The music world according to Gob

By Jen Anthony

"Success, we want to be successful… we want to make good music, and have fun with it."

A modest and reasonable quote from bassist Craig of Vancouver punk band Gob about what the band wants to achieve. This band has been around for six years and Craig is both the youngest and the newest member. When asked what he thought about the life of a travelling musician, he replied, "I can’t stand it… I love doing li
ve shows, but it’s really hard when you’ve got people at home that you really care about."

Being on the road for over six months of the year can be tiring and stressful for anyone. Gob has had it’s share of frustratingly low turn-outs–how motivating can playing to the bartender and the owner of the bar be?

"We’ve done shows like that where it’s really tough, and you make five bucks a day which you have to use to eat… and sleeping on somebody’s floor every night… or spending 24 hours in the van," described Craig.

The band is lucky though, to have a record company in Nettwerk Records that wants to support them and aid them in concentrating on their music, so no Gob members need to look elsewhere to earn a living. With all this emphasis on the development of Gob, the band has had a chance to really work on their sound. The new sound is a much fuller, much more mature than their last albums. They’ve slowed it down a lot and have added a lot to the pieces.

" I guess I’ve gotten old in the last year, but I’ve really started to like a lot of that music now," said Craig. "We’re really happy with the way [the new CD] has turned out."

Gob has every right to be proud of their new CD–having created every note and lyric on it. The lyrics and songs are usually written by Theo or Tom, and are then brought forth to the rest of the band, where the group works collaboratively to produce the sound of Gob. On their new CD The World According to Gob, it’s obvious the group has worked hard together. Gob opens for Face to Face Tues., Oct. 31 at the MacEwan Hall Ballroom.