Exclusive: A Day With...David Goo and the Variety Band

Those of you who are familiar with these pages might recall my delight at discovering hot act David Goo and The Variety Band at last year’s Glastonbury. I was mesmerised by their exhilarating performance and their ability to gather an audience to a tiny Glasto stage and get them to dance their legs down to their knees to the band’s gypsy-rock music. Since then I have seen the band live a couple more times and when I found out that they’ve provided one of their songs for the Rightmove.com TV ad, I thought an interview with the band was long overdue.

We at Open like to do things a bit differently and when Mr Goo invited me to attend the band’s rehearsals in a disused hospital in the West End, I was only too happy to oblige.

I meet the band at their ex NHS HQ where they practice every day for up to six hours. It’s a slimmed down ensemble today as singer Jo Williams and cellist Tim Bowen are not present.
Here to greet me are David Goo, main man, songwriter, singer and guitarist, Greg de Carte, the excellent and fabulously opinionated drummer, Andrew Wyld maths head and bass player, James Boston keyboards, sax and melodica player and the band’s latest addition, straight from Spain, Angel, singer, percussionist and dancer (basically a talented Bez which a much better groove). 

There’s no time wasting here. Within minutes of my arrival the band launch into their set list in preparation for their London gig at the Borderline on January the 24th, I sit up, shut up and watch.

An hour or so goes by and the band worry I’m getting bored, but the opposite is true: I’m having a great time watching them play their magnificent concoction of rock, blues, klezmer and SKA. Not only are the songs a brilliantly happy explosion of sounds, but the band are highly entertaining to watch too. New member Angel is undoubtedly a born physical performer with his free movements and expressive face, his court jester-like persona complements David’s proud (but not too serious) royal vibe and their vocal harmonies, with the addition of bassist Andrew’s,  work perfectly together.
Mr Wyld (obviously the band’s spin doctor and psychic) dedicates their track Psycho Girl to me. Way to go to get a journo on your side, lads.

Watching them rehearse I conclude that not only does this band make fantastic music, but they also seem to possess a great working dynamic, making it look like they are having the time of their life. And they probably are (I later mention that they remind me of Manu Chao and his crew in the way they play together, but this thought is nipped in the bud as soon as it’s expressed, so we’ll gloss over that).
When rehearsals are over we head down to the pub for much needed refreshments (minus keyboard player James who has to leave early). Dictaphone in hand it’s time to fire off the questions.


How did The David Goo Variety Band get together?
DAVID - I’ve been running an open mike night for the last three years and I’ve also been playing solo shows for the last six. I met each individual at gigs. When I met Greg he told me he was looking to play with a band and I was looking for a drummer. I met singer Jo Williams on tour. When I met cellist Tim Bowen I wasn’t looking for a cello player, we thought we’d use the cello as a one off, but it sounded so nice and he’s so good I thought: let’s use more cello!
GREG: We’d be rehearsing for about a month, but we still needed a bass player. We met Andrew at a gig and straight after we got booked to play live.
DAVID:The reason why it all happened so quickly was because the songs had been ready for years. I knew what I liked, I knew what people liked, so it wasn’t a case of “Let’s try this, let’s try that”, which is what usually happens.
I knew James (Boston, keyboards, melodica and sax player) before. He was in a band that was folding. We needed something to make the songs brighter as at that stage they still sounded a bit dark and aggressive. The band and I concurred that we needed a keyboard player and James joined us.Angel has been in the band for two weeks now. Initially I just wanted him to play percussions in one song, but he’s a great singer and he’s a vibe master! (Band laughs) He has the freedom to move about and create a spectacle, which is exactly what I needed.

You’ve provided one of your songs, Keep on Wishing, for a TV ad, namely the rightmove.com commercial. How did that come about?
DAVID: We did a gig at the Hobgoblin in Angel a while back. It wasn’t a great gig, we were all a bit ill that night. This guy who knew James came down  to see us and he liked us and turned out he worked in an ad agency.  He went onto to YouTube and found a recording of Keep on Wishing from our gig at Bush Hall in April. He got in touch with us and asked for a recording. All we had was the live take from the Angel gig. Despite my feelings about that gig, the live take actually sounded great, so I gave it to him and the day after he called me saying that Rightmove.com wanted to use it. I couldn’t stop jumping up and down when I got that message!

Has the interest in the David Goo Variety Band increased since the commercial?
DAVID: Yes, we now have an agent and a lawyer, plus lots of hits on our My Space and You Tube page. All kinds of people have been contacting us and we are now looking at all the possibilities out there.

