Better World

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Garden Goat has been in development for some time. Luke Novak first came to Eugene (his destination was Portland) in the summer of 2008 with an empty wallet and a dream to start a band of singer/songwriters to collaborate and play music together. Novak grew up in a trailer park in a small town in Washington, starting to play guitar at 16 years of age, but never learning more than a few chords until he was in his early twenties. He starting writing songs, however, right away.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Currently Novak was coming from a short road trip through the mystical realms of California. Before that he lived in San Francisco for a year and a half and there recorded his first album with the help of many friends. With his first album complete (the boy who ate stars &ndash; elliot gain) and a whole new set of songs, mostly written on the road directly after the album release, he made little headway achieving his dream, until meeting with Justin Van Dyke later that year.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Justin Van Dyke is the band's only Oregon native. At a very young age he was inspired by his father&rsquo;s record collection, which included classic rock, gospel, and classical music. He received his first guitar at age six, and taught himself to play with the aid of instructional books and the radio. In high school Justin played bass guitar, tuba, and sang in several school ensembles. </span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In 2003 he moved to Eugene, where he studied jazz music and audio engineering in college and worked part-time at the local public radio station. It was also during this time that he befriended Sarita Ince. Sarita introduced Justin and Luke to each other, planting the seed that would blossom into Garden Goat a few years later.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Not much happened until later on in 2009, when Van Dyke wrote the song &ldquo;Now's The Time&rdquo; and they started playing sparse shows together in the summer of '09.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">During the winter of 2010 is when the first recording's of &ldquo;Songs for a New Paradigm&rdquo; started to piece themselves together, initially intended as a demo to attain more shows, as Van Dyke created more and more songs, they soon decided to create a full album, under the band name &ldquo;Big Picture&rdquo; they played around town and slowly put together their debut.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">During this time Sarita Ince also joined in the fun. With little musical background she followed an impulse to purchase a drum set and was soon learning to play.</p> <p>She didn't grow up in a house filled with classic rock and jazz albums. Sometimes her grandmother would play the Latin radio station and dance around the house up on her toes.</p> <p>She had no intimate contact with music outside from the radio and an occasional CD until after high school. She felt an untraceable urge to study music and audio engineering when she was 18 and enrolled in classes at Kansas community college. After a term of good grades and boredom Sarita decided professional music wasn't her forte. Her musical sophistication only blossomed when she met Justin.</p> <p>Going to numerous live shows together, Sarita's appreciation for different kinds of music exploded. Being inspired by Luke and Justin, she jumped on the opportunity to purchase a drum set from a friend, and dived into it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In late 2010 they met with Jake Weist, living in the south hills of Eugene, OR.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Wiest started to play with &ldquo;Big Picture&rdquo; until they all soon found the band name was taken, it was dropped, and Garden Goat was officially born.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">After several setbacks and delays, the full 13 &ldquo;Songs for a New Paradigm&rdquo; was released on March 1st 2011.</p>