Interview with Skyler Smith on Vocals and Bass, Rick Sterling and Jim Watkins on Guitar and Sam Nells on Drums from Goron and Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?
Skyler Smith: Heavy, loud, low, and mostly slow.
Sam Nells: Not for the faint of heart.
Jim Watkins: Driving riffs peppered with tranquil detours.
Rick Sterling: We have pretty sincere moments that quickly transition to fast and heavy sections.
PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc.
Skyler: We’re all from the Rochester NY area, but Jim is from a bit farther away.
Jim: I’m from somewhere else. I’m from the future. I’m from Fair Haven NY.
PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?
Sam: To be quite honest, my first inspiration was probably Koji Kondo, composer of all the early Nintendo games, that I remember fondly from my childhood.
Skyler: You know what’s really crazy? I was going to say similar. The original Spyro trilogy had some dope music, and Stewart Copeland wrote all that. More recently, bands like Mastodon and Opeth have been really influencing the Goron sound in a big way as well.
Rick: I think Randy Rhodes was my biggest influence growing up. I was low key obsessed with him at that age, and that’s where I developed my interest in classical, rock and metal. Since then, I take big influenced from jazz, funk, and classical as well.
Jim: Tenacious D, I didn’t know you could play acoustic guitarlike that when I was a kid. And Aretha Franklin, my mom
always played her. I would sing along.
PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?
Rick: We wanna tour the world!
Sam: We wanna make enough money where we don’t need a second job.
PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?
Skyler: Honestly when we hit the road for a few days last April, we had never done that and it was really cool to get out there.
Rick: I think that keeps changing for me. I’m really proud of everything we’ve started to do, and I’m really excited to see what we can do in the future.
PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms in the day of the home studio. How is that going?
Skyler: It’s actually really fun. We have to figure out new and exciting ways to get ourselves out there and seen by new people everyday. Live streams, TikToks, it’s all super cool. A bit challenging to get into, but it’s not all bad.
PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?
Skyler: Usually, we use the interntet and post all over. Word of mouth, sometimes we’ll have physicial flyers, physical tickets. It’s a nice blend of it all, really.
Jim: I’ve just been asking people at work.
Sam: We have a show 2/19 at Montage Music Hall in Rochester NY, 3/26 at Photo City Music Hall, we’ve got a weekender planned in April that’s still in the works, and we’re playing Mohawk in Buffalo 5/8.
Rick: And we’re playing with Rezn and Oryx at Bug Jar 6/5!
PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?
Jim: I don’t know. I like the accessibility, but I don’t like the lack of profitability. I wish vinyl were easier to make.
San: I’m not entirely against it, but it sucks howmuch is being taken away from those bands.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
Rick: Nothing is coming to mind, I just write my own shit. I’ve never thought about that.
Skyler: Yeah, I mean he’s right. I wish I could get inspiration like how Sabbath had in the 70’s, but I don’t wish I wrote anyone else’s song.
Jim: 0073735963 by Derrick Hart
Sam: Hessian Peel by Opeth
PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?
Jim: So much. Just the way that it’s set up between the different powers of like how creativbe liceenses iosn’t the same as
having your oen music. It tries mask an idea as a tnagible the and put price on it. i don’t know how to say it.
Sam: Yeah.
Rick: I wish it was easier to make a living off it, knowing all want to do is persue our dream.
Skyler: The only thing I’m not a huge fan of is how saturated everything is now. There’s no real way to change that, and it makes me happy that more people are able to make msuci with one another.
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
Skyler: We’re putting together a single right now, it’s slated to be out in April. It’s called “Antithesis Soliloquy” and we’ve been working with Wicked Squid Studios on that.
Sam: Beyond that, we’ve been working on an album for a while now, and look to start recording the rest of that as well.
PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online?
Skyler: We’re on all major streamers and social media! Bandcamp is a great place to stay updated and hear new stuff as it’s released.
Goron links:
Band/Artist location – Rochester, New York
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