Interview

Goatsnake Guitarist Greg Anderson Talks "Black Age Blues" Album

Greg Anderson has carved a little niche into the annuals of doom metal. Best known for his droning guitar tones in Sunn O))) he has also lent his axe to bands such as Burning Witch, Teeth of Lions Rule The Divine and Thorr’s Hammer. Anderson’s latest band in the news is Goatsnake. Goatsnake is not as well known as Sunn O))). They don’t play nearly as often and haven’t released a full-length recording in fifteen years. Now all the band members have been able to get together to play a string of shows and release a new album titled “Black Age Blues.”

Goatsnake played a couple of shows last year, which afforded them opportunity to play some of the new album, which is due June 2nd. Goatsnake is billed to play a couple of festivals, Maryland Death Fest and South By Southwest, where they can showcase this new material to their fans. I talked to Anderson via phone in the following interview about these upcoming shows and the making of “Black Age Blues.”

Rex_84: SXSW is coming up. Goatsnake is playing two shows on the same day. How do you feel about playing two shows at two different locations on the same day?

Greg Anderson: I think it will be cool. The last time we played in Austin was in 2000 at South By Southwest at a Man’s Ruin showcase. We did the one show there. It will be cool we’re going to do two different kinds of sets. The first set, the day set, will be mostly new material. The night set will be a mix of both new and old stuff. It will be a good chance for us to do something different. We’ve never done two shows in one day before. We’re looking forward to it. The lineup for both shows is awesome. A lot of friends of ours will be there. It’s a good excuse for us to get out of California, eat some barbecue and play these new songs that we have.

Rex_84: What barbecue joints are you going to hit up?

Anderson: Our drummer [Greg Rogers] is a barbecue fanatic. He’s got everything mapped out. I’m probably just going to tag along with him (laughs). Wherever he is going I’ll just tag along because he’s absolutely obsessed with barbecue. He’s already figured it out. He’s got a map. That’s the main reason he wanted to do this.

Rex_84: We do have good barbecue. There are some places that are so good you might have to wait four hours to get in.

Anderson: Right, he told me about a couple of places that open really early and he’s planning on being there when the doors open, lining up before they open or something like that. He’s dead serious about it.

Rex_84: So you’re going to be playing some songs off of “Black Age Blues?”

Anderson: Yeah, like I said on the day show we’re going to be playing six or so songs off of it. Then probably four or five in the night set. The night set is longer. We haven’t played many shows since we started working on this record. We played a couple shows last October, one in Los Angeles and one in Tucson as part of the Southwest Terror Fest. We played a few of the new songs at those shows. Other than that, those are the only shows we played. We’re gearing up for some touring in May and June and in the summer. We’re looking at this as a chance to warm it up, throw them out there and see how they do.

Rex_84: You’re playing a show in at Pappy & Harriets in Joshua Tree/Pioneertown, California. Is this a special show since it’s a one-off performance?

Anderson: That place is a real special place. We’re really close to that place, personally, especially our singer Pete [Stahl]. We did a lot of stuff out there at the Rancho de la Luna. It’s pretty close to Pappy & Harriets. That is a special show. We are also playing a local show in Los Angeles on May 20th as well. It’s not an exclusive or anything like that. It’s a really cool place. It’s an old roadhouse out in the middle of nowhere in the desert. So we’re going to go out there and fire it up!

Rex_84: After that show you play Maryland Deathfest. How do you feel about playing that festival?

Anderson: Killer, man. It always has a really good lineup. I’ve never actually been myself, but I’ve heard good things from friends of our, bands on Southern Lord that have gone out there. They always talk really highly about it. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be really cool. The night we are playing at the show we’re playing Winter and Neurosis are playing. It’s going to be great. I’m really looking forward to it.

Rex_84: In June you take off to play a handful of shows in Europe. Do the crowds over there respond in the same way to your music as in the States? Is it different?

Anderson: I don’t know if it’s different. It seems like there is a bit more enthusiasm in Europe for this band than over here. I think it’s that we rarely play, so for them it’s a special treat. They realized that it takes a lot for us to get out there and do that, so I think they’re somewhat more appreciative. It’s really hard for me to make a judgment call on that because we really haven’t done much in the States, either. We haven’t been a very active live band for a long time. This is the first time we’re fired up and doing a bunch of stuff consistently in several years, so we’ll see what the reaction is. It’s an honor and we’re grateful that we have some opportunities to play for people. We get to take part in some great festivals. We’ve got some really cool things coming up. We’re really excited to be able to go out and do this and be a part of this.

Rex_84: You will be releasing audio samples in the coming weeks. Have you picked out the songs you will be using yet?

Anderson: Not yet (laughs). We’re trying to figure that out. The record comes out on June 2nd, officially. Probably within the next couple of months we’re going to work on premiering a track from the record. We’ll see how that goes. I’m not sure which ones we’ll do. We’ve got a couple, everyone’s got a favorite, so we’ll see what the group consensus is on it.

Rex_84: It’s been quite a while since you released an album. You put out an EP [“Trampled Under Hoof”] in 2004. The last full-length album “Flower of Disease” was in 2000. Why was there such a long break between albums?

