Having just returned from another European tour, Justin Keenan, guitarist and vocalist with The Go Set, is both exhausted and satisfied.
Having just returned from another European tour, Justin Keenan, guitarist and vocalist with The Go Set, is both exhausted and satisfied. “This is the first time we’ve actually made any fucking money on a tour,” he says. “It’s the first time I’ve come back without the arse taken out of my pants!” The Go Set have been living and practising the DIY ethos since its conception almost ten years ago; after years of ploughing its trade to national and international audiences, it seems that, finally, there’s some financial satisfaction in the winds.
“But we’re really worn out at the moment – all I want to do is lie on the couch and rest,” Keenan admits. The Go Set’s blend of punk attitude and Celtic folk harks back to the members’ childhoods, when they were exposed to a range of traditional folk music. “We all grew up on our parents’ folk music,” Keenan says. “Before we started The Go Set, we were all playing in other bands. I formed the band with the bass player – we wanted to form a band that sounded more Australian, rather than imitating American and English bands, which is what we were doing before,” Keenan says.
The interest in folk music included the political rhetoric common to a large portion of folk music. “My dad had a penchant for protest songs,” Keenan says. “As a kid I listened to a lot of protest songs, and I can remember having Bob Dylan explained to me. It’s about music being part of the political and social movement, rather than just entertainment,” he says.
While The Go Set has written and recorded its share of protest songs, Keenan says the original vision for the band wasn’t political per se – it was about a band that exuded a sense of authenticity and integrity. “We had no particular vision in mind – we just wanted to sound like an Australian band. We’re a melting pot of influences, although most of us have a Celtic background,” Keenan says. “At the end of the day, we just wanted to be able to look back on what we’d done and like the music. As much as The Go Set has evolved, the thing that I enjoy the most is that it’s all natural,” he says.
Bands such as The Pogues identified and exploited the symbiotic link between punk and folk. It’s an association that Keenan believes is significant. “I talk to audiences about it,” Keenan says. “The only difference between folk and punk is distortion pedals and fashion. It’s just about the way the music and performance is presented. During our show we often turn off the whole PA to show that there’s no separation between a loud rock show and an acoustic show,” Keenan says.
The association between alcohol consumption and folk music is, Keenan says, easy to concede. That said, The Go Set has never made a habit of writing songs that are obsessed with the consumption of alcohol. “It’s a little bit unavoidable, I suppose,” Keenan says. “Celtic music to some extent comes from that drinking tradition. But we don’t base our stuff on drinking – that’s too stereotypical. We drink when we play, but we don’t write songs about drinking. I think that sort of stuff is very St Patrick’s Day – it’s an association, a fashion. In England they call those people who get dressed up on St Patrick’s Day ‘Plastic Paddies’,” Keenan says.
Surprisingly, The Go Set haven’t yet played in Ireland or Scotland, preferring to play its craft in England and in continental Europe. “While we’ve done some great shows in London, personally, I think English audiences can be quite apathetic,” Keenan says. “And we tend to be quite similar over here because we’re used to being spoon-fed through commercial radio. What I love about places like the Czech Republic is that even if you don’t get played on radio, then your music can become known just through word of mouth. If you look at Australia, you can get a band that wins seven ARIAs and has disappeared within two years,” Keenan says.
For their upcoming tour, The Go Set will be joined by English punk poet Attilla The Stockbroker. “We’ve known his stuff for a while,” Keenan says. “Mick Thomas has handed on our stuff to lots of people, and Attilla the Stockbroker is one of them. He’s a lovely fellow. We’ve played with him, and we share an affinity for good microbrews and being opinionated,” Keenan laughs.
The Go Set is currently collating video footage of the band taken over the last few years into a documentary that Keenan believes will illustrate The Go Set’s occasionally arduous, but ultimately rewarding musical journey. “It’s not necessarily a unique story, but it’s a little bit Anvil,” Keenan laughs. “It’s been really uplifting in recent years. What’s given us a lot of joy is that a lot of people feel ownership through the street teaming we have in different cities,” he says. “People just love involvement, and the people in the band are all people people. Punters are always coming up to have a beer, which can be a bit of a problem because you end up having about 50 beers!”
THE GO SET play the Northcote Social Club on Saturday April 16.
