Buck Gooter – Thanks for Asking!

Buck Gooter – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.\

Buck Gooter is an electro rock band established in 2005 that has spent their entire existence operating at the unlikely conflux of prolific bedroom songwriter and DIY punk pilgrim traditions, with over two dozen albums in their discography and over 800 shows scraped together and played in the international sub-underground and above.
Their work is presented in the form of idiosyncratic expressionistic impulses conveyed over semi-relatable beat, loop, and skronk based music that forms a singular experience. A truly death-defying act, Buck Gooter has persisted after the passing of founding member Terry Turtle in 2019, who insisted that the music continue to live on without him. Thusly, remaining founding member Billy Brett produced music with Terry Turtle sampled in every song and has released three albums under these new collaborative terms.
“King Kong Lives: Thereminsanity”, the latest entry into the Buck Gooter canon, finds the band unbound, alive, and persistent in their quest for self expression.

RRX: Every artist’s first song is a milestone. But so is the latest song. Describe the first song/album you recorded, and also the latest song/album you recorded; what are the differences?

BG: Buck Gooter’s first album, “What Da Hell?”, was made in 2005. I was 19 years old and had never recorded anything before in my life. I knew how to use Garageband on my old Emac computer and I figured out how to get audio into it with a cheap interface…thing? I didn’t have any help with this as Terry didn’t know anything about computers. We started recording in my basement apartment on Halloween and finished about a week later. There was a lot of experimenting and horsing around during the editing process. This was the only Buck Gooter album I’ve ever recorded completely by myself. We always went somewhere where we jammed the songs out and made recording and mixing someone else’s headache. Now I write everything “in the box” and practice the jams live in my space and then get someone to record the vocals and do the mixing/wizardry. That’s how I put together “King Kong Lives: Thereminsanity”. I flew out to LA to have my friend Cordey Lopez record vocals and do the preliminary mixing and fixing of stems I’d cut at my studio. So, in a way now I’m right back where I started and there was a 14 year phase of ripping albums out in a different way. We’ve made over 20 records.

RRX: Part of learning to be a musician is to fall in love with a song, an album, and hammer away at your instrument until you can play that whole thing. What was that song for you? Was there a hardest part?

BG: Oh geez. I haven’t really had that experience of drilling rudiments as a musician. My music experience hasn’t had that sort of discipline. I came out it from a more sideways, feral bent and still live in that mind frame. I just make my own music and don’t need to learn anything, it works out! But one time in high school I learned a couple chords on acoustic guitar in order to play the song “Puttin It Down” by Beck and I wrote a song with similar chords and played one other noise shouting thing called “firetruck!” that a dude from the audience still brings up to this day.

RRX: Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Or so they say. Whether you’re off the wagon, on it, or never been, there’s something you got a thirst for. What are some of your basically harmless vices?

BG: Carrots.

RRX: What instrument would you add to the band if you could? Is there anything you are trying to do musically that would be helped with one or more additional players?

BG: There’s been some discussion about this recently. Part of presenting sample-based music in concert is you can set the songs up to be as full as they need to be since the set is really just some kind of deranged karaoke with scrap metal flying over the stage intermittently. Before my bandmate Terry Turtle passed away in 2019, he charged me with continuing the band no matter what and however I saw fit. He even suggested adding various people to it, which thankfully didn’t happen, but I did end up adding folks to Buck Gooter after rocking solo sets for a couple years. Alethea Leventhal joined up on synth and vocals and Billy Hunt plays synth and e-drums. Sometimes we’ll rock as a trio but usually it’s a duo of me and either of them. Lately I’ve gone back to rocking solo sets again because… a band?! In this economy!? It’s hard to keep it together, I guess. I originally added bandmates because the solo sets were becoming a drag but these days I’m digging the solo sets and don’t really want to add anyone new. I can envision lots of instruments to accompany the set but I’m bowing out of any plans because it’s a hassle and I need some peace!

RRX: Love is a big part of music. We’re talking first loves here. Lots of cool stories about first loves and the things we do for those loves. Can you (or, in the case of a band, one member) talk about your first love, especially if you did something cool to express that love? (No names needed.)

BG: Bro, I never kiss and tell. Anyway, the only important first love anyone ever has is the first love of MUSIC! Oh what a wonderful lover music is! Thank you, MUSIC!!!

RRX: I know when pitching it helps to tell someone it’s “this meets that.” So let’s try that with you. If you had to give me two bands that meet each other in your sound, what are those bands? More than two bands?

BG: Suicide and Grinderman aspiring to be ONO or David Bowie’s 1.Outside album!

www.buckgooter.com

https://buckgooter.bandcamp.com/album/king-kong-lives-thereminsanity