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ON THE COUCH WITH: Goons Of Doom

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: "The Goons Of Doom are four childhood friends and a Czech blonde girl who, after years of sitting around drinking, smoking, painting, surfing and having barbies, decided to form a band". this makes for interesting conversation. how did the conversation of starting up a band actually come about?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: The way I see it we'd already been a band for about 15 years, albeit one that made hell times instead of music. I met Ozzie Wrong the day before Kindergarten started. He was hiding behind his Mum's legs with his invisible best friend Harold (no joke he had a spot at the table set for family meals and everything). Killer was in our class too and Cutthroat was the year above us but at a Catholic School down the road. We became friends through surfing which was also how we met Bang Bang, Ozzie and her hooked up during a surf trip to New Zealand about six years ago. When they came home we all moved into a big house together at South Narrabeen. After about a dozen massive parties we decided we better do something with our lives and we began making a surf movie called "Doped Youth" about a bunch of no hoper surfers trying to make it big in a rock band. All the instruments were props we bought from Cash Converters for $100. When we finished the movie we plugged em in one day and just started thrashin about. We thought we sounded amazing and we told everyone we were in this kick ass band.

Dead From The Goons Of Doom: Three days later we played our first gig. We were fucked but nobody cared. A month later we were playing to 1000 people in Japan.

Access All Areas.net.au: What's the history of the members of the Goons Of Doom - had you all had previous history with music?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: Before the Goons of Doom Cutthroat, Ozzie Wrong and Bang Bang had literally never picked up an instrument and I'd learned a few basic chords on the guitar at high school just so I could sleaze onto gullible chicks at campfires. Killer had always been involved in music though. He'd been in really kickin' underground Northern Beaches bands Mammal, Blind Society and Ze Peacocks Pelvis. Learning songs in the first few months was like "Ok, put your finger there, and then there on that dot and then on the second string on the other dot... no not that one... yeah that one." It was slow going but we pulled it together. Now Ozzie owns a banjo and writes all his songs on that. It's like Deliverance meets Jeff Spicoli. It's fucken weird how fast you can pull shit together without ever having any knowledge of music at all. As long as it's in your blood your styling.

Access All Areas.net.au: It seems The Goons Of Doom have been a bit of a dark horse in the music industry. though this is your debut album, you've already achieved a substantial amount of success in the form of AIR charting and touring. You've already toured in Japan, US and Europe and scored a top 20 in the AIR charts, how have you done it and have you been surprised by what you have achieved?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: Yeah, we've also received death threats on our website from over wound screws who think we're shit. Every opportunity we've enjoyed for no other reason than we loved to get roaringly wasted and go nuts on stage. In the early days we got flown to America just to play at parties. So yeah, doing what we've been able to do has been a massive surprise because at the heart of it all is just the want to have more fun. That we have managed to start doing things a bit more professionally lately in terms of going on tour and selling CD's and getting charted is amazing because the five of us are really quite fucking hopeless. But cliché or not, we'd be in this band whether we were doing it for a living or not so I guess I should say "sorry" to all the people who want us dead cause we're not going anywhere.

Access All Areas.net.au: The title for the album - 'The Story Of Dead Barbie & Ghost' that almost seems a story in itself? Where'd the title originate from?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: It's from a poem Ozzie Wrong penned then put to music. It's about the best fucking Halloween party ever, kind of 10 bar kook rockabilly blues thing. Oz is an awesome story teller, he'll sit around all day writing little rhymes then singin' em over his banjo. He only knows about three chords but he's got about 200 songs that all go to the same tune. He plays that banjo all day every day. I'm gonna set it on fire next time he's not lookin. Nah, some of our best shit comes off that thing.

Access All Areas.net.au: In the four days that you recorded your album, which is quite a feat to
pack 16 songs in the space of four days, do you feel you captured everything you wanted with this album?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: Our Bikey Zomby EP took seven hours to record and that went for 25 minutes so four days was enough to do our Anthology especially considering we didn't leep at all during the sessions. All we wanted to capture was the energy of the band and the emotion of the songs which I think we did. We weren't after technical perfection or anything like that. We wanted rough edges and out of key singing and wobbly solos and I think you'll find plenty of all that throughout the album. We had an amazing producer in Matty "Strong-arm of Doom" Strong (former Custard lead guitarist) and even though he turned up two days late after writing off his car he slotted into the vision straight away.

Dead From The Goons Of Doom: It was the best four days of our lives and I think you can feel that when you put Dead Barbie & Ghost on real loud.

Access All Areas.net.au: You're currently touring the country and doing more shows for a good part of this year, what can fans expect from a Goons Of Doom show?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: One thing I've learned about playing with the Goons of Doom is that having five massive egos on stage at the same time can only lead to unpredictable happenings.

