Jam rockers Goose talk about live shows, Stevie Nicks and salsa

Goose lands in the Valley in support of their 4th studio album, Everything Must Go, on June 4 at Arizona Financial Theater.

The indie jam band continues to pack in its loyal fans, while adding new ones with each new release. Goose is the band you can put on during a backyard pool party, and nobody would complain, it's embraceable. Don't let the “jam band” moniker fool you, Goose has a vibe that's not as traditional as you may be thinking. They come with the accolades from Bob Weir and have toured with Dead and Company. Goose has their own interpretation of the genre. A suggestion for Goose newbies: “Your Direction” from the new album is a great starting place.

We had a chance to talk to Cotter Ellis (drums) about their new release, songwriting process, fans and things that happen on tour.

Phoenix New Times: Cotter, how's the tour going so far?
Cotter Ellis: Well, it just started yesterday at “Bottle Rock”(a three-day festival in Napa Valley), and that was a super wild experience. It was kind of like a mixed pop festival. I heard there were 60,000 people there, and we played to a sea of people. It was bananas.

In your youth, was there anyone who influenced you musically? Parents, uncle, siblings?
Oh, I mean, that's a great question. I could only really speak for myself, right? You know, my dad was a professional musician, and I grew up on pretty much all black music, like you know, soul, Motown, R&B.Then, like I had some older friends in high school who got me into the jam world because I know where the rest of the boys grew up. It was like a cool thing in high school to be a jam band fan. Like all the Jocks were going to “Umphrey’s McGee” shows in Wilton, Connecticut, which is pretty wild to me because in my high school in Massachusetts, there was no one listening to the Grateful Dead or Phish. There were no hippies; weirdly, it was a very liberal town. I learned later that a lot of people's parents were deadheads, but it wasn't really a thing where I grew up.

The song and title track “Everything Must Go”, the drum beats and melodies work so well together. Tell me how that happened
Yeah, well, you know, I think we owe a lot of that final product to our producer Dan Goodwin, who's got a lot of vision. Also, I feel like it draws on inspiration from bands like Radiohead and Bon Iver. What they can do on their records in terms of the drums and the way they were programmed, because when I joined the band, they were playing that song live, and it had a way different vibe. There was more of a rock and roll vibe. Right? I feel like our goal with the record, not all of the record, but at least some of it, was to recreate the sound in a studio setting and do things in the studio that we wouldn't be able to do live necessarily.

How does it make you guys feel when ya hear fans say “This song gave me chills”?
We don't write songs to have that effect. I mean, that's the goal, right? It's to connect with people on a deeper level, an emotional level, where we can all be kind of vulnerable together. I think we've all individually had experiences with music where it really touched us in a way that felt like it was something truly special that kind of cut through the bullshit in our everyday lives. That's like the beauty of music. When we see people having those reactions, it feels like the ultimate sign that we're doing something right. Our vulnerability and hard work are kind of paying off, and connecting with people. Because that's, I mean, the biggest aspect of the jam band that I love and that I'm proud to have as part of our project is that connection with our crowd.

If you could show fans one behind-the-scenes moment from your creative process, what would it be?
Our creative process? Its foundation is us kind of just loving music and not being judgmental about anything, not trying to fit into any scene. All of us have really healthy and good communication, and being really passionate, so everyone's voice is heard. We also have our friend Matt Campbell, who helps us out with a lot of the songwriting process. We have Dan Goodwin, who chimes in a lot in the studio. You know, I think it's kind of like the culmination of all these things. It's like okay, this idea, this demo was made by one or two people. Then at the end of the day, it's a truly collaborative process. With Goose, it's great because we write a song, we play it live one way, and then we go like, 'what if we try it this other way?' It's really cool because the band is fired up about rearranging tunes that we already have that work one way. We were like, what if we did it this other way live, and we did it an even different way on the record. So like everything's always up for interpretation. And we really have a good time.

What’s a tradition or ritual your band has before going on stage that fans don’t know about?
We generally write the set list pretty close to when we get on stage because we want to kind of vibe out on every aspect of the environment. So that's a huge part of our pre-show ritual is kind of talking about the ark of the show is gonna go. How we're all feeling that day. How we're all like what our vibe is on the venue and the crowd and the weather outside in that city on that day. And yeah, I mean it's tough because like I said, we're very transparent. So we don't hide a lot about who we are and how we do things.

I read an article in which Rick Mitarotonda (vocals and guitar) said the band follows the set list about 70% of the time.
I mean that's the other thing. Yeah, we love calling audibles because it just means we're going with the flow of the show, and we don't want to be restricted by anything, right? And it ends up making for a better show, usually, doing it that way.

You guys do a lot of live collaborations. Can you tell me how those come together?
With Bruce (Hornsby), he lived in that area. They were playing the mothership. I think it was just kind of like, can we get Bruce? He was playing in the area, got in touch with them and see if he might be interested to sit in? Whereas, you know, other sessions are from connections we've made with bands through festivals or whatever collaborative events we do. We meet some people, and we see their bands, and we get super inspired by them and their music. Different kinds of musicians, then we meet them, and a lot of them, most of the time, they're really good dudes. There's like a mutual respect there, so we want to kind of fuse, especially considering the jam band thing. It's like, if the guy from “Mount Joy” had him sit in, it's like, we would love to fuse these worlds because we're kind of on the same page, but just doing it in different ways. Right?

You know Stevie Nicks has a home in the Valley, and would be a great guest on the Phoenix show.
That would be a fucking dream come true. I love Fleetwood Mac, and I can confidently say that the rest of the boys would be extremely pumped to make that happen. When playing with a legend like that, Stevie (Nicks) or Bruce (Hornsby), we are extremely humbled. We are, 'whatever you want to do will try to do the best we can to back you up.' Because those people are the rock gods.

Phoenix has fantastic Mexican food. When the chips and salsa come out, are you going red or green salsa?
I would say it's kinda restaurant-dependent for me. Yeah, that's a tough question. When the chips and salsa come out, I generally go to red, but there's sometimes when I go to a spot and the green is out of this world. I would say overall, I'm a red man myself.

An Evening with Goose happens at 7:30 p.m. on June 4 at Arizona Financial Theatre.