An interview with Golden Death Music

An interview with Golden Death Music

Golden Death Music has just released his fine ‘home-made’ début album Ephemera Blues distributed via that sprawling internet grapevine called MySpace. His music is a rich dreamy mix of beautiful songs, ambient textures and psychedelic sonic spirals (and is reviewed on this very blog here), and is by far the best thing I have heard on MySpace or indeed anywhere else for a long time – so check it out!

Golden Death Music has kindly agreed to answer some questions about himself, his influences and MySpace, etc…

The English Assassin: So, who is the man behind the golden death mask?

Golden Death Music: I’m human…reached my quarter century mark the other day…besides that…… I’ve lived in Ohio in the US for most of my life, though I’ve spent the majority of the last 2 or 3 months in Canada. The music I make, Golden Death Music, is a completely solo effort, though I have been involved in projects with other people such as The Blue Revision. My visage and accompanying body have been explained to me as being somewhere between “horrifying” and “quite fetching”.

The English Assassin: What are your musical influences?

Golden Death Music: Well, I’ve always listened to a large variety of music, and the size of my album collection has disturbed and upset more than a few people… Some certain albums I’ve found myself returning to over the past couple of years are Dungen’s Ta Det Lugnt, Dilute’s 2 LPs, Mainliner’s Mellow Out, Ethiopiques vol. 13, and anything by Ariel Pink. It really does a disservice to the other albums I get so much joy out of to mention specific ones, but those are some off the top of my head.

As far as for what I hear in these other people’s music that I hope to achieve in my own goes, I guess it’s sincerity and an affective nature. There’s an emotional state I’ve been able to attain sometimes when I’m playing or listening to music that is characterized by a pure, thoughtless feeling of energy. It is really indescribable for me, but one most powerful things I’ve ever experienced. If I am able to capture and transfer even a fraction of this feeling to other people through my music, it is astounding to me. I would have to say that this feeling (and the pursuit of it) influences my musical endeavours more than anything.

The English Assassin: Over recent years there has been an explosion of new electronic formats of music, such as mp3s, and mediums of communication between musicians and the wider public, removed from the traditional labels and music press, with MySpace perhaps being at the forefront of this new music order. As someone who is actively utilizing MySpace to promote your music, how important are these innovations to your endeavours? Is this virtual network actually more useful in connecting with potential fans than say the more traditional methods of gigging, zines, etc…?

Golden Death Music: MySpace has definitely facilitated a degree of exposure for me that I would not have been able to achieve by more traditional methods. I really just decided to put some of my music up there on a whim (which I had only shared before with 4 or 5 people, most of which were related to me), and I continue to be overwhelmed by the positive feedback and support I have received from the people I’ve contacted there. It also allows a degree of personal contact between artist and audience which I think is unprecedented – I have definitely gotten to talk to some people via MySpace that I have long admired and never dreamed I would ever get to have a discourse with. All this being said, I still think playing shows is an essential part of creating and maintaining a bond with your audience. There is something amazing that happens during live performances between the audience and performer that is not able to be reproduced by other means.

The English Assassin: Your music seems incredible well produced with lots of studio trickery, effects, etc… Roughly how did you go about constructing a track for Ephemera Blues? What stuff do you use?

Golden Death Music: Ha, well I don’t consider the music to be especially well produced, as my knowledge of “professional” recording techniques is basically non-existent, but I certainly appreciate the sentiment! I have always valued the quality of the songs over that of the audio fidelity, and my dealing with the technical side of recording music has always been a very intuitive thing. Recently though, I’ve been learning more about proper EQing and compression, and things like that certainly have their merits – I just don’t think they should take precedence over the song-writing itself.

Nearly all of the songs on Ephemera Blues were composed spontaneously when I sat down at the computer with the intention to record something. I usually start with a guitar track, and then elaborate on that with other instrumentation. Lyrics and vocals most often come last. The exception to this method would be “Into the Ocean”, which was born out of a improvisation with the keyboard player of my last band, and subsequently toyed with for a few months before I decided to record it.

The gear I used for Ephemera Blues is all pretty inexpensive stuff: a $30 mixer, low end sound card, a borrowed African hand-drum, a rusty old coronet that my step-mom’s grandfather played in the military, a browsed bass guitar, and a Yamaha acoustic I’ve had for about a decade. I used two different microphones (Shure SM 57 and 58 for those who care), and recorded most everything on my computer in Adobe Audition and FLStudio.

