Biography
Good Willsmith formed as an experimental trio in Chicago with Doug Kaplan, Maxwell Allison, and Natalie Chami at its core. Their approach centers on free-flowing improvisation that layers guitars, electronics, looping devices, and vocals into a playful yet occasionally intense sonic mass, pulling from ambient, noise, psychedelia, and a wide range of additional sources.
The three musicians began playing together in early 2012, coinciding with the moment Kaplan and Allison—both also members of the post-rock outfit the Big Ship—launched Hausu Mountain. That imprint put out cassettes and CD-Rs by Good Willsmith and the Big Ship alike, along with the solo work of each member: Kaplan under the name MrDougDoug, Allison as Mukqs, and Chami as TALsounds. Repeated releases paired with steady live performances, among them bills shared with Negativland, Wolf Eyes, Mark McGuire, and many others, brought the group growing recognition while Hausu Mountain itself rose to prominence as one of the more talked-about experimental imprints.
Good Willsmith reached vinyl for the first time in 2014 via the Mexican label Umor Rex, which released The Honeymoon Workbook. After returning to Hausu Mountain and the cassette format for 2015’s Snake Person Generation, the trio delivered its second Umor Rex LP, Things Our Bodies Used to Have, in 2016. Exit Future Heart, a joint project with Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong, came out in 2018, followed in 2021 by HausLive 2, captured at Chicago’s Sleeping Village.
The three musicians began playing together in early 2012, coinciding with the moment Kaplan and Allison—both also members of the post-rock outfit the Big Ship—launched Hausu Mountain. That imprint put out cassettes and CD-Rs by Good Willsmith and the Big Ship alike, along with the solo work of each member: Kaplan under the name MrDougDoug, Allison as Mukqs, and Chami as TALsounds. Repeated releases paired with steady live performances, among them bills shared with Negativland, Wolf Eyes, Mark McGuire, and many others, brought the group growing recognition while Hausu Mountain itself rose to prominence as one of the more talked-about experimental imprints.
Good Willsmith reached vinyl for the first time in 2014 via the Mexican label Umor Rex, which released The Honeymoon Workbook. After returning to Hausu Mountain and the cassette format for 2015’s Snake Person Generation, the trio delivered its second Umor Rex LP, Things Our Bodies Used to Have, in 2016. Exit Future Heart, a joint project with Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong, came out in 2018, followed in 2021 by HausLive 2, captured at Chicago’s Sleeping Village.
Albums
