“I definitely like more things about LA than I dislike. I really like the culture here. It’s a lot different to growing up in Newcastle – there’s not much culture there when it comes to different nationalities,” Macqueen laughs.
Macqueen and Friend formed Gooch Palms in their hometown of Newcastle, releasing their first record, Novos – named after the colloquial description of Newcastle residents – in 2013. Despite building up a regular following in Australia, it only took one taste of the American touring life to sow the seed for Gooch Palms to seek more lucrative touring pastures.
“We did one tour over here when we played Gonerfest in 2014 and we got the buzz for touring America,” Macqueen says. “Unfortunately in Australia there’s the 10 solid shows you can do and there’s only so many times you can do that a year. We thought maybe we’d get visas and come over here, and we signed with Panache booking back in 2015, and they booked us about 100 shows. So we decided we might as well pack up and head over and do a four-month tour.”
Moving to LA was easy, because as a two-piece and a couple moving around the country was relatively easy. Living in a big city means there’s plenty of gigs to find. “There’s so many shows you can do around LA because it’s so big,” Macqueen says. “At the same time it’s hard because every person who’s here and in a band is super competitive. It’s only now that we’re becoming well known around LA after a slog of playing.”
Macqueen and Friend are enjoying the contrast with Australia, and Newcastle in particular, not least because of Los Angeles’ diverse cultural and musical landscape. “LA’s really funny,” Macqueen says. “They do it a lot where you’re not playing with bands of your genre. And a lot of shows will have a hip hop band with a psychedelic band with a metal band. We played a night where there were three different bands and it ended with a doom band. Everyone’s super down for it here.”
In 2015, Macqueen and Friend travelled to Michigan where they recorded the second Gooch Palms album, Introverted Extroverts. Whereas Novos had been recorded over nine hours in a bedroom in Newcastle, Introverted Extroverts was a more considered affair, spread out over two weeks with producer Bill Skibbe.
“Novos was what we were playing live – that was all the songs that we had. We recorded Novos in our front room in nine hours and that was the record,” Macqueen says. “This one we definitely wanted to put a bit more effort into it, so we hunted down Bill Skibbe. When he agreed to do the record we started writing songs and trying songs out live. Then we spent two weeks in a studio just outside of Detroit and wrote the rest of the album there. It was a way different experience – we spent two weeks writing and recording. We’re already talking to Bill about the next album.”
Gooch Palms’ attraction is based on two basic attributes: short, punchy garage rock tunes, and a colourful stage act, typically involving Macqueen finishing the show in all his naked glory. “[Writing the songs] is hard because you can’t really rely on much other than the melody that’s being sung – there’s no rhythm or lead guitar or bass line,” Macqueen says. “It’s hard for us to come up with guitar hooks because that means I’m not really playing chords. It all comes down to the melody for us, there’s a lot of pressure because a lot of bands suck at writing melodies but are really good at playing guitar and vice versa. It’s been important for us to hone our craft because we realised that’s the thing that people liked about our music.”
Gooch Palms continue to manage their own affairs, consistent with their avowed DIY ethos. “Every year that goes by when you get a little bit bigger you wonder how much longer you can do it,” Macqueen says.
As for reactions to his stage antics in the sometimes conservative United States, Macqueen says it’s all fine at the moment. “No one’s taken offence to my knowledge, and I wouldn’t really give a shit if I offended anyone anyway. It’s not crazy different – the kind of clubs we’re playing are used to it. So far, so good.” Macqueen laughs.
BY PATRICK EMERY
