GOSH!
Chicago cult pop purveyors GOSH! recently announced their upcoming album Odyssey for Nicey Music with a listen to the electro fist pumping single “The Dishwasher”. The duo of Padraig Steadman & Claire Lambach convey a creative campaign that takes the DIY banner to new heights of truths, trajectories & testaments to the American primitive models that updates an amalgam of influences into a stew of their own devices. Through a lysergic lens of inclusive attitudes & an excited senses of perpetual newness; GOSH! continues to nurture these notions of magic realism that spring to our conscious perception out of the ordinary routines of our daily lives.
“The Dishwasher” leads the audience behind the scenes of the glitz & glamor that makes up rock & roll lifestyles to the nitty-gritty reality of putting in work for your art. As a group that knows all too well the hectic balance of juggling day jobs & gigs to supporting their own core pursuits of unrelenting arts; the latest ballad from GOSH! celebrates the aesthetes that remain true to their salt of the earth roots. In a catchy, delightfully distorted ode to keeping it real; Claire & Padraig abide by a utilitarian & economic approach to a minimalist delivery that places their pointed statements of passion & purpose firmly upon the foundation of a mechanical drum & clap beat with their hearts, eyes, minds & talents set for a greater level of untold grandeur. GOSH! rebels against the odds with a relatable honesty that mixes the modes of the mundane with an earthly grounded art & exercise in humility as heard on “The Dishwasher”.
We had a chance to catch up with Padraig Steadman & Claire Lambach of GOSH! in the following insightful interview session:
Notes on the latest from the Chicago scene?
The DIY music scene in Chicago has changed a lot since I (Padraig) first moved here in 2010. I was playing in a band called Nude Sunrise. Back then there were towering warehouse show spaces where a real underground culture was thriving. There were incredible bands like Cave, Wume, and Ono blowing minds. I believe it was in 2012 that the NATO conference was hosted at McCormick place in Chicago. The local government used it as an excuse to shut down a lot of the illegal spaces.. Virtually overnight, a whole scene was forced above ground. Luckily, we had, and still have a lot of amazing legitimate venues like Empty Bottle, Hideout, and Café Mustache to support what’s happening. There are new underground spots popping up, but it’ll never be the same as in the era of Mortville and the Mopery. There are still a lot of really great Chicago bands. Some of our favorites include Matchess, Ono, HIDE, RXM Reality, Bitchin Bajas, Desert Liminal, Dehd, Earring, Fire Toolz, and Café Racer to name a few. The music that is cultivated in Chicago is always something that we’ve thought as special. And we really do feel like a part of a community. Every time I go to the store I run into someone I know. It’s really inspiring.
How did you two know that GOSH! become a phenomenon?
I’m not sure that we really are a phenomenon. I think we knew it was worthwhile when the people we respect and admire started saying good things about our music, and started supporting us in our endeavors. Someone like Pat Stolley in Rock Island wanted to record with us. Nicey Music in LA wanted to release an album. These are all people we personally really love, so it’s a validating experience for them to enjoy what we do.
The thing that makes this project the most special to us is our love for the music and each other
We created this band at the beginning of our romantic relationship with one another, and we have created something that we both love.
Give us the behind-the-scenes stories about the creation of the album Odyssey.
I guess the catalyst of this record was our last west coast tour. We experienced one hurdle after the next. First, our original member and drummer quit the band. Then, we played a series of terrible shows. Our substitute drummer was attacked and robbed in Kansas City. We had flat tires. Then the second drummer quit in San Francisco. Then our van, a 2001 Honda Odyssey, broke down on top of a mountain in Montana. All these trials inspired the music on Odyssey. But there were a lot of other events in 2017 that inspired the record. We had a few friends who were dealing with harrowing addictions to opioids. We were dealing with the successes and failures of our own addictions. We each lost close friends in tragic circumstances. Donald Trump became the fucking president. It was really tough in a lot of ways. However, while we were on this tour, we stayed with Peter and Louise from Nicey for about a week in the Las Angeles area. They were a really positive force. When they expressed interest in releasing a record with us, it gave us the focus and motivation to carry on. So we think that you can really hear those stories in the album You can hear the mood that was in that van. You can also hopefully tell from the album that we’re not the type of people to give up despite the obstacles.
