Pop music got a breath of fresh air when The Go! Team burst onto the independent music scene in 2004, riding a wave of critical acclaim for their debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike. The Brighton, England collective quickly gained a reputation for having a dynamic sound, filled with noisy guitars, vintage hip-hop beats and killer horns, that is equally suitable to soundtrack ‘70s action TV shows, cheesy westerns or “Charlie Brown.” In short, their sound is original, yet familiar.
Before playing at D.C.’s The Black Cat on Sunday, March 19, the band’s sole songwriter, Ian Parton, sat down with The Voice to discuss the band’s sound and to harp on ‘70s nostalgia. Ninja, an African-American sing-rapper and The Go! Team’s leading lady, also dropped by to discuss the band’s universal appeal and unpredictable live shows.
You’ve got this obvious vintage sound, and a lot of people go so far as to say it sounds like ‘70s TV shows and early morning cartoons. I get this sort of pop-culture, nostalgic feel from it, and it’s a very deliberate sound. You can’t really happen upon it, it seems.
Ian: The distorting production and the tape hiss wasn’t so much trying to make it sound old or anything because I’m not really into retro fetishes or anything … For me it was just to make it exciting and less radio-friendly, like when the horns are distorting because the levels are too high—that’s more interesting for me than it being like a beautiful Phil Collins horn section. It’s not really about just making something that’s old, but I’d be lying if I said TV shows weren’t an influence.
Ninja, you seem to be an integral part of the band’s live show in terms of getting the audience involved. What should fans expect with the live show, and what do you do specifically to try to get people involved?
Ninja: Specifically, I make it up on the spot. And they can just expect the unexpected, because we’re kind of a weird line-up, you know? There’s [sic] three guys and three girls. There’s black, white, Japanese. And then there’s like punk and folk and hip-hop backgrounds and musical tastes. Expect to have fun, too.
Ian: We were just at [music festival] South By Southwest and it was amazing how many bands just sort of stand there. I can’t stand it, really.
Ninja: Yeah, you might as well put in a CD if you’re going to play like that. We’re not just going to play what you hear on the album. We’re going play extra, we’re going to do extra, you’re going to see extra. It’s not like Coldplay, where they just play the music—not to dis Coldplay! It’s not just like watching an average band [laughs].
At [music festival] Intonation you guys brought a bunch of kids onto the stage. Who was behind that?
Ian: That was just a spur of the moment thing. It was in Union Park in Chicago and it was all kind of fenced-off with all the indie kids inside, and on the outskirts were all these kids sort of getting down and stuff [laughs]. Ninja came over and said that we should bring them up on the stage. At first, they were competing, weren’t they?
Ninja: Yeah [laughs]. I was like, “I can only choose four,” and they were all like, “Me Me Me [laughs]!”
Ian: We had a dance-off to see who was going make it [laughs].
Ninja: And I picked four and I was like, “That one’s so cute. We can’t leave her out. Oh, we’ll let five in. Oh, look at him, he looks so sad. Ah, six.” Then we went on stage and when I turned around, there were like twelve of them up on the stage. And you can’t exactly go “Get off, there’s too many!”
Ninja, you mentioned how diverse the band is and how the band combines so many musical styles. Do you feel like the universal appeal of the band is reflected in your fan base in terms of having fans from all sorts of generations and ethnic backgrounds?
Ninja: We do see all sorts of generations. We’re hopefully trying to keep it slightly older because, like, little kids can be fickle. Younger people tend to go for whatever’s on the front cover of a magazine. We’re lucky at the moment that we’ve got a fan base that’s really, really into the music.
But, ethnically, I’d love to see more black people in the audience. I always get excited when I’m singing and I see one, and I think, “Oh look, there’s one black person!” I wish there were more, but it’s like, you have no idea who we are. The album doesn’t tell you who we are. I mean if I were black [laughs], I mean…if I heard of The Go! Team, I wouldn’t think they’re something I’d be into, because I’m more into hip-hop.
