Swedish collective Goat will make their first trip to Australia next month for a run of dates alongside King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.

It’s a good match-up considering Goat’s eccentric take on folk, classic rock, blues and heavier psychedelic sounds. Many songs on the band’s latest album, Commune, are rhythmically insistent, and there’s often a driving intensity to the vocal delivery and guitar riffs. However, much like their 2012 debut, World Music, there’s never too much going on.

“We are interested in rhythms and grooves and energy; we don’t want to cover this up with layers of overdubs and production,” says the mysteriously named Captain Goatheart via email. “We record on a 16-track tape machine to force ourselves to not make too much overdubs. We never make more then three takes on anything. A lot of what you hear on our recordings are first takes. We never do any editing, hence you can hear a lot of mistakes in the songs. We work this way to keep the music raw and pure. And in my ears, songs like ‘Goathead’, ‘Det Som Aldrig Förändras’, ‘Stonegoat’, ‘Bondye’, ‘Gathering Of Ancient Tribes’ and ‘The Sun The Moon’ are really hitting it off.”

Since they emerged with World Music, a sense of mystery has surrounded Goat. In past interviews, the band members have claimed they are the continuation of a longstanding, revolving-door musical collective that’s existed in the tiny Swedish town of Korpilombolo for decades. However, there have been some doubts raised about the truth of this tale, and the enigma is deepened given there’s scarce biographical information available and the band members appear onstage in a range of colourful tribal headpieces and animal masks.

“We want to be anonymous to preserve our individual freedom, and that is built in from our collective system while growing up in the Goat commune,” says Goatheart. “Any mystery that might come from that is just luck, I guess. Or bad luck maybe.”

Beyond the mysterious narrative, the band is determined to wipe away any tinge of ego. The individual contributions are sublimated into the greater entity, which the members believe enhances the honesty and strength of what they’re trying to communicate musically. “In anything we do, we try to keep the egos down,” says Goatheart. “We are very aware of this in our music and our daily lives – the destructive force of the ego.”

Goatheart stands behind the story of the band’s distant ancestry, and Goat’s dizzying compositions are enough to stop you questioning its veracity. However, one does wonder, if music has been generated in the Goat commune for several decades, why World Music was Goat’s first release. In line with their anti-ego ethos, it wasn’t due to a feeling of creative superiority.

“Goat as a rock band have only existed since 2012, but as a commune it is very, very old,” Goatheart says. “The reason it also became a rock band is because some of us moved to Gothenburg and started to jam with people here. More people joined and we built a small studio, recorded some stuff and somehow [UK label] Rocket Recordings found out about this and encouraged us to record an album. By then we already had one finished and that was it. But a lot of musicians around the world can do what we do, and a lot better also.”

Of course, creative practice ultimately shouldn’t be a quest for superiority. Regardless, there’s a staggering array of stylistic elements evident in the music of Goat. Everything from kraut and psychedelia to Afrobeat, proto-punk, blues and rock’n’roll comes into the mix, which means it’s not an easily summarised sound.

“It’s just a result of exploring and experimenting with different sounds, rhythms and vibes,” says Goatheart. “I don’t want to sound ignorant, but we try and see the simplicity in all music. Just do what you want. There is nothing difficult with crossing those kinds of borders. Learning comes automatically if you stay free and do what you want.”

In line with this ethos, when World Music came out, Goat expressed the opinion that all music – not just their own – is world music. It’s a sincere claim that underlies the band’s creative outlook.

“All music has always contained elements of other music, previous music and traditional music,” Goatheart says. “This is nothing new. All music has always influenced each other – [it’s] simply evolution. In the end, all music is very similar to each other, if you listen to the similarities instead of the differences. It’s the same with people and their cultures, and since the evolution is an ongoing process, every expression belongs to everyone to use and be inspired by.

“The world would be a lot better if people could focus on the similarities between everything. And of course music is a spiritual thing that binds people together more then anything else.”

Commune is out now through Rocket; and Goat appear atMetro TheatreonWednesday December 9, with King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and Orb.

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