

 

 

(Gianni) My earliest musical memory is probably from when I was a kid maybe 9/10 years old, hanging out with my cousin and he had a Slipknot album it was their latest one at the time “All Hope Is Gone” he put it on and I just thought wow that sounds quite scary especially when I was also looking at the CD booklet seeing what they look like it was scary yet intriguing. I think from then on I wanted to play guitar especially as I had always seen my cousin play guitar over the years and the interest of playing was quite a slow burner but when I started learning I didn’t stop.

 

 

 

 

(Gianni) I began songwriting as soon as I had a few chords under my belt barely a year into learning to play guitar, listening to bands like Oasis and Metallica made me really want to try and write songs and even start a band in school which didn’t last but I kept going knowing that one day I would be in a band that would be dedicated to the art.

 

 

 

 

(Gianni) Yes! Scruff Of The Neck was released March 20th 2026 and is available on everyone’s favourite streaming platforms and it’s definitely a rocker that everyone needs to check out as well as the music video for it!

 

 

 

 

(Gianni) It was recorded at Magpie Studios on the outskirts of Ashford, we record a lot of our music there and our producer is Charlie Creese. Charlie’s got a great ear for production and has really helped shape our sound since we started releasing music.

 

 

 

 

 

(Gianni) I used my PRS SE CE 24 guitar throughout all of ‘Scruff Of The Neck’ as that’s a guitar I use live in Eb tuning which is what majority of our songs our in plus that guitar has a lot of clarity and punch to it making it perfect for recording. Our bassist Liam used a cool effect called an envelope filter which is kind of like an auto wah which gave the bass a unique tone especially in the verses of ‘Scruff Of The Neck’ paired with the slap bass technique again making it sound really punchy and aggressive. Harley used a Gretsch drum kit I believe which was the studios kit paired with his cymbals that I believe are mostly Zildjian cymbals.

 

 

 

 

Happiest maybe the song ‘No More’ because it’s pretty fast paced and energetic especially as I always picture the music video we did for the song whenever I hear it, it was a funny video to shoot. The angriest probably ‘Flip The Script’ as that came from a time when I felt a lot of stress and anger in a certain situation and that song was a way of expressing it and getting through that time. Most reflective is probably one of our ballads called ‘Just Be You’ a song about motivating yourself to achieve what you aspire to do in life and be your authentic self.

 

 

 

 

(Liam) To be honest there wasn’t initially a thought process for our latest video. We had been toying with the idea of focusing on Gianni losing his insanity in the studio for quite sometime. This was loosely based of the video for Mammoth’s song don’t back down.

 

 

We had our good mate Elliot shoot it for us as we loved what he did with our previous video for our single ‘No More’.

 

 

It was just a nice chill day in the studio being a bit silly and just spouting the most absolutely absurd ideas and seeing what would happen and what would work.

 

 

 

 Do you have any further music releases planned for 2026?

 

 

 (Liam) We certainly do, we’re currently in a writing process and heading back into the studio this July to ensure new music out by winter time as a little Christmas present for the fans. We’re keeping it heavy and riff based as it’s what we do best. We’ve contemplated whether to go down the root of an EP or multiple singles but who knows, the world is our oyster.

 

 

 

 

We are from Medway Kent! Our drummer is from Sittingbourne Kent but is close enough, if we were to describe it in 5 words it would have to be “a bit of everything odd”.

 

 

 

 

 

With our voices only Gianni and Liam sing, and both have different approaches, both do their warm ups however as Gianni may take to drinking herbal tea (lemon and ginger in particular) and Gianni will take a Vocalzone throat pastille just before the show starts to clear his throat easier. Liam is the backing vocals as well as bass and he keeps his vocal routine a lot simpler as he doesn’t have to sing as much as Gianni would, they both have their own separate ways of keeping their voices up to scratch!

 

 

 

 

 

We’re very excited to be playing Swale Assembly for the second time! We recently played there this year and enjoyed it. With our drummer being local to Sittingbourne it was a sort of hometown show. The opportunity came from simply being asked, when we saw where the gig would be and who it was for it would have been silly to say no!

 

 

 

 

 

The two things we are hoping to achieve after the show is a lot of new fans, to join in with the old fans, and build on that community. And really just that after we finished everyone walks away knowing they’ve just had a really good night watching 2 great bands!

 

 

 

 

I think our own instruments are out favourites, Gianni is very loyal to his PRS guitars, and Harley is very precious about his Ludwig drum kit, in terms of tech. Gianni has a Line 6 Helix LT which is an effects unit which opens up the doors to lot of different tones and effects that he can access quickly whilst playing the show, so that would be his favourite. Liam really loves his Fender P bass and Fender Rumble amp, they are a staple to his sound!

 

 

 

 

 

We recently covered You Know My Name by Chris Cornell for a local tribute show, so I think if we were to make a film score for any film it would be the next James Bond, all the other theme songs after Chris Cornell were too ballady, we’ll bring a rock’n’roll energy into the James Bond franchise if we could!

 

 

 

 

We all have our own music that we listen to but when it comes to bands that influence us as a whole its very hard not to say the likes of Black Stone Cherry, Audioslave, Soundgarden and Iron Maiden!

 

 

 

 

 

(Harley) The main thing that makes us happy is when we are playing and seeing that other people are having a great time too, the energy we get from that is a feeling you can’t get anywhere else. The other side of that is what makes unhappy, which is people who are there to ruin someone’s day or evening, at a gig with music everyone just wants a beer and a good time, not someone to ruin it.