Interview - They Go Boom!!

I personally am a huge They Go Boom!! fan and am honored to have the opportunity to do this interview. In case you’re not familiar with them, go here, here, and here. All together that’s their complete repertoire in all its poptastic glory. If you’re unfamiliar, just get it all. It’s impossible to not like, unless you’re an angry disgruntled person, in which case you probably wouldn’t be reading my blog anyways. But yeah, its good stuff, and you should definitely get acquainted if you aren’t already so.

Matt: Let’s start off at the beginning….how did you and Mike originally meet and what made you two decide to start making music?

Daryl: We met through my wife. She and Mike worked together and we discovered that we'd both got keyboards, drum machines and a foolish desire to make our own music. Mike suggested that we put our heads and our kit together and it just went on from there.

Matt: How did you arrive at the TGB sound? What or who were your major influences?

Daryl: I think the equipment we had pretty much shaped the sound, although that's with the benefit of hindsight. At the time Mike was getting into all sorts of indiepop, as well as listening to a lot of synth stuff from Kraftwerk to New Musik and pretty much everything between. I tended to like my guitar music more mainstream - like the Smiths - and my electronic music more experimental - like Suicide. I also gave a lot of ear-time to older music from the 40's and 50's. But most of all we both enjoyed pop music, didn't matter whether it was Gina G or the sophisticated sounds of Pizzicato 5

Matt: What’s your personal favorite TGB song you’ve written and why?

Daryl: That would be 'This Gift'. I wrote it after the birth of my first son. Literally a couple of hours after and Mike did a great job of arranging it the way I heard it in my head

Matt: Do you have any regrets or things you wish you would have done differently?

Daryl: I can honestly say no...oh hang on...yes. It would have been nice to do a gig in the UK. Other than that, not really. Things panned out for us pretty well on the whole - we never treated the band as anything other than a hobby so things developed at as a natural pace to us, and declined quite naturally too!

Matt: Do you feel like you accomplished everything you wanted to during your time as a band? Most bands don’t make it past their first LP, yet you guys recorded and released a plethora of material. I feel like you had a good run, although I wished it would have been a bit longer.

Daryl: Yes, we started in 1989 I think, and took about three months to record our first song on 4-track. I don't think we could be described as prolific - we only got together on Wednesdays and occasional Saturdays - but we usually made the most of the hours. I don't know if we could have realistically achieved more without putting more effort in, and it would've stopped being a recreational activity for us. Certainly we could have done a better job on some of the songs, but equally we sometimes surpassed our own expectations so I think it evens out.

Matt: What’s the story behind 97…98…99? How come it was never properly released? It’s such a good album, and contains one of my all time favorite tracks or yours “The King of Excuses.” Label problems?

Daryl: That's a good question. We recorded the album for the Spanish label, Siesta records. "...97...98...99..." was the working title but in retrospect it seemed to echo the countdown to the end of the century and the end of TGB. Siesta were heading into a different musical direction and they therefore decided not to release the album. It was disappointing at the time, but I think we're over it. There's actually a part of me that is quite comfortable with the 'unreleased album' status, obviously I'd like more people to hear it but perhaps the world isn't ready for it yet?

Matt: Why did you guys break up? Label issues as well? Personal differences between you and Mike?

Daryl: We broke up due to relocations, nothing to do with falling out or musical differences. Mike went East and I went North. It just seemed like everything fell apart at the right time.

Matt: Any chance of a reunion in the near future? I know this is probably a rhetorical question, but I figured I’d think wishfully and ask anyways ;)

Daryl: Not so long ago we talked about a reunion, but to play some of our old material at a gig for fun rather than record new stuff. It might happen, but I think we both realize it would take a lot of discipline to reconstruct the songs again.

Matt: What are you up to these days? Any hobbies? Work? Do you still play around with music every once in a while?

Daryl: I've just recorded a guest vocal for a European electronica label - something I never thought I'd say in an interview but that's the first time I've done anything musically since TGB. I really enjoyed doing it too so it might spur me on to do a few more things for myself. Other than that I'm fairly obsessive about Fantasy Football...

Matt: And finally, how would you describe, in 30 words or less the TGB philosophy?

Daryl: The TGB philosophy? That's tricky to answer without sounding pretentious. One thing we learned was to let things take their own course, but that applied to our circumstances, not others so it was a purely personal philosophy

Thank you Daryl for your time. Hopefully the guest vocal appearance sparked some inspiration and you'll get back into making music again, but I'm probably only thinking wishfully again. I tend to do that a lot. Be sure to keep me posted on the potential reunion (hint: if it does down, play a show in Texas).Either way, take care and good luck to you in the future!