interview with The Gothsicles
How was the band formed? Well, it’s electronic music, so all that really takes is one dude and a laptop.
Can you tell about your band? No.
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? My name’s Brian and I live in Chicago and am pretty much the “everything” guy by way of vocals and programming, but I will bring friends to help me out with live performances, such as Matt from The Dead Room and Micah from Cruciform Injection. They’re pretty wonderful people.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? I really just wanted to open for bands that I liked, thereby getting into shows for free. That actually hasn’t changed too much.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? What happens when music gets too easy to make.
Where was your first gig? May 2nd, 2003 and Union South at the University of Wisconsin. We played three songs and then rushed over to Milwaukee to see Stromkern and SMP.
Where was the latest gig? Aftermath Festival in Toronto, Canada. That was awesome.
Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? I go through Angelspit’s trash and do whatever they don’t want.
Who has the best sense of humor in the band? The computer.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are?
Good: Sometimes writing music is awesome.
Bad: Sometimes writing music is bullshit.
Genre: Moldy old duck shit
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? Money and bitches and fuckin’ hell if that didn’t work like a charm. Our songs are about life on the streets.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? I go through Rotersand’s trash and do whatever they don’t want.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? Yes, we have made albums. Albums are typically collections of songs.
Do you have any clips on YouTube? No, nobody uses the Internet. Shit’s for nerds.
How old are you?/What got you started in music? I actually have yet to be born and am addressing you now from the womb. I got interested in music at 16 weeks after conception when my hearing began to develop.
At what age did you start playing? 16 and a half weeks, although my motor skills are still being formed.
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? Using my in-utero time viewer to peer into the future, it looks our first gig will be at the McKinley Elementary kindergarten classroom. Our drummer gets super drunk and starts pitching lincoln logs and carpet squares into the audience.
What year was the band started? 2002, officially. I won a remix contest for Freezepop.
Best/worst gig you've played?
Best: There are been some phenomenal shows in the past, but some that come to mind are perhaps Resistanz Festival in Sheffield, England or Kinetik 5.5 in Montreal, Canada. This most recent Convergence festival in Chicago was also a gem.
Worst: Oh god, also a tough call.
What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? Just came from a great Toronto festival, got a gig in Chicago on August 13th and that’s all I can announce at this juncture.
Where have you played from then till now? The USA from top to bottom and east to west, Canada coast to coast, England and Scotland.
Witch band is the best you´ve seen? Witch bands? Aaimon is probably my favorite witch band. Also, Wychdoktor.
What has been the best/most promising gig so far? Albany, New York is totally secret treasure and I would love to play Glasgow, Scotland again.
Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? We did a tour with Die Sektor, Deviant UK and for all the emptiness and it was fairly mind-bending.
How big crowds do you usually play for? Like a grillion-million.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? We have a new disc done and are working on album art and stuff, so that should be out soon.
Where do you usually play? Bus stops & shit.
How do you get psyched up for a gig? Modern arnis.
What are your goals with your music? Pie-in-the-sky goal would be to be parodied by Weird Al, but with all the great festival gigs and internet support we’ve gotten, I think I’m good.
When did you decide to go all in for the music? Today, just before lunch.
Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? It depends who’s guarding their trash bins better.
What are your sources of inspiration? Video games & shit.
What's the first step when making a new song? Going through Faderhead’s trash and figuring out what he doesn’t want.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? I think it’s great. My apartment is small and I don’t have room for all these CDs.
What would be your dreams for the band? They would be those fucked up lucid dreams where you’re being chased by a werewolf, but still don’t want to wake up.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Really mostly industrial, to be honest, but I also like goth rock a lot, if that counts as a different enough genre. I also enjoy chip tunes and electo-y breakdance music.
What do you hold most dear? I think otters are awesome. Also comic books and hot sauces.
What would be your greatest fears for the future? They will make Willow 2 and it will suck.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Tech failures. I have really no stage fright to speak of at this point, but something always seems to get fucked up with the sound or the visuals, probably because I’m an idiot.
What songs and what years were they released? Like, just name some songs? Any songs? I’ll say Jimmy Ray’s “Are You Jimmy Ray?” (1998) and Cannibal Corpse’s “Orgasm Through Torture” (1996).
Have you been part of any other projects? I actually have a ton of other projects at the moment.
Please to check out:
Hardcore Pong - Angelspit + The Gothsicles doing stupid video game stuff
Khionik - Syrinx + The Gothsicles doing house stuff
https://www.facebook.com/Khionik
The Causticles - Caustic + The Gothsicles doing goofy industrial stuff
http://www.facebook.com/thecausticles
False Edge - Death of Self + The Gothsicles doing angry industrial stuff
https://www.facebook.com/falseedge
DINOSAUR TANK - Me doing mostly chip tunes
https://soundcloud.com/dinosaurtank
Have you been in any other bands?
I currently play live in Caustic, The Dead Room, and am.psych.
https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadRoom
https://www.facebook.com/am.psych
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Underwear model.
What would you do if there was no music? Freak out and try to figure out why the laptop wasn’t working.
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? One time a nice lady wrote a really wonderful poem about how I was her favorite band and had changed her life, and the very next email in the inbox was a dude saying that I was basically the worst person on Earth on should be killed.
I guess it all evens out.
How often do you rehearse? Like a billion times a second.
Where do you rehearse? The LA Fitness in Streeterville. I’ve been asked to stop.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Of the material that is currently in the world for this project, I will say “Show Respect to Aquaman” and “Terminus Festival is Going to be Awesome featuring Panic Lift”.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? Kraftwerk or Devo.
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? I have no idea ‘cause we’re fucking huge.
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? I used to go on drunk, but I’ve been doing the set sober lately and really recommend it.
Would you like to add anything else? Bring tape.
Describe your show, visually and musically A couple of guys freak out over electronics and nerdy shit with funny projected visuals and everybody is surprised at how much they enjoyed the set.
How do you view the musicindurty of today? I really don’t understand it. It’s like a super tough uncle that got mangled in a lawn mower accident. You don’t know how the hell he’s still alive, but it feels like he’ll be holding on for forever.
What advice would you like to give other bands? There’s an eight channel DI box from Behringer that costs all of $100 or so and it has saved more shows that I can count. Every band should have one of these.
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Sometimes the tour comes to a river and you have to have to decide whether to ford said river or caulk the van and float it across.
What is best/worst with playing the clubs? Sometimes when I’m playing clubs, I forget the point value of each card or make mistakes adding up all the cards at the end of the game.
Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? August 13th at Reggie’s in Chicago. That is all I can talk about at the time of this interview (6/2/2014).
Do you have anything to add? I think we’re good.
