Interview: The Goa Express - Issue 43

The Goa Express in Issue Forty-Three - Rhys Buchanan

Rozalina Burkova

You can almost catch the fumes of the hangover as The Goa Express wax lyrical of their recent trip to Austin, Texas for South By Southwest. “We got smashed on the way over, didn’t we Joey?”, questions frontman James Douglas-Clarke, “Was it a good way to spend eight hours?” The band’s guitarist quickly admits to getting a little over-excited on the nine hour flight, “Yeah I got a bottle of whisky from duty free and it was so turbulent we ended up finishing it off.”

Though equally buoyant and carefree as the early material that won hearts, the recent single ‘Portrait’ takes on a more raucous and refined turn than anything they’ve dropped before, hinting towards their most impulsive and thrilling chapter yet. Against driving fuzzy guitars, Douglas-Clarke lashes out some of his most romancewashed lyricism to date: “You paint my portrait in the foyer of fancy bars / And write me love notes underneath the fallen stars.”

Speaking over Zoom as we hurtle towards the arrival of a debut album, you could be chatting to any group of pals as conversation flickers between hikes in their nearby Peak District to processing the intense wave of hype that’s fizzed after their every move. It’s easy to see why the latter has been the case, since forming as a close group of pals scattered across the Calder Valley towns of North Yorkshire, Burnley and Manchester, the five-piece have taken the ride with a complete sense of abandon.

Perhaps most importantly, there’s a breezy, care-free spirit behind the bunch of pals that has always rippled through the sound itself, in-turn sealing them a force outside of anything else in town right now. Speaking to So Young for their first ever cover feature, the band are quick to explain how that ethos also duly cuts through in their impulsive psych-infused pop and why they’re proud to be part of a wider community keeping the North on the map.

How were the US shows themselves, it must have been surreal touching down in Texas?

James: We’d just come out of the studio so it was all a little bit strange. We got far too drunk before our first show because there was a free bar, it was a moment of realisation for us all. I was drinking cocktails before the show and then it all hit me at once onstage. We played with Been Stellar, we’re quite close with them, so it was ace to catch up with them.

So do you feel like you’ve made a few peers on that side of the pond?

James: Yeah, between us two definitely. They supported us on a tour once and we just got on straight away and clicked. It’s hard to know what impact you have over there, you play the shows for a week but then it’s all about the aftermath that spreads across the airwaves so it will be interesting to see. Both of our shows were dead busy so that can only be a good sign.

It was impossible to ignore the noise around you guys when you first cut through. Was that hard to process or did your rural stomping ground help stay clear from it all?

James: We’re pretty grounded. We didn’t pay any attention to what was going on around us, we just did our own thing to be honest. That’s been the case the whole way through.

Would you say that ethos bleeds through into the music itself then?

James: It sounds like an odd thing to say but I don’t pay much attention to what I’m doing lyrically. It’s kind of a first come first served process, as soon as it sounds right and good, that’s it, it’s done.

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