Four years ago, local band Good2Go released its pop-punk song, “O-Train.” The lyrics, as one can imagine, instruct the listener to “get on the O-Train.” Last month, the band released a music video for this upbeat track.
Maureen Hogan — or Miss Maureen, as she’s known in the band — is Good2Go’s front-woman. She said the song was written about four years ago, when there was controversy in the news about Ottawa’s transit plans surrounding whether or not to expand the O-Train.
“It was in people’s minds, so Gilles [Mantha], the drummer, came up with the song idea,” she said. Mantha’s nephew Ryan, a media student at Algonquin College, shot the video as part of a school assignment.
The video shows the band performing the song, along with clips of the O-Train platform and the train zooming along its tracks.
“They picked that song because it has interesting subject matter and it has a local feeling to it,” Hogan explained.
Hogan, whose day job involves teaching developmentally delayed children at Carleton Heights Public School, said she has never actually been on the O-Train because her commute is between the east and west sides of Ottawa.
The band is currently working on a new album, which Hogan described as having more of a dirty lounge tone.
“I don’t want to take you back to the crooners of the ’50s and ’60s,” she said, “but it has sort of a croon to it, and it has more of a fast tempo and loudness to it.”
The album, which has been in the works for a year, is due for release in late spring or early summer.
The title has not yet been set, but Hogan said the band has narrowed it down to either two tracks: “Come On” or “Downtown.”
Hogan said she co-wrote a couple of songs on the new album, but Mantha writes most of the band’s material.
“It’s not really my forte,” she said, laughing. “My strength is bringing the song alive, not writing it.”
During the recording process, Hogan said the band records the songs together, with the intention that the vocals will be redone completely.
“As far as the drum parts go, we run those solid from the beginning to the end of the song,” she explained.
“We don’t do any changes once the song has been laid.”
Hogan described the band’s audience as an adult crowd, about 25 or 30 years old or older.
“A pretty regular group of people come out and see us, which is nice, because then you have a sort of sense of family,” she said.
“It’s quite fun when we go out because we see a lot of familiar faces.”
She said the band plays shows about once every six weeks. The next Ottawa show is at the Elmdale House Tavern on March 6.
“We try not to make it more than once a month because we don’t go on the road. We just play locally,” she said, adding that outside of Ottawa, they have played in London, Ont., at the University of Waterloo, and at Lee’s Palace in Toronto.
“That’s not what we’re all about,” she said. “It’s a hobby, and it keeps us going from our regular day jobs.”