photo by Kyle Stebbins
[Editor's note: This Q&A previews Good Show Great Show' show on Thursday at The Bourbon Theatre with Cheap Girls, The Sidekicks and Worried Mothers starting at 9 p.m. It's a Hear Nebraska Presents show with a $5 cover. RSVP here.]
words by Michael Todd | band practice photos by Dawn Thorfinnson
A bottle of Seagram's waits to be poured into two glasses sitting on the mantel. It's a Wednesday night, one day before Good Show Great Show's concert at The Bourbon, and house owner Taylor Weichman asks if I'd like to fully appreciate where the band is coming from. I decline the whiskey with a laugh, and so does Dawn, our photographer, but it sets the mood and invites us into their practice space.
Good Show Great Show is three good guys playing great songs, but they like to say alcohol is one of the reasons people start to like the music more. They usually play to an audience of one, Taylor's dog, here in the basement of his house near East Campus. With two advertising degrees, and an educational administration master's degree on the way, Good Show Great Show isn't all self-deprecation, though, with a constant eye toward crafting and promoting a brand.
The band's harmony-driven, whiskey-flavored tunes will take up residence at The Bourbon tonight for a Hear Nebraska Presents show at 9. Before you come, study up as the trio talks their history, their gear and how the saxophone line of "Careless Whisper" factored into their Wednesday. Also play along with a transcription and explanation of their song "Winter Woman," linked here:
"WINTER WOMAN" MUSIC EXAM | CHORDS
photo by Kyle Stebbins
Hear Nebraska: What is it about whiskey that you want people to associate with Good Show Great Show?
Dan Kohler: Just being aged in a barrel (laughs).
Anthony Galvan: I associate whiskey with Taylor. He’s an old soul. He’s got the old man golf swing, he’s got that perfected. He’s kind of angry sometimes, and whiskey’s kind of an angry drink.
Taylor Weichman: Most of the songs have a foundation in whiskey whether that be thematic or I was in that state when I started writing it.
Speaking of, to fully appreciate where we’re coming from, we have some Seagram’s and two glasses here for you guys. We feel like people like the music more when they’ve had two, three...
DK: Four bottles (laughs).
HN: Why didn’t you name the band OK Show All Right Show?
TW: That would be more accurate (laughs). No, it came from our friend. We were trying to think the name of a movie. These guys (the rest of the band) weren’t there, and my friend was trying to think of this snowboarding movie. It’s a terrible story, but it’s a true story.
We had been at the tavern for a long time, and my friend was like, “Good Show Great Show?” So I just got on my phone, texted the others, and said, “We have a band name.” And they didn’t fight it.
AG: We need to come up with a better story for that, a fake story (laughs).
I'm never gonna dance again instagr.am/p/IcbSxVSN8R/
— Good Show Great Show (@GshowGshow) March 21, 2012
HN: As a shameless fan of “Careless Whisper,” I have to ask if your latest tweet is any indication of a cover.
DK: You have it (the saxophone)? Do you have it down here?
TW: No, it’s upstairs.
DK: Tell your story about today then.
TW: Some of our friends had some work people come in from Austria and Canada today and flew into the Lincoln airport of all places. So I got a call yesterday, because for some reason it’s known I can play that particular line of music.
DK: Those four measures (laughs).
TW: Yeah, so they were like, “Can you come and do sexy saxman for our friends who are flying in?” And I was like, “Yeah.” So bandwide not yet, but there’s a good possibility.
HN: What was the response you received from that?
TW: Well, five of the six (flying in) hadn’t been here before so somebody dressed up like a cow, somebody dressed up like corn, the other person dressed up like a ladybug. I had my wolf American flag T-shirt on. The dude from Austria said this is the best welcome ever. I was like, “You need better friends, man.”
HN: What do you all do for work?
DK: I work at UNL, doing digital marketing, website stuff.
AG: I work at what’s called Kenexa. They do research in human resources stuff, but I’m their social media strategist, whatever that means.
