Vancouver rocker Matthew Good is in great spirits, and why shouldn’t he be , he has a beautiful wife, three wonderful kids and a nice house in Mission, B.C. with lots of animals around.
He just released his lated CD “Arrows of Desire,” and is about to go on tour in support of it which comes to Average Joes, Nov. 19. And with me being the last interview of the day, he has his whole day ahead of him. But don’t start a fight at his show, like happened last time, during which he stopped his show mid song to break up a fight happening in the audience.
“ I won’t stand for it. With all of the violence in the world, there are a lot of people in the world would give anything to be at a rock concert. If you want to fight and get drunk, don’t do it at my show, go get drunk and fight go into the parking lot and fight some guys,” he said.
“There’s no excuse for it. I come from the seminal hardcore scene in Vancouver. I saw the Dead Kennedys and NoMeansNo. That’s when mosh pits were real, but there was a code of conduct. If someone fell, you picked them up. I’m here to play a show and have a communal experience with people,” he emphasized.
“ I’ve done the same thing at concerts with 40,000 people. People could get hurt. A woman, anyone. People come to concerts to have fun. And I think the audiences appreciate that that, I do that,” he said.
He is excited about the new CD “Arrows of Desire as he “desired” to go back to his roots as his previous couple CDs have explored darker themes.
“The last couple a of albums were pretty heady. I just wanted to go back to rock and roll. I was listening to the bands I grew up listening to including everything from the Pixies to Husker Dü to the Replacements and that inspired me to just plug in a bloody guitar and let's go,” he said.
“I just wanted those songs to go to right to the edge. It’s just been exciting, ” he said.
“it’s been a lot of fun.”
He wanted the lyrics on the new CD to be up for interpretation by the audience.
“On the last three albums the lyrics totally directed at my external experiences. On this album the lyrics to appeal to people on their own,” he continued.
While independent record label Frostbyte released Good’s latest album, they have a distribution deal with Universal, so it hasn’t really affected his sound.
“I’m still dealing with a lot of the same people. They’re all involved with the process of releasing the album, ” he said, adding they have him as a cornerstone artist, which they hope will attract upcoming artists with a similar viewpoint and sound.
“It’s like the record label Anti which has Tom Waits signed. They hope artists will be attracted to the label because of Tom Waits and they (the artists) have a similar approach to music,” he continued adding such artists already have a built in fan base and following, which is good for the label.
He noted he doesn’t get out into the Vancouver scene very often to see up and coming artists.
“I did that a lot when I was younger,” said the 42-year-old.
Going on tour is a challenge with children and a wife at home.
“It’s difficult, my children are growing fast and I miss them a lot. I miss things like them standing up on their own for the first time,” he said adding he keeps in contact with his family through the internet.
He is touring with his long time band including Moog organist Anthony Wright, guitarist James Reid, bassist Milos Angelov and drummer Blake Manning.
He is excited about his Lethbridge show.
“It’s always nice to return to the city which took out my back,” Good chuckled, recalling how his bus driver went through a pole gate at 50 km an hour after not realizing it was closed.
“I was in bed for a week after that,” he said.
Good is in great shape now. He plays Average Joes, Nov. 19 at 9:30 p.m. with special guests the Gentleman Husbands. Tickets are $40. Doors open at 8 p.m. with the show beginning at 9:30 p.m.
