---Ada Wofford
----Released 28 February 2020
Goodwill, Good Will are a self-proclaimed emogaze, dreamo band out of Denton, Texas. I actually never heard of these terms before asking them how they describe their sound. My immediate reaction was to label the songs as, post-rock emo. They have a bit of Ovlov in them, whether or not they ever heard that band, but there’s also some Sunny Day Real Estate in there as well. And so, if you think about it, this type of music is emo coming home; coming full circle. Sunny Day Real Estate put out their landmark album, Diary just three years after the shoegaze Bible, Loveless was released. That genre was part of their vocabulary whether they intentionally referenced it or not. If “In Circles” can’t be considered emogaze, I’m not sure what can. But ironically, such a language didn’t exist at that time because emo itself was just getting started. It makes you think about the function of genre labels and how we use them.
But to get back to the point of this article, am i better in your head is the second EP from Goodwill, Good Will and they have certainly grown as a band since their 2018 self-titled debut. Not only does this new EP sound fuller and more professional, the song writing is more sophisticated and ambitious. The EP opens with an ambient intro track with a seemingly sampled voiceover. It’s executed brilliantly, especially the way it leads in to the CHUNK-CHUNK of lead single, “Always, Often” but it doesn’t quite feel like it fits into the rest of the record. Nevertheless, it certainly doesn’t take anything away from it.
“Always, Often” really sums up the label of emogaze—It’s heavy, melodic, droney, and melancholy. Despite the extreme dynamics between clean guitar and full-on fuzz, the song manages to remain ambient and atmospheric. It’s the type of song you could listen to while you lay down to sleep but I imagine that experiencing it live would be totally different; less ambience, more rock. It has that impeccable sway that songs like this need to have, that type of rhythm that lets you dance while being sad at the same time.
The album picks up with the next two tracks. This is where I really hear the Ovlov influence. These tracks are less atmospheric and more power-pop. They’re catchy and will inevitably result in head bobbing upon listening. There are two interlude tracks recorded on a tape recorder that serve as charming little vignettes that break up the heavy drums and fuzz that dominate the album. The hiss from the cassette is quite loud, but I love that sort of stuff—It’s true lo-fi bliss. The overall tone and production on this album is amazing. The vocals sit in the mix just right and the guitars sound huge.
When I talked to Goodwill, Good Will about their gear and the recording process, they had this to say:
Everything was live tracked at Civil Audio by Michael Briggs in Denton, TX. The bass was recorded DI and the drums were also recorded live. The guitars were tracked in stereo through two different amps simultaneously and also double tracked. So, in the recordings there are essentially 4 guitar tracks playing at any given moment.
For guitar, the reverb was recorded with the Halo effect on a Digitech Polara. The distortion was made through a modded Boss DS-1, and for the more noisy and chaotic parts we ran through a Boss DD8. We used a Fender Pacifica for all guitar recording.
For bass, the distortion was made using 3 different pedals: We used an Orange Terror Stamp, an MXR d.I+, and a mini Big Muff. Jacob also used a Small Clone chorus sparingly (even though it's technically a guitar pedal).
We used a Ludwig kit to record drums. The snare we used was a snare I bought at Wal-Mart like 5 years ago. We borrowed our friends dark ride and had a Sabian crash and hi-hats.
The drums, bass, and rhythm guitar were all recorded live simultaneously. For bass, we just ran DI without an amp, and for guitar we ran stereo through an Acoustic G120 DSP and an acoustic B100 MK2.
Also, one more fun fact is that when we were live recording, Michael Briggs gave us options for colors that we could have the lights and we picked dark red cause we thought it fit the tone of the music.
am i better in your head is a lovingly crafted tribute to fuzz and emo. I cannot stress how great the overall sound of this album is executed. Add great song writing and arrangements and you get one of my favorite EPs of the year so far. The album will be available to stream and download February 28th. You can pre-order a copy here. And you can check out the lead single, “Always, Often” below. Catch them live at their album release show at Casa de Gatos on February 29th!
Comments