Playing Phnom Penh this weekend at the behest of Japan Guitar Shop is Skeleton Goode, an outfit of expatriates out of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Bandleader and guitarist Jack Briggs had a chat with LengPleng about where they’ve come from and how hard it can be for some to get to some places.
This is a return trip to Phnom Penh, yes?
We were in Phnom Penh in 2019 with another Saigon band called Open Air Drug Market, who have since broken up, and we played at Chinese House and Oscar’s on the Corner on that trip. It was quite a new band at that point, more of a duo, and it was probably only our second or third time playing together.
So how did the band get to where it is now?
I started Skeleton Goode originally as a bit of a solo project. I’d played in a band in England that was going very, very well until suddenly it wasn’t – I got fed up and thought I’ll not bother doing a band again, trying to get everybody together on the same wavelength. I moved to Vietnam in 2015, then on a return visit to the UK in 2017 I recorded a few tracks – I played them to a drummer friend when I got back and he said they’re really good songs, you should put a band together. That didn’t happen until 2018, and then suddenly we were in Phnom Penh.
And then of course COVID shut things down.
COVID put a two-year dampener on everything. I was stuck on Phu Quoc island for six months, our bass player had to go back to America, the guitar player had to go back to Japan, and so the whole thing fell apart. When we came to rebuild the band we were a three-piece, up until about a year ago, Now we’re a five-piece, adding organ and sax. A lot of bodies on the stage, and the two new ones are big lads, six three, six four.
What sort of sound are you making now?
The project started off with a sort of surf-psych sound, a sort of heavy version of The Ventures. My initial plan was for the band to be entirely instrumental, but surf rock can get to be a bit samey, so I thought I’d add vocals to tracks, which took a bit of the surf vibe off it. And now with the organ and the sax it’s almost headed towards an early 70s British prog style – King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention – at least in the writing approach, while still retaining the slightly frantic element of surf guitar. It’s found itself a strange little niche now, and I’m not entirely sure how to describe it really.
Is the creative approach a collaborative one, or is there a primary songwriter?
I bring in the bare bones – melody, chords, lyrics –and give that to the band. George the drummer, from the UK, reinterprets it into something that actually works. Theo the bass player, from Kosovo, is an incredible talent, and comes up with the best things just out of nowhere. Ben the sax player, from the USA, is a jazz genius with a newly minted love for rock and progressive sax, making up amazing parts, and he and the organ player, Steven, from Australia, do a lot of interesting interplay and harmonies. I like to have something to give the boys, to keep them motivated – the last thing I want is them looking over their shoulder saying okay, nothing new today. I get to constantly provide new things to keep morale high, and I like that interaction. And it keeps a nice thread running through the songs. But that being said, if they write a banger, bring it on down!
And how did this trip to Phnom Penh come about?
Our bass player Theo met up with Japan Guitar Shop in Vietnam when they were on tour earlier this year, and in fact one of the venues asked if we would like to play on the same bill with them, thinking we would be well-suited together. That fell apart unfortunately – I was still in the UK, one of us was in Norway. Recently I visited Cambodia for a weekend and met up with Cove and Colin from JGS, and we started chatting about the logistics of a brief tour, and it seemed like something we could put together.
We’re excited to get on the road again – the big change is that only in February did Cambodia re-open its borders to holders of Kosovo passports, at last allowing Theo in – it’s been closed off for about ten years. Even Thailand only opened up in June. Unfortunately Kosovo is right down the bottom of the passport food chain. We went to play in Japan last year but Theo got knocked back and we had to get a stand-in bass player. But things are changing. He’s okay in Europe!
Skeleton Goode will perform with Japan Guitar Shop as an opening act at B-BOX at The Factory on Saturday evening. Co-hosts The Deck will be getting the party started early and offering a shuttle bus between Tuol Tom Pong and the venue. Follow this link for more details.