Goofing around with Gopher, A classy and classic interview. "it’s just whatever seeps naturally out of our rotten old rissoles"

We had a chat with ERNIE BINGO from the lunatics of Gopher-if you have checked out their debut album- Tunnel Buddies-you are missing out on a wicked, headbanging and mad party album. Here's how it went down:

1. Blood Duster are the unavoidable Australian reference point for anyone working in this space, and you're clearly aware of that lineage rather than trying to sidestep it. Where does Tunnel Buddies sit in relation to that history in your own head, and how conscious were you of navigating those comparisons while actually making the record?

Ah yes, we’re definitely influenced by the gimmicky clean singalong choruses that Blood Duster have done for so many years, and the electronic catchy synth sounds that they add to all their songs. But we try to stand out by adding grindcore to our style so people don’t get us muddled up. Haha

But yes, I guess after so many years of listening to Blood Duster and the like, it just kinda comes naturally (unlike us) without an actual intention; it’s just the best type of music, so that’s what spurt out. I mean, those kind of riffs lend themselves to a good time, and a good time is what we are all about.

2. The synth elements aren't decorative — they're doing structural work throughout this record. Was the electronic component always part of the concept, or did it develop as the material came together?

Actually it wasn’t part of the initial songwriting and kind of happened by accident. After thieving some strange midi keyboards as pickpockets in the early 1900’s we just mucked around with one song to help the clean singing not sound out-of-tune with our old croaky voices, but it worked so well that we decided to just whack it through the entire record, and now it’s just a staple part of the Gopher party and there is no looking back.

3. The origin myth — 1790, First Fleet, Fanny Barks — is maintained with total commitment. At what point does the mythology become the band, and how much does the character work actually feed the writing?

Well I mean you can’t change your heritage and upbringing, so that has just made us who we are. It's certainly been a long, windy, bumpy, messy, smelly road, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We feel like we have a duty to inspire other old-as-fuck metalheads that you’re never too old to grind it up.

Sometimes, actually a lot of the time, we forget where we are, which makes it a great surprise the next day when we hear a song for the first time that we apparently made the night before. 

4. "Five Bucks A Day" puts genuine black metal atmosphere into a record that also includes a song about whether the Queen queefs. That range shouldn't cohere, but it does. How deliberate was that dynamic, and is there a version of Gopher that makes something completely devoid of relief?

We love all types of heavy music and have listened to it for hundreds of years, so the perceived genre bending isn’t deliberate, it’s just whatever seeps naturally out of our rotten old rissoles. We won’t turn down an idea based on style, if it sounds good then we’ll chuck it in and smooth it out until it rocks our socks off. Then we’ll put our dentures back in, smash down a few cheap wines, dart up and see what our deranged and pickled noggin’s can cook up next.

5. The tracklist is very specifically Australian in its reference points — op shops, keno, the particular texture of certain daily existence. Is that a conscious project, or just what happens when you write from where you actually live?

Well each song is a factual tale of the crazy life that my longtime friend Ned Smelly leads. He shops at Good Sammys, gambles in the Keno lounge, and loves a chiko roll… these are historic stories that need to be told. So the songs are from the heart and entirely authentic. When you have been around as long as old Ned, and lead such a colourful life, there is simply a never-ending supply of subject matter that, much like his undies, will never dry up. His antics can now live forever in the story books that our current and future albums, has, and will become.

6. "Kupu Kupu Malam" as the first single was an interesting call — an Indonesian word with certain layered connotations depending on the context. What's the story behind that track, and how does the international reference sit against the otherwise very local content?

Oh look we just love hopping on a plane and going somewhere exciting, most of the time that leads us to the capital of Western Australia, also known as Bali. We throw a few Bintangs back, suck down a few packs of durries, then just sit back, relax and watch butterflies flutter around the garden. We’re real green thumbs me n Ned and really do love just admiring nature and all it’s beauty. 

7. You're operating as a duo. Does that limitation shape the writing, and at what point — if ever — does Tunnel Buddies become a live proposition?

Less fingers in the pie makes it pretty easy to whack songs and ideas together, but it does have it’s challenges when planning the live stuff. We haven’t completely figured it out yet, but we’ll brainstorm some options to drag our corpses out of the nursing home and onto the stage. I really dig this google thing, so between that and all these technological bits and bobs getting around, we’ll have an answer. We’re super bloody duper keen to take the party from the album to the stage!

8. You're based in Perth. That geographic isolation has historically produced either very insular or very singular music. Does being that far from everywhere shape what Gopher does?

Luckily, now, we had a huge amount of success from our first music video clip, so that allowed us to get our own private jet and travel the world waking up in whatever beautiful places our drunken demented minds had decided on the night before. Sometimes it works in our favour and we’re all hunky dory and sometimes it doesn’t and it’s utter chaos, haha. Which might reflect in our music.

But prior to this, not sure the geographic side of things had too much to do with what has shaped us. I think it’s more likely the continuous barrage of good times we’ve put through our bodies over the countless years that’s helped us carve out our flavoursome and colourful style. We put good fun stuff in, so good fun stuff comes out.

9. The "party metal" tag is accurate but incomplete. What does Gopher actually sound like to you from the inside?

It’s mostly just a bit of groovy grind, the rock n roll type, not as extreme as some of those other codgers with constant crusty blasts. But we throw in a touch of death, slam and extreme stuff here and there to mix it up. The ‘party metal’ tag really comes to life with the electro touch and the singalong chorus anthems. It’s purely fun metal, the type you can let your hair down to, if you are lucky enough to have any left. Set your mind free, cut loose and do whatever your body tells you to do, if it can still do things like headbanging, dancing, singing, moshing and of course drinking. All the key elements to a heavy metal party!

10. What's a record that influenced Tunnel Buddies that nobody's going to guess from the FFO list?

Porky Vagina - Astroschwein

THERE YOU HAVE IT, AN IN-DEPTH AND VERY DEEP INSIGHT INTO THE PISSED UP GENIUS OF GOPHER

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https://gopherit.bandcamp.com/

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