Buck Gooter. Billy Brett & Terry Turtle (yes Turtle) play the Dorchester Art Project with Reaches, Deep Hole & Karman Voh July 8th — Doors at eight. The Gooter boys bring their southern industrial rock up through Appalachia to put some doodles in our Yankees or whatever they see fit to do (I won’t stop them). Billy with a splash of Terry were kind enough to answer some questions with us about being Buck Gooter, touring Europe with Oliver Ackerman & general stage safety advice.

Boston Hassle: Your sound seems to combine noise rock, bluesy country and even some proto grunge. What are some of your influences to shape your sound that way?

Billy: Honestly, these days I’m mostly inspired by Buck Gooter. When I think about making our music I think a lot about what we’ve done and could do and how to work out sounds accordingly. Our writing method for a few years has been me creating a bunch of backing tracks and emailing them to Terry and then about 1/3rd of them make it into songs. So when I’m creating those tracks I throw a lot of stuff in to see what will happen, even field recordings of us doing stuff out in public together, not knowing how Terry will react. The end product is always a surprise.

If you want some name dropping then here ya go: Early on I definitely tried to make beats that sounded like something off NIN’s “With Teeth” album (still do sometimes, haha) and one time I was listening to “First we take Manhattan” and I realized that’s how the lyrics/vocals should be, just an apocalyptic laundry list for the most part on my behalf.

Terry cites North Mississippi blues and The Ramones as a direct influence on guitar playing. He’s a big Blue Oyster Cult fan too.

BH: I saw you guys at Hassle Fest last year as well as looked up live videos. You have a pretty wild live show. What’s the craziest thing that’s happened during a gig?

BB: The craziest things that ever happen to me at gigs are when I get injured. Busted my head open and bled all over the place once and knocked a tooth out another time.

BH: A Place To Bury Strangers are one of my favorite bands. How’d you like touring in Europe with them recently?

BB: They’re one of my favorite bands too! It was a real treat to see them rock every day for a month. The tour was an absolute rock and roll dream and as good as it could be. We are eternally grateful to APTBS, their team, and their great fans for making every night of the tour magical.

BH: How have Buck Gooter been able to make it work for such a long time?

BB: We believe in what we’re doing and we enjoy the work. We stay busy and we’ve never moved away from each other. We keep a pretty tight focus on the band. There are ups and downs just like in any relationship but we try to talk everything out and listen to each other and rationalize any problems out and make them right before they become something untenable. Also we are having fun and the clock is ticking. Trying to make the most out of life with what we’ve got, etc. Reads like a list of platitudes but nothing is easy.

BH: What’s the music scene like in Virginia? Is there anyone you recommend for us to try to get a show with?

BB: Haha. I dunno, I always say: “abandon all hope ye who enter here” when it comes to booking in Virginia. But there’s definitely lots of great bands all over the state, even a few in Harrisonturd. Richmond has the oldest and strongest scene but it’s still a tough egg to crack. I could go on forever about the minutiae of underground music in this state.

Cool active Bands: Zooanzoo, Gumming, Wandcarver, Wabeya, Jaguardini, Fried Egg, Bermuda Triangles, Earthling.

There’s a lot of great acts but I don’t have time to find out if they’re active or not and don’t get me started on the defunct acts – we’d have to start a new blog!

Thanks!!!!!
Bb