interview with Lavagoat

What´s the name of your band? The name of the band is Lavagoat

How was the band formed? Lavagoat has existed in a couple different incarnations since 2003. The current incarnation of the band came together in July of ’07 and our current line-up was completed in 2009 with the addition of Graham on drums.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? Sean (bass, vocals), Graeme (guitar, vocals), Jimi (guitar, vocals), Graham (drums, vocals). Sean, Graeme and myself are all from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Graham is from a farm just outside of Colonsay.

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Our original goal was simply to hang out, get loaded and jam.

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? We play heavy metal. Our sound can be painted with as broad a brush as that. If you like to drink and smoke weed and headbang, you will like Lavagoat. It’s Metal and it’s loud as fuck.

Where was your first gig? Our first show with our current line-up was May 7, 2009 at a bar in Saskatoon called The Roxy.

Where was the latest gig? Depending on when this interview is published, as of the writing of this answer, our last show was November 16, 2014 at the German Club in Regina, SK. We are playing again in Regina, this time at The Exchange, this Saturday (December 6, 2014).

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? The writing of all the music and the lyrics is a collective effort by all members. Generally, someone will have several riffs and a rough outline for a song. As a group we flesh it out and arrange the songs together. Lyrics are contributed by all of us.

Who has the best since of humor in the band?

We all try not to take anything too seriously. Everyone is pretty laid back and well humored for the most part. If we can make a joke out of something, chances are high we will.

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? We are a heavy metal band. What’s good about the band is that all of us come from a varied musical background which lends considerably to our varied sound. The only bad thing regarding the band is that we can’t put as much time into it as we’d all like due to work and schedules and other band commitments but we make it work. So, there’s really nothing bad I can say about the band situation.

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? We didn’t necessarily pick our style of music. The common thread that runs through all of us is Metal. What you hear on a Lavagoat record is the natural blending of all our musical interests and writing styles. We write songs about Conan, space, history, fantasy, drugs, mythology…pretty much whatever catches our interest or sounds cool.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? All of our material is original. We have jammed pieces of covers in practice but we have never really focused our attention on actually learning any cover songs. We focus 99.999% of our energy on writing our own material.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they?

 We have, to date, five official releases.

Tower of The Elephant (demo, 2009)

Lavagoat (full length, 2010)

Monoliths of Mars (EP, 2012)

Weird Menace (EP), 2014)

Ageless Nonsense (full length, 2014)

Do you have any clips on YouTube? We have numerous clips on Youtube. The search string “Lavagoat” should yield a page or two’s worth of videos to give you a solid idea of what we are like live and in studio.

How old are you?/What got you started in music? We are all in our 30’s, from early to late 30’s. All of us have been interested in music from an early age. I cannot speak for the other members of the band however, for myself, I was inspired to learn to play guitar and write music when I was young after watching metal videos on TV. Not until I reconnected with Sean when I was 16 did I actually have the guidance and encouragement I needed to start writing the type of music I really wanted to play.

At what age did you start playing? I started playing guitar at 14. I started writing music in a band when I was 16/17.

How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? The very first time I was on stage was with Sean in June of ’96.

What year was the band started? Lavagoat has been around in different forms since 2003. The band was reformed and resurrected in July of 2007. Other than the addition of Graham on drums in February 2009, Lavagoat has been a full time force to be reckoned with since then.

Best/worst gig you've played? I think I can speak for the band regarding the worst gig we’ve ever played, which I believe was Peterborough, ON during our eastern Canadian tour. Not to speak ill of the bands we played with, they were great. Our Peterborough experience however was…less than great (the road kill on the side of the highway entering town should have been a warning to us). Between a tiny turn out, amps breaking down and no promise of gas money 3100kms from home, it was a rough one for sure. Hard to pick a best show because we’ve always had a lot of wonderful support from local fans and even on the road in strange places. But I think the “best show” title is a two-way tie between our first gig in Prince Albert, SK at The Jam Spot and our show in Montreal, QC during the 2012 tour. Definitely the two most memorable gigs, that’s for sure

What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? We have a show lined up this coming weekend in Regina, SK at The Exchange. There are rumblings of metal festivals to come in 2015.

Where have you played from then till now? We have stayed predominantly at home in Saskatoon with several forays within our province to Prince Albert and Regina. We have gone west a few times through Alberta, playing in Lloydminster, Edmonton and Calgary. We have also done an eastern Canadian tour which consisted of dates in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Ajax, Oshawa, Toronto, Peterborough and Montreal.

Witch band is the best you´ve seen?The best band I’ve ever seen live is Iron Maiden.

Is it always the same songs live? We have a rather large repertoire to work with. So generally our set lists are not always the same unless we are promoting a CD. There are some crowd favorites that we do throw into the mix on the regular however.

What has been the best/most promising gig so far? The most promising gig was probably the Noctis 4.20 show a couple years ago in Calgary. It was a fantastic opportunity to play alongside a slew of cool bands from all over the place and get exposure.

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? The biggest tour was our 2012 eastern Canadian tour which was a 2 week jaunt from here to Montreal and back.

How big crowds do you usually play for? Most of the venues we play do not hold more than 200 people on average, usually less. There have been few exceptions such when we played with Anvil at The Odeon. There were closer to 500 people. Our Metal community may be small but they are dedicated.

What are the plans for the rest of the year? We are doing some recording of a couple new songs on our own right now. We have no other plans for the rest of the year.

Where do you usually play? We play at a local bar called Amigo’s Cantina in Saskatoon more than we play anywhere else.

How do you get psyched up for a gig? We have traditionally drunk a lot of liquor and smoked a lot of weed. You can call it a pre-show ritual…or Tuesday, whichever.

What are your goals with your music? Our goal is to continue making music one way or another. We would also like to plan a western Canadian tour in the not so distant future.

When did you decide to go all in for the music? Up until the time we connected with our drummer, Graham, we had just been a group of friends who hung out together and got hammered, wrote tunes and did our own recording. We pretty much just kept to ourselves. He was really the one who encouraged us to get out into the public’s face and lean hard into everyone with our craft. His prior experience playing in several touring bands was a huge asset to us along with his litany of connections. It is because of him that we began to play more and more shows and he has been instrumental in getting us to places like Montreal and into the studio.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? All of us have interests outside of Metal. Collectively, we draw influence from everywhere and from many types of music, old and new. Just as we don’t limit ourselves to one sound or another when we write, we don’t limit ourselves to one era of musical influence.

What are your sources of inspiration? We draw influence from science, history, fantasy, the occult and the bizarre, drugs, barbarism, war and literature. There are numerous references to Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith material. This is pretty evident with a quick glance at some of our song titles.

What's the first step when making a new song?The first step usually involves either beer, whiskey or weed or some combination of all of them. Usually a song starts with one of us showing up to jam with a handful of riffs and a basic arrangement. Sometimes we hammer out riffs together on the spot during jams. We run everything through the grinder and the bullshit filter and whatever makes the cut is then fleshed out by the band as a whole. We then figure the vocal arrangement and if and where leads and solos may be required. We have made it a point to have accompanying lyrics to go with everything we write right at the outset of a new tune so that nothing sits without any vocals for any length of time. Songs typically come together very fast with us. We always have a stockpile of riffs and lyrics to choose from and never struggle for material.

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? Downloading music is just a reality of the world we have come to live in. For a band like us, free downloads are a way for us to get our music to a much wider audience than we could have in the past. Our work is available for purchase online at our Bandcamp site for those that are interested in supporting us. Most of our stuff is donation based so you can choose to pay what you want or not. But every cent goes directly to recording more disks.

What would be your dreams for the band? All we want is to continue writing and recording. Lavagoat is a self-perpetuating machine and so long as it can generate what it needs to in order to allow us to make the next record, that’s the most we hope for. Anything above and beyond that is gravy to us.

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? The list of bands could go on forever. A basic rundown of a few of our interests include death and black metal, stoner/sludge/doom metal, blues, funk/R&B, 70’s rock and metal, grind and NWOBHM. Road trips are always an interesting event because of the variety of music that makes its way into the stereo.

What do you hold most dear? Insofar as the band is concerned, our ability to continue to write and play music. This is at the core of all of us, it’s what we do.

What would be your greatest fears for the future?None of us really think of these things. The Goat fears nothing.

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? There is nothing to fear on stage. We’ve played several venues where we have blown breakers, set off fire alarms, wrecked gear, had our own gear wrecked and we’ve shut down two separate venues while playing. Shit happens, that’s the nature of the beast. You just keep playing and don’t fucking stop.

What songs and what years were they released? Every song on every disk of ours has been written between 2007 and now. Our most recent CD, Ageless Nonsense, consists of material spanning the entire lifetime of Lavagoat. The list of everything we’ve written is too long to include here.

Have you been part of any other projects? We were recently a part of a compilation CD entitled House of Burners released on Pre-Rock Records by some friends of ours from a local band called Shooting Guns. They had the brilliant idea of compiling some great bands from coast to coast across Canada and wanted to include us on the record. It is an honor to be grouped with all of these great bands.

