Meet Fool’s Lagoon: An Interview with Joe and Josh on Their New EP, Gigs and Perfecting their Craft
The five Indie-rock legends who make up Fool’s Lagoon! From L-R: Mark, Josh, Matt, Joe and Connor. Get around These Fools, out now! ALL photos featured on this interview were provided by Connor from Fool’s Lagoon.
Recently, I had the chance to interview Joe and Josh (just missing are Mark, Matt and Connor) who are members from upcoming Auckland-based band, Fool’s Lagoon, to talk about their new EP, These Fools, how they established their epic band name, their debut EP, working with CJ from Mako Road and their upcoming gig at Cassette 9. You’re going to want to get to know the names of these five lovely lads, because things are about to get smokin’ with their new music. Super stoked to have been able to interview them for their first interview ever, also.
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Hey team, how are you?
Josh: We’re good, super pumped after the release. It’s been such a buzzy time.
Is it good being Auckland based?
Joe: I’m from Napier, I grew up there until I was 18 and then came here for Uni, there’s always something going on in Auckland for whatever you’re into as well. Napier isn’t so busy. You know, it’s a good thing and a bad thing. There’s always stuff to do, people to meet and different things to try.
I guess, Auckland is the big hub of things and like you said, there is never not anything going on.
Joe: Lockdowns.
Josh: We’ve come to expect that. I guess the fun thing about being in the band is that we had so much time in lockdowns to think up music on our own, which I think is a little against the way we usually do it. We usually need to be in person. Once we got back together, it was f*cking mean.
I guess for a band, it’s not bad to have different ways of doing things. It’s pretty cool you had that experience.
Josh: We’re hoping that it’s all in the past.
Joe: You forget how good live music is as well.
Josh: We had a gig in December and there was a four month gap in our gigs. We were just recording at the time and yeah. You forget what it’s like to be up on stage. It’s so different to creating and being in that mindset.
How did you cope with the gap during that time?
Joe: As Josh was saying, we had recording on the mind. It sort of worked out well. We focused on that, got our songs together, got them prepared. We were sort of like, “once we get that out of the way, hopefully things will open up a bit more” and we did have a little bit of time to get our songs and the live performance up to scratch as well, which was good. I guess, maintaining little steps along the way so you don’t get lost in something unattainable, or the opposite, just no direction at all.
That’s great. So, you’ve just released your new EP [These Fools], which is brilliant by the way, congratulations!
Joe: We’re pretty stoked to have it out. We’ve been playing together for a bit more than a year now and we had some of those songs from the early days, so it’s good to capture that and put it together like, here’s a snapshot in time.
Josh: I think it’s pretty special to release it because as we come together more and we play different music, our influences and style of music that we’re playing has completely been shifting and kind of like evolving. So, getting those initial mish-mashy things together in an EP and being able to release it out… I think we will look back on it really fondly.
That’s awesome and you guys worked with CJ from Mako Road, which would have been super epic to have done that.
Joe: He’s a legend. A down-to-earth kind of bloke. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we had so much fun.
Josh: Such a wholesome person. He’s so talented. He really produced us. People will say that he does recording and production, but you don’t really think about his involvement in the way that our songs came together structurally and all the great hints that he would give. He would just give great advice.
Joe: Yeah, we’ve got some recordings where we set up a little mixer in the backyard and played our songs and sort of demos. Looking back on how they started to how they finished up, he sort of took it to the next level. He took all the parts we had and took them up a bit. A lot.
Josh: Like we’re fresh meat.
Fresh meat. Great way to describe it! That’s really cool. How did you get to work with CJ?
Joe: Funny story talking about Mako Road because our drummer, Mark, he used to be in Mako Road. That was in 2017, I believe. So, he was playing with them when they were still a covers band and then, I think, somewhere in 2017, Rhian started their songwriting and then Mark played a bunch of gigs around Christchurch in the Uni scene, they recorded Sun Comes Up and Daquiri, so Mark is on those songs. Then he moved to Auckland to start his career and that’s when Robbie took over on the drums. So, the link there is that Mark is also good friends with them and since CJ is living in Auckland as well, he is doing the whole production thing, so if we’re doing an EP, we should go to CJ and it went from there.
