The Bad Penny (beta)

Phoenix, Arizona’s sludge-doom destroyers Goya have been bringing the heat of a thousand suns to the world of American metal for almost 15 years, and if you want to challenge that statement, tonight’s your chances. They return to Boise for what is bound to be a barnburner of a show with like-minded Denver pals In the Company of Serpents.

Goya will stage their gig in support of In the Dawn of November, released in June via Blues Funeral Recordings, while the opening act will dip into their new LP, A Crack in Everything, which they issued the following month (and which features a guest spot by Goya frontman Jeffrey Owens).

Goya aren’t exactly as terrifying as one of the most renowned works by the revered Spanish painter, “Saturn Devouring His Son”:

That said, the visceral reaction one gets from hearing Goya’s music isn’t all that far removed from the painter’s harrowing, nightmare-inducing work. We caught up with Owens — the band’s mischievous lyricist, vocalist and guitarist — to talk about the band’s new record, the highbrow topic of museum art and the lowbrow topic of farts ahead of Goya’s gig tonight at The Shredder.

Have you played Boise before? If so, what do you recall from the experience? If not, what have you heard about the city?

We’ve played Boise a couple of times before. The last time we were there, we played Realms Arcade with Abrams, which was great. The staff were really awesome, and we love video games, so it was nice to get some of that in before the set. Boise’s a great town!

Why did you decide to include Boise on your tour routing this time around?

We don’t make the routing, so the short and honest answer is that is where we were told to go, but we’re always stoked to play Boise.

What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of touring?

The best thing about touring is always seeing old friends, and making new friends is a close second. The worst part is smelling farts.

Congratulations on In the Dawn of November, which is a crackerjack of a record. What aspect(s) of Goya do you feel this record shows that your previous releases didn’t?

There’s a seriousness on ITDON that isn’t as present in our previous material, both in the music and the lyrics. This is also the only record with this particular iteration of Goya.

What was the most gratifying aspect of making the record or what are you most proud of in terms of the final result?

The most gratifying aspect was being able to finally put these songs down to tape (so to speak), so that we could move on from this years-long era of the band and begin to uncover what lies next for us.

How did you manage to hook up with [famed engineer] Jack Endino? He must’ve told you some great stories … what’s the best one that comes to mind?

We have some friends who have recorded with him before, so we contacted them to see if they could put us in touch, and it moved quickly from there. The best part of recording with Jack was just hanging out with him (though he is also an extremely competent engineer). He did have some fun stories, but better than that was spending time around another pleasant weirdo with a good heart.

To what extent are you fans of Goya the renowned painter and art in general?

That varies from member to member for sure, but for myself, I am tragically uncultured within the art world, though I do love Goya’s work very much. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of his work in person at The Art Institute of Chicago, and it was quite powerful.

What’s your best tour/live performance experience thus far? What’s the worst one?

It’s so hard to pick one [of the best], but the small shows are always great. There was a house show we played in Phoenix years back that will always be tough to beat. Playing Beauty Bar in Vegas some years back might be the only other time that was as good or better than that. It’s been far too long since we’ve played Vegas. Worst one? Man, I don’t know, probably best to keep those to ourselves.

What was the toughest tour mishap you experienced and how did you overcome it?

Getting gigs in the PNW cancelled on a tour was probably the worst. We just went to the Timberline Lodge and pretended we were in The Shining.

Beyond playing the gig, what else are you planning to do in Boise during your visit here?

We usually don’t have a lot of time in most cities, and believe it or not, we’re not a big party band, so we’ll probably get some rest and go get food at Whole Foods or something like that.

Catch Goya, with In the Company of Serpents opening, at The Shredder in Boise tonight. Get tickets for about $18 on Eventbrite. The action begins at 8 p.m.

This entry was posted on 10/16/2025 at 9:57 am and is filed under Interviews with tags Goya, Jack Endino. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.