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 CALEB GOMAN of hard-rockers REGULAR JOHN tells JODY MACGREGOR about moving to the big smoke to make it big.
Caleb Goman grew up in country towns Manila and Griffith, neither of which is exactly rock & roll central. He met the other members of what became Regular John in school. At first, he didn’t realise they were destined to stick together – in fact, he moved to Sydney hoping to find a new band. "Uni was what I told my parents, but I really wanted to go and find some people to play music with, because growing up there wasn’t anyone to jam with. But I just ended up playing with the same people that I had jammed with anyway in high school."
Regular John have a surplus of singer-songwriters – three-quarters of the band, including Goman – but what they lacked was bass. Goman switched from guitar to accommodate, but being left-handed didn’t make it easy. "I didn’t have a bass when we had our first gig. I was actually playing a right-handed bass upside-down and it was missing a string. Our first gigs were pretty shambolic like that. Somehow it worked. I don’t mind playing it upside-down. It’s kinda cool." Because people think you must be extra-talented to pull it off? "Plus you get compared to Hendrix and Paul McCartney and that’s fine by me."
By the time they landed their second gig, things were already improving. "I think the next gig we did, after that first really shambolic one, we got offered at The Annandale and we were all like, ‘Shit! The Annandale! This is this legendary rock venue,’ and it was a Sunday night so of course it was empty." But the few people who did show up liked what they heard and that set them on course. "We nearly broke up after the first gig, we were like, ‘Shit, uh, better go back to the drawing board.’ But the next one there was something about it. We had a lot of people come up to us – or the few people who were there come up to us – and said they liked it. That gave us a boost."
Each gig impressed someone enough to hire them for another, which eventually led to where they are now, with an album produced and mentored by Tim Powles from The Church. "I call him the rock & roll Gandhi," says Goman. "He’s really wise and brings a calming knowledge, but also manages to get great chaotic sounds out of you. I’d like to work with him again."
Now that their album, The Peaceful Atom Is A Bomb, is finished the boys are ready to tour and show it off to friends and family. Even Goman’s parents like it. "I don’t know if that’s a good thing. If your parents like your music they say it’s not really rock & roll. They’re all pretty supportive, so I think they’re all really proud of us just coming from a country town where no one really listens to music much and then somehow making your own music that people seem to like. I think they’re pretty amazed that that can happen. Well, so are we actually."
REGULAR JOHN play The Coolangatta Hotel Thursday Jul 2, Step Inn Friday Jul 3 and the Great Northern on Saturday Jul 4. THE PEACEFUL ATOM IS A BOMB is out now on Difrnt Music via Universal. www.myspace.com/regularjohnmusic
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