SheKnows talks to Good Old War and gets to know a little bit about this cool new band.
Meet Tim, Dan and Keith: the three guys that make up the acoustic, indie folk band Good Old War. The acoustic trio formed as their former bands broke up and are garnering some serious attention since their debut in 2008.
SheKnows sat down with Good Old War before one of their shows in Phoenix, Arizona and got to know a little bit about what makes this cool new band so dedicated to their music.
The Good Old War experience
SK: What kind of atmosphere or aura do you guys envision with your music — where do you hope to take your audience?
Keith: I think it’s a kind of chill, like bonfire-type vibe. A sing-along — massive sing-songs and positive atmosphere.
Getting down to just the music
SK: You guys have each worked with different bands. How did this approach [to have a smaller, acoustic group] differ? Is this a side project?
Keith: In our old bands there was just a lot more members, it was like a full-on rock on band… so with this we thought, “Let’s just focus on the songs, writing good songs.” We had it be acoustic so we could pretty much show up wherever — someone’s porch, a living room or a rock club or a theater, an arena — and just have it work anywhere.
When you’re starting out a band and you don’t have all the money to like pay a sound guy — we just wanted it to sound good always.
Tim: It’s definitely not a side project. It was more like all of our bands were kind of dissolving and we needed something to do, and it worked. We had all worked together previously and we thought if our bands aren’t going to work out then let’s try something with each other.
So, what does Good Old War mean?
SK: How did you guys come up with your band name, Good Old War?
Keith: Well, we kind of wanted a name like Simon & Garfunkel or Crosby, Stills and Nash — just with our names in it. We feel like it wouldn’t be the same band if it wasn’t the three of us. You can’t just lose one of the members and have it be the same thing. But Arnold, Goodwin and Schwartz didn’t sound that cool, you know? It sounded like a law firm. We tried KTD [Keith, Dan, Tom] and that wasn’t even a serious name, we just needed something to put on the bill.
When Good Old War came around, we were like, “That’s alright.” It’s a piece of each of our last names: Goodwin, Arnold, Schwartz: Good Old War. We also thought we were fighting a good old war by trying to get out there and make music.
Surprise us
SK: What is one hobby or interest that we might not expect you to do?
Tim: We don’t really have much time to pursue many other interests given the fact that we are on tour like 95 percent of the time.
Dan: I’m a big comic book nerd. I love comics. I used to want to be a comic book artist until I found out about the drums… that’s probably my other biggest hobby.
Keith: I’m a dad. So that’s my hobby.
Thanks so much to Good Old War for talking to SheKnows. Check out our other exclusive interview with Motion City Soundtrack and keep an eye out for more SheKnows music exclusives with hot new bands.
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