Random Facts With… Goat

Shrouded and anonymous behind their masks and gowns, Sweden's Goat have been creating crazed psyche-rock and tribal infused beats for several years. Hailing from Korpilombolo, a town which the band claim has a history of voodoo worship, which you could unravel from their mythical banter. After slots at Glastonbury and legendary headlining shows at Liverpool Psychedelic Festival, the band are back in the UK in June for Field Day. 

It therefore made some sense to us to bat some facts back and too with them, as it seems nigh on impossible to get much general worldly info from these guys:

Goats are herd animals and will become depressed if kept without any goat companions. How do you feel when you are not in the company of each other?

I feel like a million bucks.

How does a million bucks feel?

Just great.

Is money important?

Well if you are not the owner of a ranch or farm or both or live off of your own crops or parents I would say yes. To some extent.

Goats’ pupils are rectangular. This gives them vision for 320 to 340 degrees (compared to humans with 160-210) around them without having to move. Is this something that you would benefit from? What do you feel you may be missing out on?

I don't know. I feel like I don't care.

Also goats have no tear ducts. How could we tell if they were sad?

We could talk. We could try and psycho analyze. Talk to them, ask what went wrong in the past. Maybe something in the childhood? That is a common way to tell why and if humans are sad. 

What could go wrong in a goat’s childhood that made it so sad?

Maybe it felt cornered by all the Satan comparisons being thrown around?

In Morocco, there are goats that climb trees to eat Argan nuts. Humans can use that oil to make their hair lovey and shiny, why do you think the animals climb for them? Could they be psychoactive to the goats and how would we know?

Who knows. How do you feel about all this?

I am happy that goats may have a secret supply of psychoactives, cats eat certain leaves to make them feel all woozy. Animal instincts are winning here. Better than shiny hair (and mine is lustrous). There are many examples of this – Lemurs and monkeys get high off millipedes. Dolphins eat pufferfish for similar effect. Pigs search for truffles so they can enjoy the cannabis effect before being sold for a fortune in Michelin restaurants. 

Ok. I am happy to hear about your hair. Really happy. Hmm.. How do you mean enjoy the cannabis effect before being sold? The pig is aware it´s going to be sold in a couple of hours or days therefore..? Feel free to expand here..

A remote border town in Texas elected three successive generations of goats as Mayors, starting with Clay Henry in the 80s who was drinking as many as 40 beers a day. Several goat generations later, a local man castrated his successor because he was jealous of the goat drinking the then banned liquor. What laws do you think a goat or another animal in a position of authority pass?

I don't get this. Was a goat elected mayor of a town and drinking beer? This question really says so much about life on earth and humans in general.

Yes, Clay was a goat AND he was elected mayor AND he drank a load of beer. How do you think he would have faired on Super Tuesday? Could he be the Republican nominate if Donald eats too much of what the cat did (above)?What’s your opinion on Donald and his challenge to become the Leader Of The Free World?

That's amazing. Go Clay!

My opinion on the rest of the question is that I think that we live in very confusing times and that a lot of people are very confused. This would include world leaders too. I think that a lot of people (once again) turn to hatred and violence for answers and solutions. And I think that this is very sad.

Animal behaviourists believe goats chew things to find out more about them, as they are naturally curious. Do either of the band have a special way of finding out more about someone?

I guess, but usually not through chewing stuff..

A British newspaper reported last year that goats have accents, what accent do you think that would be?

Hard to say. I'm quite sure that goats operate under different grammatical and linguistic laws which only adds to the problem of throwing myself into their dialects.

Satan is often represented as a goat, why do you think that is? 

Because a seagull looks a bit less scary? Because Satan wears a goatee?

Seagulls are actually quite scary in the UK. Their behaviour enforced a ban on the eating of chips at the seaside, and even stopped the Queen’s mail being delivered…

Haha. I was in a bitter feud with seagulls at a point in my life. Needless to say the seagulls won. I think the only reasonable solution to this is wearing masks.

According to popular belief, an Ethiopian goat herder found his goats displaying energetic and active behavior after browsing from a specific bush. The person decided to try it and felt the same uplifting effect and that’s how coffee was discovered. Do you know any other beverage discoveries animals have made that humans have benefitted from?

No I don't. I get the feeling this could be the one animal/beverage saga out there.

With regards to the goats and coffee, there again are many stories of animals eating fermented fruit to get boozy. Animal physiologist Barry Pinshow once said “a drunk bat is a dead bat”. Do you think he had a motive for that?

I think Barry had a profound motive for saying that. Do you think that that same phrase could work as an ice breaker whenever encountering awkward silence in day to day life?  Did you see that thing on BBC about the lyre bird? Mindblowing stuff.

The Pharaoh Cephranes thought so much of his goats that he had 2,234 buried with him. What would you choose to have buried with you?

My mask and my wife. 

Goat play at Field Day Festival 2016, Victoria Park London on the weekend 11-12th June. Full details and tickets are HERE. Follow Goat HERE.