{"id":1040923,"date":"2017-09-27T11:01:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/?p=1040923"},"modified":"2017-09-27T11:01:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:01:56","slug":"a-qa-with-goner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2017\/09\/27\/a-qa-with-goner\/","title":{"rendered":"A Q&A With Goner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"You remember More To Monroe, right? They were on Warped Tour in 2016. They played the never-forgotten Skate Jam. They were on the road to legend … and then their singer decided to go to college. Nothing wrong with that, of course. It’s just not rock and roll. Anyway, the rest of the band has found a new singer and reformed under the name “Goner.” Goner is going to headline October’s installment of Friday Night Fights at the Frederick Rock School and not only should you care, but you should also go to, you know, check it out. We recently caught up with Goner guitarist Sam Smisek to talk about the band’s new name, what they’re listening to nowadays and why Frederick is hard up to find and establish a music scene of its own. For more on Friday Night Fights and the Rock School, check out its website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, how did the band get together in the first place? Can you take us back to the beginning?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jacob (Maughan, drums) and I were friends and neighbors since we were eight years old – Jacob was always playing drums ever since I\u2019ve known him. Flash forward four years later, and I had received my first guitar from my parents. That same day, I went to jam with Jacob for the first time, fiddling as much as I could on the thing. Jacob was less than impressed (laughs). He actually told me years later that after that initial jam, there was no way he was going to be in a band with me, which we all still laugh about. Eventually, about two years later, after I had some experience under my belt, Jacob and I decided to start a legitimate band with our friend Chris D\u2019aquino taking over vocal duties. We still needed a bassist and after having a couple guys in and out of the band briefly, we convinced our friend Johnny (Jamison, bass) to join the band, deciding to call ourselves “Blackout.” Our very first show was a talent show at our high school, at that time with a different bassist. Once Johnny joined, we had a full, consistent lineup, and as \u201cBlackout\u201d we began playing shows wherever we could – bars, clubs, churches, pizza shops, skate parks, you name it. We soon changed our name to \u201cMore To Monroe.\u201d Our current and final name is \u201cGoner\u201d and it\u2019s been Johnny, Jacob, and I since then. We have Andy (Cizek, vocals) joining as our vocalist about a year after Chris\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

From what I understand, you guys are undergoing some changes right now. What brought about those changes and can you tell us about the current lineup? Who came in and how did the process go, finding another singer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We parted ways with our old vocalist Chris when he decided to go to college. There were and still are no hard feelings whatsoever. Chris is still a great friend of ours. We had known he wanted to pursue his education for a while, and he knew that we wanted to keep the band going, so it was a mutual decision ultimately. Saying it was an easy transition would be a lie, though – it was actually a lot harder than we initially realized. What it took was hard work, writing, perseverance and dedication. Above all, though, it took just constant hard work. Writing and trying to constantly perfect our craft were the single most crucial factors in getting to where we wanted, and to where we are trying to go in the future. The current and hopefully final lineup is Andy (vocals), Johnny (bass), Jacob (drums), and me (guitar). Andy joined about a year ago. We had already known him through mutual friends and he had been in other bands we had played with at various times. After hitting him up to record just a demo at his basement studio, we convinced him to join forces and pursue this dream with us. It didn\u2019t take long for him and the rest of us to become great friends, but It did take a few months of really figuring out how to gel our new music with Andy\u2019s voice, though. It wasn\u2019t easy for sure. Having a member who was with us for years just leave was kind of discouraging at first. For a while, I think we felt we had a good system going, so to speak. For instance, since we started the band, we\u2019ve all contributed to songwriting, but it was definitely intense at first considering that we were down one member who wrote just as much as the rest of us. When Chris left, I began writing songs in my little room in my apartment, just constantly trying to find anything that sounded cool. I would show whatever I was writing to Jacob, and he and I would jam the songs and really get the song structure down. Then we would show Andy and Johnny and they would give their two cents. Between all of our contributions, we wrote a lot of songs we\u2019re really, really happy with, many of which you\u2019ll hear on our upcoming album.<\/p>\n