UK group The Go! Team has been going strong for over two decades. Since they first began releasing music in 2000, the band have occupied a niche corner of the indie world. After finding success with last year’s The Get Up Sequences Part One, the band is readying the album’s sequel and trying something new. For forthcoming The Get Up Sequences Part Two, due out in February, the six-piece band is leaning heavily into collaborators from all around the world.
With their recent, catchy singles “Whammy-O” and “Look Away, Look Away,” The Go! Team invited Brooklyn rapper Nitty Scott and West Africa’s Star Feminine Band to lend vocals on their tracks. But that’s not all the band has in store. The Get Up Sequences Part Two is also set to feature Indian Bollywood singer Neha Hatwar, J-Pop band member Kokubo Chisato, and Detroit rapper IndigoYaj. The result is a collection of songs that breathe new life into The Go! Team’s already lively music to bring out even more flavor.
As they’re gearing up for the release of their upcoming seventh studio album, The Go! Team sits down with Uproxx to talk Alice Coltrane, My Bloody Valentine, and an unfortunate tour car crash in our latest Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Amped Up, Technicolor, Trashy, Schizo.
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
Well I always want The Go team to be about the good stuff in life in a sincere way. Not saccharine or sickly but timelessly melodic and just about the good sh*t.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?
Tokyo. Playing Japan is the prize. Every other gig is just killing time until we get to Tokyo.
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
Maybe Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine. Although MBV can really be heard overtly in The Go! Team it flows through it. Balancing curvy sweetness with noise is a lifelong mission for me.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life?
Anytime I have a vegetable dansak it’s the best one.
What album do you know every word to?
None. I’m more of a melody man than a lyrics man.
What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?
Sonic Youth in Shepherds Bush Empire about 2003. After years just drifting they bust out of the gates and really had something to prove.
What is the best outfit for performing and why?
I used to wear sweatbands when I drummed that was always handy — sweat and the go team go together.
Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?
I love this account on Instagram called Dust To Digital which features trippy musical videos from around the world — like someone who is playing the flute with a bedpost or African kids water drumming or making music by revving a motorbike engine. check it out.
What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?
We’re such a random band — and i guess that was the idea of The Go! Team was to have people that might not normally be in a band together. So we all like different stuff but that’s kinda the point. Perhaps we could agree on “3 Feet High And Rising” or something.
What’s the last thing you Googled?
I’m watching The White Lotus and I recognized the Harper character so I Googled to find out where I recognized her from (Parks And Rec!)
What album makes for the perfect gift?
Anything by Alice Coltrane — it’s so floaty and windswept. It can make any situation feel like you are in the middle of the ocean.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
I know you mean crashed as in slept — but we actually nearly really crashed on tour. We were driving from coast to coast in a van and in deepest South Dakota in the snow we suddenly did a double spin on the ice in the middle of the freeway and were inches from rolling into a ditch. We carried on to Minneapolis and played the show.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
That’s a real sign of the times that you assume I have one! I don’t actually but I’d quite like to get a digital watch tattoo.
What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?
Velvet Underground, Curtis Mayfield, Xray Spex, Broadcast, Ennio Morricone, Francis Bebey, William Onyeabor, Shirley Ellis, and Sly Stone.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
When I was traveling around America when I was about 19 and was low on money some random woman in a deli in NYC asked if I wanted to stay at her house. It was a bit sketchy — when I turned up she stank of alcohol but turned out fine.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
I suppose it’s the advice I’d give to anyone who wants to start a band — that it’s more important to kinda take an angle, an approach, a way of seeing the world rather than mastering your instrument. So less shredding — more angle.
What’s the last show you went to?
Stereolab in Brighton. Brill.
What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?
I know Woody Allen is canceled but I still love Play it Again Sam.
What’s one of your hidden talents?
Bizarrely I can sing most theme tunes in exactly the right key. So if someone said sing the theme to Dallas now even though I haven’t heard it for decades it would be in the right key.
The Get Up Sequences Part Two is out 2/23 via Memphis Industries. Pre-order it here.