This is why Goth Mountain has a "western accent." Because unlike NY, SF has always been wild and barbaric. Goth Mountain is inspired by so much of the unique natural habitat of the region and those elements are represented in the music. But it's more about the people. The Santa Cruz Mountains didn't just shelter in**ed white trash like the Appalachians, but rogues of all races and persuasions. Eve
ry time I take Hwy 1 north and pass Pomponio Beach, I think of the 20th Century Ohlone gang of thieves led by America's last great native american outlaw, Pomponio. I think of The Kingston Trio (Local boys. My mom dated one of them!) )making Caribbean music the rage on the west coast first, before it spread all over America. Every time I drive down Columbus Street, I think of Ginsberg, Kerouac and others who articulated Left Coast ideals and barbarism better than I ever could. I grew up in the hippie culture that the beat movement spawned and was culturally, all San Francisco! The Santa Cruz Mountains hold a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, many Chinese Shrines, a Hindu Temple, yoga camps, nudist colonies and pot farms. The sound of a sitar in an outdoor rock show happened here first. That's why the Goth Mountain sounds and lyric content can take on exotic flavors and still be "western." There's nothing "western" about country music or blues! That's a product of those white trash mountains back east and, more directly, the southern states. If you want to know what American Western Music REALLY is . . . It's Native American, it's the blending of folk with eastern influences, it's world music, it's psychedelic rock . . . The Byrds, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Iron Butterfly, The Grateful Dead, Steppenwolf, The Stone Poneys, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape and on and on. THIS IS WHERE IT HAPPENED FIRST. Not London or NYC!!!!!! When we were young, my friends and I thought of the Santa Clara Valley as nothing more than suburban wasteland for us to trash and burn. Now I know better and am thrilled to have been here through the sixties and seventies, and living in these mountains today. There's no denying that The Beatles did it better than any of them, and their musical inspiration came from the American south . . . and they loom huge in any music I write . . . but that flowery, earthy, colorful, worldly CULTURE that they embraced was all about the far western edge of this continent, not theirs. I like making music of many genres, but Goth Mountain is a project to show the world that music of this kind STILL comes from this place. You could say that I'm pursuing Cultural Anachronistic Ethnocentriciscm in the 21st Century in one of the least ethnocentric places in the world. William J. McKay
Goth Mountain Music
Santa Cruz Mountains, CA
