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GODHANGER

A Backstage Pass With...

GODHANGER

We caught up with Stevenage’s own psychedelic post hardcore heavy new wave coun-try rock grunge band (no, we’re not joking) at the Practise Roomz, and trust us, from performing in onsies to plans to dominate American TV talkshows, have a lot to tell...

When did you guys form as a band?JW: Me, Michael and our other friend Josh decided to play together in a joke punk band.MB: I joined the band later. It was getting close to my final weeks of college in early summer 2014 that Dymoke dropped me a message on facebook asking if I’d fill in on bass because things didn’t work out with their first bassist. I’ve known Dymoke since my first day of sec-ondary school, but I had no idea he had started learning how to play the drums. Many months later, I’m still here.

What is the main goal for the future?MD: To sell 76,678,599 albums worldwide and then have a long break wIith a nice cup of tea.

MB: The world that comes with music and creative arts is different from the rat race I guess.

Who would you like to compare yourself to in the music world, as a band and individuals?MD: I don’t think we would want to compare ourselves, I think that’s what new bands do wrong these days. It’s all about being original and you can’t do that if you’re always comparing yourself to big bands such as Nirvana or Sabbath.MB: I would compare us to a doomy band like Electric Wizard but raised on a diet of 70s hard rock, 80s punk and 90s seattle rock. They’re still songs of weight and negative dispo-sition, just with a different musical flesh.

If a film or a TV show was

MB: It’s a staple in a lot of Stevenage musician’s lives. MD: The fact that it has really great people running the thing, the amount of instruments and P.A’s they have to supply our creative feed and they help with promoting bands. Just recently they released their own radio show which promotes local bands across the county. We hope to be putting some of our stuff on their radio show soon.JW: And they have convenient parking.

What is the typical process of thinking of a new song? What comes first, the lyrics or the music?MD: Typically Wilson will record him-self playing the song acoustically and singing the lyrics as well. Then he sends it to me and Mitch, and then I’ll work out what the drums need to be doing. Then we meet up and play the song we have and see if it works.JW: We come up with our parts and play it as a full band.MB: I can’t imagine Josh coming up with lyrics like singing in the shower or something, so I’ll go with music. But like I said, Josh is the core of the content, who knows what his methods are.

If you had a chance to perform one of your songs live on TV, which song would you pick and which TV show would you perform it on?MD: I would choose ‘Nothing to say’ as it’s a song we are all computable with playing and so we probz won’t f*ck it up. I would love to perform on the Jimmy Fallon show in America, he’s interviewed great musicians as well as performed on there like Keith Richards, Neil Young, RHCP and Kings of leon.JW: We would play I Don’t Mind on Letterman.MB: Maybe Yellow Moon as it’s a mellow one and we could make things really tense and moody, which’d be a spin on what people think we’ll play like – loud and angry.

What motives you to carry on making music?MD: Having a desk job for the rest of my life…..JW: Self expression, and the fun of

made about your band, who would be cast as each of you and why?MB: Ren from Ren and Stimpy as Dymoke, Angela Anaconda as Josh and Sharon Osbourne as myself. She’s bitching, just like me. MD: I would have Robbie D. Jr to play me simply because you need someone who is handsome and good looking to play me. He fits the criteria perfectly as for the other two you could just find some people off the street. I think the main focus here would be on me simply because I am awesome.JW: Harrison Ford as me, Billy Dee Williams as Mitch, and Mark Hamill as Dymoke.

What makes the Practise Roomz the best place to create new music?

MD: When Mitch has smoked a lot of Marijuana which gives him the inspiration he needs to play, which then bounces off me and Wilson to practice well.JW: When the equipment works.MB: When Opra crashes the practice off her tits and we have to calm her ass down with jazz-funk fusion and ice cream. The other guys get pissed by I accept her need to vent.

What roles do each of you have in the band beyond what you do when you perform?MD: Like does one of you specialise in lyric writing or updating the Face-book page?I am the people person because I am the less socially awkward one in the group! Which means I get the gigs and pretty much promote the band.MB: Michael’s usually putting stuff up on the Facebook. Josh is the core of the content creation and I’m here to do all the recording, mixing, sound design kinda stuff. I like messing around with sounds and tones and stuff.

What’s next on your radar?MB: Yeah, a few new gigs and there’s always a new song in the works. In terms of a radar, maybe far off towards the edge there might be a festival slot or two. Who knows.MD: At the moment we have started recording our songs properly rather than just recording them live in re-hearsals. We have 4 gigs coming up, Feb 6th we are playing Flava, March 4th we are at the horn in St. Albans, March 21st we are playing the green room in Welwyn and we are playing a new festival in Stevenage sometime in May but it’s still early days yet.

{ }“Some guys like Star Wars. A lot. I like music gear.”

playing and creating.

Imagine that for your band’s look, you don’t want to reveal your identities to the public. This means you have to think of a new name for yourselves and you need to disguise yourselves in an outfit whilst on stage. What would you all go for?MD: We would all dress up in one-sies, I have a superman onesie and I know Wilson has a spiderman onesie somewhere, I guess it could be like a new Avenger band kinda thing.JW: We would dress as terrorists, balaclavas with our names on the

front, military fatigues, boots and stuff.MB: We wouldn’t go on the stage atall and address the audience off-stage behind a wall like we were ghosts.

What’s the best equipment you’ve ever come across when playing live, recording or mix-ing?MB: At the show we played at Flava Bar, I borrowed a bass amp from another band and it sounded like everything I wanted from just an amp tone. Then I stomped on the fuzz pedal I use and I pretty much shit my pants. It was great but there were no logo or any other manufacturer mark on it so I have no clue what it was.

What makes a good practise session?

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Josh doing vocals, Michael (Dymoke) on the drums, andMitch on guitar