Goodshirt's Gareth Thomas gives us some insight into his new solo album, Fizzy Milk, which drops today.
Photo: Supplied
Verse Chorus Verse is a regular series which sees local artists break down the stories behind their music. For more, click here.
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All Eyes in the Room
I wanted to learn electric guitar and luckily I found a nice old Fender Telecaster and a little guitar amplifier. All Eyes in the Room was the first thing that fell out of that guitar. I loved the way you could make the amplifier’s reverb sing if you played sparse muted chords. The song is about seeing your ‘ex’ at a party, working the room with a smile that was previously reserved for you.
I’d Like
Murray from Goodshirt said he struggled with writing choruses. I told him that he writes awesome verses and his verses are just as good choruses. So I took one of his verses that went “I’d like to write a letter to you, but I don’t know what to say”, and made it a chorus. It was an attempt to get Goodshirt writing songs together again. Unfortunately it didn’t become a Goodshirt song but it was a welcome addition to my album!
Wallow
Another happy “break up” song, an affirmation about moving on. I went through a crappy break-up and wrote this song. It ended up being rather therapeutic at the time and I still enjoy playing it now.
Some Teachers
I’ve had some really good teachers and some really crappy ones too. Some teachers take pleasure in imparting knowledge and enabling their students when some teachers take pleasure in being the authority in charge. This song advises children about the latter type of teacher. Rules, explanations and compartmentalisation of thought can stifle creativity; don’t let the education system crush your faith in your own intuition.
So Unbelievable
I was listening to Total Eclipse Of The Heart and decided I wanted to do a melancholy song with an epic beat. Amelia of Fazerdaze came up with the nice solid bass riff that sounded a bit like Take My Breath Away from Top Gun and I decided to mess it up a bit.
Blue Blue Day
A song of unrequited love with a gentle Casio style bossanova beat. It’s a song about your loved one being on the other side of the world. About being in totally different time zones and counting down the days and hours until you’re reacquainted.
Weird Fever
This is a disco song about falling in love and having the flu. When I met my girlfriend we both got sick. I couldn’t really distinguish between the symptoms of falling in love and having the flu - they’re both quite similar really. I demoed a dictaphone beatboxed recording of the song out on her balcony one afternoon.
Way Too Hot
I was so over the barbecue reggae trend that I decided to write a reggae song. I thought it might help me enjoy reggae again. The band was quite freaked out when I told them that they have to play like Jamaicans from the ‘70s. We jammed it out in the studio and were surprised it only took a few takes. I’m from Wellington and every musician knows that Wellington is Jamaica's eastern most city.
Wide Wide Eyed
A Spaghetti Western tune about the eerie side of falling in love. This song started as a sparse Goodshirt jam. Rodney came in late to practice and was testing and tuning up his guitar over a beat that Mike was playing. Lucky we had a mic going and his random chords were recorded. That’s why the song modulates weirdly from F# minor to E minor. Nice and spooky.
Girlfriend On My Hofner
This song is a true story about how my girlfriend took my new guitar and she started playing all these fat bluesy riffs. I was in the kitchen and started singing some lyrics over the top. When she realised that I had made a song out of her jam, it became a race to see who could record their own version first. I won, but she doesn’t mind because she gets co-write credits.
Peculiar Fuel
The word pairing of “peculiar” and “fuel” feels nice in your mouth so I decided to write a song about it. This is a song about addiction to commercially marketed products but it’s disguised as a love song. The peculiar fuel could be Coca Cola, it could be Big Macs or even iPhones. It’s a fuel that we’re addicted to and we don’t really know why we need it.
Find Gareth on Facebook right here.