After having his life turned upside down, Shane Gooding is getting ready to return to music, playing folk and blues at his solo gigs and rock N roll with his band, Patients.
Your cell phone number has an area code I'm not familiar with. Are you a transplant?
Yeah, I'm from New Jersey. It's almost two years now. It's all right. When I can move back, I'll move back. I've met a lot of interesting people, a lot of crazy people. The traffic and the personalities sometimes turn me off. When you're from a place with four seasons and you come to a place with two seasons . . . it took something away from my body clock. It was kind of an adventure when I came out here because I didn't know anybody and I didn't know where anything was. There was a lot of discovery.
How was the move for your life as a musician?
That was good because I was stuck in a dead-end town back home and I was always broke. There's a lot of cool underground divey stuff to do around here. I've got to play a lot more music to a lot more people.
What's your musical background?
My first musical memories are being in a car with my mom and her quizzing me on who was on the radio. I grew up on a lot of Bowie and the Stones and basic rock N roll fare in the '80s if your mom was a kid in the '70s. When I was 9 years old I would constantly beat on shit and bitch at my mom to get me drums. When I turned 10 she got me drums. That started it. When I was 13 I got a guitar because I was sick of watching everyone else write songs.
Do you have any favorite locals?
I've met a lot of good players. I've met a lot of interesting people. I love the guys in After Miles. They're very hard-working, very talented young dudes. I really like to listen to Sandra B. Alisha Westerman is the best songwriter I've met out here. She's amazing. Whitton is great. If you ever get a chance to catch Whitton you'll remember it because it's very unique in a good way. Matt Costa is a friend of mine. I randomly met him in New York City before I moved out here. I think he's a very talented and hard-working artist. There are also a lot of cats playing old music. I really like that Appalachian stuff and traditional old-time country stuff.
You recently had surgery?
Yeah, it was very serious surgery. I had cancer in my mouth. So they had to take muscle from my arm and put it in my tongue, and take skin from my leg and cover my arm. It fucked me up pretty good. It will take another month for the swelling to go down in my tongue.
That's got to be frightening for a singer.
Yeah, someone who . . . that's my life. It was a very big wakeup call. A lot of things about me have changed since then. I've been out of the hospital for not even two weeks yet. I still have a lot of recovering to do. But it's cool. I'm chilling at home, I eat some pot brownies sometimes and work on songs.
VISIT WWW.SHANEGOODING.NET FOR MORE INFORMATION; A BENEFIT FOR GOODING FEATURING INNAWAY, BROOKLINE, SUGAR IN WARTIME AND ALISHA WESTERMAN WILL BE HELD AT DETROIT BAR, 843 W. 19TH ST., COSTA MESA, (949) 642-7022; WWW.DETROITBAR.COM. THURS., SEPT. 14, 8 P.M. $10. 21+.