Also want to hear the inspirations that informed the catchy single “The Dishwasher”.
Well “The Dishwasher” is specifically about the sensation of losing hope in your art. It’s about the feeling when you realize that something you’ve been working on your whole life is not only no longer practical, but also no longer fun. It’s the feeling when something you’ve always cared so passionately about is now a chore to yourself, and a bore to the people you care about. It’s about showing up to a show in your own town and no one comes and you get into a fight with the asshole sound person. It’s about wanting to change what you’re doing and starting something new. I think it’ also about being ok with all of that, because what else is there. It’s kind of funny that a song with subject matter so bleak has a poppy cheery instrumental. I don’t know why I wrote it like that. It just happened.
Favorite/cherished memories from the days of Nude Sunrise?
The first thing I can think of is the time we were with Peter’s band The Great Valley in Austin for SXSW. They taught us this gnarly game called Ill Sips where you have to drink a sip of beer out of whatever disgusting vessel one could find. I Think we drank beer out of a bird bath, a shoe, a rusty can off the side of the road. Playing Bitchpork festival at Mortville was a personal highlight. Meeting so many wonderful friends from all over the country and world who I will always have is probably the thing I cherish most out of all of these wild adventures.
How have your previous projects & collaborative pursuits informed the current creative process at work right now with GOSH! ?
I think GOSH! is a little bit of everything we’ve ever done folded into one. My (Padraig) first band that did original music was called the Ballet. We started when I was like 14. We were really into Modest Mouse, Radiohead, and the Beatles. It was all pretty straight forward singer songwriter type stuff. When that band ended, I did solo singer songwriter stuff on an acoustic guitar for a while. Then my close friend Luke Wolever and I started collaborating together. Luke was a noiser. That’s how Nude Sunrise started. Our format was typically to have one riff or chord progression repeated into oblivion while we sang and improvised over it. I’d say GOSH! is a combination of all of those ideas and approaches to writing. I (Claire) grew up constantly surrounded by music. I was a diehard Beatles, Dead, and Marley fan by age 8. Since I can remember I’ve taken music lessons and been in orchestras and choirs. I think the way Padraig and I look at music is very different. Padraig, coming from a more DIY music background, has a million crazy and inventive ideas but sometimes they don’t make sense in a traditional way. Because I spent lot of time in choirs and orchestras as a kid, I can put his thoughts into motion with the theories I learned in classrooms. I think we really balance each other and work well together.
What are you all listening to right now that everyone should be listening to?
I’m gonna narrow that down by telling ya a little bit about the music we were really into while we were making the record. We were listening to a lot of Grouper, Brian Eno, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, Leonard Cohen, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, The Smiths, classic country music like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, Sam Cooke, and the soundtrack from Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks the Return was airing throughout the whole tour and beyond. We were highly influenced by David Lynch’s universe.
I’m also gonna tell ya about some more under the radar bands from across the country that we love. In Minneapolis there’s the Cult of Lip and Material. In Detroit there’s Gray/Bliss and Party Days. Iowa has Bob Bucko Jr. In LA there’s Banny Grove and the Lentils. In NYC there’s Reaches and Frank Hurricane. In Portland OR there’s Mujahideen. There are a million more but it would take forever to think of it all.
I (Padraig) listened to The Fall obsessively after Mark E. Smith died. It was annoying.
Spring, summer & fall hopes?
The first thing we’re doing is going on tour to the South in April. We’re heading down to New Orleans and back. In May we’re gonna do a mini tour up to and around Minneapolis. We’re already working on an East Coast tour in July. We can’t wait to swim in the Atlantic! There will most likely be another tour in October or November. Our goal is to try and tour as much as possible during the winter and escape the debilitating Chicago cold. We’d definitely like to make it over to Europe sooner or later. A good buddy of ours lived in China for a long time so we’ve been talking about going on a tour with him there. We both have day jobs that we really like so we’ll be doing that. We’re going to a wedding in August. We’re gonna hang out with our cats a lot. Basically we live a very mellow domestic reality with some rock n roll mixed in. <3
The anticipated new GOSH! album Odyssey will be available May 11 via Nicey Music.
