Everett Reiff, Electric Feel Producer
Madi McEver, Campus Carrier Entertainment Editor
Good Old War, a Philadelphia-based indie-folk band, performed on the side lawn of The Cage Athletic Center for KCAB’s first concert of the year.
The trio, inspired by the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, entertained approximately 300 Berry students with their diverse collection of songs.
Senior Christian Turner and junior Everett Reiff, co-producers of Internet radio show Electric Feel, had the opportunity to sit down with the band member Dan Schwartz and ask him a few questions about their music and experiences as a band.
Electric Feel: You guys are in the middle of writing, right? What is some inspiration for this new album coming up?
Dan: It changes all the time. For us, it’s always been anywhere from the pop and singer-songwriter type things that we come from, and the more old-fashioned kind of vocal bands like The Beatles and The Stones and Simon & Garfunkel, and that’s a good basis for us. But then, it can go anywhere from that of the Aphex Twin. It really depends on what everyone is listening to. I’m more on the classic rock side. Keith is more into Nilsson and more classical music. It comes from so many different places; it’s always hard to narrow it down.
Electric Feel: Has there ever been a specific song that you guys have recorded that you’re like, “That’s the sounds we are going for?”
Dan: Yeah, but it’s song by song, you know? One song we want to do it with this kind of beat, this kind of feel. But it never goes on for more than one song.
Electric Feel: What are you going to do differently with this album?
Dan: More production is happening. We aren’t limiting ourselves to what we can and can’t do live. On the other records, a lot of the attention has been on if we could do it live, and there is not much that is playable. This time around, we are letting our minds wander a little bit and we are letting each other try different things. We are adding more instruments, but all stuff is still played by us.
Electric Feel: How do you go about writing new material?
Dan: One person brings in a pretty complete song idea, and then usually from there, Keith and I work on it and learn how to play it with the vocal and guitar and just kind of get the feel from it. By the time we bring it to Tim, it just comes together.
Electric Feel: How did you come up with your name, “Good Old War?”
Dan: That is a little bit of all of our names. Keith’s last name is Goodwin, there’s the “good.” Tim’s last name is Arnold, there’s the “old,” and mine is Schwartz, there’s the “war.”
Electric Feel: Who are some of your best friends that you have toured with?
Dan: Well, definitely Circa Survive are good friends of ours. We have played with Anthony Green and those guys have helped us get started in a lot of ways. We just did an album with Anthony Green for his new solo record. We just did a new one with him called “Young Legs” that will be released soon.
