Published on September 12th, 2013 | by Filthy Pedro
Video: Toby Goodshank interview at the Sheffield Antifolk Festival
Filthy Pedro interviews Toby Goodshank before the Sheffield Antifolk Festival 2013.
This video is published on the Antifolk TV YouTube channel. Subscribe to Antifolk TV.
Video transcript
Filthy: Hi, I’m Filthy Pedro. I’m here with Toby Goodshank on the day of the first ever Sheffield Antifolk Festival, taking place at Penelopes, just there. So Toby, what are you doing at the moment?
Toby: I am balls deep in a tour of the UK, played in Scotland the last two days, and now a few shows in England before I head back to Berlin, which is where I am living right now.
Filthy: So, suppose your not familiar with Toby, can you describe yourself. Who are you?
Toby: I am a 34 year old American guy, usually l live in Brooklyn, New York, but now I am living in Berlin, Germany. I play guitar and I sing, and I like to do both of those things a lot, and I paint pictures. I used to play in a band called the Moldy Peaches. I am currently in an art collective called 3MB, and that’s about it for now.
Filthy: Who else is in the 3MB?
Toby: Adam Green, who is also in the band, the Moldy Peaches, and also Macaulay Culkin, who is known as an actor primarily, but is also a fine painter.
Filthy: From Home Alone?
Toby: Exactly
Filthy: Didn’t he used to hang around with Michael Jackson?
Toby: Yep
Filthy: So where are you from originally Toby?
Toby: A town called Newtown, Connecticut.
Filthy: Newtown? That’s a very unique name.
Toby: Yea, I guess. It was founded in 18 something or other. It’s a large town, but not sparsely populated, but for it’s size, it has a small town feel to it. It’s very rural, very nice.
Filthy: When did you move to New York?
Toby: Back in 1999. I was 20 years old.
Filthy: What prompted you to move to New York?
Toby: I dropped out of University. I went through two semesters, and the friends I had made there were mostly seniors who were graduating, and they were all migrating to New York city to pursue art and music, and I just kind of followed them along.
Filthy: How did you get involved with Antifolk?
Toby: I guess through me friend Seth Faergolzia, of the band Dufus, and when we were at University together I would often follow him and his band Dufus to various clubs in Manhattan and one of them was the Sidewalk. Once we were all there, we all started attending the open mic regularly. I didn’t actually play there until years later. I’d go there and see shows and hang out.
Filthy: When did you join the Moldy peaches?
Toby: That was, I think, in the autumn of 2001.
Filthy: When did you go solo? Before the Moldy Peaches?
Toby: Yea, yea, I kind of always have been doing that stuff. I didn’t start performing publicly until I was 22, but I was writing songs and releasing cassette tapes that I would give to friends.
Filthy: And you also do art as well? Is there anywhere we can see your artwork online?
Toby: There’s a site that I haven’t been keeping up with that features my illustrations. That’s http://tobygoodshank.blogspot.co.uk. I have a Tumblr, which is http://tobygoodshank.tumblr.com, and that has all my recent paintings.
Filthy: Are you closing it down now Yahoo have brought Tumblr?
Toby: No, no. Since I’ve been in Berlin, I’ve been focusing on painting more and paying less attention to keeping up with blogs.
Filthy: Let’s see the jumper (*shows Toby’s jumper*), tell us the story behind the jumper?
Toby: On a recent tour through germany with my girlfriend, who I also have a band with, called LA Boobs, we saw these (jumpers) on a rack outside a store in Cologne. They were 5 Euros each. They had matching ones, and I wanted us to have a uniform. She wasn’t into it. I couldn’t pass it up.
Filthy: Is that uniform for the bedroom or the stage?
Toby: Oh, for the stage. The stage.
Filthy: An that tattoo (*points to Toby’s unicorn tattoo), it’s a unicorn. What’s the relationship between you and unicorns?
Toby: When I played in the Moldy Peaches, one of the singers, Kimya Dawson, her Aunt made me a unicorn costume to wear on stage. I’ve always liked the idea of unicorns as a symbol of purity and imagination. I later started a little DIYish record label called Unicorn Sounds that I would release compilations on and things. This tattoo was the logo for it.
Filthy: So what are you working on now?
Toby: Right now, when I get home I am going to release another album, called Use Your Illusion 3. It will be a free download. Then next month I will be releasing another album that will be experimental soundscape stuff, and then having a solo painting exhibition in Berlin in July.
Filthy: Do you like Germany?
Toby: Yea. The winter was dismal. It seems to really affect the inhabitants of Berlin, the collective mood. Very down. Now the suns poking out every couple of weeks, people seem a bit happier. The cost of living is significantly lower than in Brooklyn. It’s been nice.
Filthy: Right, we better get off to sound check. That’s a wrap.
Check out the Toby Goodshank album Minus Dias below:
About the Author
Filthy Pedro is an Antifolk musician and founder of the British Antifolk movement. Some say he is over 10,000 years old and sees Antifolk as the evolution of folk music. Others say he is actually originally from Anglesey and first got into Antifolk when he realised the type of music he liked and made had a name.
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