The Collective’s Flower Moon Festival is a one-day festival, fully run by Chapman students, aiming to highlight bands from all genres and styles. In this interview series, death of the rabbit discusses the festival and music releases with some of Flower Moon’s lineup. Tickets are on sale now here.
DEATH OF A RABBIT: Duck, duck, or goose?
JACKSON: I guess both because — this was probably meant to be a simple question — but back when the band was first forming, this baby cat appeared at James’ house. He kind of became the mascot for the band for a while, and we named him Duck. I think the absurd nature of calling him Duck and the band being called Goosechase is why we called him that. But, automatically, to your question, I wanted to answer goose.
DOAR: You guys also just released an EP, which congrats by the way! How does it feel to finally have it released?
MELISSA: It feels really good! I wrote two of those songs, “Heal Me” and “When It Rains.” Those were written my freshman year, 2023, and a lot of the other songs were written mostly around 2024. It feels really good to be able to get it out, start writing new things and have all of that stuff we’ve been sitting on just be enjoyed by people.
JAMES: The EP has been our live set for over a year now, and we have also recorded it in October. It’s felt like a long time coming and very relieving to have it out now. Like Melissa said, we can focus on new things for the first time in a very long time.
JACKSON: James mentioned those songs, in that order, we were playing for a while, and I think that helped the recording process and assembling it together into that EP. We had been playing live for a long time before we put out our first single, and our sound, arrangement, even the people in the band had moved around, changed instruments, and changed a lot. I think there’s no better way to discover yourself and your identity than to try it in front of a crowd of people and see if they fuck with you or not. Releasing our first single was so freeing.
We quite literally locked ourselves in the barn. We cut it all in around 10 to 12 hours worth of work. We recorded all those tracks in a space that felt very organic and nice to us. The barn is by no means like a treated studio. With all the echoes and reverberations, all the imperfections of the space are very honest and authentic to who we are and what our sound is aiming to represent. Once it had been recorded and then in the months following, mixed and mastered with our good friends in Philly, it was very easy, for me at least, to put it out, because it felt very honest and right. It feels great to have it out. People have enjoyed it, and I’m excited to continue building.
DOAR: Recording in the barn definitely, to me, adds to the flavor of the EP — having those imperfections from the barn’s space! I was wondering about the process of finding your aesthetic. At least in your latest two releases, you have a black and white, handmade feel to it. How did you pinpoint what you wanted for the artwork, especially as it was made by you all?
JACKSON: After we recorded the EP last fall, we started working with a good friend of ours, Kyle, to help with creative direction and establishing an identity in a world for people to live in as they consume this music. That’s something we’ve really tried to put an emphasis on for a while.
Oftentimes, we’ll go into the barn, and it’ll be very fast paced. We used to take on a lot more shows and be in such a time crunch just get in there and rehearse and then eventually go home. We’ve brought in photographers like Cole to come photograph us going out to the barn without the intention of doing music on Sundays. Just to be there and embrace the space and think about how we engage with it has really altered our viewpoint. I feel like the aesthetic and visuals that have come with the project have been very organic and natural, as we’ve just really tried to live in it.
JAMES: I think having the EP being recorded in there, it makes sense to show everyone the inside and our true, authentic selves. What you’re seeing is literally where we live and create and record the music. The Tide / When It Rains cover art was Jackson tracking guitars for “Heal Me” in that picture with a filter thrown on it. The EP cover is also a picture that we did with Cole of me, Melissa and our bassist Elliot in the front of the barn, with a filter thrown on it. it got sent in and unanimously we were like, ‘That’s the EP cover.’
JACKSON: The little drawing is supposed to be a path leading up to the barn. If you notice the text on the front, it’s a very, very rough version of the title of the EP. It’s intentionally written, kind of fucked up and illegible. You mentioned that word ‘imperfection’ a little bit ago. I think imperfection is a corollary to authenticity, and we have done our best to lean into that as much as possible and show people who we are.
DOAR: Do you feel like the EP is the barn’s soundtrack in a way, or is it not encapsulating enough?
JAMES: It’s kind of funny; the barn is in the backyard of my house, and my family has lived there for like 40, 50+ years, so it’s definitely a different vibe when I have Goosechase in the barn versus my family and family friends. My family is a lot more 80’s rock type of music, and there’s Judas Priest and Metallica pictures in there. When I was younger, my dad was one of my early influences. He writes and plays classic thrash riffs on the guitar. He’s where I got a lot of my early music taste from. So, for me personally, the soundtrack of the barn would definitely be more in that genre, but the aesthetic and vibe of the barn has definitely shifted a little since Goosechase has come in, and we’ve remodeled the space a little bit.
JACKSON: On the basis of transforming the identity of the barn, I feel like the barn is less something that you try to soundtrack for and more like a canvas. There’s a bunch of interesting things in the barn, between posters, vintage arcade machines and sometimes critters in there, it’s a very interesting space that’s just very eclectic by nature. It’s a space that feels very warm and inviting, true to James’ early experiences there. The picture that we painted with this EP is likely different from the picture that James’ other band is going to paint when they go into the band and record, but the picture we painted this time is one that I’m sure everyone will agree to. It’s one of leaning into our dreams of pursuing music and taking this somewhere else, even if we don’t know exactly what that looks like.
DOAR: You guys also handmake your merch – how important is it for you to handmake it and give it to your audience?
JACKSON: Super important. It’s very very true to us and our style and the authenticity we look to bring through everything that we do. It’s very true to the nature of this scene. I think encouraging DIY-ness is something that we should all be doing and lifting one another up. I also get really hyperfixated on projects like that. I’ve had a lot of fun putting the merch together. I like that every single one is a little bit different, maybe there’s a small crease or fold, we’re also going to sign them and put handwritten notes and a photo and such in there. We’ve also realized, despite focusing a lot on creating this identity, considering the way that it connects with people is important. However, we can continue connecting with people no matter what size we are; that will always be our number one priority.
MELISSA: When I go to shows, I can always tell how much people and bands respect their craft by the amount of time and work they put into their merch. Not dogging on anybody who mass orders merch, but if you have the resources and connections and friends, I think it just strengthens the scene as a whole and your connection to your audience. It’s also just more fun! When James and I were screen printing the T-shirts, we went and bought around 50 shirts at Goodwill and each one was different. There’s not a lot of merch I feel like for women and so getting tank tops and mini jackets or whatever is really cool. It’s rewarding to make things that I would wear and not just getting T-shirts that are mass ordered. I think it’s just a better process and more tailored connection to each and every person who buys it.
JACKSON: It’s hard, (when) listening to music over a streaming service, to feel connected to an artist and to feel like you’re sharing something with them that they created and belongs to them. And there’s this mutual ownership of this art. I think it was easier when physical media was a primary form, but we try to counteract that (dissonance) by leaning into the space, the imperfections, and making it seem like you were there with us. You’re purchasing something that is quite literally assembled by us by hand, designed, printed, cut and burned, and it’s a sticker that might have the smallest air bubble under it, you can tell that we had our hands on it. Now we’re sharing this together, so that we can make it personal.
JAMES: In one of the newsletters, I wrote about the history of the barn and what it means to us. One of my closing statements was, when you’re listening to the EP, you’re taking a little bit of the barn with you as you listen to the EP. I think for bands that do mass-printing through someone else, I don’t think there’s necessarily something genuine about that in itself. But I think with how personal and DIY we record, write and produce our music, I think it would have felt ingenuine for us to go through someone else to make our shirts, because that doesn’t match who we are or the music that we make. I think us making it ourselves is the only way to stay genuine to who we are as a band.
DOAR: What are you guys most excited about for the festival?
MELISSA: I’m excited to play new music and not return with the same set as last year! We’re playing two new songs and finally rotating off some of the EP tracks that we’ve been playing for over a year now. It’s really rewarding and feels like a fresh start because a year ago we opened Flower Moon. With the set, I’m pretty sure that was the first time we played “What’s Not Right” live, and we were like, “Okay, this is the order.” This is the order that we’re doing for the EP. It kind of marks a year of solidifying the orders and the songs of the EP and so this marks the beginning of the next project.
JACKSON: I’m most excited to buzz James’ head in the parking lot.
JAMES: I asked Melissa to buzz it already, I trust her more with that!
DOAR: Will this be the biggest audience that you’ve played for? Are you excited or scared at all?
MELISSA: I think it probably will be the biggest audience we’ve played for!
JAMES: I think what’s different about the audience isn’t just the number. When we opened Flower Moon last time, our fan base was a lot of people very local to us, or just friends and family and I think it’s different this time. It’s not just the number of people in the building, but the number of people in the building who listen and know our songs and maybe don’t even know us personally. I think that’s a very different feeling, playing a small room with people that know your music feels bigger than playing a stadium with people that don’t know you at all. Even playing our EP release show, there’s something different in the air, playing for people who really resonate with your music. I think this will be our biggest show so far, as far as having fans in the room.
MELISSA: Numbers wise, yes. But I honestly feel a bit better about it, because it feels more like there’s a nice community built around it already.
JAMES: And to the question about if we’re nervous or excited, there’s been a lot of talk this year about the set, like Melissa said we’re debuting some new songs at Flower Moon. There are definitely a couple of shows where we were talking about writing new music or changing up the set. And there were shows where energy is–I don’t want to say down, but we got into a routine where we show up and play the same set that we’re used to. And it felt like a routine, rather than the excitement and the nerves of playing a show. And I can say that now we are really, really excited just to go play new music. When we started writing these new songs and feeling good about these new songs, there’s a huge energy shift. I haven’t felt these kinds of excited nerves in a long time. And I think regardless of the size of the room, there’s that level of excitement and I think this marks the new season of Goosechase and out sound.
JACKSON: And the other side of that, I think the last time when there were a lot of people that knew us as people might not have really considered the music in the band with the same significance or seriousness rather as we sustained since then. Now we’re a year later and I think we’ve come a long way, and I’m excited for those people to see it again in a new light. I think there’s a lot more weight to what we’re doing nowadays. It’s just like, “Oh, they’re taking this seriously,” and we’re really trying.
Check out Goosechase’s music below!
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