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The BiTS Interview: Gozer Goodspeed
Described as a "true, natural musician" (Jonathan L, Lopsided World of L) and a
self-proclaimed "perennial outsider and underdog", Gozer Goodspeed is an independent
artist in every sense of the phrase, intent on carving out his own niche in the music world.
Playing a potent cocktail of blues-folk-rock music - which also seamlessly blends in
elements of melodic indie, funk, and psychedelia - Goodspeed is a songwriting force to
be reckoned with, doing exactly what comes most naturally, making music that is entirely
his own.
Gozer lives in Plymouth, Devon and Ian McKenzie spoke to him on the telephone.
GG: Hello.
BiTS: Gozer, is that you?
GG: It is. Is that Ian, how are you doing?
BiTS: [Laughing] I’m doing very well
indeed. Let's make a start then. Tell me
something about yourself that people don't
usually know.
GG: Oh, let me think about what I'm
allowed to say. What people don't usually
know that I have been playing music for,
well, I've been playing guitar for 30 years,
so I started quite early.
BiTS: Can I ask you what age you are then?
GG: Yeah, I'm 45 years old.
BiTS: Are you now?
GG: I am, yeah. I'm sort of the antithesis of
what normally happens to people because I
didn't get signed to a record label until I
was 44, so there you go. It's never too late.
BiTS: What brought you to the music
business to start off with?
GG: I've always been a part of the music
business, really. I mean from, well
certainly, I did my first gig when I was 19,
so ever since then I've always gigged, but I was always in various other bands, you know, various
different kinds of bands. First ever one was a metal band, then I was in blues bands, folk bands,
acoustic duos, indie rock, funk, you name it. I was playing it and I was out there, but I was always
trying to do something original. And then 2015 rolled around and that coincided with the breakup of
the little band that I had going at the time and the birth of my son, who's my second child, and it