Mandurah natives, Good Doogs have had a huge 18 months and it’s only going to get larger for the three-piece.
Best friends who never really thought living out their dream as musicians would be viable, Good Doogs are making moves in all the right places. “We’ve only been a band for nearly 18 months now; it’s been really fun, really fast and absolute living our dream,” the group's drummer Michael says.
“When we all linked up, we didn’t really think that this would be a viable thing. But within a month of getting together, we had our first song.”
The lads have had a whirlwind past 12 months that has included touring with Tired Lion, releasing a number of singles, performing at festivals and showcasing at BIGSOUND in Brisbane – just to name a few things.
When asked about a standout of the band's year so far, Michael says touring with Tired Lion is right up there. “That was so much fun. We played some really big rooms, heaps of shows were sold out. But playing to 700 or 800 people was psycho,” he says.
As well as having fun, the tour gave the band a bit of an insight into the rock & roll life. “Getting to hang around with Tired Lion and seeing how professionals do it, to how we do it… we learnt a lot from them,” Michael says.
Every band that attends music conference BIGSOUND hopes to achieve big things (networking, future signings, tours etc.), which is exactly what happened with Good Doogs. “Very exciting things,” Michael says, going on to say that their two showcases were probably the best gigs they’ve ever played. “It was the most nervous we’ve ever been, I’ve never seen us that nervous.
“We knew who was in the room and that we needed to impress. But saying that, it was probably our best show we’ve ever done. We came off stage and we looked at each other going ‘what the f... that was so sick’.”
The band put their success down to working hard, but also their close friendship. “Because we’re a regional band, there is no one in our town that’s kind of put us under their wing”, Michael says.
“We realised if you want to make it you have to do it for yourself, and at the beginning there wasn’t a day that we would sit on our arse; we were just hard at it the whole time and it's paid off,” he says.
One thing that does come pretty easily to the band though, is making music. In fact, the boys wrote and recorded their last single, ‘Want That’, in two days. “We literally put [that] together in two days”, Michael says.
“Asher, about two days before goes ‘I’ve got this idea’. Once he played it, we looked at each other and knew that that was it. When we were in the studio recording it, I was still trying to learn it.”
You’ll be able to check them out for yourself soon enough as the boys have just been announced for Shakafest (Gold Coast) in November as well as their own Australian tour. “We’re really looking forward to the next couple of months,” Michael says.
“For the live shows we are bringing someone along with us to play guitar (Andrew Darbourne from Cellophane). It going to be sick and we’re going to sound sick as a four-piece.”
Good Doogs Australia Tour 2018
Fri 23 Nov - The Prince of Wales Hotel (Bunbury)Sat 24 Nov - Shakafest (Gold Coast)
Sat 1 Dec - The Sewing Room (Perth)
Thu 13 Dec - Bloodhound Bar (Brisbane)
Fri 14 Dec - The Chippendale Hotel (Sydney)
Sat 29 Dec - Crown and Anchor (Adelaide)
Sun 30 Dec - Northcote Social Club (Melbourne)
