THE GOA EXPRESS

EN

Teenagehood, brotherhood and a genuine love for alternative music has united THE GOA EXPRESS from the off. Consisting of Burnley brothers James Douglas Clarke and Joe Clarke along with Joey Stein, Naham Muzaffar and Sam Launder, their teenage years can be viewed as something of a hedonistic pilgrimage into the underbelly of suburban rock and roll – their first gig having been three songs blasted out their mate’s garage, the next on top of a local vintage shop where the floor nearly caved in: “when there’s fuck all, you make do with what you got”. This sentiment is nothing new, but in an age where artists and bands are often exist as heavily constructed, pretentious facsimiles, it certainly feels new.

With influences ranging from Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to French existentialism, from Beat Literature to long hours working at the Bookies to the journey into the sunrise on the night bus home, it is their ability to be all these things at once which makes THE GOA EXPRESS a guitar band for the 21st century. Nothing is ever a compromise because they are so unapologetically themselves in everything they do – proud Northerners with a DIY foundation that aren’t afraid to look into the often dim future and see themselves shining brightly in it, unforgiving and unpretentious.

So far, the band have released three singles with great success. The first: “Be My Friend”, produced by Ross Orton right next Sheffield’s famous City Sauna brothel, presents itself to us as a cheeky, snarling pop song, holding undertones of raw cynicism laden with psychedelic sunshine. Ross Orton’s studio was also right next door to where the band recorded their last single “The Day” with Nathan Saoudi (Fat White Family) at Champ Zone. After signing with Ra-Ra Rok, (WU-LU/Bingo Fury) the band released anthemic summer hit ‘Second Time’, that went straight to the 6 music B-List before quickly heading up to the A-List 2 for 2 weeks. This was followed by the release of its B-Side ‘Overpass’ that almost immediately caught the eyes and ears of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, who had the band on his ‘Next Wave’ segment. Closing the year that saw them play to thousand-strong crowds at festivals like Latitude and End of the Road, the band headlined their biggest headline show to date at Manchester’s Gorilla - its fair to say that this really is only the beginning.

NO

THE GOA EXPRESS tar det beste fra band som Spacemen 3 og Brian Jonestown Massacre og slår det sammen med fransk eksistensialisme, beatpoesi og de industrielle omgivelsene i hjembyen Burnley mellom Manchester og Leeds.

Ressultatet er et gitarband for det 21. århundre, et kompromissløst og DIY-fundamentert rockeband som slår sammen psykedelisk pop og hard fuzzrock sammen til en brennbar miks. Miksen har allerede tatt dem fra å spille i kompisers garasjer og vintagesjapper til festivaler som Latitude og End of the Road, mens singlene (vekselvis produsert av Ross Orton og Nathan Saoudi fra Fat White Family) har bare fått mer og mer oppmerksomhet fra BBC 1, BBC Radio 6 Music og det spennende nye selskapet Ra-Ra Rok.