On paper, Zoey Van Goey have all the makings of a band which some lazy folk, such as myself, may be inclined to describe as ‘twee’, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact they’re storming Glasgow’s scene bringing decapitated cattle into their live performances, thwarting the kitsch expectations of their audience and leaving shocked and disgusted punters leaving venues all over the country.
Sort of. As I sit down with the delightfully amiable Matt and Kim from the band, sipping tea and toying with froth on hot chocolates in a West End coffee shop, I’m trying very hard to suppress the dreaded T-word from conversation. It’s a bit of a taboo phrase around these guys, as Matt explains via the subject of wounded animals…
“We sometimes scour around charity shops for any objects that make good sounds because it’s both cheap to do and will hopefully end up sounding a bit different from your standard drums-bass-guitar scenario. One day we found a multicoloured plush toy cow, probably meant for a baby, and it had this great jingle sound inside – like wind chimes only better. But the thing looked way too cutesy, and we’re aware that we sometimes get painted with that brush and we’d rather just do our own thing, paint with our own brushes, so to speak. So in the end we cut off the head and legs of the cow and now it just looks like a weird multi-coloured amorphous blob…but it still sounds great!”
It’s understandable the group may want to avoid being thrown into a genre all too characteristic of Glasgow bands; they’ve already marked themselves as being a bit more interesting than a generic indie-pop group by their involvement in ‘Super Puny Humans’, a collaborative tour of Scotland including Falkirk’s dour Y’all is Fantasy Island and novelist Alan Bissett. They were invited along by Bissett on the merits that they were “all a bit weird”, but in a good way. If anybody managed to catch any of the dates on the tour they’d have seen the juxtaposition of ”twee”, like the irresistibly summery ode to ice cream: ‘Lick a 99’, with a much deeper, intense side whilst soundtracking excerpts from Alan’s novels. The same can be said for their debut single ‘Foxtrot Vandals’, being released this month on Say Dirty Records; its jangly guitar, sweet lyrics and sing-along harmonies showing off their conventional indie merits, and its contrasting b-side, the Miaoux Miaoux remix of the beautifully delicate ‘Song to the Embers’, showing a penchant for experimentation.
Of course, the associations with the aforementioned T-word are not helped by the fact that a certain Mr S Murdoch of a certain band was involved in the production of the single, but the team-up was more a case of coincidence in a small city rather than hero worship.
“It’s Michael John! He’s the lynchpin; he’s one of those guys who seems to know everyone.” The story goes that MJ knew Murdoch by some association and asked him along to a gig; he caught their live show at the Woodside Social Club and the rest just fell into place.
The band have made a habit of being in the right place at the right time. Hailing from Canada, Ireland and England, they met through being lost together in a university department and from random encounters in the street. “Glasgow’s really good for that”, Matt explains being the farthest removed, all the way from Canada, “I definitely wanted to be in a band, that was one of the things I wanted to do. All of us were on the same page”.
As the past year has seen them touring with authors, making fans of the under 14s at youth club shows (“they were probably our best audience….ever!”) and releasing a single endorsed by the indie elite, it looks like things are going ex-twee-mly (groan) well for these guys. Just don’t let them get too close to your novelty animal instruments.
more at www.myspace.com/zoeyvangoey