Lorenzo Goetz Down - in an interview with us!
On Oct 11th, I had the opportunity to sit down with Lorenzo Goetz, the lead singer and one of the guitars in Lorenzo Goetz, in the Greenstreet Coffeehouse so he could tell me a little about his band.
Chris: Who is Lorenzo Goetz? Like, where are you from? Where is the band from?
Lorenzo Goetz: None of us grew up here. All of us live here now. I grew up in Indiana, and Josh, the guitar player, grew up in southern Vermillion county, I think Georgetown. The bass player grew up outside of Kankakee, and the drummer’s from Piper City. But we’ve all one way or another found our way here. And the only one I knew ahead of time was Josh the guitarist. Our paths crossed probably about 7 or 8 years ago. We got to know each other, and then met up when we both moved here. But that’s Josh Miethe on guitar, Eric Fisher on bass, Kevin Colravy on drums, and myself on guitar and vocals.
C: Well, my next question was who is the band so uh…
L: I got a copy of that in advance and read ahead, so I know all your questions.
C: Dang…I didn’t think I sent it out to anybody. Uh, who were your major influences both for sound and inspiration?
L: Uh, let’s start with inspiration. Michael Penn is at the top of my list, kind of a songwriter’s songwriter. Certain people know who he is. Most people don’t. But he was heavily influenced by John Lennon, so the Beatles being another huge influence. They go hand in hand. But as far as songwriters go, I appreciate Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and Paul Simon, but the other thing that happens is I’m a huge, huge hip-hop fan, so that stuff starts to creep in. So artists like Beck, Soul Coughing, and G. Love start to influence the sound a little bit, and that’s where you see the difference say between that album [points to Slowly] and the newer stuff as it starts to take it’s angle. Plus the songs on Slowly were older songs that I hadn’t ever recorded on any other project. There were actually only two new songs on there when we recorded it. The rest of it’s older material. So, as you listen to newer stuff, you’ve seen the live show, you’ll start to see it transform a bit into I don’t know…more urbanized than the singer-songwriter stuff.
C: Uh, how would you describe your music style?
L: Oh God. Well, when it first came out everybody wanted to know what it was. We just called it Mutt-rock because culturally, like, as far as my background origins, I’m a complete mutt. I’m made up of Native American, German, and Dutch, and all sorts of things. So the same with these musical influences. I mean, my CD collection goes from Jonny Cash to Wu-tang and, you know, everything in between, Miles Davis, and uhh, God, Sublime. You know, all of it in there together. So yeah, Mutt rock, and then uh we’ve just been trying to describe it to people. The Beatles meets Beck thing came up recently, and we kinda stuck with that cuz it seems to be two good points of reference that people can at least get an idea. It’s got that melodic pop thing to it, and it’s got a little bit of a snap to it.
C: Yeah it’s hard to do that [describe one’s style]. It’d be easier if you were a cover band.
L: Oh yeah, heh, we play everything that’s on the radio.
C: Um, dressing style…I don’t know why I wrote that down. What’s your dressing style?
L: Oh god. Sometimes, sometimes we get real corny and like to have themes, like the triangle party we all wore…
C: Joe Bananas.
L: …we all wore names of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, some of his aliases. Just something ridiculous like that that probably twenty people in the crowd might have understood, and the rest of em wondered what the hell was goin on. Tomorrow night, we might actually wear numbers, just 1, 2, 3, and 4. Just screw with…uhh…occasionally we’ve all dressed up in thrift store suits and ties and weird things. Then sometimes, you know, we show up in t-shirts and jeans or whatever. But occasionally we’ll try and have a little theme every now and then. I think it adds to a live show when you have more visual, makes it more fun for folks, so it varies quite a bit as far as dressing style.
C: At triangle, I really had no idea what that meant, but it got my attention so…
L: Yeah? Yeah it did it’s job, but it was a hell of a conversation piece for afterwards, you know. Wu-Tang seemed to be the subject of the night.
C: What do you call a bassist with no girlfriend?
L: Haha, uhh. I know this one. Uh, homeless.
C: Yep.
L: It’s cool too. Our bass player and his girlfriend just bought a house. In fact, they are the only home owners in the band.
C: You already have one album out, which is entitled Slowly, so are there any plans to release a new one, and, if so, when?
L: Hopefully, by the end of the year. I started to record things that…those three songs [on a short sampler that he gave me during the interview] are recorded on my little makeshift home studio. But we got a cat from Chicago that might come down and just set up shop, and we might track out 4 or 5 songs and just do an EP by the end of the year. Just some of the newer material. Take our time with it, and uh that’s what the goal is right now. One way or the other, I think we’ll have something out by the year’s end.
C: I’ll be looking forward to it. So, what is the most rewarding thing about playing music?
L: Oh God. Um, when someone actually listens, when someone appreciates what you’re doing, and you know. I’ve played shows where there’s ten people in a room or played shows where there’s six thousand people, you know a big outdoor thing. Um, but I don’t really care how many people are there unless someone’s listening. So when someone takes note, uh, that makes it all cool. Otherwise I could just do it in my living room and it’d just be me so.
C: Um, what’s your favorite local venue?
L: Local venue? I’ve played in a lot of the places for different reasons. As far as the best sounding room, I think it’s the Highdive. I feel real comfortable on that stage. Everything sounds great. Jimmy or Bob, either one, if they’re running sound in there, always sounds perfect. I love playing the IMC. We play the Iron Post a lot. I like all of em for different reasons, but the Highdive probably has my vote for better sound.
C: Favorite song of yours? Do you have one?