Dead From The Goons Of Doom: Everyone is the lead singer and everyone is the out of the limelight drummer so explosions are common. When everythings good it's the best night ever. When things go sour at least you can walk away laughing. I've seen Bang Bang punch Ozzie in the face, Killerwhale kick a skinhead in the teeth mid-song and I've thrown my guitar at Cutthroat's face cause he was telling me to stop bitching like a little bitch who'd eaten a bowl of bitchflakes - just to name a few. Then other times I've seen Bang Bang crowd surf a guitar case over thousands of people, Oz hanging from the ceiling, Killerwhale channelling demons through his guitar and Cutthroat have six sticks spinning at once - total lunacy you'd cut off your arms to be part of. I'd love to say you'd get consistency but I'd be telling a filthy lie. More likely you'll get your head blown off.

Access All Areas.net.au: For those who haven't heard of you, how would you best describe your style of music?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: Surf rock, horror pop with a good helping of death joy and love metal. It's the only sound we can make so another way to describe it would probably be honest noise. It's fun as fuck.

Access All Areas.net.au: Post tour, what's next for Goons Of Doom?
Dead From The Goons Of Doom: Well, we've already got about 35 new songs ready for the next album so I guess we'll try get some studio time before the end of the year. We're also working on a new movie under the working title of: The Chron of Chron; which should be out around Christmas. Everyone's got solo shit going on too which you can find out more about on the website, but I'd say if we don't all kill eachother the Goons of Doom follow-up album might be the best thing in the history of the universe. Might suck, but it might be fucking brilliant too.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Ever stuck a cow’s teat in your earhole? If you answered “no” then don’t be embarrassed. The truth is less and less people are experimenting with exciting new sensations in their aural cavities. The music world has desensitized listeners, fooling them into believing only the most homogenized products are suitable for sonar consumption - it’s a lie of course and at last we have the means to prove it...

This, friends, is The Story Of Dead Barbie And Ghost, the anticipated debut LP from Australia’s unlikeliest kook spook heroes, The Goons Of Doom - and believe us when we tell you it’s a bit of absolute primo.

THE GOONS OF DOOM
The Goons of Doom are four childhood friends and one sexy Czech blonde girl who, after years of sitting around drinking, smoking, painting, surfing and having barbies, decided to form a band. Featuring Killerwhale and Vaughan Dead on guitars, Cutthroat Cowboy on drums, the delicious Swiss Bang Bang Bunny Fang on bass and pro freesurfer Ozzie Wrong also on bass and vocals, the Sydney five piece quickly gained an infamous reputation for their explosive, feel good live sets and tongue in cheek lyricism. In 2005 The Goons of Doom released their first five track EP Bikey Zomby which shocked the hell out of everyone by hitting the top 20 on the AIR Charts. Tours through the US, Japan, Europe, New Zealand and Australia have seen the band develop a cult following which is sure to grow upon the release of their first album - The Story of Dead Barbie And Ghost.

THE STORY OF DEAD BARBIE & GHOST
Recorded in just four days The Story of Dead Barbie And Ghost features a generous 16 songs as diverse and varied as the band members themselves. Ranging from zomby horror surf pop, to swaying lullabies, to knife wielding thrash-out anthems, to neon city pub crawls and acid tripping sex romps, it’s clear The Goons of Doom feel no restrictions in bringing their unique blend of musical creativity to life. Keeping to their love of stripped back production and their loathing of hard work The Story of Dead Barbie And Ghost carries an organic honesty throughout - something damned hard to find in these teatless, teatless times.

www.goonsofdoom.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Funeral For A Friend
Well I guess the most memorable would be in 2005 when we played the first Australian Taste Of Chaos festival. It was the first night in Perth & the venue was like five or seven thousand & we were sure we’d be pretty unknown. We got up on stage & started playing & then we noticed the crowd & saw that pretty much everyone was singing the songs & we were like “did we sell all our cds in perth or something?”, so that was pretty memorable for me personally. Also playing the Warped tour in America, its like a 2 month travelling township or something, you play shows go hang out & then travel like a thousand miles & start over. There’s been other experiences, but those are probably the standouts for me.

Ideal Lineup?
Well for me I would have to say Nine Inch Nails who I saw at Redding the other year when they played before The Smashing Pumpkins. The set was just amazing & I’m not really even a fan of the band, but the set was just something they really play great. Also I’d probably say Killswitch Engage they are a great band & are good friends of mine, we toured Australia with them on our first tour & made good friends with them & yeah they just play great music & are great musicians I guess. There’s others I think but those would be the 2 I’d say off the top of my head.

Tips for attending Music Festivals?
Well I guess just drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated, stay out of the way of trouble & really just look after yourself & anyone who gets in trouble that you know & you should have a pretty good day.