Electric Kazoo
Calgary, Alberta, Canada | SELF
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Music Interview: Good Question makes a New Retro
Music
Anushka Nagji
Gauntlet Entertainment
Home grown in the most literal way, GOOD QUESTION is made up of Sean Goebel, a University of Calgary student and Anthony MacDonald, a current Mount Royal College student. The band has a new 10-track CD out, New Retro, playing gigs all over town and receiving a fair chunk of airplay on CJSW, making it hard to miss this emerging band.
"It's about getting people to 'get it,'" explains Goebel, lead singer and co-songwriter of GOOD QUESTION. "A lot of people who heard the song 'For The Chicks' were offended by the lyrics, but the truth is that it was just a fun song to write and record, and if you didn't get that then you're obviously not gonna like the music."
With both members of the band studying music at their respective institutions, the band has a strong musical pedigree. Both Goebel and MacDonald share a detailed conception of what their music is.
"Music is my form of expression, it's something I've been doing all my life," says MacDonald, who has been putting together music since the tender age of nine. "I have faith in my music and the GOOD things it can do for people," adds Goebel.
Whether GOOD QUESTION's music has healing properties is debatable, but the quality of the music is not. New Retro features a combination of traditional electric guitar and drums with unique flourshes such as horn, timpani, keyboards and violins. The band also features a bass player who has toured with the likes of Ray Charles and KD Lang.
"We have a lot of old influences in our music and we wanted to revive that," says Goebel, explaining the oxymoronic name of the album. "A lot of people who reviewed our music after we put it out there said it had a retro sound, so we figured, 'Lets embrace this retro sound, but we'll put our own, new spin on it.'" With the audible influences of Billy Joel and Elton John mixed with contemporary vibes, GOOD Qestion have accomplished their goal. The lyrics, backed by compelling beats, keep you thinking. New Retro is an album worth stopping to listen to.
"A lot of lyrics are about the human experience" Goebel remarks. "Even the seemingly superficial ones are drawn from our experiences."
- Gauntlet Newspaper
New Retro is not your typical straight ahead rock CD. Rooted more in theatrical performance than in rock, this album is reaching to break new ground and bring listeners to a place not normally ventured. This is a disc worth listening to.
(Written by Brad Trew from Cyclone Records)
- Cyclone Records
Please visit the following link to listen to our radio interview
http://www.goodquestion.ca/sound_files/cjsw.mp3 - CJSW
Good Question/New Retro/Album/Cyclone Records
Calgary based 'Good Question' gave us 'New Retro' rock with touches of funk, blues, jazz, classical and reggae. They gave u slots of instrumental adornments but luckily they didn't go OTT. (its a fine line, don't cross it!)
Good Question's music has already been featured in the film 'The Morning After' giving me an impression that their success won't stop there. Good luck!
- Bonafide studio
HORNY!
Love the effects in the beginning. Horns! NICE! Gotta love horns. It gives this song a bit of funk. Oh that is a bass line...lay it out! Awesome. Keyboards are great, wah on the guitar. Sax is very key in this tune. Oh ya sax solo! K enough, stop! You guys win. The mix in this song is outstanding. There is so much to listen to and it all fits with each other. One of the best songs I've heard in the garage so far. Nice ending too. Beautiful job guys! I want to hear it again, and I want to hear more of your music.
Reviewed by: youarehere from Unspecified - Garage band
Good Question - New Retro
www.goodquestion.ca
Published November 1, 2007 by Munroe Hamilton in CD Reviews
Listening to “New Retro,” proves that Good Question has more to offer their audiences. The keyboard work in "New Retro" is reminiscent of Muse - adding a dimension well beyond a "one finger keyboardist." The muted, low drone of a double bass during the album opener “Time” simmers with long keyboard tones before exploding the final track "Fireworks" with a wash of cymbal crashes and melancholy guitar. “Out There” makes the most of electronic music, funk and hard rock. Good Question's sound is hard to classify, making it all the more compelling. An eye for detail is important in music, and this lovely little album proves that this four-piece can write music for the mind. - FFWD weekly
Discography
New Retro
Rock cycle (six song EP)
Safety Shackles
Into The Great White Open
Photos
Bio
The band is currently finishing up a very successful video campaign with Hip Video in the USA. Their video “Take a moment” has received airplay on fifteen music stations - some with audiences of over three million - not to mention thousands of plays on youtube with Blank TV.
The band has just released a new album entitled “Into the Great White Open." The new album is a contemporary mix of modern folk and electronic music. Sean describes the album as, "my best, most heartfelt work to date." Sean wrote most of the lyrics in what he calls an "expressive style," where the thoughts and feelings of the composer are transferred instantly to the paper without consideration. Electric Kazoo created an album to reflect the times and our personal experiences, it feature their own style of musical innovation. The band was influenced by The Decemberists, Andrew Bird, Regina Specktor, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Radio Head, Apparat, Muse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shearwater, Stars, Bell Orchestre, Coueur De Pirate, Dan Mangan, Mumford and Sons and Of Monsters and Men during the creation of this album. The band has completed a music video for the song "Take a moment."
Sean Goebel is one of the principle songwriters and producers behind "Electric Kazoo." Sean spent five years at the University of Calgary studying music composition and refining his craft, he graduated in 2006 with a BMUS in composition.
In the spring of 2004 Good Question was created, the band has since changed the name to "Electric Kazoo." The band recorded their first ten-song album, New Retro, a short while later. The album features a unique combination of textures that include heavy guitars, horns, timpani, keyboards, and violins. Richard from a local radio station described the disc as, "Atmospheric, keyboard driven, heady, with lots of instrumental embellishments and tinges of psychedelic," during an interview. Their songs have been featured on a variety of independent films and reviewed on a number of media outlets like the Gauntlet, and Capitol News Online. The group has toured in Canada, Southeast Asia and China.
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