Longhorn

LONGHORN by Robert DunstanLocal band Longhorn (Rich Gohl on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Andrew ‘Pange’ Niemoeller on drums, Sean Tilmouth on guitar and Mark Nichols on bass) have just released their fourth CD, 6 Shards For Love. They’ve now been at it for around five years with two members, Rich and Pange, also playing around town and interstate in swamp rock dogs King Daddy. In fact, that band’s singer Paul Nassari, aka Nazz, has been penning songs with Rich for use in both bands. “Yeah, Nazz and I have been doing a fair bit of writing together lately,” Rich said over the telephone when we spoke about the upcoming Longhorn launch. “We don’t aim for any style when we write so it can come out in any form. And Nazz has done some backing vocals on the album.” Longhorn might best be described as playing a twisted, countrified version of rawk’n’roll. “I suppose so, yeah,” Rich said, “but on all our albums we’ve tried to do a few different things. We like to put a variety of things on our CDs. We like to think we defy any quick categorisation.” Four albums is a pretty rare achievement for a local band. “Yeah, we’ve been pretty lucky to be able to do that,” Rich mused. “We’re now in our fifth year – we’re a bunch of old timers – so we try and get a new CD out each year or so.” Pange and Rich also play in King Daddy while that band’s bass player, Danielle Schriever, took the photos that adorn the CD with Pange providing the striking woodcut images. “It’s all very in house but I think everyone has played in King Daddy at some stage,” Rich laughed. “I keep meeting people who tell me they were once in King Daddy including my girlfriend’s father who told me that he was their original drummer. That’s what he reckons anyway.” Sean Tilmouth was also in King Daddy for a while. “And I’d played with Sean in Z-28 before that,” Rich then said. “And I played with Marky in another band called Hell’s Hoist. So to be playing with Sean, Marky and Pange in Longhorn is great as they are all such great musicians.” Special guests on the latest Longhorn offering are violinist Brigette McDowell and vocalist Carla Lipiss. “They were both great,” Rich said. “And they’ll be performing at our launch. At least Carla will be. I told Brigette about it a while ago now so I must remind her.” The album was recorded by Matt Hills, who also added a bit of percussion, and then mixed by David Briggs in Melbourne. “Matt recommended him,” Rich said. “And considering his vast experience – he was one of the original guitarists with Little River Band – David was quite affordable. “And Matt’s done three of our four CDs,” he quickly added. “We did the second one ourselves after thinking, ‘Who needs a professional?’ We only found out after we did it that we did need to use a professional.” Will you do any interstate touring. “We’re actually thinking of doing some regional touring,” Rich concluded. “We might go over to the west coast – Port Lincoln and places like that because we have a few contacts over that way.”