The English Assassin: What are your plans for the future with Golden Death Music or any other projects? And what is your ultimate ambition for GDM? Record contracts, live performances or just keeping it low-key?

Golden Death Music: I’m currently working on another Golden Death Music album, and am fortunately in the midst of a very motivated and creative state. I also have a lot of collaborative tracks in the works (some of which are with people I’ve met on MySpace). As far as record contracts go, if there is a label out there willing to help distribute the music while allowing me to remain uncompromising, I’m all for it. If not, I’m happy just putting my albums out myself (with Lido’s help and amazing art for the albums of course!).

I would like to say a big thanks to Golden Death Music for doing this e-interview and wish him luck with his new album and in finding a uncompromising label for his music.

Golden Death Music can be found at his MySpace page here.

Ephemera Blues by Golden Death Music

MySpace ‘adds’ by bands can be enough to send a cold Cthulhu-like shudder down my spine at times. With foul tags like: ‘the next Arctic Monkeys‘ or ‘a Pink Lloyd for a Cold Play generation,‘ they are rarely good or even average, seem to take no notice of your stated interests, and are usually the worst derivative wannabe corporate cock-munching whores of Satan, but sometimes… just sometimes something, a glint of gold surfaces out of the mire.

Golden Death Music does more than glint, his music truly shines like the sun! I’m more than impressed, his latest homemade album Ephemera Blues is by far the best guitar-orientated music that I have heard since Elliot Smith’s Either/Or (RIP), although it sounds nothing like him really, so ignore all that. Instead I’ll take the radical step of saying what Ephemera Blues does sound like. In short, it sounds much like the artist’s name itself: it is golden death music. It is like death, but not horror show death or anything ghastly like death metal death, but something more ancient, more spiritual, more intangible – not something to be afraid of, but something to embrace, something blissful: an opium dream – something golden.

Okay, I’ll stop waxing lyrical and get down to it, because that tells you nothing other than I’m a big fool. Ephemera Blues opens with ‘Endless Dream:’ a rhythmic upbeat slice of psychedelic pop, like Josh Rouse’s album 1972 on good drugs. ‘Waking Nightmare’ follows it, perhaps the most complex song on the album and the hardest one to describe, but I’ll try anyway: multiple-layers, soft dreamy vocals, with a repetitive instrumental pulse, a nifty middle-eighth riff straight out of a cold war spy film – like the Animal Collective mixed with Merz and Pink Floyd or something else all together. While ‘Together’ is bitter-sweet and gentle, yet rich and beautifully textured, reminding me of the Doves or an old Sarah Records band called The Sweetest Ache (there is one for the thirty-something indie kids), they were like a melancholy, sadder, Lennon-esque Stone Roses if you do not know. ‘Morning Sun, Morning Song’ is pure bliss: deeply dreamy, beautiful drone with a slightly old-skool goth guitar riff if I’m not mistaken.

The album continues with the catchy and all too brief ‘Self Help,’ which has touches of the Chameleons and The Cure – it really is a great tune! The heavily strummed ‘Ephemera Blues’ follows, which, while still excellent, is probably the least striking song on here (maybe it will be a grower?). But none of that matters because the best two songs are yet to come. ‘True Beauty is Emptiness’ with its emotive opening lead riff reminiscent of Neil Young’s early electric stuff, which bleeds into breathy vocals and builds into a intricate and beguiling sequence of layered instruments and vocal tracks, with a beautifully evocative middle-eighth. The album finishes with sublime ‘Into the Ocean’ which fades from Animal Collective-style vocal weirdness into something reminiscent of post-Barrett Pink Floyd, without falling into the trap of their muso-wanky-pankiness.

Although I realize I’ve made it all sound incredibly pretentious and I’ve used the word dreamy about 50 times, this really isn’t the case – well, okay it is dreamy, but Golden Death Music is never self-indulgent and is highly accessible. Indeed the songs are surprisingly short in most cases. What is most impressive is for the first time in ages I have the sense of listening to an actual album rather than just a bunch of songs. Thats not to say that they are samey, not by any means, but there is a distinct sense of unity: an undercurrent of warmth running through each song.

On top of that each album comes in its own individual hand painted covers by Lido. Mine is a deep orange covered in unworldly doodles: its as unique as the music and perfectly complimentary too. I’ll post a pic of mine up hear soon*.

Anyway, ignore my rambling and go to Golden Death Musics MySpace profile and listen for yourself. Also if you ask him nicely he will also send you some mp3s from an earlier release, which are equally great.

*EDIT: picture of my cover below.