TW: And I’m pursuing my master’s degree in educational administration because jobs are boring (laughs).
HN: And I understand you (Anthony) were in Bathtub Dogs through some research.
AG: Yeah, actually we all were. That’s how we got our start, that’s how we all met each other.
DK: That’s why a major part of our songs our harmonies because we can’t play our instruments very well (laughs), so we can mask it a little bit.
AG: So we’re kind of rooted, that’s where the songs start is in the vocals and harmonies.
DK: And whiskey and anger (laughs). I’m just kidding.
HN: Have you been a part of other bands?
DK: Just in high school.
AG: This is pretty much my first real dive into being a band, taking it seriously.
HN: OK, then Taylor, you write all the songs, or how does it work?
TW: Yeah, I do the lyrics, and usually I just come with a chord structure and we go from there. The ones we’ve recorded are the ones we’re most proud of because of...
DK: Most collaboration.
TW: Yeah, so we pull them all the way down. We have the chord structure then we start over essentially. That’s why the recording process is really good for us because it makes us pull out the things we want. And it’s really easy because we don’t have a drummer, so we can do it as many times as we need to.
HN: How do you pull off the drums in live shows?
AG: I run everything through Ableton Live. And I hit a button and we go. It’s our job to keep up.
TW: We always know that we won’t rush.
AG: Our drummer’s probably the most talented musician in the band. And he listens, he doesn’t talk back.
TW: We do like to make the drums our own creation. The beats aren’t prefab stuff.
AG: Yeah, we build them from scratch. And we have some other stuff we lay on top like our saxophone. We don’t have enough hands to pull that off.
DK: Just the ambient noises and stuff.
HN: Do you try to use that same vocal treatment on recordings in live shows?
AG: We haven’t yet. I think the thing about it is Taylor’s voice to me already has that raspy, distorted sound.
TW: Like I was born in a ‘20s radio.
AG: Recorded it’s really nice, but I think live it comes off like that, too. We’re using backing tracks to get the sound how we want it, but we wanted our vocal tracks to be a little more authentic.
TW: We do ask for reverb when appropriate.
HN: Since you work with websites, Dan, and you with social media, Anthony, how do you use that to promote your band?
DK: That’s the second part of this band I like, the promotion. Anthony and I went through the J School together and did advertising. It’s what we grew up and learned. We’ve never actually worked together, but now we have something we can team up on and promote. We can come up with creative ideas promotion-wise as well as musically.
AG: We just started putting our stuff out there, taking it seriously in December and January. From there, we started on our Instagram and Twitter and whatnot, then we decided to record our stuff.
We’ve liked the way we released our music to start because we put everything on YouTube, kept it in one place, and wanted to put a visual with it, since we were out in the country, and Taylor’s kind of a western Nebraska guy so all his songs are rooted in the country I feel like.
The songs all tell a story with the videos we’ve put out. We think our friends and those who have started following us have seen us grow with that. We want to do it that way.
DK: The majority is about our music, and it sounds really bad, but some of it is the question of, “How are we going to promote ourselves?” That’s a real consideration.
Thanks to @gshowgshow for passing on this #newnemusic, their newest video, "Silver/Blue." Nice boots! | bit.ly/z2Oo8x
— Hear Nebraska (@hearnebraska) March 5, 2012
HN: OK, and where are you from, Taylor?
TW: I’m from Ainsworth.
HN: All right. Why did you choose to use one static shot for each video?
AG: If you try to do any more than that then you’re turning yourself into a music video. I don’t think we’re ready to do a music video. And there’s something simple with it because you have a visual to support it, but you can still let your imagination run wild and now be tailored to whatever the video is.
DK: We just wanted to get the music out but still keep our brand.
AG: Yeah, we do feel like we have a brand to go with our music.
TW: Not just a slideshow of pictures with lyrics in comic sans.
DK: But we can do that.
