A Q&A with Good Time Locomotive
New wave Portuguese-English duo…
What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
It’s called ‘The Dark Within’. The title is pretty self-explanatory but it stems from a struggle myself and Hugo (the singer) have both suffered with. There is a particular aspect of the track to do with betrayal and the anger it induces. As always, the song points to a couple of positive ways out of that negative spiral.
What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
The various comings and goings of members that got us to the point of being a two-piece lineup was definitely the hardest part. The endless amount of options of what to spend your time on as an up-and-coming artist and the lack of hours in the day is by far the worst part. The music is the easy bit!
Who produced the release – what did they bring to it? If you produced it yourselves what do enjoy most about producing your own material?
We wrote this with one previous member (the guitarist) who came up with the intro part. I produced and recorded it as well as writing a few of the other bits and co-writing the lyrics. The onset of modern technology to help create your own music has been the greatest thing to happen to music since electricity! I am a drummer and yet a lot of the parts on various instruments I can’t play were written by me. That is a truly liberating feeling creatively; to know what you hear in your head you can get out there musically.
What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
An emotional response and connection. Our emphasis is on that at all times. If it doesn’t inspire you to laugh, dance or cry then we simply don’t release it!
How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
We put a load of ideas together on our DAW (Digital audio workstation) and then put different ones together in one song file to see if we can make them fit to make a song. Once the music is done Hugo writes rough vocals to get a sound and melodic structure. Then we write the words together. Then record it properly to be sent off and mixed and learnt to play live. It is sort of backwards to how music has been created for almost the entire human journey! But it is the way an awful lot of bands do it nowadays.
What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
That is always the hardest question as I think I can safely say there almost isn’t one band we all universally like! Myself and the ex-guitarist (who I wrote the music with) love Don Broco! But in almost every other example we don’t actually like the same music! I think that is part of what makes what we do special though. If two people who often don’t see eye to eye on what is hot and what’s not can agree, it is probably half decent!
What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Every one! Minus North Korea … and even then it would be interesting at least. Stand-out venues….stadiums! 😉 Hey if you aint dreaming then what’s the point?
If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
That is genuinely hard as a lot of the parts get started from an emotional quality and strange exotic chords. So there is a distinct thing that Good Time Locomotive is, but the songs are super diverse. If push comes to shove ‘Lines of Symmetry’ as it has rock, funk, 80’s and heartbreak chords in the bridge.
What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
Just being able to have food in our bellies and a roof over our heads so we can do this every day would be more than enough, but as with most things, happiness is a pursuit. So I am sure we would get there and move the goalposts! In the words of Tony Montana, ‘We want the world, and everything in it!’
Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
What’s the motive? Good times!
Check out everything about Good Time Locomotive here: linktr.ee/goodtimelocomotive
