after searching around for the various members of good old war throughout the night, i finally caught up with a somewhat less than sober keith goodwin (formerly of days away). coincidentally, we were both on our 3rd or 4th beer of the night.

we touched base on the world of good old war and post days away happenings after the band finished opening on their last stretch opening for the rx bandits and dredg. hit the cut for the interview.

– panda

Jerome Mendoza, weworemasks.com: For the record, name and position in Good Old War.

Keith Goodwin, Good Old War: My name is Keith Goodwin, i sing and play the bass and some guitars.

WWM: You’re on your last run of the RX Bandits tour right now, how’s the tour been?

KG: It’s been excellent. Southern California was awesome, they always draw a lot of people and it’s really fun for us. We’ve been friends with [RX Bandits] for a really long time so it’s cool to spend 8 days, 9 days with them, rockin’ out, hanging out. I stayed on their bus last night, which was awesome. The Dredg dudes are really cool too, I just met them for the first time in Anaheim and they’re all legit.

WWM: What was your impression of Dredg’s live show?

KG: I love it. I love everything about it. I like drum and bass, and they kind of have that
going on. The singer has a great voice. They all pull their weight, and that always pumps me up, because you don’t see that too often these days.

WWM: How did the tour come together? You guys definitely stick out on the tour as far as sound goes.

KG: I guess because we’ve been friends with RX for a long time, we wanted to tour and we heard they were gonna tour, so we basically asked to hop on. We have some stuff going on, some radio festivals that’re really cool. But we really needed some West Coast love. We haven’t been on the West Coast or even this part of the country in over a year, with the exception of SXSW.

WWM: How did you enjoy SXSW this year?

KG: I didn’t enjoy it at all actually. On the way out there, I lost my voice the day before our show. The first night it was fine, and then the next it got worse, and the next night it got worse.
and that’s only happened to me maybe twice in my entire life. It’s embarrassing as a singer, when you can’t even cough properly, it’s really weird. But because we warm up, I was able to sing and hit notes, but it didn’t feel great.

If you do practice and warm up, you figure out how to do it even when you’re not feeling great, but I wish I was feeling good so after we played i could’ve gone out and enjoyed myself and enjoyed all the bands. Instead, I was going back and going to bed right away.

WWM: We actually interviewed Dan [Nigro] from As Tall as Lions at SXSW, and he was going through the same thing.

KG: Yeah, there was a lot of people. I heard the same thing. For me, I want to have a good time and get people pumped up every time we play. If I’m not feeling good, then I feel like that
transfers.

[interview interrupted for fan interaction/hugs)

WWM: Do you feel like that (the swooning fans) has been the reaction on the tour so far?

KG: I feel like the reception has been really great. It’s positive, because i’ve been in other bands that were louder, or whatever. With this band, there’s a focus. We go for what we can do and do the best we can. we practice all the time. We have three dudes and we do the most we can with that, and hopefully people like it.

WWM: You’re ability to harmonize with each other on Only Way to Be Alone and live seems so natural, how long did it take to get to that point?

KG: I would say it took months, but on top of singing together every day, we took group lessons from Tim’s sister, who is an opera singer. She listened to the three-part harmonies that we had and she was able to say “You need to do this,” and she could hear all at once. Matching vowel sounds, ending certain phrases together, everything. We spent 4 hours at a time with her. After each session, we’d be onto something better because now we can practice the things we just learned with her. Before that, it was like “Let’s just try to sound good.” We’re still working and trying to figure out how to expand into newer shit and sing better. Trying to keep it fresh, you know?

WWM: Right. So you’ve got the radio dates and festivals coming up, then dates with The Honorary Title right? Any plans for headlining dates this year?

KG: Well, right now we’re just taking it step by step. We still want to open up for a lot of bigger bands, try to win some more fans. It seems to be working pretty well so far, touring with bigger bands. Then when we go on headlining dates in those areas, there will be people coming back. We’re a fairly new band, so it’s definitely helpful to do that.

WWM: As a new band, what do you think about downloading and digital music?

KG: I’m down with the downloading, if those people are coming out to the shows. Here’s the deal, let’s say some kid in the city is working at a bar and partying all night or whatever and he goes home and wakes up at fucking, 3 or 4 in the afternoon and goes on his computer and downloads our cd and just listens to it and talks to his boys or whatever, goes to work and just keeps listening to it and actually enjoys it, I’m not gonna say there’s anything wrong with that situation. Just because I’m not in his situation. I don’t get to see when the shows are, and I don’t have the money to buy whatever comes my way or whatever, so I don’t really care. Just as long as they like it. Of course it does benefit us when they buy the album, because I can keep making more albums. But if people are listening, and coming to the shows, that’s still another way we can keep making music. I’m not gonna tell anybody how to run their lives, it’s all good with me.

WWM: Going on the new band thing, how was the transition from Days Away? Do you feel like you held onto your fan base?

KG: Yeah, definitely. It was definitely easy. We had a tour booked right when [the Days Away break-up] was going down. We had a holiday thing with Anthony Green and we found out that our keyboard player was gonna go back to school and everything, so I was just like “Days Away is NOT gonna do that tour, I’m gonna try do to something else real quick.” Dan and I had already been planning together, and Tim was in Days Away also. Tim was down, so we played a bunch of Days Away songs acoustic, but we also
played some of our own songs. That was an easy way to get people talking about it.

And then Days Away fans weren’t disappointed when they came to see us. It ended up working out fine. It was one of those things where after five or six years touring with Days Away, did all that just go to waste? And it didn’t, at all. People are coming to the shows and being like, “I love Days Away,” and that brought them to the shows and now they love Good Old War. The people who wanted to go back to school are in school, and are happy doing what they want. I’m kind of seeing the Days Away after effects.

WWM: So a lot of the material that you guys were writing that ended up being on the full length was still fresh during that transition period?

KG: Definitely. It took us a couple of months to hone in the sound or whatever. We recorded three separate times, demos and just kind of layering all this shit. The actual album was when we figured out how to play it all, just the three of us. Then we just laid it down live like that. Definitely fresh, it was what we were at that moment. That’s the way we see albums in general, where you are at that specific time. Doing the best you can and then laying it down and then producing something else.

WWM: So we’re going on about 8 months since the album’s been out, have you started working on new material?

KG: We’re definitely writing anytime we’re home from tour. Always practicing for the next tour and recording and writing whatever we possibly can. We have a ton of songs recorded and ready to go.

WWM: I had read something about a possible EP coming out?

KG: Well, we’re probably not gonna do the EP, but we’ll end up doing an album first. There’s no definite plans. We’re just doing as much as we can in between tours. This album right now is selling better than ever.

WWM: And with the tours you’re getting, there’s no rush.

KG: Yeah, exactly. We’re trying to stay busy when we’re home, instead of being like “I was just on tour for two months, I’m just gonna sit on my ass for 8 months!” It’s not like that. We take maybe two days off, and then we’ll start recording again. We try to keep it fresh, so that we can keep touring non-stop. We have all the equipment ourselves now, so we do all the recording. That’s the plan, is just to keep going.

WWM: Well that’s about it, any last words or anything?

KG: Yeah, definitely. Come out to the shows, check out the music. That’s about it. Enjoy yourselves.

be sure to check out their album only way to be alone, and catch them on tour with the honorary title.

good old war on myspace.

– panda