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For a young band, being labelled as 'the best new band in Britain' early in their career could prove to be a distraction - a situation where the sheer pressure that statement creates ends up overwhelming the band and burning them out before they’ve even hit their peak. That was the position that Kent quartet GoodBooks were placed in 2006, with the music industry widely falling in love with their debut single and then tipping them for greatness.
Yet for Max Cooke, GoodBooks affable singer and guitarist, the added pressure was welcomed. Rather than being worried about it, he took it in his stride. He explains: “I loved it! It’s a beacon, when they say that you have to stand up and it certainly is a lot of pressure. 60-80% of people would swap jobs with you so there’s always pressure on you, but you have to embrace that pressure. When you’re high on a wave you just ride it! The support we’ve had is good but there’ll probably be a point when they turn on us.”
That point in time is likely far in the future, for GoodBooks' debut album 'Control' is one of this years finest efforts, offering smart, incisive lyrics and numerous, sharp, angular tunes that should nestle on the play lists of many indie clubs. Max himself is understandably proud of his band’s offering, and in particular the sound they’ve achieved on it.
“ We tried to vary from a lot of bands, we really wanted to use the studio as another instrument. A lot of small budget records sound great but we wanted to use what was available, it was through trial and error that we got the sound, we tried various things, both sonically and lyrically. I think it sounds a very cohesive album. A track like 'Good Life Salesman' is wonderfully sarcastic, it's got really odd electronics, a cool chorus that sticks with you like glue, it's got everything we’re about, its got eccentric lyrics. "
Part of the credit for that sound goes to the album’s producer, Dan Grech-Marguerat. Max is quick to praise him, noting that Grech-Marguerat “became the fifth member of the band” during the recording process. Although the band had a choice of several producers to work with, it seems clear that they clicked immediately with Grech-Marguerat.
According to Max: “We wanted to explore what we could do, we spoke to several producers. Dan had the same energy as we did. He was excited as it was his first full solo production, he put his heart and soul into it. It was really important to him, we all felt we had something to prove.”
Throughout 'Control', the band’s lyrics stand out, with a wide range of often grim subject matter being covered, from the jagged ‘Alice’ to the WWI tale of ‘Passchendaele’. It helps GoodBooks stand out from the plethora of indie bands populating music just now who only focus on man in the pub style observations and Max is emphatic about this element of the band “ There’s lots of themes and ideas in there, just what I’m thinking about. People should write about what they’re thinking about rather than just writing about girls and beer, rather than what you might expect [bands to write about]. You don’t need another band doing that. I’m always writing lots of little scribbles, just little thoughts that cross my mind. Everyone has these thoughts and people should write them down more.
“It’s a record given a chance to be weird. Friends and family from outside the music business ask me ‘but what if it doesn’t work?’ and I know that when I look back on it I want to be proud of everything we did. We didn’t want it to be done textbook style, that’s more our ambition than anything else. Obviously we’d like commercial success too!"
GoodBooks are also a scarily young band and their genesis comes all the way back to their school years, leading to a couple of bands being formed that eventually wound up becoming GoodBooks. Max’s own initial inspirations were kick started, like so many before him, by a girl.
“I was born into classical music as my dad’s a conductor. Then, when I was eight there was this girl that I liked and I wanted her to like me too. She loved the Beatles so I suddenly loved the Beatles too! And then I realised just how good they were. Leo [von Bülow-Quirk, GoodBooks drummer] brought me a video of the Beatles on Ready Steady Go and it’s still one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen, these men just wildly shaking their heads. From then I was sure I wanted to work in music, in some form."
That desire to work within the music industry led Max to go to university, something that turned out to be more of an ill-fated sojourn rather than a learning experience. He explains: “Two years ago I did a pop course at university, my parents said they’d help me with my rent if I was doing a degree so I did a degree. I felt like my soul was slipping away, it was awful! They were doing things like telling you how to sing in an American accent, I want to focus on what my characteristics are and develop them, rather than try and do everything and learn from a ‘skills set‘. I lasted two months and my attendance was irregular in the second month.”
However, that has only proved to be a detour on GoodBooks road to success. Part of the reason for their rise may have something to do with the fact that the band are all school friends, meaning that the sort of spats common with bands don’t really blight GoodBooks. Max feels this knowledge of each other has really helped them.
“ We’re beyond arguments now, not that we don’t have them but that we know that they’re coming.. Each of us takes music unnaturally seriously, we want to push it as far as we can. A lot of bands… imagine plants that are entwined and grow together, it’s good but there’s still something missing from them.
“It’s a melting pot, we all contribute to the songs, I might say to Leo about a good lyric of his and he’ll say, ‘you know, you wrote that!’. It’s very cohesive, with a lot of bands you can clearly tell who the frontman is, who’s in charge or who’s telling the frontman what to say. We’re not like that.”
GoodBooks have also relentlessly toured in the past several months, taking support slots with the Maccabees, The Sounds and Hot Club de Paris. While Max is happy to that GoodBooks have learned from these experiences, it’s clear that not all of these tours have been pleasurable, though his enthusiasm for the Maccabees is obvious.
“If you ask anyone in the music industry you’ll get the same answer, The Maccabees are the nicest guys around, they’re the same ages as us, they have the same aspirations as us, that tour was just such a giggle, even though I did lose my voice during it. The Sounds, I’ve always been told if you can’t say anything nice then say nothing at all! We toured with Hot Club De Paris, that was a really great learning experience, on tour you work out what keeps you sane! You’re away for weeks, it’s weird. As a support you’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain so there’s no pressure from the outside but we still put pressure on ourselves.”
With such obvious drive and determination fuelling them, don’t be surprised if GoodBooks prove to be a novel success.
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