Some bands and fans have issues with providing music for advertising, but it has also served very well for many groups out there…
(David and Greg get very passionate)
DAVID: I tell you what, lots of people I admire have done ads: Frank Zappa, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch…
GREG:Phil Collins!
DAVID:Fuck Phil Collins! I don’t care about him!
(Laughs) The only issue I’d have with advertising would be for a big brand like MacDonald’s, but we’ve done it for a small company. If I’d said no to this opportunity because of being “too principled”, the band would have left me.
In my opinion selling out means changing who you are. We haven’t changed anything. We didn’t even re-record Keep on Wishing for the ad. They used the original live recording. It even has bum notes in it! If people want it they can have it, but we won’t change anything.
GREG: People who worry about selling out are just amateurs. I’m a musician, (doing music) is my job.
DAVID: Nobody I know has had a problem with it. It’s not like 10 years ago, when musicians had power. Musicians are powerless nowadays. Everybody wants as much exposure as possible. This is the only way to get some financial gain, doing this kind of stuff. I don’t give a shit (about people having a problem with commercials) because I want the public to hear my songs.
GREG:  This ad has been a blessing for us. This is what is going to allow us to play in front of 10,000 people at the 2009 festivals, whilst last year we played on a small stage in front of 200 people at Glastonbury. Some people talk about selling out and idealism and then they end up working in Tesco’s. What’s worse?

Your music has lots of different elements of other genres: blues, SKA, rock, klezmer and the interesting thing is that the David Goo Variety Band is quite an international ensemble (David is of Israeli, English and Kiwi origins,  Greg is Spanish but born in South Africa to an English father and a Spanish mother, Angel is Spanish too and the rest of the band are British). Do you think this has a big influence on your music?

DAVID: Well, I write all the songs myself, although, of course they have the band members’ print on it. For example Greg is a very funky drummer so the songs end up having this groovy danceable element to them. I think the influences have more to do with my own international background. I wrote these songs years ago, before the current band members joined. I think everything is international nowadays. The reason why this is called the David Goo Variety Band is because I want to play a variety of genres, although I want it to make sense, not to jar people.  If I only did one style I’d be bored to be honest.

I saw you live at Glastonbury last year and you put on quite a show. Do you consider yourself to be more of a live band than an album band?
DAVID: Definitely. In fact there are songs that are not even recorded, we are only going to do them live. Frankly I fucking hate studios. When I dream about music at night, it’s always live, I never dream of being stuck in a studio. It’s all about the live experience for me.

Do you think your sound really benefits from the live experience and the presence of an audience?
DAVID:Yes! For starters the whole show is tailored for that. When years ago I did open mike nights it was all about grabbing the attention. The spectators will get into the music progressively as the show goes on, in a crescendo. Everything is in the moment for us, on the night. We create this atmosphere.
GREG: The ultimate experience for me is the live one. The drums are an instrument created to add movement and for me seeing people dance to my music is the best thing. I love any kind of dance beat. I’m a drummer, I love seeing people dance around.

There’s plenty of Romani and klezmer influences in your music.Where do you think the current interest in gipsy and klezmer music stems from?

DAVID:I think these days people want to join in with the fun. They are fed up with seeing indie-rock bands on stage that must be worshipped like gods. Not that I don’t love some of that stuff, but …
GREG: We worship too many gods already in this world! (band – and journalist- agree.)

David, your lyrics are often very funny and you use a lot of comedy.  Are you ever worried that this might work against you, that people won’t take you seriously?
DAVID: No, I love to use comedy in my lyrics. Nobody has ever told us that we come across like a novelty band and we are not. Laughing and dancing are two of the greatest things to me.

What will you be doing in 10/20 years time?
GREG: I want to work as drummer and have my own personal project too. Like working with David now.
ANGEL: I’d like to travel on foot around the world and always learn.
DAVID: We are going to be touring, and Angel is going to make his own way to the gigs around the globe on foot! (everybody laughs) Anyway, you are going to carry on playing with me in the future Angel!
ANGEL: Yes, I’ll always be with David Goo! We live in symbiosis! (seriously) I don’t make any plans for the future. I hate plans.
ANDREW: In the future I’d like to carry on doing music. I also have another side project, doing my thing, so eventually I’d like to get that on the road. I write film scripts and scores too and would like to carry on with that.  I think in 10 years time I’ll do a spell in rehab, later I’ll have a quasi religious fad! Seriously, I want to enjoy playing and feel creatively fulfilled. I’m also currently doing a maths PHD.
DAVID: I want to carry on doing what I’m doing now, but bigger.

And somehow, David Goo and The Variety Band, I suspect that’s exactly where you're headed.


David Goo and The Variety Band play the Borderline on Saturday January the 24th. Support from The Belfries and Elliot Mason
The Borderline,  Orange Yard, off Manette Street, London, W1D 4JB
Tickets are available here, £7 adv/£9 on the door