TW: That will be next.
HN: You have four out right now, are you working on others?
AG: We’re hoping to put out a five-song EP, but at the rate we’re going, as the songs are ready to record, we’ll record them. We’ll stop whenever we run out of material. We have those four recorded, but collectively, partially and completely written songs, there’s about 15 of them.
TW: Two out of the three band members are on board for a cover of “Wicked Game.”
AG: I’m out. I’m gonna go to the bar and drink during that one (laughs).
HN: Have you played other covers?
TW: We did a Bob Dylan cover for the Duffy’s show in February, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.”
HN: OK, tell me about your gear, whoever wants to start.
DK: I have a Fender American Strat HSS. I just got it. I was playing a sweet Epiphone SG.
AG: Don’t write that. If I see Epiphone written in that thing... I’m just kidding. I just give him crap.
DK: I was looking at Telecasters, but this is a pretty versatile guitar. I’ve had this amp for awhile. It’s a Behringer 212 something. And just a couple pedals. We play a lot of ambient noises, so like compression, sustainers, pretty important. Guitar-wise we’re fairly minimal. I’d say with Anthony, that’s where we get a little techie.
AG: All my stuff is software-based. I use a MIDI controller, so I basically just play a MacBook Pro. But the other day we were at Best Buy, and they had a keytar there, so I bought a keytar. So we’re finding songs I can stand up and play on. But I mostly bought it so I could buy the lightning bolt strap.
TW: The guys who were working the counter were like, “You’re seriously going to buy that?”
AG: I said, “Why hasn’t it sold yet?” And they go, “Well, I think it’s a certain type of person that buys a keytar.”
TW: And he’s like, “I’ll take it.”
AG: Yeah, I look down at myself and I think, “Yeah, I guess I am that person.”
HN: And Taylor, what’s your setup?
TW: I have a Gretsch Electromatic then my Valvetronix, a Vox. I went from little Vox to this one. So mine’s pretty simple.
DK: I think originally we were thinking about being acoustic. Right when the band started, we played bluegrass, folk, acoustic stuff.
AG: We use to just play with the blow keys (laughs, showing the melodica).
DK: It’s just evolved into the sound that we think we fit.
AG: I think that we’re getting more creative, we’re seeing the band grow.
TW: Yeah, we’re still learning.
DK: Yeah, I just play bendys on guitar and Johnny Cash licks.
"WINTER WOMAN"
HN: Tell me about the production of the song “Winter Woman,” what you used to record it and how you treated it in post-production.
AG: First off, one of the things people ask us about is what’s the significance of the radio we got here. We were out at Taylor’s cabin out by Burwell. We decided to take four days and record. We were out there, and we found this radio. I fell in love with this radio. I thought it sounded sweet.
The vocals in “Winter Woman,” at the beginning of the song, we recorded them clean, three-part clean. Then we ran them through that radio with a transmitter, put a microphone up to the radio and recorded it.
So the beginning of the song isn’t necessarily an effect. It’s straight recorded from that radio. So that’s the significance of the radio. We liked it, and it had an old-school feel to it, too.
TW: Then the beat in the great room in the cabin. It’s a long room, all hardwood. The floor’s really loud, so we just set the microphone on one end and did the stomp clap on the other. There’s not anything put on top of that.
AG: That’s just straight stomps and claps. Some of the other stuff, we’d put the speakers at one end of the big living room, and we’d put the mic down at the other end just to get natural reverb. That’s at the end of the song. We wanted the song to have the element of production but also just natural sound.
DK: The other cool part, too, is Anthony’s extremely good at recording. Taylor and I just kind of take a back seat. He’s like the producer/engineer. He’ll say, “Do that again,” then he’ll mix in some effects with that. If he didn’t have that talent, we wouldn’t have any music or videos or anything.
