Goblyns About Their New Album, "Three Sisters"
"The Fabled Witches From an Eastern Cape Village"
It's only been seven months since I last interviewed Goblyns about their album "Hunki Bobo", which they released on 17 May 2024. Now it's that time again: the band from Amsterdam/Berlin just left the studio with a new album. I had a chat with them about "Three Sisters", which they're planning to release on June 13th.
Anne: Hi! It's nice to talk to you again! How are you guys doing?
Gio: Hey! We are all good, thanks! We're all really looking forward to the new record release and upcoming shows/tours. Great time to be alive. How are you doing, Anne?
Anne: Thanks for asking! I'm doing very well right now. I'm so glad spring is finally here! And some new Goblyns songs, too! Congratulations on your new album, "Three Sisters"!
Liam: Thank you so much. We're just excited to get this out now. We've been sitting on it for what feels like a long time.
Anne: You guys are pretty productive. Was it your plan to release a new LP so soon after "Hunki Bobo"?
Frank: Yes!
Anne: Besides adding lyrics ("No Words") to your music, what has changed since "Hunki Bobo"?
Liam moved to Berlin
Liam: Our writing process changed a bit. I've moved to Berlin now, so I get to spend much more time writing with Frank. Whereas with Hunki Bobo, Gio and I had a lot more time together. We're always trying to make new sounds in any case. So, it's hard to pinpoint what is actually different because it always feels like we're evolving with every song.
Anne: Who are the three sisters?
Frank: Fabled witches from an Eastern Cape village who turned into towering stone formations past the dunes as a sacrifice to protect against the wild sea.
Anne: That sounds super exciting! And it matches the stories you're telling with your songs quite well. Your music is inspired by great psychedelic bands like The Grateful Dead and the late 1960s San Francisco. Is this what inspires your recording sessions, too? I imagine them as big jam sessions...
Gio: Yeah, it's funny you are not the first to picture us "jamming" as a band in the writing or recording process, but to be honest, it's pretty far from what actually transpires. When it comes to recording, we have a pretty structured format. Not living in the same city forces us to write structured parts and build songs in a certain way to be well prepared for the times we get to write and play together as a full band. I think this can be a relatively unique process, and eventually, when we end up in a room together, it feels pretty explosive. We also always create demos that we record ourselves (very much DIY at-home type of thing) and create a shared playlist of songs that inspire us with our ever-so-valued producer, André (Leo). Through this process, we try to be as prepared as possible for the actual studio time we have dedicated to producing an album or track.
Anne: If you go by the genre, bands towards the 1970s and 1980s tended to make their songs longer than in the early years. Let's stay with The Grateful Dead, for example. They kept their songs relatively compact in the early days ("The Golden Road" [To Unlimited Devotion]", "Beat It On Down The Line"). Between 1971 and 1979, they were about 15 to 30 minutes long and developed into jams ("Playing in the Band", "Eyes of the World", "Scarlet Begonias -> Fire on the Mountain"). Between 1980 and 1995, they became shorter again, although the 20 to 30-minute jams still existed. Are you also planning to try out this direction and make a record with such long songs that are a story in themselves? Or is this more like a live-on-stage thing for you?
"Something exciting is happening towards the end of this year!"
Liam: We often try to make our songs longer, but since we don't actually get too many opportunities to write together, it's pretty tricky to get a feeling for it. So they always end up being around the 4-minute mark.
Anne: Talking about live shows: New year, new album: When will you be hitting the road again?
Frank: You asked the wrong Goblyn. I heard something exciting is happening towards the end of the year!
Anne: The songs on "Three Sisters" are quite varied—which I like a lot. I had to listen to the record multiple times to figure out which one spoke to me the most. I really love "Auftauchen". It is so beautifully relaxed, melodic and playful. It makes me very happy when I listen to it. Do you want to tell me the story behind it?
"We love to experiment"
Gio: We definitely have little to no boundaries regarding the type of songs we compose. We all love so many different styles of music and do not want to cage ourselves in or limit our freedom to experiment and express ourselves. We want to keep things exciting both for us and, hopefully, for listeners. I am so stoked to hear that "Auftauchen" makes you feel happy. We are certainly happy playing it. I wouldn't say there was a strong story behind it as a song per se—well, at least consciously. But, in the grand scheme of Goblyns, I think it perfectly embodies us as individual musicians and as a band.
Anne: What are your plans for today?
Goblyns: Daydreaming
Anne: Thank you for talking to me and sharing all those insights about "Three Sisters". It's been a pleasure! Have a good one! Talk soon! All the best for your plans!
Goblyns: Thanks for the interview!
