With some crucial gigs now under their belt, Just Me and the Geese have gone on to rack up an impressive 15,000 streams for their new single ‘Silent Film’ on SoundCloud. We spoke to the up-and-coming student band in Cambridge on their songwriting and their influence.

Maggie, George, Liv, and Archie were all first-year music students. Yet, they were relative strangers until a group-chat message banded them together for a practice session. Gathering in the Music Faculty, they found little equipment— prompting them to buy their own. Within this DIY process lies the fun, and recording from the comfort of their own rooms allow them to have a laidback vibe which follows through to the Geese’s final product.

The origin story for their peculiar name is certainly hazy. Supposedly, King’s Senior Organ Scholar Paul Greally deserves the credit for the name; coined whilst gazing upon the geese at King’s. There was also talk of Marina and the Diamonds. If her fans are the diamonds, logically: ‘we are the geese’. The final name was revealed to be the result of an agonising three-month process. And while Maggie was never a fan of the name at first, she finally relented. Just Me and the Geese were born. Archie finalised this diplomatically: ‘love it or hate it, you do remember it.’

Songwriting for the Geese is a collaborative process. Someone might start with the chords and the rest of the band dives in to transform it into a fully-formed song. Liv revealed how songs she had written years ago have now been adapted to George’s and Maggie’s guitar styles.

Collectively, their influences range from the shoegazing of My Bloody Valentine to the melancholic folk of Nick Drake. Liv reels off Thea Gilmore, Laura Marling, Phoebe Bridgers, Bowie, Carole King, and Wolf Alice as significant. Archie’s influences seemed encyclopaedic. It was the likes of The Beatles, Radiohead and Pink Floyd mentioned. ‘You have a lot – Archie listens to everything’ Maggie laughs. My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth came first to George’s mind. George spoke of his interest in discovering links between such diverse music and pulling the differences out between them. Maggie then comes in reminding us that Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell are yet to be mentioned. Not to forget Nick Drake.

Whenever The Geese start a new song it’s met with the joke, ‘oh this is just a cover of that one Radiohead song’ yet, George develops, ‘that’s the sort of sound you have in your head when you are writing … as soon as you start writing it becomes your own thing.’ Even when using the same chords, The Geese always put their spin on it. Ultimately, The Geese have the best of both worlds, Archie argues. ‘It’s cool that we have the influence of traditional rock and pop as well as the singer-songwriter vibe and the more chill acoustic stuff.’

The Geese have since been releasing multiple, eclectic singles and are currently focused on producing an album. It will be patchwork in nature— a collection of singles. They say it allows them to play to ‘different establishments, like a more clashy vibe, or something more acoustic— depending on the nature of the event.’

Despite their eclecticism, The Geese manage to masterfully blend all their influences to create some of the best music coming out of Cambridge right now. And their unrelenting work ethic certainly means that they’re here to stay.