Culture
Speaking With Wreckless Eric
By: Emily Votaw
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When Eric Goulden (known primarily as Wreckless Eric) answers my phone call on a Wednesday afternoon, he answers the phone as though I’m a fellow human being, which is a strikingly rarer occurrence for a journalist than one might think.
“You’re coming in quite clear!” he says. “I’m just trying to do some nightmarish crap… involving trying to order some guitar strings online. I’m at the end of my tether –” Goulden laughs, and I begin to interject, letting him know we can reschedule the interview if needed — but he continues: “Why is it that they can remember all these details about you, but it won’t remember what you ordered last time? Because I order guitar strings a lot, I manage to use a lot of them!”
Again I offer to reschedule the interview, but Goulden laughs and says “No, no, I’ll put this on hold, as it seems to be an all day job so far!”
I immediately enjoy Goulden’s response to this frustration, to laugh at the absurdity of the situation rather than lash out at it; it’s a rare quality and one that is, in it’s way, pretty “punk rock.” I also immediately enjoy his most recent release, 2019’s Transience, an expertly executed record that delivers eight delectable tracks featuring Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson, and drummer Eric Goulding, who hasn’t recorded with Goulden since the late ’70s when the singer shared the Stiff Records roster with Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe.
Goulden and I mostly talk about the present, and not about the ’70s, but we do go into that a bit, in the interview embedded above.