There’s Nothing Like a GoodBook
It often seems that searching for intelligent pop music today is like placing your finger on the missing needle in a haystack. GoodBooks are one of the few bands to have risen to this challenge offering listeners a large slice of vigorously unlinear melodies intertwined with an unusually thoughtful lyrical slant. They are a rarity indeed.
Hailing form Kent this eclectic four-piece, consisting of front man Max Cooke, bassist Christopher Porter, keyboardist JP Duncan, and drummer Leo von Bulow-Quirk, test the boundaries of modern day pop music, exploring complex issues such as Passchendaele, Kafka, terrorism, the Bible and lesbian crushes.
Their depth is not only evident lyrically but also musically, with an innate interest in rhythms and textures often manifesting throughout the tracks on new album ‘Control’ alongside a profound use of vivid percussion and mournful trumpets.
Surely to make such an album fluent in structure and somewhat more complicated lyrically than ‘new music’ often blesses the eardrums with, there must be some profound influences behind the music? “Max idolises Damon Albarn, but I was into Massive Attack at school which was quite depressing really,” chuckles J.P Duncan, the bands’ keyboard extraordinaire. Not forgetting that their biography lists inspirations in the form of Orange Juice, Pulp and Talking Heads before we engage in a blissful Kraftwerk appreciation conversation.
“I also got into the Warped thing and the cross over of dance music, then had a bit of a Morrissey phase, however like anyone my age I also liked Michael Jackson too,” continues J.P.
Creating an album with such fluency in structure and maturity displayed beyond their years whilst oozing out a sense of buoyancy is astonishing, “We strived to make an album that was sonically interesting not just songs that are simply slapped together. Although this will possibly be judged as pretentious to say, as it’s a bit cliché, but we like to think that our album depicts a journey for the listener,” discusses J.P in detail.
“For an album to be successful you need to draw people in and be a tad experimental,” he continues before agreeing that LCD Soundsystem’s recent offering ‘Sound of Silver’ has had this desired affect on all of the band.
It has been a fast journey for the boys to cope with, firstly supporting The Magic Numbers on their European tour which then led to a deal being signed and sealed with Transgressive Records. Following a hectic twelve months since I last witnessed this four-piece tearing up Stoke’s Sugarmill whilst supporting The Rakes they have gone on to support the like of The Maccabees and Fields. Columbia then promptly snapped them up, sending them straight to the studio to carve out the masterpiece that is ‘Control’.
Making the album was a rather sporadic process that resumed following their blistering sets at Reading and Leeds Festivals. With visits to the studio spaced out over several months to complete the album with Dan Grech Margeret creativity was boosted to it’s extreme. “It was better for us to work in this way as we could leave the studio for short periods of time and revisit what we had done and then re-work things if needs be,” explains J.P.
The bands remixing skills are also currently in hot demand, “Chris and I first started with a remix of a band called Kalev and a Gorillaz song, before doing two for Transgressive; Battle and Ladyfuzz,” explains J.P.
With remixes also under their shiny belts for Sunshine Underground, Larrikin Love, and The Maccabees their portfolio is constantly expanding. The tables are always turning however with Crystal Castles, The Teenagers, Kissy Sellout, Get Shakes, Low Fi Fink and Freakz all getting their mitts on GoodBooks finest tracks so far, with the best of the tracks being honed for a GoodBooks remix album due out later this year, “We are really fond of the Bloc Party remixes album so we thought we would try something similar,” continues J.P.
With rave reviews coming in thick and fast for ‘Control’, festival appearances, and a residency at Buffalo Bar in London, which they have helped curate bands for, these boys are certainly ‘hot property’. Let’s hope they stay in our GoodBooks forever…
‘Control’ is out now
Words: Kimberley Owen
Image: Ties Albers