"Krone" interview

Good Wilson: Between turmoil and escapism

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Morinoko, Philip Hisocks)

Vienna-based indie duo Good Wilson spent five long years working on their second album "It Is Done". The album title can therefore be taken self-deprecatingly, but the quintet is very serious about its music. Günther Paulitsch and Yannic Steuerer gave us a closer look in the "Krone" interview.

The long-established saying "Good things take time" doesn't usually work so well in the music business. If you want to stay interesting these days, it's best to release a single every few weeks and make yourself a jumping jack on the usual social media platforms. That's not so easy if you are personally and musically very different. The quintet from Good Wilson work professionally in the music sector, but prefer to define themselves through instruments rather than postings and create sounds that have little in common with the usual format radio. The ambitious debut album was released five days after the first corona lockdown and possibly prevented the band around frontman Günther Paulitsch from having a meteoric indie career. Despite all the quarrels, sold-out concerts in Vienna and Graz and appearances at renowned international showcase festivals such as Hamburg's Reeperbahnfestival, Eurosonic in Holland and Great Escape in England followed.

A difficult birth
The follow-up has the ambiguous name "It Is Done" and actually has five years of blood, sweat and tears of composition behind it. "It wasn't an agonizing process, but it was a long one," smiles Paulitsch in the Krone interview, "when an album takes almost five years, then at some point you're just glad that it's done." "It Is Done" is an ironic title for this process. "It was a marathon, maybe even an Iron Man - with lots of ups and downs and a whole pandemic in between. Some songs were written five years ago, others were only finished in the last six months. A few songs have also been out for a few years. It was also due to our life circumstances that everything took so long." The band members work in the music industry and have countless other projects and bands in which they are involved. Even if Good Wilson is very important, finding structured and shared time and letting yourself fall into it is not always as easy as you imagine in theory.

Last but not least, various line-up changes meant that the approach to new songs had to be recalibrated time and again. "Our philosophy is that the overall product is important. The music, the artwork, the videos, the presentation - everything. When you listen to the record, it should sound coherent and cohesive." "It Is Done" is an indie journey through pop and rock history, which is clearly guided by role models such as Big Thief or Adrienne Lenker, but is nevertheless independently and originally led through different sonic waters. Psychedelic, folkloristic and alternative sounds mix with poppy, accessible moments that are sometimes closer to Tame Impala, Kurt Vile or, musically, the Beach Boys. Depending on which direction you prick up your ears and with which expectations you let yourself fall into songs like "Closure", "Undecided Changes" or "Stay Away".

Loops are allowed
Songs like "Bats From The Buffet" or "Comedown Primetime" have gone through countless loops and often have little to do with the original idea. "But we always play the songs very differently live, sometimes spontaneously," adds guitarist Yannic Steuerer, "Günther has also counted in live before and then started in a completely different way. We didn't know exactly how to play it at first." This spontaneous element of surprise makes songs that have been around for a few years contemporary and present. Far removed from any trends, the guitar streams out of Good Wilson's speakers as the elementary main instrument. "The basic essence is perhaps sometimes even too many guitars," they both laugh, "but the guitar and the voice define our sound." Excursions into gentle country and jazz spheres are allowed and encouraged. Good Wilson have defined themselves quite well musically, but always leave room for new twists and expansions.

In terms of content, "It Is Done" is as much a showcase of personal problems and sensitivities as it is a look at a shattered world whose crises pop up faster than a busy indie band can write songs. Paulitsch is the main lyricist, with colleague Alex Connaughton providing occasional support. "It wasn't always easy to sort through everything. The thoughts and life circumstances that have arisen over the course of time," says Paulitsch, "it's important to me that it's not just personal stories and sensitivities, but also a kind of documentary about social circumstances. The inequalities and crises of the world are depicted in the symbiosis between sounds and arrangements. A major theme is also the question of where the constant desire for escapism and escape comes from."

It doesn't work without escapism
The album regularly ends with "Will It Ever Stop" - more a question than an announcement. "From domestic politics to all the crises, with colonialism and re-emerging imperialism, from people who want to draw arbitrary lines on the world map, there are many topics that concern us. But as a band, we don't just want to warn people, we want to motivate them a bit. To encourage people to see things in a positive light, to stand up for change and sometimes even to resist it." Of course, it doesn't work without escapism. In Paulitsch's case, that would be computer game units in "Star Wars: Battlefront". "You have to be careful that you don't just go doomscrolling on your cell phone and get carried away by the news."

Release show at the Volkstheater
A good way to get away from the pitfalls and problems of everyday life would be to attend Good Wilson's release show. On March 6, the band will be presenting their new album in the Rote Bar at Vienna's Volkstheater. Tickets and further information about the concert highlight of the guitar-loving indie duo are still available at www.ntry.at.