Geese are a band that begins and ends in Brooklyn as a project between friends to build a home studio out of a basement. Their debut song “Disco” (out now via Partisan/Play It Again Sam) is born from the same ambition: make music by any means necessary. They began recording together with sneakers as mic stands, and blankets draped over the amps, all within the afternoon following a school day until they ran the risk of noise complaints. “Disco” merges all the restless anxiety and pent-up frustration of trying to figure out life at 18 with a wall-of-sound immediacy and looseness. Curiously alien, yet strangely familiar.
The band elaborates on the song’s origins:“‘Disco’ was our first big step forward as a band. It’s a very urgent and restless song, which was indicative of all our headspaces at the time. ‘Disco’ has a lot of organized chaos at its core; the music, the lyrics, and even the way we recorded it all speak to a sort of manic energy we were all working through. It’s a song that sounds like it’s perpetually on the verge of collapse–and yet it always manages to keep itself together. There’s a bit of chaos in all of our songs or a sense that they could explode at any moment. ‘Disco’ represents that the most for us: the little bit of chaos each of us carry and bring to our music.”
Partisan Records/PIAS, the label that IDLES, Fontaines D.C. and Chubby and the Gang call home, quietly signed the band on the strength of the unreleased album in the summer of 2020. Quite the vote of confidence for a band fresh out of high school and had only played a handful of gigs.
But the truth is, despite outward appearances, Geese are no overnight success. The band traces its beginnings back to 2016, when Cameron Winter (vocals, keyboard), Max Bassin (drums), and Green met Dominic DiGesu (bass) and Foster Hudson (guitar) during freshman year of high school. They recorded an EP entirely in Bassin’s basement over the course of a year; the EP essentially gave Geese a crash course in audio engineering.
Geese’s early influences were prog/psych-rock bands such as Pink Floyd and Yes, then a post-punk sound infiltrated their songs, as they learned to have to record their songs live rather than on individual tracks due to lack of time and money. ‘Disco’ is the very first Geese track the world will hear, though it certainly makes for an unconventional introduction. The song takes absolutely zero musical inspiration from the Studio 54-era. Still, stretching to nearly seven minutes, it does share a certain spirit of excess, melding the band’s psychedelic and post-punk influences and simultaneously giving them a sleek, glamorous makeover.
Geese will release their debut LP later this year; more info on that coming soon.
On July 10th, Geese will perform at NYC’s Berlin and are also on the lineup for Shaky Knees and Desert Daze festivals this fall.