So your new album is coming out in a couple of days, that must be pretty exciting?
Yeah it’s good man, it’s good to finally get it out there, like a proper voyage into the unknown.
It’s been quite awhile in the making?
Kind of yeah, not sort of slavishly so or tearing your hair out but it has been a while hasn’t it?
And how does this one differ from the other two that you’ve done, if at all?
Yeah I think it definitely differs. It’s much more about melody and singing and kind of song writing.
Still got the mash-up of the different styles?
Yeah, it’s possibly the most eclectic record we’ve done, it’s pretty schizo across the whole record. There are wildly different kinds of songs but hopefully which all have the ‘Go! Team’ stamp on them. There’s lots of marching band influences in there, really triumphant, stabby, tough sounding brass. There’s nods to My Bloody Valentine in places, there’s little interlude songs which could be from an old public information film or something. Early hip-hop influences still and 60’s girl group things as well. So it’s all over the shop really.
You’ve been away for a while, what’s the Go! Team been up to for the last couple of years? Lots of gigs?
Yeah, we have been touring a lot, even last year we were getting offers to play. We went to Singapore and Ukraine, so even though people think we’ve been away we’ve actually been around the world doing shit. I had a kid two years ago and the whole writing of this album took a while as well. It was quite a drawn out affair of listening to loads of samples and recording things, so the whole process isn’t easy. There’s lots of trial and error, even with the vocalists we had to try a few different vocalists on some songs before it started working.
You guys have played in so many places around the world and you’re coming on tour again pretty soon, is there anywhere in particular you especially like playing?
Well I don’t think it’s a myth that crowds get better the further up north you go. Like London is cold then it get’s warmer and by the time you get to Scotland they’re absolutely fucking nuts, generally anyway if they like you, but if they don’t they’ll tell you about it as well.
What about in Leeds, anything special that you can remember?
Yeah we’ve played there a few times. I was at university there for one year before I got kicked out (Laughs). I made the mistake of doing a business studies degree and I had absolutely no interest in it, so I never went to any lectures.
Any exciting stage antics planned for the upcoming shows?
(Laughs) Just the whole thing I think really. We’re taking a typewriter on stage with us nowadays, believe it or not.
Really? Nice. You guys did a BBC session the other day, how did that go down?
We love Maida Vale, it’s an amazing place, it’s really cool. It’s like classically BBC, it’s just so old school, all the microphones are really old and all these amazing instruments around and stuff.
Also, have you got any facts about the band that the hardcore Go! Team fans might find interesting?
Urm…we were invited along to the Simpsons studios when we were in L.A. once which was pretty cool. Some of the writers for the Simpsons are Go! Team fans, so the day before we arrived in L.A I got this e-mail from one of them saying hey do you want to come down? We were at this table were they read through all the latest episodes, (Laughs) so we got to meet Homer and all that lot.
Peace + Fucking.
