This interview was the first cover story for a fanzine called The El Goose Times. A good old fashioned lot rag, it’s purely a by-the-gaggle for-the-gaggle production. In the image of Dupree’s Diamond News before us, self-funded and run by a team of dedicated amateurs, I confess to being a very proud member of the team. Feel free to read the article on our site, or copied and preserved below for posterity.
More than just an auditory experience, Goose attacks all the senses equally and, quite frankly, it feels like a chicken or egg type of scenario in deciding whether the music has fueled their fully immersive production or vice versa. Not up for debate, however, is the fact that Goose likes to keep it all in the family and in its inaugural edition, The El Goose Times wants to flip the spotlight onto Andrew Goedde, lighting director for Goose and founding partner of Goedde Sound & Light. In a feel good story that is equal parts follow your dream and right place/right time, it was love at first sight for the alliterative relationship made in heaven that is Goedde and Goose.
“It was Valentine’s Day 2018, we were at Woodlands Tavern in Columbus, OH and Goose was there playing before Dizgo. They came up to me and were like, ‘Hey, do you want to run lights for us, too?” This was a few years ago and I had never heard of Goose but I did it and fell in love with the band and their music. [After the show] Rick and Peter came up to me, and they’re like, ‘Yo, that was awesome, are you down to tour?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, just let me know.’ A week later, Peter hit me up and sent me the video from that show which was from a single GoPro mounted on one of the poles and he was like, “Yo, dude, this is great. We’ve never had an LD work with us like this and we’d love to work with you again.”
Always his dream to be lighting director for a jam band, Goedde was all too happy to oblige and soon thereafter joined the band for his first “official” gigs on 6/1 and 6/2/2018 at The Octave in Covington, KY – shows that stand up today as all-timers and were no doubt influenced by his wizardry. Whether you’ve enjoyed your Goose in person or on video these last few years, Goedde Sound & Light has had a hand in delivering the magic – and it’s always been a family affair – as Andrew’s older sister Marta is in charge of videography for the band and has more recently grown to take on tour managing duties as well. “Marta’s been my best friend for my whole life and she was always there helping me out and we were doing it together.”
Having been around since the band opened for the likes of Aqueous, Spafford, and PPPP, Goedde and his team were an integral part of the fully curated in-house production of 2020’s Bingo Tour that helped the band achieve national prominence. “Bingo Tour with the whole video thing was huge for us because we had never really done any live streaming. We had done video work and post editing but then we did all that {live streaming} ourselves and it was such a success that we were like, yeah, we need to do this on tour, we need to do this every show. And so we kind of pieced together all of our video gear, you know, the band had some gear, we had some gear, and we just made it work with what we had. This summer we’re changing everything: every single camera is going to be different and all the streaming gear is being upgraded. So production-wise, we’ve always thought along the lines of ‘what can we do to make this better?’ This summer we’re actually getting to do that, which is really exciting.” Amen.
Still flying high from Goosemas 2020 on Top of the Rock in NYC, Goose and Goedde have an upcoming date with Bonnaroo in 2021. Join the El Goose Times in wishing our favorite LD a Happy-Fucking-Birthday on May 8 and – if you’re lucky enough to be in attendance for his birthday show at The Caverns – look forward to some acoustic treats in his honor (sssh, it’s a secret).
Goedde’s quick hits:
Favorite show(s) : Playin’ In The Sand, Riviera Maya, Mexico, 1/14, 1/17, 1/18/2020
Favorite song: Slow Ready (editorial insert: South Farms, Morris, CT 11/7/20)
Favorite room: Corona Theater, Montreal, Canada
Dream room: The Anthem, Washington, DC
Favorite band that’s not Goose: Phish (editorial insert: Duh.)
Up and coming band (side-gig alert!): Pushing Daisies