Anderson: For better or worse, the band has always taken a backseat in everyone’s lives. Each member has different stuff going on, whether it’s musically, with family or day jobs. Unfortunately, life got in the way with Goatsnake. It’s prevented us from doing a lot of things over the years, but everyone does what they can and tries their best. I’ve been super busy musically with Sunn O))) for the last fifteen years and that has taken up a lot of my time. We’ve been fortunate and have gotten a lot of great opportunities. That has kept me busy along with the label and my family life as well. It was just the right time for us where we had some time to get together and when we did get together, we immediately started writing new music. That was the thing for me, if I was going to continue playing with this group, I wanted to write some new music. We’ve had some amazing opportunities playing these festivals but we’re playing songs that I basically wrote in the late ‘90s. I’m super appreciative that people still want to hear those songs. I think it’s great. I’m proud of that material, but for me it wasn’t fulfilling to go out and play these songs we wrote so long ago. I really wanted to create something new. Finally, everyone in the band had some time to work on new material, so that’s what we did about a year ago. We started writing and came up with a few songs right away. Wow, this is cool. There is a creative spark here. There is still some energy. We should tap into this and try to maximize and work with this as much as we possibly can. We solely focused on writing new material. Not playing any of the old stuff. Not playing any shows. Just really focusing on new material. We came up with eleven songs and decided we wanted to get in and record them right away. (laughs) Who knows what’s going to happen in the future for each member. Things change and tend to change quickly. It was kind of a the perfect storm. We were able to get eleven songs done and recorded. Now it’s time to release them. So as far as the gap in time, everyone had something going on. There hasn’t been a time that was right until just recently to get together again and do this.

Rex_84: The album is titled “Black Age Blues.” Do you consider your band a heavy blues band or the album a blues album?

Anderson: I think the music has always definitely been influenced by blues. Obviously, we’re really influenced by Black Sabbath. They are a very important band to us. To me, Black Sabbath was always a heavy blues band. When they came out they were considered to be an extreme blues band. The kind of music we listen to and influences the band a lot of it is blues based. So there is definitely that element to our music. I feel like we’re doing what Sabbath did and taking the blues and making it heavier but we’re taking it a step further and adding other influences, for sure. It’s definitely an important part of our sound.

Rex_84: "Another River To Cross" contains several musicians in addition to Goatsnake members. David Pajo (Slint, Aerial M, Papa M), plays acoustic guitar. Piano is played by Mathias Schneeberger and Petra Haden contributes violin and vocals. How did this all come together? How did you bring these people in?

Anderson: Mathias and Petra were on the last record where it ends with piano and violin and some sounds of the ocean. We decided to start the new record with basically a piece of that outro. Then it fades into David playing acoustic guitar. David has been one of my favorite guitar players for a long time. Slint is one of my favorite bands ever. We’ve become friends over the past couple of years. He’s a huge fan of Sunn O))) and he happened to be in the area. He’s from Louisville and he was visiting family there so he’s not to far from where I’m at. He should drive out, so he came out and hung out, play him some music and asked if he would be interested in putting some guitar to it. That’s what he did. He basically took an old Skip James blues song and put a little twist on it, incorporated a riff from the song that it intros, which is “Another River to Cross.” It was great to work with him. It was an honor to have him on the record. Like I said one of my favorite guitar players. He’s really a great person and a good friend, so it’s cool to have him involved with this.

Rex_84: Dem Preacher's Daughters: Wendy Moten, Gale Mayes and Andrea Merrit provide backing vocals throughout the album. Talk a little about the decision to use their backing vocals.

Anderson: It’s kind of one of those bucket list sort of things for me personally and for the band. We’ve always wanted to have some backing vocals on our recordings. We thought it would be really cool, kind of in the tradition of The Rolling Stones or some amazing Motown stuff with backing vocals by some ladies. When recorded the record basically on the outskirts of Nashville. Pretty much any player you want is somewhere in Nashville. The guy we worked with Nick Raskulinecz said “Yeah, I’ve worked with these women before for backing vocals and they amazing.” If we are going to do that we should try them. So they came down. We talked to them a little about it. It’s funny because it’s really two different worlds (laughs). These women that come from a gospel background. One of the main women who was involved here, Wendy, she works with Julio Iglesia, John Oats from Daryl Hall and John Oats. She just did a country session with Shania Twain. They are serious, hardcore singers and musicians. Is this going to work them playing with a bunch of long-haired dudes playing heavy riffs, doom, basically (laughs)? It was too different worlds, but they came in there and knocked it out of the park. It was amazing. It added a really cool and different vibe and element to the record. There are a lot of great doom bands. The sound is not anything new. The thing about Goatsnake we try to bring something new to that sound or genre. I don’t really feel comfortable labeling ourselves but these are terms that people understand and can relate to.

Rex_84: Your rhythms are certainly down tempo and the tones are just doomy.

Anderson: When we first started the band we wanted to make something super heavy sounding. It was really influenced by Black Sabbath. We were really into Saint Vitus, Eyehategod, really into Trouble. We knew the music was going to be heavy but we wanted to have vocals that were really melodic. Something that brought something different to the table for this type of music. Getting Pete in as our singer was perfect because he’s got a very melodic, soulful voice. So that soul and R & B has always been in the sound, sometimes not so obvious. We’ve always had a sense of melody with what we are doing over the top of this really heavy music. So with this album, we’re taking it a logical step forward and adding another element that is also soulful and melodic and provides a contrast to the super heavy, down-tuned music.

Rex_84: What is happening with Sunn O)))? Are they on the back burner?

Anderson: No, we’re always doing something. Sunn O))) played also in October at the same festival as Goatsnake. Last year we released a collaboration record with Scott Walker. We’re playing Primavera Festival in May and also the Temples festival that Goatsnake is playing in May. Then we have a bunch of stuff going on in the summer. We’re doing a bunch of European dates in July and August. Then we’re going to start working on a new record this summer, as well. Our goal is to get another record out before the end of the year. I hope that happens. We’ll see. We’re not sure yet.