Good Old War Interview: SXSW 2010

Good Old War's unique blend of acoustic guitar and three-part vocals certainly separate them from other groups on the indie-folk scene. Releasing their second album on June 1, 2010, the Philadelphia-based band has received much praise from fans and critics alike. Spinner recently spoke with guitarist/vocalist Dan Schwartz about his band's musical influences, 1980s Genesis, and what they're packing for SXSW.

Describe your sound in your own words.

I describe our sound as an upbeat folk band with tons of harmonies.

How did your band form?

The band formed actually out of the ashes of another band, Days Away, which Tim and Keith were in. They had a tour booked and the band broke up right before the tour, so instead touring solo or whatever, they called me up and we [played the tour] together. We pulled together whatever songs we had and it wound up going extremely well. Since it went so well from the start, we stuck with it.


What are your musical influences?

It's pretty all over the place, but I would have to say starting points are bands like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Paul Simon, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Zombies, the Kinks -- really any kind of 60s vocal group pretty much describes the places we were starting from. We try to be diverse. Now our influences have branched off into just about any kind of music you can think of. Starting points were definitely the classic 60s vocal group thing though.

How did you come up with your band name?

The band name is actually composed of pieces of all of our names. Keith's last name is Goodwin, that's where we got "good," Tim's last name is Arnold, so we got "old," and mine is Schwartz. So we took a piece of all of our last names and turned it into one solid band name.

What's your biggest vice?

Chocolate and coffee, those are G-rated. [laughs] I like any kind of black coffee.

What's in your festival survival kit for SXSW?

A Neti Pot would be the first thing, because we're all allergic to Austin. It's something to clean our sinuses out. We love it down there, but I think it's ragweed or something that makes us lose our voices whenever we go. That's the main thing, then I don't know what else. I would say t-shirts, sunglasses, and a good attitude.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

I really love 80s Genesis, and that is a very serious guilty pleasure that I don't usually share. Tim loves Meat Loaf and Keith likes Tori Amos, those musicians are their guilty pleasures. I don't know if we should be printing this, these are pretty embarrassing. [laughs]

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

I think probably the craziest things I've seen is our own behavior. Partying a little bit too much and making a bit of a ruckus in towns we don't live in.

Beatles or Stones?

As a band, we mostly all lean towards the Beatles -- I think it's what our parents listened to more. My parents weren't that into the Stones. I just think the Beatles wrote songs that are unstoppable. I don't really have a favorite Beatles album, it changes all the time. I listen to Abbey Road most of the time when I listen to the Beatles though.

Why do you create music?

I don't think I have any other choice, I think that it's the same for Keith and Tim. We create music, because I don't believe that we would know what else to do. We've all been playing since we were very young. It's not even really a choice, it's more of something that we're just sort of addicted to. We live for it, there's nothing else that really goes through any of our heads.

Do you remember your first musical memory?

My first musical memory was definitely watching my dad write songs and I always wanted to do that. I would always pretend I was in a band and sing in my room into a hairbrush, like a little musical theater child.

When did you first pick up your instrument?

I was about eight years old when I first started playing guitar. I was very lucky that my parents sort of noticed that I was into it before I had a choice to say no. So they put it in my hands at a very early age and I sort of stuck with it. It's probably the only real thing I've stuck with my entire life.

What are you looking forward to about SXSW?

We're really looking forward to playing some new songs. We have a whole new album that's going to be out soon and we're finally going to get to play some of these songs that we've been looking forward to play live for a long time.


Ken Bachor is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.