interview - Buck Gooter - english version

MADZ is proud to present you an interview with a pretty cool American band Buck Gooter! It’s a two piece (Terry Turtle - in the photo-R & Billy Brat -in the photo -L) noise rock band that uses theremin, drum machine, acoustic guitar thru effects pedals, stylophone and other gadgets.
Now you can read the second part of our interview and the first part is here:
http://madz-zine.blogspot.com/2008/08/interview-buck-gooter-english-version.html
Let’s rock!

Mila:Could you please tell me about the indie-rock scene in Harrisonburg and in Virginia in whole.
BB: Harrisonburg is in the middle of a cultural wasteland that extends out pretty far in all directions (really, most of the state and I haven’t heard much outta west Virginia…). It’s a college town so usually there’s some “indie” kids working at the radio station that try and create a “scene”, which is a mostly incestuous thing comprised of their friends and other transient college buddies, but then the kids graduate and all the bands break up and move apart and leave us locals to suss out our own thing at all times.
Buck Gooter has never been keyed into any of that, everything we do we do ourselves waiting for no permission for anything. If we want to have a show we put it on our selves almost 9 times out of 10 in the burg.
The shining knight of local music is our friend Jim from Book of Kills. He’s been slogging out his original, transcendental garage music in bands but mostly as a recording project for 30 years!! He is the only interesting project of note that has ever been associated with this town, in my mind. Except for Turtle, of course.
And I HAVE done a fair amount of research on the topic!
Mila:What do you like most – to record in studio or play gigs?
BB: Shows, please.
TT: I like them both the same. Depends on where the gig's at.
Mila:Could you please tell about your gig that you'd remember forever? Maybe your first show or some weird place where you played or the audience's reaction?
BB: My favorite show we ever played was in this remote coal mining town called Neon, Kentucky. The sound was terrible and we didn’t play that great that night but the vibe of the whole thing was amazing. We played with a band of coal miners who did one of the best versions of “Rockin In The Free World” I’ve ever heard. Kids drove as far as three hours to come to that show! It was in a geriatric dining hall and it kicked major ass.
TT: Philadelphia, PA at the Trocadero.
Mila: Who is the listener to Buck Gooter? Some common image maybe. For example I think that Buck Gooter's fan is a human who likes non-ordinary music and has a sense of humor.
BB: I’m always surprised by the broad swathe of people who say they like us. I think we alienate posers and people who don’t have a leg to stand on unless they’re told they do. Usually our fans are REAL people that help each other out and make the world a better place, really!
TT: I think in indie rock they have a thing against old people, but old people have to do something! Since I sold my soul to the devil I have to vent in some way, Buck Gooter is the best for that.
Mila: You are both -Billy and Terry – good friends in the life? Or maybe you are like brothers or son and father. And if so does your relations help or bother you in making music?
BB: Our relationship has gotten better over time. We’ve learned to deal with our heavy idiosyncrasies. We’re not related.
Removing all petty human memories and interactions from the bandspace makes the music happen a lot easier so we try to go into practice happy w/ one another but it doesn’t always work that way.
TT: I think of Billy as my son.
Mila: You can do what you want, make music, tour, release albums, meet with different people, play for them. Even the great Henry Rollins said that you are really cool. Are you happy? Or do you want something more?
BB: I am happy but I always want to take the band further.
TT:Yes,I want to tour and play overseas. We need distribution to do that.
Mila: What do you think about the consumer culture and globalism?
BB: The sad thing about technology and our times is the historical parallels that all spell out DOOM. The Mayans and other Central American empires, Romans, etc, were all pretty advanced and reached a point where it seemed they could go no further and the infrastructures all collapsed and people died or were dispersed with bits of information here and there but no organization for many years. And they say history will repeat itself. I don’t like to think about the imminent fall out. I’d like to think that humans have evolved to a point where they can turn the tide in the face of the end but I don’t know…
Mila:People can download some of your albums for free. Do you think that the art is free for all the people? Or you just want to make your music more popular?
BB: I do think art should be free for all but I also know it’s cool to get a few bucks now and then for doing this band thing. People always decry the music “business” as so evil and heartless and a bane to our existence but if I could choose a business that needs to die I’d pick something like the Styrofoam business or nuclear power, something that really has a broad, catastrophic impact on many. The music business, whether we like it or not, has done a lot for pretty much every band we listen to, especially from the past. This means it’s had a much bigger positive than negative impact on us.
TT: I think our music should be free but we should also get free stuff.
Mila: Tell me please about your favorite music, films and books.
TT: I like Sling Blade, people compare me to Billy Bob Thornton. My favorite writer is Helen Keller. I love Patti Smith and Blue Oyster Cult and classical music.
BB: I’ll list five bands:
Nick Cave and The Bad seeds, Lungfish, US Christmas, Hasil Adkins, Book Of Kills.
I watch a lot of movies but rarely feel “moved” by them. My favorite flick is The Big Lebowski. I wish I read more, I like a lot of music books, biographies and Weird New Jersey.
Mila: When you play in the clubs do you often improvise?
TT: We mostly play everything like it is on the record. It sounds like we wouldn’t be able to but we do.
BB: Every once in a while we’ll find ourselves improvising parts of a tune. “Creature” can certainly get pretty wild as well as “Wicker Man”. Often times when we’re playin a show we try and get it over w/ as soon as possibly before they can pull the power or do something else foolish to get us off the stage.
Mila: Have you ever doubted in your music, in the aim of your life?
BB: Not really. I wonder why we do specific things sometimes but usually I forget about worrying after taking a nap.
TT: I did before this band.
Mila:How will sound the music of future?
BB: the same but louder.
TT: I’m probably gonna start playing bass. I want a gong, too.
Mila: Wow it’s great! I’m waiting impatiently for your new album! By the way when do you plan release it?
BB: We have to record it yet but it’ll probably be ready before the end of the year. That’ll make four releases in 2008! We had three releases in 2007. Will the trend continue upward?
Mila:Do you want to play in Russia? I think you'd like here!
TT: Hell yeah.
BB: all it would take is the gigs and the plane tickets, which are pretty difficult to come by!
Mila: I watched several times your documentary What Da Hell? A Film about Buck Gooter. I like it very much. Could you tell a few words about this documentary.
TT: The camera makes me look like Ozzy. In real life I move better.
BB: My friend Ben has been making movies every summer for the past few years. He’s not a film student, per se, he just watches a lot of movies and has an incredible command of computers and editing software and definitely has a few ideas so he puts it all together and makes flicks. Fast and well. Basically he’s not an “artist” racked w/ self doubt, he’s just GOOD!!
Anyway, he wanted to go with us one weekend when we went to play some shows in North Carolina and document the band a little bit. He edited it all down and had it ready to go in two weeks. The flick itself is a pretty great introduction to the group if you’ve never heard us before. So many people we meet say they didn’t really “get” us until they saw us doing our thing live, on video or whatever. I guess there’s a real visual aspect to the band that wins a lot of people over more than just the tunes. So it’s good for showing what we’re about and explaining some things here and there, plus movies seem to be the currency of modern culture and to relate with the community at large it’s easiest to do it with film?
I’m happy it exists and that people seem to like it and that I have such wonderful friends in Ben and Terry.

PS Thank you very much for the interview, support and your music!

website Buck Gooter:
http://www.littlegrillcollective.com/bg/