Today we’d like to introduce you to David Goyette.
Hi David, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Our band, Discount Cadavers, began in the early 1990s, founded on the friendship of David Goyette, vocals and guitar, and James “Jimmy” Shrieve, rhythm guitar. At the time, we were often in the audience as San Diego local music fans, taking in the brilliance of bands such as Heavy Vegetable, Drive Like Jehu, Creedle, aMminiature, and Goodbye Blue Monday. You could find us at The Casbah, SOMA, Bodie’s, and Che Cafe, looking on with excitement and admiration for these local artists. We saw these musicians and performers as talented and creative. Uniquely gifted. Even though we were in our own garage band at the time, we felt like we would never gain the confidence and musical ability to occupy that prized live music space.
Fast forward 30 years. Amidst the COVID-19 lockdown, we found ourselves with the time and whimsical inclination to write our own songs. As a joke one afternoon, a few weeks before the lockdowns closed local bars and music venues, Jimmy and I were at the Longhorn Bar and Grill in Grantville watching SDSU Aztecs Basketball when we started blurting out ridiculous song titles. These were more inside jokes than attempts at developing actual song ideas. Yet, we soon found ourselves practicing guitar progressions over an Alesis SR-16 drum machine at Jimmy’s Linda Vista area home in the enclosed patio space. Eventually, we had a good 8 or 10 songs and sought out a drummer and bass player.
I posted a message on Facebook in March of 2022 and by late April we had set up our first practice with an old friend of mine, Chris Ashton. Although Chris didn’t have much experience as a drummer, he was an avid fan of the same local San Diego bands as Jimmy and I. He’d also recently been gifted with a drum kit when his friend’s band, Problem with Dragons, left San Diego for the East Coast. The whole idea was to grow as a band with what little knowledge and ability we had. Just keep a growth mindset and practice regularly. We tried to make our inexperience an advantage. We didn’t have any set expectations or a rooted sound, so we could create and develop apart from any constraints. This changed a little when we brought on our bass player, Chris “Paff” Paffendorff, who had played for San Diego area bands at venues such as Soma in the 90s. He brought more organization and musical structure to the band’s practice sessions, as well as a dependency on having MST3K on in the background. You’re likely to hear lines from Wild Rebels or Sidehackers in the backgroud of our band practice videos. This routine started us on the path to our first EP, On Ice. Somehow, in just over a year of making noise at Jimmy’s Hyatt St. Studio, we had found a way to turn our racket into stream-ready tracks and colaborate with Kris from Audio Aces.
While our songs may have started as playful jokes with ascerbic commentary on media bias and partisan politics (Ample Xample, Haggle Beard, Kulturkampf), the subject matter of the lyrics soon confronted serious personal topics as well. My youngest daughter was coping with some mental health challenges that required inpatient care, family therapy, and the right mindset. Punk music can have an uplifting effect for some people, and I recalled how the depression I sometimes battled in my teens was successfully thwarted with a solid dose of anthemic guitars and bold vocals. With songs like Gonna Be and Tet Defensive, the writing explores the hellish trap of social media for someone, especially a teenager, battling with OCD, depression and negative self-talk. In Be Not Cast, I am writing to my friend who is in the throes of alcoholism and making a note to myself to avoid the harmful habit that led to my father’s own death at 61. While mental health and politics provide lyrical content, mostly our songs try to inspire people to make positive changes or work through tough situations (Descartes Blanche, Pressure Treated). They’re a call to seek out your own personal success and happiness in the tradition of Bad Brains’ PMA “positive mental attitude,” or 7 Seconds’ Definite Choice.
This mental positivity led us to community positivity. Discount Cadavers performed at a few fundraisers here in San Diego. In December of 2023, we joined Steeltoe, Blackstar Sinners and Abigail Circus for a food drive at Winston’s in OB. In 2024, we joined The Vaquitos and Woke Up on a Throne for Vinniepalooza to support San Diego Coastkeeper, a local 501(c)3 non-profit organization tackling our South Bay sewage issue. We have another fundraiser coming up on August 2 at McGuffie’s Live with Anvil of Hope, Ale Smith’s charity to help San Diego families get out of poverty by empowering young people to get a good education, job training, and other opportunities for enrichment. There’s no better feeling than doing what you love while also chipping in to help with a good cause. We were excited to play one of our favorite venues, The Casbah, on Monday, July 28th (Thanks, Tim!), and have our first show in Arizona at the TimeOut Lounge in Tempe on September 20th.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We have been fortunate to have good health and a professional, productive relationship within the band. Juggling our careers and family obligations has been challenging at times but honestly, we feel the band gives us a healthy outlet for artistic expression which makes us more fulfilled when heading off to work. When you have a creative project you are excited about, your workdays seem to move along more quickly. When we joined the San Diego music scene in 2022, we partnered with bands like Abigail Circus, Touch Faded, Close Enough and The Fourth Section. We are grateful for their help and companionship as we learned the ropes. Equally vital to our successful launch were the promoters and venues who got us up on stage. Emily Bartel of Bar None Production, Jeff Osley formely at Navajo Live, now at Humphrey’s Backstage, and King Batt Entertainment all opened doors for us. Although challenges arose, the live music community in San Diego, in our experience, has been mutualistic — artists helping artists, venues including new bands. We noticed how some bands have struggled to stay together, either losing a drummer, a bass player, or disolving altogether. We have been lucky. No member changes since our first practice in April of 2022. Our combination of careers seems to work for us too. I am a high school History and Language Arts teacher, James is a Field Archeologist, Paff is a Egineering Technician, and Chris is in HR-Retirement. We don’t get on each other’s nevrves as much as you might think.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We are a San Diego alternative rock/punk band producing original music for live performances. We’re dead set on delivering what we hope are entertaining, thought-provoking, funny, and rousing songs. We include allusions to history, literature, philosophy, burritos, and political science. We are most proud of having developed from very little musical knowhow to somehow playing regular shows in San Diego at our favorite venues. We had to overcome our own self-doubts, anxieties and limitations to gain the confidence to jump up on stage. What sets us apart? Well, you might hear a song about San Diego’s miraculous burritos, then a track about Descartes’ passions of the soul, followed either by a historical account of Robert Smalls’ escape from slavery aboard the USS Planter or a cautionary reminder to avoid self-harm that evokes both a Qur’anic and Biblical appeal with the scriptural references in verse. You might hear a song about Annie Jump Cannon and Henrietta Swan Leavitt who made vital discoveries in the field of astronomy or a song about the Union’s capture of the Confederate Spy Belle Boyd’s during the Civil War.
What matters most to you?
Having fun while writing, producing and performing original music matters to us. We want our songs to address important political, social, philosophical and mental health topics while finding the humorous and fascinating connections to our everyday lives. The greatest achievement would probably go unnoticed. We all remember a moment in our lives when a particular artist, a certain song, really seemed to understand us when the rest of our world seemed so cruel or indifferent. Maybe it was a song that intensified our feelings or calmed us down. Maybe it was a lyric that seemed to have been copied from our very own thoughts. Or maybe it was a chorus that gave you courage when you needed it or made you laugh when the joy of laughter seemed forever lost to depression. If one of our songs was to have such and effect, to inspire a struggling teen to find a positive solution to the mental health struggle by turning to therapy, or encourage a listener to challenge their limiting beliefs, this would matter and whole lot. We’d pay a debt to all the artists who made us laugh and helped us through difficult times, and who inspired us to create as we are now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://discountcadavers.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discountcadavers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092438299289
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiscountCadavers/search
- Other: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/15598898-discount-cadavers
Image Credits
David J Blood, David Goyette
