Party hard skate punks Goon On The Rocks have got some big things coming up this year! Shannon-Lee recently spoke to Stu about the upcoming Dead Of Winter Festival, a new album and how Goon will one day take over the world…
Goon has been around a while now, when did you first get the band together? And how did you all meet?
So the band started in 2014, it was Australia Day and it was raining and we were all bored and we were just like lets’ have a jam! So we went to Mapsey’s house, we didn’t have a guitarist, it was just drum, bass and vocals. We called a mate around the corner and he came around and we wrote two songs in one day and we were like yeah let’s keep doing this. Then 5 months later we booked a show and entered battle of the bands at the Barra Bar, Springwood Hotel. Everyone got pretty loose and we had heaps of fun, so we thought let’s keep doing this!
Goon On The Rocks is an awesome name, where did the name come from?
We were kind of fresh out of High School and we were all sitting around and all pretty broke. We were just making all sorts of cocktails and mixtures out of goon and we started saying ‘goon on the rocks’ and we were like that would be an awesome band name if we ever start a band, we should definitely call it that. So when we started a band it spoke for itself sort of thing, we knew it straight away *laughs*
You guys are like an awesome mix of party hard, skate, punk, thrash and ska music, who are some of the bands biggest influences?
Definitely 80’s Californian skate surf punk. NOFX, Agent Orange, Adolescents, Descendents, Black Flag. And we are constantly listening to new music so our sound changes a little bit over time.
So this weekend is the massive Dead Of Winter Festival in Brisbane, you guys are opening the Hysteria stage, you must be super pumped for that?
Yeah, so keen for it! It is going to be such a good day! Stoked to be asked to play it and be able to play with some of our favourite bands growing up.
I recently read an interview with Jay from Frenzal Rhomb and he mentioned he was keen to see you guys…
Yeah I saw that, I was so stoked. I have been a big Frenzal fan since I was young. Frenzal are definitely one of the influences for Goon to get started. It will be so great to play at the same festival as them.
So who are you keen to see at Dead Of Winter?
Frenzal, Clowns, Pagan. Lagerstein are always fun if I can catch a bit of them and Frenzal at the same time. Flangipanis are always fun. I’ll have to have another look through the lineup; there are so many good bands, so many good local bands playing. Gutterbirds will be cool.
So to add to the excitement this weekend for you guys, you also have a new single coming out?
Yep! We have got that dropping on Saturday so we will be doing Kids With Class Kicking Ass on 4ZZZ. We will be in there at like 11:30, talk some shit, plug the new single and then head straight to Dead Of Winter and play a show!
What a day!
Yeah it should be fun! And then we’ve got an album coming out in September.
Are you working on the new album now?
It is already done. We have just got the masters back. We are just getting ready for that, printing our own merch at home with Morgan Tendercrisp, my housemate. So the artwork is getting done up now. And then we’ve got a tour coming up.
That’s really exciting, so you are going around Australia?
Yep we are going to Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Brisbane. So yeah, it should be fun!
Lots of big things happening for Goon!
Yeah finally, getting off our asses and doing something! *laughs*
I was just watching you jump off the roof into the crowd in your clip for Goon Times. What is one of the craziest things you have ever done at a gig or for a clip or on tour?
Some of the 4ZZZ gigs have been pretty rowdy, they are always free, BYO, so heaps of mates get pretty loaded, come in all guns blazing. I don’t know, I have jumped off some pretty stupid things before like speaker stacks and off the top of roofs. We played a gig where I jumped off some shed roof into like 3 people and really hurt my knee *laughs*
Yeah I was just going to say have you had any bad injuries from these stunts?
Yeah I have had heaps of sprains and split my head open once or twice, it is all part of the fun!
Brisbane has so many amazing and talented bands right now, who are some of your favourite local bands that you’d like to give a plug too?
At the moment I really love SLOJ, they are good mates of ours. Flangipanis are always good fun. I like hardcore music as well, Povarotti, Decapitated Mum, they are my homies, we all grew up in the same area. So SLOJ, Povarotti, Decapitated Mum, we all lived in Logan. Was good to get older and then everyone is in the city and we are all in bands! It’s good fun!
So what are the big plans, do you want to take over the world with Goon?
*laughs* Yeah definitely, we want to go overseas and tour. So like once we have this album out and flowing, hopefully we can print some vinyls. And we really want to go to the States. We definitely want to tour as much as we can, utilize all our connections and just stay creative I guess. Keep the ball rolling.
Just stay creative, I love that!
Goon On The Rocks are playing the Dead Of Winter Festival this weekend opening the Hysteria stage at 1:30, so get there early to catch them! They are also playing at Fat Louie’s on the 4th of August with Speedlab and Pretty Cruel so make sure you catch them then too!
Follow the Goon boys on Facebook and Instagram to stay in touch with the latest news, gigs and so you catch the album when it’s released in September!
www.facebook.com/GoonOnTheRocks/
And check out their Bandcamp here:
