Godcaster Previews a New Era in Night Club 101 Residency
New York City's art-rock sextet tells Paste about their residency at Night Club 101 and discusses their upcoming third LP, produced by of Montreal's Kevin Barnes.
Experimental art-rock band Godcaster’s year is off to a momentous start. In January, the sextet released their new, Kevin Barnes-produced single “Judy Living Daylights,” a preview of what’s to come in their third LP. Then, on April 8th, the group launched their four-date residency at New York City’s buzzy new venue Night Club 101—run by the team behind Baby’s All Right—with shows every Tuesday throughout the month.
For their stint at Night Club 101, Godcaster tapped some of their friends and beloved local acts, such as Asher White and Macula Dog, to share the stage with them. Each show also opens with the four-part gothic Americana play He Keenly Feels His Loss, written and directed by Jane Ferry and Nazareth Bowman. Those attending all four shows get to see the story unfold.
Attending the second night of their residency, which featured former Slow Hollows member Jackson Katz’s project Brutus VIII as the opener, I was struck by how convivial the night felt. Lead vocalist and guitarist Judson Kolk’s parents showed their support by attending the show. Musicians from the local scene and fans made the trek to the East Village to catch Godcaster, singing along and dancing throughout the set, cheering when the group launched into “She’s a Gun,” one of the oldest songs from the band’s catalog, released as a single in 2019. The night also served as an opportunity to unveil one of the new, yet-to-be-released tracks, “My Crytone Rind,” featuring a hypnotic, eerie melody paired with twinkling synths.
For some audience members, it was the second time catching the residency; I’m sure some will return for the third and fourth time. Godcaster make enthralling performers, with each member, most of whom are multi-instrumentalists, getting their chance to shine as a collective. Their live shows make you fall in love with songs you might have overlooked before; you leave with a new favorite track each time.
The next day after their second residency show, I catch up with Godcaster’s members—sans drummer Ryan West, who was sick—at Judson and Von Kolk’s home in Ridgewood, Queens, where the band is gathering for dinner before their rehearsal. Von, who often makes road meals on tour, has prepared couscous with lamb, inspired by David McFaul’s typo in a text to her, in which he wrote “Iamb” instead of “I am” when asked if he was joining us.
As we wait for Bruce Ebersole to arrive, Judson strums on his guitar while McFaul leafs through Judson and Von’s record collection, picking the soundtrack to our chat. He examines some options, including the soundtrack to Rankin/Bass’ 1977 animated adaptation of The Hobbit, before landing on Yellow Magic Orchestra’s self-titled record. Once Ebersole is buzzed into the apartment, the band settles around the dining table, munching on a herbaceous feta dip with lettuce cups and an assortment of eclairs while waiting for dinner.
Looking back at how their residency at Night Club 101 came to be, Judson recalls that the original offer involved playing a slew of shows at Baby’s All Right at the start of the year. The timing didn’t work, as Godcaster wanted more time to prepare and preferred it to coincide with the arrival of “Judy Living Daylights.”
Even while sharing a preview of the new tracks, the songs from their self-titled 2023 album hold the spotlight. One of the highlights from their sets is the nearly 11-minute-long “Didactic Flashing Antidote,” featuring both McFaul and Judson on vocals. McFaul, who sits behind Judson on synths and keys for most of the show, gets his moment to shine, carrying the vocals and wiggling onstage, while Judson leaps into the crowd with his acoustic, 12-string guitar in tow.
Around the time of the self-titled’s release, Ebersole told Tomato Flower during their Talkhouse chat that Godcaster had “forced David to sing and it was completely out of his comfort zone.” When asked if he still feels that way now, McFaul shrugs and says, “You have to leave your comfort zone to sing, I think, but now I’m singing on fewer songs so I’m back in my comfort zone.”
“But you really put yourself out there on [“Didactic Flashing Antidote”]. You’re just singing and belting,” Ebersole chimes in.
McFaul says he’s realized “people seem to like” that song, as it features “lots of big moments.” But Ebersole admits that the band was “really embarrassed” while making the track. “We thought it was really dumb because it’s almost two chords over and over again.” Judson agrees, noting, “When we were recording, we were like, ‘No one’s going to like this. This is barely a song.”
“Didactic Flashing Antidote” is one of Godcaster’s setlist fixtures that has evolved over time. For these residency shows, it’s less loose, more thoroughly planned out, while still maintaining a level of excitement. “We’ve gotten to a point where everything happens at the correct moments,” explains Judson. “So there are definitely little sparks here and there that are different, but it’s more or less that we know the drill, which makes it comfy that way too. It feels like a play. You know when everything happens; you hit all the marks.”
McFaul recalls that their previous performances would be “more fly by the seat of our pants and now it’s a little bit more prepared.” He shares that he’s been practicing a lot more than he has before while preparing for the residency.
Von points out that the set is very eclectic, as the group is performing songs from different eras, including some of their earliest material, which leans more toward funk and psychedelic pop-rock. Unlike other bands, who met each other in adulthood and have cycled through various projects, Godcaster is a rare act where most members have known each other since they were children—except for Von, who met most of the group when she was 17, and West, who first crossed paths with his bandmates in his 20s. When you watch their residency sets, you’re hearing the complete artistic evolution of Godcaster.
“I feel like most people don’t stay together that long as a band, so they wouldn’t have so many different sounds,” Von says. “Godcaster has stayed together since they were kids, so that’s why it’s changed so much, because it’s literally people growing up and transforming into adults.”
