Recently signed to EMI, York band Bull serve up American alt-rock sounds with a fresh British indie style and a G.S.O.H. Join us and band members Tom Beer (vocals), Dan Lucas (guitar), Tom Gabbatiss (drums) and Kai West (bass) as we delve into the creation and inspiration behind their new EP Love Goo...

This year has been tough for many, but it also marks the year that Bull became the first band from York to sign to a major label since Shed Seven in the 90s. And with that comes the release of their intoxicating EP Love Goo. As we discuss the title track, Beer breaks off into reminiscent thought: “Love Goo is the feeling in your heart when you remember happiness from the past...not really melancholy, just unbridled joy.”

"It says in the song 'my heart is gunging up with sticky love goo' because I was thinking about memories of my childhood, and you get that extreme feel response from thinking about a really happy time" he adds.

Though they're romantic people, the boys argue that there isn’t an underlying theme of love in this EP. “They’re individual songs with individual emotions, written at very different times by different people...who all happen to be me” remarks Beer.  

As you'll hear in their music, Bull love to make music and they love having fun, an ethos that has been there from the very beginning. “It started off because I wrote some songs and wanted to be in a band where we didn’t take anything seriously and just had fun all the time. And be on summer vacation for the rest of my life!” says Beer. Gabbatiss interjects, claiming that he was promised a “never-ending tour."

“If it wasn’t Bull, it’d be something else. You’re not gonna stop writing songs and I’m not going to stop playing music, so that’s why it exists. We all wanna be musicians.” 

Perennial musicians they may be, but Bull remain humble and refute any idea that they’re unique in any way - “nothing really separates us from other bands" they say. "I don’t want to be separated from them - I want to live together in a big house.” 

You'll hear it in their craftsmanship, but Bull are very talented musicians with a wide range of instruments in their arsenal. It’s no wonder they’re able to write such wonderfully diverse songs. "We all play a lot of instruments: I play the trombone which is probably the funniest instrument there is... t’s got a slide which means you can play in between the notes or bend so easily, and it’s also got 5 or 6 octaves whereas trumpets have like 2 – trumpets suck!” Beer says. He continues to list off the many strings to his talented bow, touching on xaphoons, double bass and piano before digressing. 

All in all, the Love Goo EP is, Bull say, a “nice way to round off everything we've done up to this point." But what more is there to come? “I’m glad you asked, Ross, because we’re putting an album out in the new year” Beer claims with a smile on his face “we’re currently writing the next 2 albums. We’ve got a song that’s in the form - it's a French reggae song so we’re not letting genre tie us back”.

You can hear the genre-defying sounds of Bull on their brand-new EP, Love Goo here, and in the video for the title track below: