TALKING SHOP

GOOSE

Since debuting on influential UK label Skint back in 2006, Belgian four-piece GOOSE have consistently impressed with their blend of synth-powered electronic sounds and rock band dynamics. Fifteen years and four studio albums on, their sound is still progressing. With their new EP, Something New, out 26 Feb, we caught up with the band to hear how their creative setup works.

When did you start making music?

“We started in 1996 as teens playing rock’n’roll from Black Sabbath over AC/DC to Elvis Presley covers. Then in 2000 we fell in love with our first synths, the Siel Ochestra 2 and Novation Bass Station. Heavily inspired by Daft Punk and Les Rythmes Digitales, our sound changed, but we still continued to make songs. And this is still what makes us different from a lot of electronic artists. It’s not just grooves and sounds, in our core we are still a rock’n’roll band, playing songs. But with synths and guitars!”

Tell us about your studio/setup

“We wrote most of our albums until our last album, What You Need, in a small studio above a bar in our hometown, Kortrijk, Belgium. For the recordings side we often used studios in Brussels, London and LA. Because it helps the process to work with different people and to change environment is inspiring.

“Since 2018 however, we moved to a bigger space. Our own studio called Safari Studios. Since we moved here, we can work on different projects at the same time, individually or together. We have two studio rooms stacked with synths, outboard and drum machines. Most of them date from the late ’70s, early ’80s. It has never been our intention to build a collection. We bought every single piece because of its specific use, like the Teisco 60F was a must-have to fill the bass parts, but a lot of the instruments caught our attention because of their specific sound on an album that we love.

“We also came across some pretty amazing stuff at secondhand fairs. I remember we bought a Jupiter 4 for just 300€ or an EHX Big Muff for just 50€. Crazy when you think about the prices people ask these days… Then

“It’s not just grooves and sounds, in our core we are still a rock ’n’ roll band” GOOSE|

over the years we evolved and added more specific pieces like the Arp 2600 or Buchla and recently we bought Étienne De Crécy’s Trident desk.

“For us it’s inspiring to be surrounded by instruments with a story and unlike plugins, they are not perfect. We heard producer Philippe Zdar say this once: ‘there is nothing wrong with using plugins, but when you add layer over layer of digital sounds, you end up with a sound that might be too similar to what others are doing.’

“If you use hardware outboard for example, it’s never going to perform the same as with your last take. That is frustrating at times, but oh so real.”

What DAW (or DAWs) do you use?

“As we started as a live band, we choose Pro Tools from day one. Basically, to us Pro Tools was a digital tape recorder or an eight-track, but then with much more possibilities. It’s only after the second album that we started to explore the possibilities and used the MIDI functions as well. Since then, we’ve also started using Ableton to record demos and for preproduction of our live sets.”

What’s been the latest addition to your studio, gearwise?

“A Neumann M149. It’s not only a classic, but it fits Mickael’s voice very well and captures his vocal frequencies very well, without pushing the frequencies you don’t want. It’s well balanced.”

What dream bit of gear would you love to have in your studio?

“Synthi A AKS from EMS – an amazing-sounding synth with endless sonic possibilities. It has an exceptional Battle Ships-style patch matrix. It’s a retro-futuristic looking synth housed in a beautiful plastic briefcase that comes with a small plastic keyboard. The sequencer is great too. It does things you could never program. Lucky accidents can make a track!”

When approaching a new track or project, where do you start?

“It can be a melody you recorded on a phone, a drum loop, anything basically. After all those years we can say that we all have a couple of ways to approach a new track, but there is no formula – luckily! Making music is supposed to be done with magical, childlike enthusiasm; that’s why we do it. With every new song, I’m wondering where it came from.”

What are you currently working on?

“We are about to release a new EP, a collection of songs that we’ve been working on the last year and a half. It’s really something new to us to share our process. Most of the time you write a lot and only share what you think is the best and you try to present yourself from your strongest side.

This time we wanted to share what we are doing today.”