Q&A: Good Morning Reflects on Tour, Their Fanbase & More
VISIT @GOODFKNMORNING ON INSTAGRAM and you’ll find a body pillow with bandmates Liam Parsons and Stefan Blair printed on either side, a chaotic vinyl unboxing and a Cameo of sad Oompa Loompa. It’s not a digital persona — Good Morning are just as entertaining in real life as they are online, if not more.
The duo bunkered down in their hometown of Melbourne to record Good Morning Seven, their first double album that’s getting high praise from fans. With Blair in Melbourne and Parsons in London, the two are united again and back on the road this year with Waxahatchee on her Tigers Blood tour. With stops like the Ryman in Nashville and Massey Hall in Toronto, these are some of the biggest venues the band has played to date.
We caught up with Parsons from the tour van to hear about the Good Morning fanbase, their return to North America and all the backstage antics.
LUNA: How has the tour been so far?
GOOD MORNING: The shows have been really good and different from anything we've done before. We've never played rooms anywhere near this size. It’s nice to try and learn how to play in theaters and larger venues. And the band is so kind and it's nice to watch their set every night.
LUNA: You all either read books or listen to podcasts together as a group. What's on your list?
GOOD MORNING: We haven't gotten into podcasts yet. Our drummer Dylan brought to us [an activity] where we take turns on Ableton Live but you can't hear what the person before you has done. At the end you put every track on and I get a pretty good song there, hopefully. We currently have three really psychotic pieces of music. There's another one on the way as we speak.
LUNA: Yeah, that's going to make a great story for the next album.
GOOD MORNING: When the next one is 45 songs with lots of screams and sound effects, that'll be why.
LUNA: You've been making music for about a decade and you've gone on tours, of course, throughout that time. What still surprises you about touring?
GOOD MORNING: There's new things every time. This is like our third or fourth tour of America. We're going through Niagara Falls in a few days and we realized we've never driven there before. We went to the Grand Canyon the other week. You get to experience new things here and there which is always such a luxury on tour because you kind of don't see shit most of the time.
LUNA: What cities or venues are you excited to visit?
GOOD MORNING: We're really excited to play at the Ryman in Nashville, and Massey Hall in Toronto. It's always fun to play at a venue I've heard of before. I always geek out, you know, looking at the posters of people that have played there or are playing on the walls.
LUNA: Yeah. Or the wall signatures.
GOOD MORNING: There was a classic wall of signatures the other night in St. Paul and it's funny seeing what people do. Some people are so earnest about it. They’ll do some Airbnb art like, believe in yourself and everything will be alright.
LUNA: What are you writing on the green room walls? Or do you just sign your name?
GOOD MORNING: I've never written on the green room walls. But I think we've got to think of some sort of important message to write.
LUNA: Yeah, you should definitely sign your name and look for it when you return.
GOOD MORNING: Yeah, that's a good idea. I should be marking our territory a bit more. I could draw a sort of QR code on the wall that you could scan to go to our website.
LUNA: From what I’ve seen about the band and the new album, it seems like your community and your fan base in Melbourne is really solid. It must be really great to be able to play there soon and see friends and family.
GOOD MORNING: Yeah, and it's really important to us. I think Melbourne is great for that. It's always home. It's a great community that we're really lucky to be a part of.
LUNA: To wrap things up, is there anything you want to share about the tour or the album?
GOOD MORNING: Just that I would like to put out a record that I think will go well. I felt like I had a week of bad luck before the tour. I had my phone stolen and I dropped a flight case on my toe. But I think I got my bad luck out of the way and now it's smooth sailing from here on out.