L: Um, see that question, the answer can always change for that. You’re usually into the stuff that you’re working on more recently. I really like “Mesh“, which is on this sampler here that I’m gonna give you. It seems to be testing out really well. But uh, I’m writing like 5 or 6 new songs right now, so I like all those pretty much, but no one’s heard em yet.
C: Alright, favorite ice cream?
L: Um…vanilla. I know that sounds boring, but…
C: My friend said that’s the water of ice cream.
L: It is, but I’m such a sucker for it…especially if it’s homemade. I mean I’ll eat other things, but that’s my fail safe.
C: Alright, do you have a “most memorable” experience from a show, or is this a stupid question?
L: Hmm…no, not a stupid question at all. Let me think about it though. Oh! Well, I’ll give you this one. I don’t know if it’s the most memorable, but it’s the first one that popped into my head. It was the first show that we ever played in this project. It was our debut night. There was four hundred people there, and we’re playing, and we get to our last song. And a kid, I have no idea what his name is, from a previous band that had played, was all sorts of drunk. He got up on stage, and I was playing a guitar solo, and I didn’t know it, but he’s right beside me and drops his pants, and is completely nude from the waist down, jumping around. Our guitar player’s parents were there. It made for a nice first impression for a lot of people, so. I guess, I don’t know, a drunk nude guy on stage during our first show was pretty nice.
C: Haha, yeah that’ll work. If you had to be either blind or deaf, which would you rather be and why?
L: Ooh…I don’t know how it came up, but I thought about this before. I think it would have to be blind because I need to hear music. And I would still be able to play music and listen to music and experience it without sight.
[Then, at our finest moment, my cell phone goes off…]
C: That’s me.
L: I need to turn mine off.
C: Cell phones suck.
L: Aww man, he’s getting calls in the middle of the interview.
[I proceed to agree with him on the blind/deaf question.]
C: In a movie about you, would it include any of your own songs on the soundtrack?
L: Oh yeah, most definitely. I hope you don’t ask which ones cuz I don’t know.
C: Well, my next question was what would your theme song be?
L: My theme song in a movie about me? I’d pick “Big Payback” by James Brown because it’s about seven and a half minutes long, and it’s all sorts of funky.
C: James Brown is awesome.
L: I love James Brown.
C: This was suggested by my roommate, “If you were a porn star, what would your alternate name be?”
L: Hah…well, actually I’ve done this from stage before. There’s supposed to be a formula for finding your porn name, which is you take your first pet’s name and then your mother’s maiden name. So by that formula, my porn name would be Sparky Guard. That isn’t that exciting, but I guess that’s the only time I’ve ever thought about it, and I think Long Dong Silver is already taken.
C: Heh, yeah, and Buck Naked too…I wasn’t supposed to accept that one. What if you were a superhero?
L: What would my name be? Oh god…wow…I really don’t know. I don’t even know what my powers would be if I were a super hero. You have any good names? Any good super hero names?
C: I don’t know. I’ve made up some like Abortion Man and stuff, but those don’t really go over well. My comics usually crash and burn.
L: Heh, you really have to watch what crowds you’re with.
C: Yeah, I try and keep an eye out. So where can we find out more about you, aside from openingbands.com that is? ;)
L: Openingbands.com, and lorenzogoetz.com. We just got the website up and running about a month ago, and we’re gonna expand and do some cool things with it. But we’re learning. I’m a total believer in do it yourself type stuff. I mean, you know, the album is totally do it yourself. All of our marketing, promotions. I book all of the shows, manage everything. I believe that in this day and age, you can do that. You don’t need to sit around and wait for a major label to pick you up or hope for MTV dreams or any of that stuff. You can do this on so many different levels. So Josh the guitarist actually teamed up with a cat and just rolled up his sleeves and dug in, found out how to build a website and maintain it. So we’re learning as we go. We have downloads and video footage, all sorts of things. We’ve got some pictures and upcoming shows and things like that on there now. It’s serving it’s purpose.
C: Any words of wisdom for our readers out there?
L: If it’s the readers of opening bands, then umm, keep coming back to the site. I mean, I go there almost everyday just to check things out, see who’s talking about what, find out about shows. It’s a huge advantage to like 6 or 7 years ago when I was in bands. You didn’t have anything like that. You know, all you could do was just flyer and word of mouth and try to get people out. You didn’t have a forum like that where people could come to it everyday and check it out. And there are certain things happening in this area that I’m really excited about. Openingbands being one, Innocent Words magazine, the smaller venues that are popping up like the IMC. The Brass Rail’s gonna start having shows now. All those things combined, the venues, the mediums, uh…WEFT and the Planet’s local 4:20 buzz thing. All those things come together, along with the bands, along with the music lovers to create a great scene, and it could thrive. But it takes everybody firing on all cylinders, and I’m finally starting to see that after a couple years of being around here.
C: Well, that’s about it unless there is something I forgot to ask. Anything to add? Favorite cartoon?
L: No. I’m really diggin Dexter. As far as old school goes, I’m into anything with Deputy Dog or Droopy, I’m a big Droopy fan. But I find myself watching Dexter.
C: Well, thank you much. [hands are shaken] They can’t see this but…
L: There is a hand shake across the table. Right hands only.
C: Thanks.
So, I urge you to check out a Mr. Lorenzo Goetz and his band, Lorenzo Goetz. As far as final thoughts go: My porn name is Snoopy Davis. My superhero name would be Stripes or Pocket. (I would be a sidekick.) And you should see Lorenzo and Josh boogeyin out on stage with Eric and Kevin rockin next to them, even if you have to commit Grand Theft Bus to get out there! Night all.