The Escape Goats are a local guitardriven rock band that are making a big name for themselves. The Goats played with the City Bowl Mizers and Desmond and the Tutus last year and will be playing with an international band, Horse from Los Angeles on 11 April.
The Escape Goats are a local guitardriven rock band that are making a big name for themselves. The Goats played with the City Bowl Mizers and Desmond and the Tutus last year and will be playing with an international band, Horse from Los Angeles on 11 April.
The band was started in March 2009 after Dave Glover, the lead singer, and Tom Knoetze, the lead guitarist, had been playing together for a year.
Alex Meyers, the bassist, brought the metal influence to their sound (the band jokes that they have to keep him restrained on occasion) and Richard Baker, the drummer, was the final piece of the puzzle.
The guys were not friends before they decided to form the band, and believe it’s pure luck that they get on so well. Richard, Tom and Alex are all in Grade 11, while Dave matriculated last year and now teaches music at DSG.
The band has 15 hours musical experience between them while only Dave and Alex can read music. Alex is the only member that has plans to study music after school.
As far as pursuing the band as a career, they plan to “take it as far as we can, as that’s the dream,” says Tom.
As far as their practice sessions go, they are constricted to meeting up once a week as three of the four members are still in school.
The origin of the band’s unusual name is an story that they enthusiastically love to retell. Apparently a girl in one of the member’s classes first uttered the malapropism ‘escapegoat’ instead of ‘scapegoat’ and was adamant that she was correct.
The band’s first live performance was an “interesting experience”- the guys were naturally nervous but upon hearing that they were expected to fill an hour long slot when they had only prepared a maximum of 20 minutes to perform they “totally freaked”.
When asked about their first major performance, Alex quickly declares “it was sick!” While Dave says, “It was great to be chucked in the deep end.”
The lead singer from local Grahamstown band, 10 Points for the Dismount, Justin Shaw says the guys are “an exciting group of young musos, they are just itching to break out. I would go see them live any day!”
The Escape Goats will be performing with the band Horse from the USA, but unfortunately their drummer, Richard, will not be performing as he will be skiing in the Alps, so Alex Williamson will fill in for him.
Dave is very excited about the performance as he says that “the hardest thing for us as a band is securing gigs to play at.”
This is a vital factor for the band in order to gain experience and exposure. But despite their excitement the band will be using the gig to release their first album, Lost in Space, which they have been recording since January this year.
They can’t wait to get their music out there, some of their tracks will also be available on their Myspace page once the album is released. Come and support Grahamstown’s up and coming new band on 11 April when they perform at the Scout Hall, doors open at 5pm. You can also join their Facebook group which has over 200 members.
