Sylvia Borgo Interviews The Gooms: They Live for Live Shows, Prep for KAABOO in San Diego

By SYLVIA BORGO

The Gooms, the Los Angeles indies known for their garage fuzz and cool tunes sat down for an interview with California Rocker. The group, comprised of Chase, Shane, Ryan and Nicole, told us how they’re preparing for KAABOO Music Fest in Del Mar, Calif., this weekend, Sept. 13-15.

How’s your summer been so far? Any exciting moments?

This summer we have had absolutely no free time and couldn’t be happier about it. We started the summer by finishing up writing an album’s worth of new music and are in the process of recording said debut album, which will be out early 2020. Beyond recording, we love nothing more than playing live shows–which we have been doing nonstop. The live shows this summer feel like some of our best yet, we have really honed in on creating a unique show weaving covers in and out of our own songs with different setlists and banter each night. We managed to find a lot of joy in never really knowing what’s going to happen.

Your debut EP, titled With an M, was released last year. What was the writing process for that record?

The writing process for With an M started when The Gooms were just a two-piece playing in Chase’s mom’s garage. Chase had written a handful of songs that he would take to each practice and share with Shane. When the neighbors weren’t complaining–even though practice would be at noon on a Tuesday, shouldn’t you have been at work Cheryl!?–the two of them would make the songs come alive. Those first songs were “Late Nite Fone Calls,” “Squeep Fleep,” “Big Head,” and “My Dad.”

Nicole then joined the band and shaped each of those songs, and the sound of The Gooms, by writing lead guitar parts and harmonies as well as co-writing “Show Me Your Love” and “Friends.” Ryan joined the band as the EP was already being recorded. Before our first jam, we sent Ryan all six of our original songs. He showed up to that jam with the bass parts for every single song, completing our bands sound and really giving us the rhythmic low end that we needed.

The album art is very fun-loving. Whose idea was it to use Playdoh figures?

The initial idea for the album art was conceptualized by Chase. The project was implemented by Josh Jalil, our very good friend, an extension of our band, and pseudo art director who has helped create most of our promo videos, posters for shows that we put on, and soon to come music videos. We all collaborated on the idea behind the album art to convey a friendly, welcome to The Gooms.

You had a residency at The Satelite in Los Angeles a couple of months ago. What prompted you to set up that residency? How did it go?

We felt honored when The Satellite asked us if we would be interested in playing a residency. Monday night residencies feel like a rite of passage for LA bands, so we immediately got started on planning. We set out to do a decade themed residency with a 70’s prom, 80’s ski comedy, 90’s TV nite, and 00’s free for all. We had an incredible time incorporating covers from each decade from the Bee Gee’s “How Deep is Your Love” to Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”. In that month we also held a vote for prom king and queen, a ski race, and a mock kids choice awards. Planning the event was so much fun for us and the payoff of a room full of fans really enjoying the whole night was as good as it gets.

Los Angeles seems like the type of city that could really chew you up and spit you out if you’re not persistent enough. How would you describe the Los Angeles music scene?

The LA music scene is so vast and diverse that it forces you to find ways to differentiate yourself. If there’s one benefit to the LA music scene it’s that there’s never a shortage of places to play, allowing bands to really cut their teeth as many nights as they want or can. Also, it’s helpful to attend as many shows as you can and get to know the other great bands.

The Gooms Perform at KAABOO

You’ll be playing KAABOO in Del Mar this year? What are your plans for the show/festival?

KAABOOOOOOO! Well, we never thought Kings of Leon, Black Eyed Peas, Cheryl Crow, and Snoop Dogg + Wu-Tang Clan would ever be our co-workers, but momma we made it! We are really just looking forward to playing our first festival and hopefully meeting Dave Matthews.

If you had could set-up your own dream 3-Day festival, who would be some bands you would book?

Dream festival in no particular order: The Strokes, Pixies, Oingo Boingo, Arctic Monkeys, Blondie, Childish Gambino, Radiohead, No Doubt, Weezer, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Muse, The Beatles, Vampire Weekend, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pavement, D’Angelo, David Bowie, and so many more.

Let’s play a game: Choose one of the following: