WHO: Gooding
WHAT: Front man Gooding is built for music....as are those he surrounds himself with (bassist Billy Driver and drummer Jesse Rich).  He's been entrenching himself in every aspect of music (writing, recording, producing, as well as performing) for years and you almost have to wonder how anyone can keep up.  Right before embarking on a cross country rampage of sound, we got a few words from him on his music and the long road ahead.
STAND OUT: "Make The Devil Cry," is a fantastic track on his latest release, The Return.  Gooding has set sail for touring so over the next nine months, check the band's site for upcoming show information.

RAPT: It seems like you're based out of California now but did you grow up in Kansas?

Gooding: I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I saw a KISS concert at age 4 and the die was cast. Breathe fire like a super hero while playing music really loud? People get paid for this? I started drums immediately and then guitar at 10. I was very lucky to grow up with my father playing Motown and Rock records and my mother teaching classical piano lessons around the house. My mother tried to teach me piano but I wouldn’t have it, and have since spent years relearning what she could of taught me in months. One of my first records was Queen’s Flash Gordon soundtrack. I always had a love for both rock n’ roll and film music. I moved to Wichita, Kansas at age 12 when my parents split. I was small for my age and winning the 7th grade talent show with drummer Jesse Rich stopped people from trying to break my face after school. Jesse and I are still together making music almost 2 decades later.  We met bassist Billy Driver during our off and on college careers and he was the first one to blaze a path to LA.  I lived in North Cali and Colorado before settling here [California] a couple years ago. I love the energy of the city and as David Lynch calls it, “the halcyon light” that brought Hollywood calling.

Photo by Jason Coker

Gooding: Music was a rip in time from the second I sat around the family stereo. Music was a way out. There was more air in the room when I plugged in my guitar. More color in the sky. I mean this literally - everything looked and felt different when I listened to and played music. I wore my walk man to jr high and high school and listened everywhere I went. I am lucky all my teachers treated me as well as they did. This chemical reaction of youth and music happens to most people, I was just very lucky my family didn’t care if I brought drums home from school or made loud noises on every instrument I could find. I wasn’t told my dreams were impossible. Kids need that more than food.

RAPT: With your massive tour coming up (50 states)....can you say if you've ever taken on a tour of this magnitude?  How long will you guys be on the road and are you mentally prepped for that?

Gooding: I’m as mentally prepared for that as anything else. :) We have been out for 5-6 months at a time before. You get in a rhythm but it’s hell on relationships back home. I am already looking for postcards and stationary.  The band’s bread and butter is the I-35 run from Lincoln, NE down through Kansa, Oklahoma and Texas. We have built a following here in LA and are starting to get some great work in NYC so we figured if we have to cover all the way West to East let’s hit North and South too. We put up the map we made up on facebook and I gotta tell you, it’s surprising how many states you can hit easily when you are out there criss-crossing anyway. If you are a friend (we don’t say fan) here in America, you have no excuse not to get to a show this time!  One thing on this tour I am really excited to mention is working with John Hope Bryant and Quincy Jones as a celebrity ambassador for Operation Hope’s. They have launched the 5MK (5 Million Kids) initiative, where we have the opportunity to visit several inner city schools and talk to the kids about financial literacy and helping them focus on a career that might help keep them out of harm’s way.

RAPT: Seems that everyone knows you and refers to you simply as 'Gooding'.  Is this the name your mama gave you or how'd the name come about?

Gooding: Oh my mom calls me all kinds of things…Some of them quite unprintable.  I was born Steven Michael Gooding. But friends call me Gooding, Goob, G etc. Oddly enough, when someone calls me Steve at a show I know they probably don’t know me that well. In high school some of my friends called me by my last name and it just stuck.

RAPT: Tell us what the process was like for you making The Return.  It's received some really shining reviews and people have tossed out comparisons that I'm sure you're proud of....how does that feel?

Gooding: I always say “love it or hate it but don’t sit on the fence”, but really, it’s wonderful to see the first words being positive. Reviews are so interesting because great writers find things in the music that I never thought of consciously, and it makes you ask new questions. It also brings the possibility of new friends finding the band. If someone dislikes the record I figure at the end of the day we still got the live show to do or die. Our job on the road is convert those who might be ambivalent on the record when they stand in front of the drums and amps.

