Last summer, when Thorr’s Hammer surprisingly reformed for an appearance at Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival, Greg Anderson got to talking with the bass player they brought along with them – Guy Pinhas – and lo and behold, another one of his old bands sprung back to life. Goatsnake, the cult doom/rock outfit he played guitar in up until the band called it quits in 2004, will break their half-decade hiatus at next year’s Roadburn festival in Holland.

“We’ve lost contact with [James Hale, the original Thorr’s Hammer bass player] over the years, so we needed a bass player to play at those shows” Greg informs us of the events that led to the reformation. “And Guy Pinhas was the first guy that we thought of because not only was he a big supporter of the group but he loaned us some money way back in the day to actually put out the Thorr’s Hammer record, which was the first release on Southern Lord. I, of course, played with him in Goatsnake and it went really well, him and I enjoyed playing music together again. Now we’re trying to put the pieces back together again, see how it works out.”

Though the band never formally disbanded, they went on indefinite hiatus in 2004, as the respective members devoted time to other projects, Anderson with Sunn O))) in particular.  “We never made an official statement, the band was never really broken up, but it’s been in and out of hiatus for a long time” he laughs. “Goatsnake unfortunately was a band that – it was a lot of fun, and the music we made together was amazing and I’m really proud of those records – but due to everyone’s schedules and everyone’s lives, we were just never able to really be a solid or consistent band.”

Check out the full interview with Greg in Rock-A-Rolla issue 23!

Photo by Jennifer Garrett