During Stereokill’s recent Wickerman excursion, we caught up with Edinburgh-based post-rock outfit The Gothenburg Address for a quick chat following a spellbinding set at the festival’s Solus Tent.
The four-piece – David Jeans (drums), Chris Bathgate (guitar), Rob Doig (bass) and Luke Joyce (guitar) – craft visceral, atmospheric landscapes; songs filled with ethereal clout that recall the finer moments of both Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. With this exquisite blend of pace, ambience and distortion The Gothenburg Address are slowly carving out their own niche in the post-rock genre, and 2010 looks set to be a fruitful year for the band.
Read on for words on their forthcoming album and toilet-stalking.
Stereokill: First off, how’s your Wickerman experience been so far?
Rob Doig (bass): Great!
Luke Joyce (guitar): Brilliant, yeah.
Rob: Great crowd, relaxed atomosphere, no neds.
Luke: Hygienic – clean toilets.
Rob: Good weather.
Stereokill: Have you been checking out many of the other acts?
Rob: Well, we’ve checked them out in the toilets.
Luke: Rob took a dump next to girl [Abi Harding] from The Zutons. *laughs*
At this point, a fan appears clutching her trusty pen and copy of the band’s recent single, “Lesser Coming Home”. Before leaving she proclaims that her newly signed disc will be “worth a fortune in days to come.”
Stereokill: Who would you cite as the band’s key influences?
Luke: We all have really different tastes, which is good. If you all have the same influences you all go down the same road. I think Rob’s a bit of an electronica man: Boards of Canada…
Rob: Yeah. We just bring in all of our musical tastes – they come together and we work on that, you know?
Luke: I became a Smashing Pumpkins fan in 94 and never stopped. I was completely in love with that band and used to listen to them and nothing else.
Rob: We like a good melodic feel; something heavy with light and shade, you know?
Luke: I keep saying the same thing over and over again, but whenever I listen to tunes there are moments that are really good in each song. So we’re trying to create the good bits and put them into one song; get rid of all the crap. *laughs*
Stereokill: What can you tell us about your forthcoming album?
Rob: We’re going to be recording at the end of August, and it’s been a long time coming. We’re looking to release it at end of the year on our own label, I Messiah. It’ll be available to download everywhere, worldwide.
Luke: We’re going to go out and do it on our own.
Stereokill: Finally, can you tell our readers about any upcoming gigs or tours you have lined up?
Rob: We’re going to take a break for recording. We’re doing stuff for Oxjam which is coming up, and next year we’re already booked for festivals in Europe: Vienna, Oslo, and a couple of places in Italy. It’s looking good. It’s going to be a busy year.
The Gothenburg Address will release their debut album later this year, in the meantime the band are scheduled to play the following gigs:
17 Oct 2009 – Wee Red Bar – Edinburgh
23 Oct 2009 – GRV – Edinburgh (Keser album launch show)
31 Oct 2009 – The Roxy, Edinburgh
6 Nov 2009 – The Greenside – Leslie
I recommend going.
Andrew Lindsay is a Glasgow-based singer-songwriter and deputy editor of Stereokill. 
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I checked this band out on the line up for the wickerman festival,(as i had a ticket ) this sent me to myspace, i played A LESSER COMING HOME , straight after that i bought the single (online), they dont sound like any other band, they just stand alongside the bands you think they sound like, i know good music when i hear it, but this is better , beautiful , great respect to THE GOTHENBURG ADDRESS , and all the best for the future
If you want to feel the hairs on you stand up and be blown away time after time, these are your guys. This is music for your soul and your feet.
Nice bunch of guys to.
P.S. I don’t mind it being used but any chance of a credit for the photo?
Hi Dave,
So sorry about that – we fell down somewhere along the way there! We’ve put a credit and link up now.
Marcus