Including the songs they wrote as teenagers and in their early 20s “feels weird” to Judson, as this isn’t usual in Godcaster’s recent sets outside their residency. “The set seems very schizophrenic in that way, with all the different sounds,” he admits. “I think it’s sort of born out of necessity a bit because we need to have a longer set. We usually go pretty short. So it feels weird going from a song like ‘Didactic’ to ‘All the Feral Girls in the Universe’ and things like that, back to back. They’re just completely opposite. But I made my bed, now I’m sleeping in it.”
Von likens the experience of revisiting these older songs to looking at your high school yearbook or visiting your hometown after settling down elsewhere. “It’s a funny thing to come back to as an adult, because we felt like we had to shed these ideas along the way, but then we’re returning to them much later with a different perspective,” she adds. Besides transporting themselves to the past throughout the set, Godcaster also uses the residency to fine-tune the new songs’ live versions. The band recently finished working on their next album, marking a new era.
While Godcaster’s self-titled album felt darker, taking inspiration from experimental, post-punk acts like Swans and incorporating guttural screams, the band is going in a different direction for the forthcoming record. Judson describes it as “euphoric, kind of utopian pop, bursting with joy music.” He says the single “Judy Living Daylights” is the best indication of what fans and new listeners can expect from this era of Godcaster.
Von interjects, “I feel like ‘Judy’ kind of encompasses the new stuff because of all the sparkling textures. I feel like that’s a recurring theme and really pretty vocal melodies—like sugary.” Ebersole notes that there won’t be lengthy songs like in the self-titled record this time. Instead, they wanted to “condense the power.”
The recording process differed this time around, too. Ebersole explains that while the first two albums were recorded with a live band all in one room, this album is “extremely multi-tracked, playing one note at a time.”
“The production is kind of backwards [from how we usually record],” he adds.
Another new element for the upcoming album is the addition of West to Godcaster. He replaced Sam Pickard in the summer of 2023, who left the band to focus on his main project, YHWH Nailgun. West, recovering from a sore throat, recalls over text that he connected with Godcaster in 2019 after moving to New York from Seattle. During a tour, Godcaster stayed at a house venue they’d played, which West had just moved out of. After Godcaster hit it off with West’s old roommates, his friends suggested that he should get in touch with the band; they eventually met at a show in New York City. West’s bond with the members grew closer when Von moved into the warehouse where West was living during the pandemic. Judson, who at the time hadn’t moved in with his now-wife, was “always hanging out” there, so he and West “got super close.” When Pickard decided to leave Godcaster, Judson met up with West at the Grand Central Oyster Bar and asked him to join.
According to Judson, West was “the only guy for the job.” He adds, “I feel like Ryan is on the same wavelength as all of us, so it was very much a smooth transition.”
To West, working on Godcaster’s upcoming LP was both “super fun” and “super challenging. “The band kind of described it as a tabula rasa time, and Jud gave me some imagery to go off on in terms of what the sound would look like, and Bruce started recording me playing in little snippets,” the drummer says. “Then he’d work his magic like chopping and screwing the recordings, making them sound like weird squashed or exploded drum machine sounds. So it’s like he sampled me and then I had to learn how to play the samples.”
“I think me and Bruce have been throwing Ryan a bunch of curveballs,” Judson notes, laughing. “Like, he’ll record over a song and he’ll do a great track and then we’ll be like, ‘Okay, play it half-speed so that we can speed it up. And he’s like, ‘Okay…’ and then we’ll just chop that up a ton and then the final product is very different and he’s gotta play that live.”
Ebersole adds, “A lot of it live is interpreting ultra-processed drums. Sometimes it’ll be a drum kit played extremely slow, sped up, chopped up, moved around and then different sounds added like drum machines, so it’s a mess for the drummer too [to translate into a live performance].”
Von shares that she thinks the drum parts on the upcoming record are “a little more” enjoyable than those in previous records. “It seems very fun for a drummer. I don’t play drums, but I would imagine so,” she says. “And when Sam left, I was like, ‘Sam, you kind of missed out, because you would have loved coming up with the rhythmic section for this.'”
This record also features of Montreal bandleader Kevin Barnes as its producer. Judson clarifies that, while the band made most of the record by themselves, they brought it to Barnes, who allowed Godcaster to use his home recording studio and gave some guidance on the final versions of the tracks. This wasn’t the first team-up with Barnes. Last year, Godcaster had the opportunity to open of Montreal’s summer tour.
The collaboration between Barnes and Godcaster is a perfect fit, as you can trace of Montreal’s influence throughout the latter’s discography. They share the same oddball, anything-goes spirit and a love for ‘60s psychedelic pop-inspired sounds. The band first connected with Barnes through his fiancée, Christina Schneider. After playing a show in 2018 with Schneider’s project, Locate S,1, in Houston, they sparked a friendship. A year later, Godcaster shared a bill again with Locate S1 in Athens, Georgia, and needed a place to stay. Schneider kindly told the band, “You can stay with us.”
“We were like, who’s us?,” recalls Von, incredulous at the time of having the opportunity to get to know an indie icon that Godcaster has long admired. While spending the night at Schneider and Barnes’ shared home, the chemistry between the group and the musician was instant. “I feel like we became friends that day, and it carried for years,” says Von.
Godcaster is currently at the point in their career where they’ve received acclaim from major publications such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork and have received attention beyond their local scene. Having someone like Barnes involved in their next record doesn’t hurt, either. With new music on the horizon, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing Godcaster’s name much more this year.
Tatiana Tenreyro is Paste‘s associate music editor, based in New York City. You can also find her writing at SPIN, NME, PAPER Magazine, The A.V. Club, and other outlets.