Oh, how funny! I had no idea Mark used to be the drummer of Mako.
Josh: Every drummer is extremely busy, like they’re all working, you know? There’s no shortage of bands that need drummers. Not enough drummers either.
To put it bluntly, there are not enough Kiwi musicians!
Joe: A lot of them are hiding, I feel like. I played guitar for ages before I was like “maybe I should go and ask”, I think there’s a lot of people like that out there as well. I think getting people inspired is a big thing. Just get out there and give it a shot.
I guess, in our country, it’s a little bit hard to do that sometimes, isn’t it? Have you guys found that, that it’s been a little bit challenging?
Joe: We’ve sort of been lucky that we’ve known a couple bands around town and have a few contacts that could help start getting gigs going. I think New Zealand has got a lot of that small sort of gig thing going on as well. There’s not like a huge, mega American music industry here. In the New Zealand band scene, there’s this own sort of niche as well. You can get in contact with them and make friends that way, I think that’s sort of how we’ve looked at it and I think it’s quite good like that and sort of in a more genuine kind of way.
Josh: There’s so many amazing solo artists coming out, but I feel like bands and musicians just want to play their instruments and that’s less common, you know? It’s almost less desirable. We’re super happy to play music.
Having the EP out is obviously going to bring you guys to a whole new level.
Joe: We’ve got some awesome feedback, we’re so stoked every time. We’ve put a lot of work and a lot of creative juice into it.
Josh: Some of our songs come from joking about the people in our lives and that’s what Mates Rates is about, right? Your mate is just not paying his rent…
Like, realistic stuff.
Josh: You’ve got to bring different sausages to the BBQ than just like, Hellers.
That is a great expression! Please always use that.
Josh: That’s exactly what it’s about, we were just joking about it and then it became a song about that mate. It’s good fun.
So, off These Fools, the EP, what words would you use to describe each song, or which one word would you use to describe each of them?
Joe: Golden Boy I’d like to say is stomping, you know? That’s kind of rockier in a way.
Josh: It’s got a bit of like, sass.
Joe: I came up with the riff and we went for Cage the Elephant kind of avenue, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked kind of thing going on. Mates Rates, one word, it’s kind of the hook.
Josh: It was our first time kind of playing around with like the “oohs” rather than a full lyrical thing, it’s just “ooh”
Joe: Try, you’re going to have to explain that one.
Josh: I think it’s very different to the other ones. Mainly because I wrote it. I kind of came up with the chords and they were kind of cheesy. Compared to what we normally make, it’s very…
Joe: It’s a ballad. Young love. He’s so smitten so he had to write a song about it.
Oh, that’s so sweet.
Josh: I felt like that song was so sentimental. Nostalgic, maybe.
Joe: We’re giving way more than one word now, aren’t we?
It’s fine, go off, I don’t even mind.
Joe: Then Run, sauce.
Josh: Sauce.
Joe: It kind of goes a lot of places that song, you know. That’s why we put it at the end because if you’ve got that far through the EP and then you get your ears around Run, it’s sort of like an experience.
As I said, I love the EP. I don’t think anyone wouldn’t listen until the end, you’ve got that going for you!
Where did your name, Fool’s Lagoon, come from? Was it random, or did you find inspiration from somewhere?
Joe: To get our name took months. It took so long.
Josh: So many text threads about it, google docs, polls. Like, we did a vote… We had come up with so many ideas and we would write them all down as we came up with them, by the end of it, we had over like 40 names.
