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!

Can't get enough They Go Boom!!

VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL, part I: A happy medium



If They Go Boom!! was a cup of tea, it'd have 10 sugar cubes in it....and it would taste delicious. Because Daryl of TGB is such a nice and awesome dude, he contacted me over last.fm and offered to give me all (well, most) of the missing pieces to the TGB discography and gave his permission to share them with you today. Thus, in combination with the previous posts, I present you the very close to complete TGB discography in fragmented pieces on Bigger Splashes. In the same vein as their other material, debut Atlantic is a synthy ornamented “hyper” pop classic, and a fantastic debut full length comprised of the classic TGB formula: lovelorn lyrics over melodic music. This nevus, once again is nothing new, but they push it to the extreme. Although Atlantic is not as polished as their later efforts it still stands on its own two feet, sans legerdemain.

Their compilation tracks features a phenomenal cover of Felt’s “Ballad of the Band” and puts into concrete their credibility as a band whose taste and influences are undoubtedly refined. Normally, I would have put this in with the Trash Can Sinatras as music for the lonesome folk, but there’s a sense of hopefulness with every other TGB song that isn’t present in The Sinatra’s work, and their style is just far too upbeat to be labeled as downtrodden. That’s not to say that there aren’t heartbreakers here. “I want somebody to want me to carry on / I need somebody to need me to be strong” is the catchy refrain on “Twentieth Century” from The Ruby Lounge EP. Also on the same release, “Take me to the End of the World” is, as the name suggests a blissful ballad which leads into the band’s ultimate quasar and potentially most well-known track “She’s Not my Friend” which is just pure perfection. Dig on these guys, not just because they're underappreciated, but because they're the real deal and deserve to be heard loud and clear.

Collection features:

The Ruby Lounge EP (1991)
Europop EP (1991) (missing track 2)
Woody Allen (EP? year unknown)
Compilation tracks (various)
Atlantic LP (1995)

Rating: Magical/10

DOWNLOAD

They Go Boom!! - Selected Discography

Per request, I'm sharing the rest of my collection of the small discography of They Go Boom!! that I have. These guys' material is apparently pretty hard to track down. I used to have Atlantic, which was their fantastic debut full length, but I lost it with a hard-drive crash and now it is nowhere to be found on the internets. I was ready to fork over some cash to get it back, but you can't even find their stuff on Itunes. Listening to They Go Boom!! can be likened to the love of your life breaking up with you for another and then you taking a big fat tab of ecstasy immediately afterward. Taking notes from New Order and other later 80s electronic groups as well as 90s Swedish pop, their music is flauntingly upbeat. To say that it is sugary would be a grand understatement. This saccharine, seemingly paeanic style fused with rather melancholy, introspective lyrics doesn't clash at all, but rather compliments each other well. So yeah, despite the lyrics there are no plaints here, just pop in its purest most joyful form. Quaff it in; its succulent. I'd also like to say that it boggles my mind how 97...98...99 was never released as "King of Excuses" is one of the greatest pop songs ever written.

What's included:

Margate So Much to Answer For (Cassette? year unknown)
The Summer's On It's Way EP (1990)
Beyond Tomorrow EP (1993)
Island Nation EP (1997)
97...98...99 (Album, unreleased)
Bonus track: "She's Not my Friend"

What's missing:

Europop EP (1992)
I Can't Go Back EP (1992)
The Ruby Lounge EP (1992)

If anyone has any of these or knows where I can find/purchase them, please let me know. Thanks!

DOWNLOAD

They Go Boom!! - Grand Vitesse (1996)

They Go Boom!! presents a mix between twee and “hyper pop” that is just so catchy it hurts (in a good way). I can’t really think of any other relatively known band that has their particular sound. The upbeat tempos and catchy keyboard backed choruses will make even the most downtrodden man at least break a smirk, maybe even a smile. Lyrically, They Go Boom!! swoon about melancholy and heartbreak and loneliness. It’s not an odd juxtaposition as pop music has been doing this for years, but they use the effect to its fullest extent.

Consisting of Mike Innes and Daryl Smith (the two goofy, nerdy looking dudes on the visage of the vid below), made music that was both depressing and hopeful as mentioned earlier. If you’re in a bad mood and want to get into a good mood, this is your band. Starting out, they released a couple of cassettes, before moving onto singles and EPs and finally full lengths on Sunday Records (Atlantic, 1994), and Siesta Records (Grand Vitesse, 1996) and the unreleased 97…98…99, all of which are great albums. Grand Vitesse, which I'm sharing today, is short but succulent, clocking in at just over 30 minutes. The final track is so full of heartache and hooks, it might just be my favorite song of the moment. Another terribly under appreciated band who had their own style and substance to boot.

Rating: 9/10

DOWNLOAD