“We are interested in rhythms and grooves and energy, we don’t want to cover this up with layers of overdubs and production,” says the mysterious band member, Captain Goatheart. “We record on a 16 track tape machine to force ourselves to not make too much overdubs. We never make more than three takes on anything. A lot of what you hear on our recordings are first takes. We never do any editing, hence you can hear a lot of mistakes in the songs. We work this way to keep the music raw and pure. And in my ears songs like Goathead, Det Som Aldrig Förändras, Stonegoat, Bondye, Gathering of Ancient Tribes and The Sun the Moon are really hitting it off.”
Since emerging with the album World Music in 2012, a sense of mystery has surrounded Goat. The band members have claimed this project is a continuation of a musical collective that’s existed in the tiny Swedish town of Korpilombolo for several decades. However, some doubts have been raised about the truth of this tale. The mystery is emphasised by the fact there’s not much information about who the band members are, and they appear on stage in masks.
“We want to be anonymous to preserve our individual freedom, and that is built in from our collective system while growing up in the Goat commune,” says Goatheart. “Any mystery that might come from that is just luck I guess. Or bad luck maybe.”
Beyond the mysterious narrative, the band are determined to wipe away any tinge of ego. The individual contributions are sublimated into the greater entity, which they believe enhances the honesty and strength of what they’re trying to communicate. “In anything we do we try to keep the egos down,” says Goatheart. “We are very aware of this in our music and our daily lives – the destructive force of the ego.”
Captain Goatheart stands behind the story of the band’s commune ancestry, which makes one wonder why World Music was Goat’s first release. In line with their anti-ego ethos, it wasn’t due to a feeling of creative superiority.
“Goat as a rock band have only existed since 2012 but as a commune it is very, very old,” he says. “The reason it also became a rock band is because some of us moved to Gothenburg and started to jam with people here. More people joined and we built a small studio, recorded some stuff and somehow Rocket Recordings found out about this and encouraged us to record an album. By then we already had one finished and that was it. But a lot of musicians around the world can do what we do, and a lot better also.”
When World Music came out, Goat expressed the opinion that all music, not just their own, is world music – a sincere claim, which is of integral importance to the band.
“All music has always contained elements of other music, previous music and traditional music,” Goatheart says. “This is nothing new. All music has always influenced each other – simply evolution. In the end all music is very similar to each other if you listen to the similarities instead of the differences. It’s the same with people and their cultures, and since the evolution is an ongoing process, every expression belongs to everyone to use and be inspired by. The world would be a lot better if people could focus on the similarities between everything.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