Joe: It was ridiculous. I was real hesitant to tell people I was in a band before we had a name and we were together for months without a name. Then, one day our bass player was just like, Fool’s Lagoon. It was like, that’s cool. What does it mean? I don’t know. Then we put it on the doc and we had this gauntlet of names just like a college basketball playoff bracket. For three days, we were called +64, like the New Zealand code. That didn’t really feel right. That won our first gauntlet, then we came back and our guitarist, Matt, he was unhappy, so we reassessed, we were set on Fool’s Lagoon and we were like, right, make the socials so we can’t go back. That chapter is sealed and we moved forward.
Josh: We actually added Fool’s Lagoon right after we did the first gauntlet. When we started voting, we were like, let’s add in Fool’s Lagoon and then it just won. It came out of nowhere.
I think it’s got a fun vibe about it, the name, as well. I saw that you guys did a kind of introductory Instagram post a couple months ago and it was really fun, showcasing who you are as people and it kind of goes with that.
Joe: That was mainly from recording sessions with CJ. Connor, our bass player, he’s an editor for his day job, so he’s got that sort of creative side to him as well. I’m not a super visual or graphical kind of person when it comes to that, whereas Josh and Connor have got that sort of side to it. So, we’ve got a few skills to leverage altogether, the five of us.
You played your first show in December last year, right? How was that? Did you notice the audience getting hyped up?
Joe: They got as hype as they could while sitting.
Oh, of course. Covid red light.
Josh: It was actually really fun. As much as it felt like a church service with everyone kind of in their pews, it was really fun because people could clap and it was good fun. To finally play together to a bunch of friends, my God, we’d been waiting for so long to even go on stage.
Joe: Yeah, it was satisfying just being able to finally be like, boom, here we are.
That was with Little Sunday, wasn’t it?
Joe: Yup. We’ve played two gigs with them now. They’re a real cool bunch. Mark our drummer, has filled in for them when their drummer broke his foot. Mark is everywhere. They’re really cool and it was good to sort of be apart of that and learn the ropes as well. That gig was my first proper like gig-gig. I’d done stuff at High School, like school shows and stuff, but I was very nervous, but we did alright I think.
Josh: It was great. It was just super awesome. It had been a long time since any of us had played live at that point.
Joe: Coming out of the lockdowns, as we say, was good to be back. We’ve got some gigs in the pipeline in Auckland, we’re still trying to get a little awareness to our music before we start drumming up making different connections in other cities. We were due to play in Wellington a week and a half ago [three and a half weeks at time of publishing], but then half the band got covid. That was quite gutting. I love Wellington. It’s a great sort of vibe there.
Josh: Right now we’re taking time to properly make our show… A show. It’s easy to play your own music live because you do it at every rehearsal, but to actually craft a really good live show, I think is different. Trying to integrate changes to the song just to make it a better experience. I think once we have a really good set, we’d like to gig lots and lots more.
Completely understand that. You’ve got to work on getting your names out there.
Joe: Yeah and that’s why we decided to release our EP and not drag out a single release. With our EP and our first single [Bizarre] from December, we were of the mind of like, here’s our music, here’s us and go out that way instead of trying to draw people into something that we don’t have like just a body of work people can get an understanding of what our music is and who we are, that kind of thing.
Josh: The EP was obviously the first step to do that. To properly get it out there, I think it’s working. I think people like it.
Hell yeah, people like it!
Josh: It’s been really rewarding. It’s a lot of hard work in the release process and getting all the masters back and you’re just waiting around. Sometimes there’s that feeling of like, God, should we release this now? Should we wait a bit?
Joe: It’s a whole business side of it as well, you’ve got to go through the creative and the business.
What helps you to know when something is ready to release?
Joe: With the whole like, getting a song recorded, mixed and mastered etc, once those things are done, then it’s ready. On the other side of it, if you have it done, what sort of marketing tactics do you have or release strategies do you have. Trying to line it up with gigs so that people get to see you and hear you when they go home, it makes sense.
Josh: I think we know when something is ready to be released when we’re done with nit-picking. We’re very, very particular about what is playing at what time, the timing of everything, so we will tweak it, tweak it, tweak it until we’re not complaining anymore. Like, we’re done. This is good.
