Lead Photo: Steve Porte
The Goldilocks Zone is a term used by astronomers to describe this perfect wee segment of the universe which holds the key to maintaining life. Not too hot. Not freezing cold. It’s big enough to maintain an atmosphere but not so large that the atmosphere will crush it. Maybe Phnom Penh is a musical goldilocks zone. Where else could this group find such a die hard following and find the space to create wildly different sounds, feels and live performances?
These guys started back in 2018, as an incredibly fun and wildly chaotic bunch of drunken lads who were somehow creating music that the city just completely fell in love with. Since then, the city has changed, the band has cycled through about 10 different members, but the ability of these musicians has just kept growing. So, too, has their fan base.
We sat down with vocalist and guitarist Jack Dodd, one of the founding members of the iconic group, to discuss the present, history and future of the Goldilocks Zone.
‘We all brought our own influences,’ explains Dodd, who can barely conceal the excitement in his voice about his upcoming rehearsal and Friday’s big return gig. He explains that while the band never sat down to discuss what sound they wanted it was kind of a great organic mashup. Dodd brought his rock and pop influences, while bandmate Ronan Sheehan was more into his 90s feels like Radiohead and the Prodigy (some of their crowd dynamics definitely reflect this twister fire-starter influence) and then it was also topped off with some folk.
The band hit at the perfect time. In 2018, Phnom Penh was a live music lover’s dream, featuring popular venues like Tusk and Showbox and incredible diverse acts such as Hypnotic Fist Technique and Nightmare AD. The city had great music every week guaranteed and it was why so many have fallen in love with Phnom Penh. It wasn’t long until these guys became a household name in the city.
But Dodd does not put down the early success to the sheer talent of the musicians on the stage, although that was certainly part of it.
‘In terms of the competent musicians it was probably Hansley (Bikhari on bass) and Jesse (Ricketson on drums).’ He says the others brought the enthusiasm.
‘We brought a lot of enthusiasm, maybe to cover up the lack of musicianship. But all good…we got better… maybe.’
Dodd is, of course, being humble. This initial enthusiasm was an enormous part of why people fell in love with Goldilocks. Even if a few lines were sung with an ever slight drunken slur, it was part of the fun and played into an exciting new time for music and rock and roll in Cambodia. But since then, absolutely nobody can accuse these guys of not all being high quality musicians and addictive to watch. Like a big fat line of fun.
Dodd may be a founding member but he did actually leave these guys back in 2022 when he left for Morocco. But the band was to continue and Dodd even had ideas about how they could move forward in his absence. He recommended that they bring in Lewis McTie.
‘We knew Lewis for a long time. Knew him from Little Thieves. I knew he was a good musician as well as a good dude so I said you should get Lewis involved.’
But Dodd couldn’t quite stay away from Phnom Penh or the band. Now he is back and joins in once again with the boys.
‘When I got back it was about hanging out as mates again and that was lovely. It took a little while to get going but then we decided to get a rehearsal going. It was nice to have the cool addition of having Lew there as the new addition to the family. ‘
The gig on Friday will be a lot of what Goldi fans have come to love but with some additional treats in there also. The boys have seven new songs to showcase including, as Dodd promises, one with a “kind of Gorrilas vibe” and another that’s more ethereal and emotional.
The gig will most likely be of the highest energy and hopefully a bit of a kick in the arse for us to see more live music venues start to pop up around the city.
“The music scene will continue to thrive but it would just be great if there were some more live music venues but hopefully that will happen in the future,’ he says.
In terms of what’s next for Goldilocks Zone, Jack Dodd made some vague albeit exciting promises.
‘We have a song coming out this week or next week. A song that we’ve played at shows since 2018 and always goes down well.’
‘We have a lot of songs in the metaphorical musical vaults that we want to get out,’ says Jack Dodd.
The first Goldilocks Zone show will be at Hometown Hangout, St. 454, from 20:30. You can check out their stuff on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple and we expect much more to come.