AG: The other thing is before the recording they’re different. When we record our songs, that’s when we sit down and think about each part. That allows the song to grow from there. They’re night and day from before we record and after we record. Then we have to go back and learn how to play them (laughs), decide how we’re going to play that live.
photo by Kyle Stebbins
HN: OK, and then tell me about what the lyrics mean for “Winter Woman,” Taylor.
TW: The guy who was the inspiration for the name of the band is responsible for that song actually. It came up in conversation, probably about November. We were wondering when is — we’ll call him Kate Nustard — we wondered how he always managed to find himself a lady for the winter months, then by the time they were over, she disappeared somehow. They grew apart.
AG: He had to find a girl when it started to get cold.
DK: After football season, he’s like, “Aw, crap, I gotta find a girlfriend."
TW: So it started as a joke honestly. We used to practice at Anthony’s apartment, which I can’t believe we didn’t get kicked out of there. I was like, “Dude, check this out.” It was a joke and we recorded it. We have an old video of us just standing there singing it, and people latched on to that. We played for our friends, and partially because of the story, they liked it.
AG: Don’t they say that the amount of people in relationships goes up in the winter then goes down in the summer?
TW: Oh, sure. You might need to cite your sources on that.
AG: I think for many people, it’s like that.
TW: Yeah, it applies to many people, but we had one person in mind.
HN: It’s not often that a round finds its way into a song these days. What prompted that?
DK: We had a bridge then someone said let’s try a round. A lot of the times what we’ll do is challenge ourselves. We’ll switch it up. So it’s a conscious thought of how are we going to manipulate this songs. After we could sing it, we thought it worked really well. At first it was difficult to do because we were all singing in unison before.
AG: I think the other thing is that Taylor is our lead guy, but Dan and I like to sing, too. We all could be solo vocalists in other places, but we’ve just made Taylor our lead guy. It’s a good spot for us to sing individually because we love to sing. That’s what brought us all together: We all love to sing as opposed to wanting to be in a band.
TW: I think sometimes we when change stuff up, it’s just an accident. We don’t plan stuff out, but we just keep trying it until it sticks. So it’s not like, “Oh, a round would be perfect.” We just keep trying stuff until it sticks to the wall.
HN: OK, then lastly, since yesterday was the first day of spring, did Kate end up finding his winter woman?
TW: We never saw her this time, but she existed.
AG: After the song, the eyes were on him.
TW: Yeah, about mid-February, I heard she said we’re not spending enough time together. And he was like, “That’s because winter’s over.”
DK: Then he put on his headphones and it was the “Winter Woman” song.
CHORDS
Capo on 7th fret
Chords relative to the capo are G F#/D and Em
D
I can feel it in the fall.
I can feel it in the fall
A/F# Bm
I can feel it in the fall
A/F# D
I need a woman to call (my own)
D
I can feel it in the cold
I can feel it in the cold
A/F# Bm
I can feel it in the cold
A/F# D
I need a woman to hold
Bm A/F# D
I need to find me a winter woman
(progression repeats)
To keep me warm when there’s nothing but ice and snow
Who will curl up beside me
With coffee and whiskey
Keep me warm when the winter winds blow
D
I can feel it in the wind
I can feel it in the wind
A/F# Bm
I can feel it in the wind
A/F# D
I need a woman again
D
I can feel it in the lights
I can feel it in the lights
A/F# Bm
I see it in the northern lights
A/F# D
I need a woman tonight
Bm A/F# D
I need to find me a winter woman
To keep me warm when the fire goes dim
I need to find me a big-hearted woman
To slide underneath this big bear skin
Bm A/F# D
Winter woman won’t you keep me warm
Bm A/F# D A/F#
Winter woman won’t you keep me warm (X2)
Bm A/F# D
I need to find me a winter woman
To keep me warm when there's nothing but ice and snow
Who will curl up beside me with coffee and whiskey
Keep me warm when the winter winds blow
Winter woman won’t you keep me warm (x4)
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He's happy to be in it for the long haul, in all parts of his life. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.