Joe: There’s a point where you’re like, I’m only nit-picking it because it’s me. You know?
Josh: Exactly. No one is listening to this like the way I am right now. You always know you can do better.
Joe: You get real close to it, that’s what we say. You get real close and we’re like, what about this, what about that… That’s why it’s good to have someone who is producing you to be that other sort of ears because even when you’re writing a song, you can go down a certain path or add this thing in you think is cool and then something else changes.
Josh: It’s the whole process, I thought it was so cool when we had CJ come in and listen to our music because he immediately had notes. We’d been playing it one way for so long and you’re just like, this is the song now. You know? It almost leaves your brain that you can edit it and change it because you’ve been doing it one way for a while and when CJ came in, he gave us immediate notes which were very clear, very constructive notes about how we could change the song and make it more dynamic. It was just so great. I think when we released it, we knew that it was ready.
Joe: We definitely think it went above of what we thought when we had the songs and gigged them a few times, we got from where it was then, to where it is now. So much better than we ever thought it would be.
Josh: It’s hard nowadays to just say f*ck it and release it. I was just hanging out with someone today who was talking about their EP and how they never released it and it’s like, come on man. At that point, you just have to put it out. How else are people going to hear the work that you’ve done? It’s hard.
You never know how people are going to perceive it either, unless you put it out.
Josh: At some point, it just doesn’t f*cking matter. Good to bad, it’s all being put out. If you don’t put it out, there is no way to distinguish, there’s no answer.
Joe: What do they say? You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Such a true statement. What are some things that the readers of Welcome to the Gig should know about Fool’s Lagoon?
Joe: I think things they should know about us, we’re five guys from different parts of the country…
Josh: Who f*ck around. That’s about it.
Joe: We love music, but we aren’t the type to pretend to be like, serious. We like to be tongue-in-cheek as well. This is fun for us. We like to joke around, perform on stage and just have music that people can move to and maybe feel some kind of feeling, I guess.
What Fool’s Lagoon song do you relate to the most and why?
Josh: I think Run(Escape). The lyrics aren’t really about anything, it’s kind of just about running away and like youth.
Running away and youth, that sounds like it gels well!
Josh: I think I relate to how it sounds almost. It just moves. I can’t get enough of it, it’s my favourite.
Joe: We like to say we’re making music for movers and shakers. So, whatever gets you moving, you know. Our first single, Bizarre, when we did that, I did the lyrics for that one.
Josh: So, you can relate to that one?
Joe: Yeah, probably.
This is a bit of a random one, if you could go forward to the future and see what is in store for Fool’s Lagoon, would you do it? If you would, what would you hope that you would see?
Josh: No, I would not.
Joe: I don’t know if I’d want to. If I did, I’d have liked to said we gave it, you know, all our creative juice and all of our hard work. We put ourselves out there and wherever that had taken us, then we could be happy with it. Everything that we’re doing, recording music and playing gigs and stuff it blows me away. It’s so much fun. The more fun, the more experiences we can have together.
Josh: Yeah, I think if I were to go to the future, I’d hope to see similar to that. To say we’d taken the chances and really put our effort into it. I don’t want to ever be complacent in what we do. It’s really the only way we have of creatively expressing ourselves. If I can see that happening in the future, continuing, I’d be happy.
Well, thank you guys so much for your time!
Joe & Josh: Thank you so much!
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I would like to extend a huge thank you to Josh and Joe of Fool’s Lagoon for taking the time out of their Saturday night to have a chat and let me be the first person to interview them! It was an absolute pleasure and I’m really looking forward to seeing the guys live eventually and being there on this journey to see where their music careers take them. Fool’s Lagoon are also playing an upcoming gig on the 16th June at Cassette 9 in Auckland for Breaking Sound NZ. You can check out the Facebook page for the event here, would highly recommend wrapping your ears around their music and heading along to this gig. It is going to absolutely blow the roof off the place.
Make sure that you check out all the social media links for Fool’s Lagoon below: