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I'm Canadian. Gasp. And being Canadian and in the music scene, there's a few bands that you just always know about, and always listen to, and everyone you know at least knows of. One of those bands happens to be Vancouver's Gob. I've been listening to them since I was about 11, and when one of our reps offered me a chance to speak with Tom about their current tour, and their music, I jumped on it in a heartbeat.

"You have to be the motivator, you have to be very hyper-critical even."
- Tom Thacker: Gob

For our readers who don't know who you are, can you please introduce yourself and tell us what you do for the band?

My name is Tom Thacker, and I play guitar and sing for the band Gob.

Do you think your music has evolved since you started, and if so, how?

Well, it's definitely evolved. Every record that we've made sounds a little different, it'll go in a different direction, and just sort of reflects who we are at that time, and how we're feeling. The latest record is quite heavy, and it's just sort of we felt at the time, I guess, while we were writing, and the songs we chose. We usually just write a bunch of songs and pick from them instead of having a goal of what we want it to sound like. So our music definitely does evolve. Our songwriting always evolves because we want to challenge ourselves and try to make it better and have more quality control, and be pickier about what we pick, but it definitely evolves.

So on the topic of your music and your latest CD, I know you co-produced it, so did you like having that much control over what was happening, and did it give everything a different feel while you were recording?

Definitely. I kind of do like the idea of having an outside producer just because it sort of gives you someone to... like a wall, to bounce your ideas off of. We've always been like, very into the production of our records, and trying to keep them really raw, or when we want something to be a little more bombastic or more effective we would have suggestions... we basically produced our CD's all the time, or co-produced them. But this time we had no outside producers, or engineers, really. I think it was the perfect time for us to do that because we really knew how we wanted the songs to sound and I think we pretty much made them exactly how they should have been. So it was perfect.

So you guys just finished your video for The Banshee (found here), so how was shooting for that, and, I know it's pretty new, but how have the fans taken to it so far?

Well, it's hard to say. It just started getting played on MuchMusic, and we just put it on our MySpace the other day. I think people really like it, though. I'm really happy with it, I think it looks great, and it's almost the opposite of the first two videos that we did for this record where it showed us and didn't really show anything else, where this time we're in silhouette basically the whole time.

That was something I noticed about it, and I really liked that. The entire feel of it's really cool.

Yeah! It's totally cool, and it came from an idea that I had when I was in Peru. I kind of just shot a video of me and my girlfriends shadows walking along this monument, and it just looked really cool. I suggested that idea to the video director and he came up with the whole kind of... concept for the video, and it turned out awesome.

Seeing as you just started your new tour, what's your favourite, and least favourite part about touring?

Favourite and least favourite... Well... hm. Playing the shows is my favourite part. I mean, sometimes you feel like, 'Oh my god, I wish I was at home right now,' but sometimes it's like 'I'm so glad that I'm here'. So you could go either way with that one, the being home thing. But I think my least favourite is when you have down time, or whatever. If you're just sitting around bored and you can't be doing anything else, and you've gotta just be waiting, that's the one thing that sucks about touring. But hopefully we can eliminate that, and just keep doing things. I always bring books, and computer, and guitars so that I can write or read or do whatever and keep myself occupied, that's the trick.

Yeah, if you know the downtime's going to come, you might as well bring stuff to keep yourself occupied.

Yeah, definitely! But you can only bring so much stuff! You've gotta choose the right book, you can't choose something that you're like... 'Oh my god, this is not worth it!' But I'm pretty good at that, I know what I like.

Yeah. So what has been the biggest moment for the band been so far, do you think, and what has been the biggest challenge?

You know, it's really hard to say, because I'm not really sure what the biggest moment is. You kind of remember the first ones, like when we first made the video for Soda years ago, we didn't really care about promoting ourselves or anything. Our label wanted us to make a video, we just wanted to have fun. We did the video so that we could get money to build a ramp to go lake jumping. That was my idea, it was like 'You guys have never been lake jumping? We've gotta do this! It rules!' I had done it, so... and then that video got played a ton, and it made a big difference, and so that was a really big moment. Of course there have been a ton of big moments since then, like some people would think our biggest moment would be touring the world with Avril Lavigne, which obviously, is a pretty huge thing, and that is another big one. But there's so many that it's really hard to say, but the Soda one definitely stands out. Making a video and not being sure if it would get played, and then it gets a ton of play and that's exactly what you want it to do. That's sort of what we set out to do with this record, deciding to self produce it and everything, not wanting to give any control away, and that can definitely pose challenged in itself. But sometimes you've gotta do that, you've gotta take hold of your own art, and do exactly what you want to do with it. I mean, we always do, but in every aspect.

Yeah, because you'd still be doing what you want if there were outside people involved, but when it's all you? I can see that being hard, yeah.

Yeah, definitely. You have to be the motivator, you have to be very hyper-critical even. You don't want to sing something twenty times, you want to sing it one time, but you can sing it that one time and say, 'well, I think I can do it better, but I don't want to.' You also have to be that person that goes, 'No, you can do it better. Do it, do it, do it,' until it's perfect, until it's the way you want it to sound on your record. We've had tons of challenges over the years. We've replaced a few members, and finally I think that we might have our band that will be the band for good. Our drummer's been with us for ten years now, and our new bass player is a friend that we actually wanted to join after Craig left. So that's kind of challenging. Leaving record labels, leaving management, we did all of that before we put this record out. (Laughs) In a sense, this record is the biggest challenge we've ever had, because everything changed before it, basically.

What fuels your passion for what you do?

I think everything. I think that you kind of... definitely, there's music that you love more that... the music that I love definitely influences my passion for music, or writing, but also things that you don't like. Especially with this record, it's not necessarily 'these are a few of my favourite things,' everything song, now. It's like, some of them are like, 'this is what really bothers me about the world,' topics like that. Or just... fear of, or uncomfortability with existence of stuff like that. So I think that everything fuels me for inspiration.

So you guys have been part of the Canadian music scene for awhile now, have you noticed any significant changes to it, and do you have any favourites out of the newer bands that are up and coming?

I think, yeah, that, the Canadian music industry... when we started there was a typical idea of what Canadian rock sounded like, and It sounded like this warbling voiced, pearl jam kind of copy band thing. You're probably going to find that out of a smaller country with a smaller population, but I think that Canada over the last... well, since we have been a band, has sort produced bands from every genre. Any and every type of music, from screaming hardcore to sensitive emo, or indie rock kind of stuff, to punk rock, to straight up rock and roll. I think that it's changed that way, definitely. I think that artists have learned to find their sound. I think that artists get a lot of help in Canada just because of government grants and funding stuff like that, and it's always been a very nurturing scene. So it's great that way.

As far as new, upcoming bands, there's a band actually out of Vancouver that Theo and I are going to produce their record, and they're called Floodlight, we're really excited about it. I think it's gonna be awesome, and people should definitely look out for them. We're on tour with The Johnstones right now, they seem pretty awesome, too.

So what kind of message do you ultimately want to get across with your music?

I really kind of don't feel like I want to get a specific message across, we're not really here to be role models. Sometimes social issues will seep into our music and lyrics, but... I mean, we started out as a very D.I.Y. kind of band, and I mean... if anything, if you want to play music, that's what we wanted to do, so that's what we do. We say whatever we want to say and do it the way we want to do it. I think that might be something we may want to get across. But as far as like, a song, I feel like every song is its own entity and we just write it that way. If this is a song about something that you love, then you should definitely convey your love for that subject, whatever it is. If it's something you really don't like... same thing.

Alright, so you look at it as individual songs as opposed to a whole entity, sort of thing?

Yeah. I mean... we're a punk-rock band. That's what we started as, and we're categorized within punk-rock. I mean, some people who get punk-rock, who are punk-rock purists may not consider us like that, they may consider us a rock band or whatever, but we don't really want to be defined. If it's like, 'this is what a punk-rock band is, and this is how it should sound,' we would instantly, consciously even, be like, 'Actually, no. We're going to make ourselves sound like this,' and it would be like, 'you can't do that!' and we'd be like, 'f*ck you, this is what we want to do!' So yeah... that was long winded (laughs).

That is not a problem at all! So what's the best piece of advice that you wish that you had been given at the beginning of your career that you want to pass on to bands now, if there is any?

Well you definitely, I think that one thing that's really important is that you have to be conscious of how your business is run. Most artists, sometimes you'll get slighted in certain ways, because you don't want to pay attention to that. You're here to be an artist, and in the sense of being an artist, like, you're pure art or whatever, and people will talk that kind of sh*t, but you want to play your music, that's what you want to do. You don't want to look at spreadsheets, or think about money, or think about what kind of deal you're getting from some business person. But it's definitely something that some artist should make an effort to control and make sure everything is going smooth. That's what I would say. But most importantly make the music you want to make, and don't listen to anyone else. Don't listen to anyone who tells you can't do it, or that you should do it this way. You really just need to follow your vision, or your intuition. Because really, it's about doing what you want to do. Whether you sell a hundred records or ten million records, if you don't like what you're doing, why would you do it?

Awesome. So us at The Sound Faction aim to be five of the most random people you'll ever meet, so we try to end each interview with five random questions, are you up for that?

(Laughs) Okay.

So what's one fashion trend, male or female, that confuses you?

One fashion trend? Male or female... hm. Let me think about this one... Uhm, I don't know! A lot of them do, but maybe those boots, like, those Ugg boots. ...Sorry if you have a pair.

(Laughs) It's alright. I always defend them by saying they're really warm.

Oh, okay, well that makes sense!

So yeah, that's my excuse for having them (laughs). Do you have a hidden talent, and if so, what is it?

A hidden talent... (laughs) I have no idea. I'm sorry.

That's okay, don't worry!

...I'm pretty good at spelling.

There we go! That's a good one!

And I find that most musicians aren't. They're like... the worst spellers ever. Everyone always looks to me for spelling. For some reason I know how to spell, and I don't know why.

That's totally a hidden talent.

(Laughs) I guess, yeah!

If you had to be stuck in an 80's movie, which one would it be, and why?

Oh... A lot of them would be pretty great. Back to the Future would be super exciting, so I think I would have to say Back to the Future, but I could be in Breakfast Club easy, or like, The Rivers Edge would be really exciting.

Nice. If you could have lunch with any fictional character, who would it be?

Wow, that is a tough one. I'd have to think about that for awhile. But maybe... (laughs) I can't answer that one! I don't know!

(Laughs) No problem! Last one, if you were a scented candle, what would you smell like?

I think I would smell like some kind of flower. I think I have a pretty light scent. Maybe a sweet-pea or something...

We would like to thank Tom again for taking the time to talk to us. Check out Gob at their MySpace.