RAPT: Did you run into any challenges or obstacles while working on The Return?  How'd you move past those?

Gooding: Besides the inevitable gear problems (if something doesn’t blow up or lose a part you aren’t pushing it hard enough) this record was pretty smooth sailing and it happened very fast. It was written and recorded June to September. A little red wine eases the analytical side and strong coffee eases the fatigue. Reading helps the lyric writing. Watching comedy and working-out frees up mental road blocks (I can lift almost 26 pounds now - I’m a real brawler as you can tell). Honestly, one thing I did this time was lean on a close group of friends for input. These people gave me confidence but weren't afraid to tell me when something was putting them to sleep. I used their input to cull about 25 tracks down to 11. The process is the same as always- just do the work. One foot in front of the next till it sounds like it does in your head. It’s never all the way there but that’s the gig-  push until you run out of time or turn green and then let it go.

RAPT: "Make The Devil Cry"...."I'm Not Listening"....these are two of quite a few tracks off this latest album that seem to be getting people's attention...but do you have any particular favorites on The Return?  Or ones that you're particularly pleased with or proud of?

Photo by Jason Coker

RAPT: It would appear that Gooding is ever on a continuous blitzkrieg (if you will) of playing, distributing, promoting.  You guys run the gamut with TV, film, the road, etc.  Surely this gets to be an exhausting lifestyle right? -- How do you handle it and what keeps you going with it?

Gooding: A hammer only sees nails. This is always what I’ve done. I have a GREAT team and it’s fantastic because although you have to be relentless to get it all rolling, at the end of the day you get to meet people from all walks of life. Some enlightened and some complete sociopaths, but no one day is like the next. I have woken up in horrible moods and really been low and by the end of the day been playing our best show, or had a really good thing going in the headphones that didn’t exist an hour earlier when I was being negative and idiotic. We have a lot to be grateful for, and I try my best to remember that when road wear sets in. Anyone who loves what they do works hard, and there are a lot harder jobs out there than making music.

RAPT: Part or your upcoming tour will bring you to Austin for a bit?  Are you looking forward to it?  Have you had a chance to explore the city before?

Gooding: I have actually. I know just enough to take that “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here fast as I could” sticker off the van. Old school Texans hate that. It’s like calling NYC “the big apple” or SF “Frisco”. If you ain’t from there you can’t buy your way in. A good friend of ours, Shane Vannerson - drummer for Mickey and the Motorcars, has put us up there so many times we should be building him a home here in LA. My favorite spot is a hiking trail by Barton Springs. I try to go there each time I visit. I listened to Paul Simon’s “You’re the One” for the first time on one of those walks and I still feel like I’m there when I hear that record. I dig the weather in South Texas and we eat at Magnolia's like three times a day when we visit. Pathetic I know.

RAPT: At the end of what will surely be a manic-busy 2010 for you...what do you want to be able to say about it?  What will you want to be able to say about yourself and/or your music?

Gooding: I am grateful for the shows and my crew. I can’t wait to see the kids at the schools, play for the troops, take bad photos, load out in the snow, and get scowled at trying to find veggie food at the truck stop. We make no bones about trying to reach as many people as possible. We have played in front of the bar staff only and we have played in front of 18,000 and though we will happily set up shop for the bar staff till we run out of songs, the 18,000 is an easier gig. You are just channeling energy at that point. We love bringing the circus to town. We want to give and get love and light and energy. Doubters and deceivers can stay home and watch the tube. One thing I can say honestly about this band, is that even on a bad night (and we all have them), we mean what we are playing and we genuinely care about each other and our friends in the crowd. I think that chemistry comes across no matter what kind of music you identify with. Any band that is turning over stones and really digging in is dynamic and changing. We have made some records that should be coasters, and some that I can’t believe don’t get heard. But we will be doing this no matter what sells or doesn’t sell. If our guitars and drum cases are open on the side of the road when we are Willie’s age, so be it. This life chose us and not the other way around.

Listen to Gooding and learn more about upcoming shows here

By V. Gonzalez