Credit: Courtesy of Joshua Goodman

From left to right: Mike Bloom, Ryan Herlihy, Joshua Goodman, Matt Bloom and Jake Mitchell pose for a photo after a show. Goodman, a WHS teaching assistant, is one of five members of the band ‘Gold Rush.’

While many teachers have various activities they are involved in, teaching assistant and WHS Class of 2018 graduate Joshua Goodman is unique in being the lead singer in a band named Gold Rush. Goodman started his musical journey in Wayland where he grew up, and took his newly learned musical skills to Quinnipiac University and Boston College.

Goodman began taking private guitar lessons at 7-years-old, but stopped when he was 14. At WHS, Goodman took both a piano and songwriting class where he was able to play guitar and write songs. By the time he was 16-years-old, he began to take music more seriously and started to teach himself guitar.

“I would listen to music a lot,” Goodman said. “I listened to songs over and over again, and by then I had a pretty trained ear just from all the lessons. At one point I could read music, I have since forgotten, but it was listening and watching videos of them playing it live.”

Goodman was in two bands prior to Gold Rush. His first band did not have official performances. Instead they would occasionally play in Boston Commons with a tip jar. At the time, Goodman was in high school, and the other members of the band were his school friends. His second band was called Full Moon, which was a more serious commitment compared to the high school band he was previously a part of.

“[Full Moon] actually went farther with music production than I have with Gold Rush, but we didn’t do much performing because COVID happened right when we were getting our feet set,” Goodman said. “We had talked with small independent labels that were gonna give us small shows in the area, but they kind of dropped everyone because there was no way to make money when the country essentially shut down.”

Gold Rush started in early 2022, but Goodman didn’t join right at the start. There are four other members, not including Goodman, who are in the band: rhythm guitarist Mike Bloom, drummer Matt Bloom, lead guitarist Ryan Herlihy and bass player Jake Mitchell.

“I did audition for Gold Rush,” Goodman said. “They just wanted to make sure that I have a similar music taste as them, and that I can sing the songs adequately that they like to play and write. There were a couple [other candidates], but I think that I was the most serious musician, and I had the most experience out of the other people, so they ultimately chose me.”

As Goodman evolved with the band, he began to help with writing original songs. The band plays both original and cover songs at their gigs, but his favorite original song is called “Every truth is a lie.”

“'[Every truth is a lie]’ is just really fun, and I wrote the lyrics [for] that [song], but I didn’t expect people to like it as much as they do,” Goodman said. “It’s one of those songs where the people who regularly show up [to our gigs] know all of the lyrics to. It’s one of those feelings that you can’t really describe, but when people are heavily vibing to something that you created, it’s a really good feeling.”

Goodman believes that the original and cover songs both serve unique purposes to the band, and they wouldn’t want to perform a show without one or the other. Cover songs serve the purpose of getting new audience members engaged and bringing up the energy, while original songs help the band showcase their creative sides. Originals can also be special when repeat listeners begin to remember the lyrics and are able to sing along.

“If they know your originals and they can sing along, it’s very fun,” Goodman said. “But the atmosphere when everyone’s singing along and you can barely hear yourself as a frontman is what you want and I can’t discredit that feeling. It’s an awesome feeling.”

The band tries to practice once a week when there is a gig coming up, but isn’t always able to do so. They rehearse and write lyrics in a recording studio. Goodman says original song creation is a collaborative effort shared between everyone in the group.

“We all write [the lyrics] together because they start off as just an idea,” Goodman said. “It’s like a bare bones poem, and we’ll say ‘here’s a few chords that I think would go well with it.’ But I’m not a drummer, so I tell Matt, ‘hey, figure out a part, add some drum solos, add whatever you want.’ We’re giving him total creative freedom to make the song sound good, same with the bass player and all of us. We’re a democracy. We want us all to have fun. We’re not doing it for money.”

Now that Goodman is officially in the workforce, he finds that it is harder to find an outlet and a group of people who enjoy the same things as him. High schoolers have clubs, sports and different activities that they can get involved in to help make friends. As an adult, Goodman believes that compared to students, hobbies are difficult to find.

“When we [Gold Rush] get to meet together and all work together, it sort of feels like being part of a team again, and it’s just something that I do not take for granted,” Goodman said. “It’s an awesome thing to be a part of.”

Looking back at his days at WHS, Goodman remembers feeling lost as he tried to put a band together, but over time, he has learned to enjoy the process. He believes everyone should stick with the things they love, and that if there is passion, there can be talent.

“Keep looking, don’t give up, keep playing your instruments,” Goodman said. “I think that it’s tough now, there’s a lot of new genres. There’s ways to make music on a computer, rap has gotten bigger and it’s hard to find people, especially bass players and drummers oftentimes. There were many times in high school and college where I thought I was never gonna find anyone [for a band]. And then when you least expect it, someone’s like, ‘hey, we’re starting something.’ So I would say don’t get discouraged and just continue to practice and enjoy listening to music because like-minded people are bound to show up.”