Have you been in any other bands? We have all been in various bands over the years, sometimes together, other times not. The list of bands includes Berserker, Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Unleash Hell, Sitra Ahra, Third Degree, Denogginizer, Savage Henry, Sparky, Johnny Don’t, and Blues Mules to name a few. We are all currently working in other bands and on other projects however Lavagoat is a main focus for us.

What do you work with outside of the band and the music? I (Jimi) work in I.T for a local telecommunications company. Graeme is a tattoo artist at Rites of Passage, Graham is a drum teacher at Long & McQuade and Sean is a blade sharpener at a local wood working plant.

What would you do if there was no music? Drink, mass murder, self-annihilation, drugs, orgies, black magic, you know, all the usual debauchery but to copious excess.

How important are your fans? We started this thing with the intention of writing and recording for our own amusement and never gave any consideration to having fans. For the most part, it’s a strange thing to have people come up to you and give you praise and thank you for doing something you like doing. But we are grateful that people like what we do and the turnout at our shows makes it evident that we have struck a chord with people. The fans make the shows.

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? Nothing overly hilarious but we have met a lot of memorable people who have done awesome things for us like put us up in their homes the day they met us, found us shows on the road at a moment’s notice and sent us on the road with beer and food. Also, chicks showin us their tits. It’s not funny so much as it’s just awesome. That never gets old.

How often do you rehearse? We try to get together at least once or twice a week.

Where do you rehearse? Jam spaces have always been the bane of our musical existence as they’ve always been tough to find and hold on to for any length of time. We are currently renting a space at The Sweat Shoppe. This is a bunker with several jam rooms and a recording studio crammed into it that is run by a friend of ours and is dedicated to the jam-spaceless bands in our local music scene.

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Right now, I’m digging on two new tracks, Necromania and Angels In Heat. But for the record, Rome is one of my favorite songs that we have written.

What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? None of us are under any illusions here. We all know we are not going to make a living off of this band. We do what we do because we fucking love doing it. Heavy metal for life!

Do you have any webpages?You can find Lavagoat at Lavagoat.bandcamp.com, reverbnation.com/Lavagoat, soundcloud.com/Lavagoat, we are on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace (if anyone uses that anymore) and on Youtube.

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? “Everyone who makes the trek across northern Ontario in a van deserves a fucking medal” – Sean from The Great Sabatini.

Describe your show, visually and musically?Visually, there is a lot of weed smoke, a lot of fog, a lot of beer being swilled, a lot of headbanging and hair swirling everywhere. Musically, we try to deliver the sonic equivalent of an ass kicking while force feeding you mushrooms and holding you down and blowing dope smoke in your face. Dizzying, disorienting and fucking heavy.

How do you view the music industry of today? We don’t view the music industry. That term refers to a corporate entity that is concerned with profit, not art or music. It has nothing to do with us or we it.

What advice would you like to give other bands? Only do what you want to do and never compromise yourself for anyone or anything for any reason. Also booze and drugs are key.

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? It depends on the band and their goals. Writing material that keeps the group interested and coming back for more can be a tricky business. You gotta be into what you’re doing because if you aren’t, band members can get bored and it also translates to your live performance and people will pick up on it and think you’re shit at what you do.

What is best/worst with playing the clubs? Playing music is the best part of playing clubs. Beer tabs are always good too. The worst part, at least in our part of the world, is loading gear in a blizzard when it’s forty below fucking zero.

Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? As stated earlier, we will be playing in Regina, SK on December 6th. If you are in the area and we are playing, get your fucking ass down the show if you have any sort of metal bone in your body. It’s always a good time and you should always support your local music scene, the bands that comprise it and the touring acts that pass through.

How would you describe your sound in one sentenceIf drugs, sex, black magic, tentacles, space, satan and liquor were a thing you could roll up and smoke to the beat of double kicks and death metal growls, you would be harnessing the essence of The Goat.

What is your favorite crappy instrument?I don’t consider any of my instruments crappy, I like all my guitars. In general though, I hate the jug. Fuck the jug!

What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? For me, the most quarrelsome times are when the rest of the band are discussing pretty much anything during jam and I’m not paying attention because I’m fucking around with my guitar and making noise. So pretty much every Wednesday and most Fridays. But I’m easy going, so I just go with the fuck flow. But in all seriousness, we don’t generally argue or have times where we are at odds with one another. Everyone is really easy going.

Whats your Pre-show ritual? Pound beer, smoke dope, hail satan. It’s more of a life philosophy. Also it’s any day that ends in the word “day”.

Do you have anything to add? Thank you for the interview

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