Music News

Interview: Getting To Know Gold Class

Saturday 29th July, 2017 11:37AM

Melbourne post punk four-piece Gold Class are finally on New Zealand soil for their first ever shows in our neck of the woods. The two dates, which see them team up with Auckland crew Yukon Era, come as the group prepare to release sophomore album Drum as a follow up to their highly acclaimed 2015 debut It's You. Slated for release in mid-August, Drum sees the band explore new sonic territory with the help of Gareth Liddiard of The Drones who co-produced the album. In anticipation of Gold Class' trip to our shores we dropped frontman Adam Curley a line to learn a little bit more about the band, the record, and some of their favourite Aussie acts...

Hi Gold Class! For those unacquainted, maybe you could introduce yourselves?

This is the first interview we’ve done for New Zealand, so thanks for having us. I’m really looking forward to coming over there, I’ve never been. My good friend Sarah Mary Chadwick is from there and she says we’ll fit in nicely because New Zealanders are into loud bands and stuff that’s kind of off-centre and rhythmic.

Your second album Drum is coming out next month. How has the making of this record seen Gold Class grow or evolve as a band?

The first album was very much about recording live, recording to tape and just getting the songs down. We’re fairly practical people and our sound really is just the sum of our four parts, so in the beginning especially we were mostly focused on songwriting rather than exploring sounds. With Drum we wanted to give more attention to each song, play around with some different production and overall make it a bolder and stranger sounding record – still warm, hopefully, and still about recording what we do live, but with more interesting detail. I think it’s been good for us to let ourselves indulge a little. Just a little.

What was the most challenging thing about putting this album together?

I think there was a point before recording where we had to decide to stick to our guns. We didn’t know who was going to put it out necessarily and so there were a couple suggestions from different labels about getting A&R people to work on the songs, which we were against, and then working with Gareth was a bit of a risk because no one knew his production style outside The Drones. And then the album is also quite personal and in some ways confrontational and maybe isn’t for everyone in that sense. So I think we had to decide that we were going to keep doing things on our own terms, which is a little scary but ultimately I think it’s the only way we know.

The video for album single ‘Rose Blind’ was released earlier this month [watch below] and features a sculpture made by you, which is used in the clip to juxtapose metallic hardness against human vulnerability. How does that tie in with the song’s themes?

Yeah, I had a fun time hanging out in a car wrecker’s to make that sculpture, which was also about drawing from artists like Matthew Barney and Mapplethorpe in our own way. I like how the video shows the contrast of the metal and the roses with skin but how, after a while, the close-ups of those things start to look more and more like each other. Because I suppose the song is about galvanising yourself and being ready to protect the people around you who are under attack just for being who they are, but it’s also about seeing that those people are what you have, they’re what your life will add up to when it’s done, and you can put down the labels and political diatribes and just enjoy being in the soup of history together for a minute.

What happened to the sculpture after the video was wrapped up?

When we were making the video we poured molasses all over because molasses looks like thick, shiny grease, so we had to throw the whole thing out. We also broke it, so it was sticky and covered in shards of glass, which was great for the video but no one wanted to take it home and put it on their mantelpiece.

You’ve travelled the globe quite a bit off the back of your first album, how does the live scene in your hometown compare?

Touring has definitely made us realise how good artists have it in Melbourne, although we’ve had a great time and met amazing people in Europe and the UK. We get asked a lot about how we fit into the punk scene or the rock scene or whatever here, and the truth is we don’t have to in Melbourne because there are so many great people making interesting music and everyone wants to play with each other regardless of the sounds or genres they’re working with. So it’s a really interesting place musically and there’s also a lot of support for live music and community radio. You would think a city this big would have more of an industry mentality, but it’s actually more like a small town in that sense.

Who are some bands from your neck of the woods that are doing good things at the moment that you would recommend we look into?

Spike Fuck, No Local, RVG, Friendships, Dianas… I know East Brunswick All Girls are recording and I can’t wait to hear their next album. We just played with them and the new songs are sounding brutal.

These shows with Yukon Era are your first New Zealand shows ever!! How did that come about and what are you looking forward to most?

It’s been a long time coming, really, because the first album came out there but we’ve never had a chance to make the trip. Coincidentally, our drummer Logan joined the band right after the shows were booked and he’s from Wellington, so we also have a very personal attachment now. He’s already schooled us up on BurgerFuel, which I think now everyone is slightly unreasonably excited about. Maybe it’s that good. In my head New Zealand is full of the nicest people in the world because we recently played a few shows with Fazerdaze in Europe and they and Yukon Era are the nicest people in the world.