Natasha Marar
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF


Vancouver pop-punkers Gob returned to Windsor last week, playing to a rowdy all-ages crowd at The Room Nightclub. Remember such oldies as “Oh! Ellin,” “Soda,” “No Regrets” and the 1999 hit “I Hear you Calling”? Gob members have been busy with other production projects and putting together a forthcoming album, their first since 2007’s Muertos Vivos. Despite years between albums and changes in members and management, Gob still plays a tight and engaging set, nearly 20 years after they first started. The band sat down with The Lance’s editor-in-chief before the show.

Natasha Marar: Tell me about the tour … what kind of crowd has been coming out?

Tom Thacker: The same kinds of kids are coming to the show all the time. Our new record isn’t out yet, but the tour is like a pre thing, getting the name out there. I think it’s mostly younger fans.

NM: About the new album, is that slated for release this year or next?

Theo Goutzinakis: The record is completed; it just needs to mixed before it comes out. We need to find a loving home for it.

NM: We all know you guys took a departure with your last album having a heavier, darker sound … is that something we can expect to see with the new album?

TT: Not as much. All of our records seem to be a reaction to the previous record … This one I think is more fun than the last one. The last one was pretty dark.

TG: I think this new [record] … from The World According to Gob, Foot and Mouth Disease and this last one (Muertos Vivos), it’s a combination of all three. It’s totally Gob and it’s awesome.

NM: Your new tour t-shirt makes the Joy Division reference.

TG: That was our merch’ guy trying to keep the toilet (graphic) alive from our first record and sticking it in the sound waves from [Joy Division’s album Unknown Pleasures]. It’s kind of a cool shirt … it won’t be printed again.

NM: Disney did a shirt like that, which was pulled.

Steven Fairweather: I forgot about that Disney shirt. It was cool. It didn’t any words on it; it was just the Mickey Mouse silhouette. It was an awesome shirt.

NM: Has Joy Division called you about the shirt?

TT: No. No. I would love to hear from them.

TG: I think when I was sleeping last night, (lead singer of Joy Division) Ian Curtis’ ghost came into the room and undressed me. Oh wait, that was Tom.

NM: I have to ask about how Tom you’ve been doing double duty playing (guitar) for Sum 41. How is that? How has that impacted and influenced Gob?

TT: It’s fun. I love playing music. I don’t get play music quite as much now. I’m sure it does influence each other, not even consciously but there’s going to be some sort of effect of playing (in both bands) back and forth.

Gabe Mantle: Tom is a major songwriter, but I think it has to do with age. When you’re younger things are a little bit fluffier. The older you get … it’s usually a darker vision than it is when you’re a youth. So you see Tom’s and Theo’s vision from being in the 90s to 2012.

NM: Just out of curiosity, has (Sum 41’s) Deryck Whibley said anything to you about the whole Avril (Lavigne) and Chad (Kroger) engagement?

TG, SF: Chavril? You mean Chavril? (laughs)

TT: (shakes head) he said nothing to me about it.