DANCE - AUSTRALIA // GOODWILL
Party On With The Black Doctor By Tom Wilson
It’s strangely comforting to know that some things never change. Goodwill has been doing his thing for some time now – evidenced by his impressive standing in our country’s dance music hierarchy – so you’d expect him to be a man who’s focus on the responsibility of taking Sessions Five to the masses would be unwavering and absolute, and it is … but that’s not to say he isn’t getting on the piss with The Potbelleez every night, because he’s doing that too. He compared hangovers with SAUCE ahead of his set at Syrup … So when was the last time you had a really bad hangover? [Laughs] Ah, every morning after gigs with The Potbelleez on this tour … we’ve been partying pretty hard. We haven’t stopped, so … So how does Goodwill deal with a hangover? What’s the best cure you’ve found? Well, you start lying to yourself first, saying you’re not going to drink, but because there’s five of us on the road, there’s always one bad egg, and it’s always someone different that starts the party. How do I deal with it? Lots of Coca-Cola.
“With the success of the dance music scene comes a lot of egos …”
[Laughs] Way ahead of you, man! I’ve almost finished one of those big bottles! Good man! I call it “The Black Doctor!” Nice! This probably means I’m going to be a little sedate – a little chilled out – unlike the dude who interviewed you on that interview you’ve got on your MySpace [where Goodwill is constantly taken aback by the energy of a guy who’s seemingly chased fifty Red Bulls with a line of speed.] That was absolutely cringeworthy! [Laughs] It’s pretty funny, isn’t it? He’s obviously had way too much of the “Black Doctor.” [Laughs] Well the funny story behind that is that I actually made that whole thing up. That’s actually a dear friend of mine, Duncan – he’s an actor – and we staged that whole thing. We turned up on the day to do the interview … he’s one of my best mates, an actor/comedian guy, and we were going to do this silly thing where I interviewed myself with a splitscreen, but the technical guy on the day said, “No, you can’t do that.” It was too expensive to pull off. So we just wrote that script on the spot, so it’s actually a joke, but it’s been so effective, because everyone believes that he’s real, you know? So it’s excellent – achieving the result we wanted! What’s been going on in your life lately, outside of music? Obviously, you’re on tour, but has it all just been about the music, or have you been doing other stuff? It’s all been about the music for the last year, unfortunately. I wish I could say I had a bit of a richer lifestyle, but the last year’s all been about writing and finishing songs and touring and preparing overseas stuff. I’ve just taken on an agent overseas, and that sounds like a simple thing to do, but there’s so much work that goes into that, you know? So yeah, it’s all been about music – I’ve been living and breathing it every day for the last year! [Laughs] It’s been intense. So in music, and life – this is a very broad question – what’s making you happy, and what’s pissing you off? In music? What’s making me happy at the moment is that there’s so much Australian talent kicking arse, because there really is – it’s just on fire at the moment. What’s pissing me off is people taking themselves too seriously … Dance music is taking itself too seriously too – it f*cking pisses me off. Without naming names, what are some examples of this? Just when, you know, producers get the shits when they’re getting the piss taken out of them, or when something doesn’t go right – prima donnas and stuff – it’s just a waste of time, you know? This is dance music – it’s about hedonism, and it’s supposed to be about release and partying and fun. With the success of the dance music scene comes a lot of egos who think they can throw their weight around, and I just stand and laugh at it! [Laughs] There you go! You mixed Sessions Five with The Potbelleez. Did you guys split it? Like, you did your disc and they did theirs? A little bit … [We] sort of said, “Here’s the tracks we want,” and it sort of ended up pretty good. I don’t think there was much of a crossover at all. Normally, when I do them with John Course, there’s a lot of crossover, and we have to talk a lot, because we play very similar. I probably play a bit “tougher” than John, but yeah … we had to talk a lot. Looking back over the Sessions series so far … how many of them have you worked on? This is my second, but I’ve done about seven or eight CDs for Ministry. In terms of the Sessions series, in what ways do you think that Five represents an evolution of the series? What direction do you see the series heading in? Well, I’ve always said the same thing about Sessions – it’s sort of just a snapshot of what’s going on in clubland at the time. Because it’s a middle-of-the-year comp, it’s not the time of year when everyone’s buying compilations as presents or anything … [You can be] a bit more indulgent. Every year it evolves, because it’s just representing exactly what’s going on at the time, and obviously having The Potbelleez on it represents just how massive they are! [Laughs] Goodwill plays Syrup in Hobart on the 19th of July. To listen to the full interview, go to www.sauce.net.au
SAUCE #72
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