Get To Know A Houston Band: The Gold Sounds

This week H-Town Rock sat down with The Gold Sounds at Bohemeo's over some beers and coffee. We talked about everything from recording their album to Kurt Cobain shrines to being called a . The full audio version of the interview can be listened to here, complete with plenty of Beatles songs in the background.

H-Town Rock: Alright, I'm sitting here with The Gold Sounds. You guys want to go ahead and introduce yourselves?
Derek: I'm Derek, the drummer.
Chris: I'm Chris, the guitarist.
Sean: Sean. Vocals, bass.

HTR: So you guys are from Deer Park, did you grow up out there?
Sean: Yeah, all of us did.
Chris: We all went to the same high school.

HTR: So how long have you guys known each other?
Sean: Well, Derek's my brother, so... But Chris, I've known since probably ninth or tenth grade.
Chris: We played in different bands in high school, they played in the same band together and I played in another one. We'd play shows together sometimes.

HTR: What bands were you playing in? I'm curious. Do you want to say?
Sean: In high school? I played in The Seedless Grapes, and [Derek] played in that as well.
Chris: They were kinda Weezer-ish.
Sean: Kinda garage-y. We were kind of a joke.
Chris: I was in a band called Tokyo Space Cadets, and we were also kind of a joke, but we were more Dio influenced.
Derek: A comical Metallica.

HTR: So when did you guys form The Gold Sounds?
Derek: Well, Sean moved to Oklahoma to play drums for Philmore...
Chris: The band that we started after that was half of [Sean & Derek's] band and half of mine. The bass player left, and [Sean] came in, so it was us and that fourth guy, and then he quit.

HTR: So you just picked up where that left off?
Chris: Yeah
HTR: Was it always The Gold Sounds, or was it something else? I get kind of fascinated by the genealogy of bands.:
Sean: When we had [the other guy] from The Seedless Grapes in the band we were gonna be called The Damn Straights. And we were gonna play more AC/DC rock, and then we decided to not do that.
Derek: When we first just got together we never played any shows - we just got together and said "we're gonna just write" until we had all our own songs.
Sean: But you've gotta have a band name.

HTR: You guys had an EP that there's a few versions of floating around, and I remember seeing you guys at the [Westheimer] Block Party in... fall of '07? You blew me away then.
Derek: Thank you!

HTR: So this full-length has taken a bit of time in the making. When did you guys start writing this stuff?
Sean: [Exhales] This album of songs started - probably - in '06. Things that we've played - some of the songs have carried over to the album and a lot of them have not.
Chris: Three or four of them date from back then, and then another two or three from '07.
Sean: The bulk of it was probably in '07, but then we wrote a couple more to finish it off.

HTR: What's the album called?
Sean: Seismic Love
HTR: How many tracks are there?
Sean: Eleven. No secret songs...
Chris: But if you play it backwards - there's some messages.

HTR: If there was a hidden message when you played it backwards, what would it be?
Sean: It would probably say "Chris is a weenie." Something along those lines.
Chris: They actually did that one time. They would put it in the song, it'd say "Chris is a weenie" and reverse it. They learned how to say it backwards and record it onto the song.
Sean: It says it forwards, but it sounds really messed up.
Chris: But they took it off, because they found out I wasn't a weenie.

HTR: You guys have a really great bluesy rock going. I hear a good amount of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and some other stuff. Who would you compare yourself to, sound-wise, for those that aren't familiar with you?
Sean: That's a tough one. We get compared to different bands all the time. That's a new one - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - and I think I'm the only one in the band with an album [of theirs]. But that's a pretty good comparison for some of our stuff. We've been compared to Tom Petty a lot.
Chris: ... and the White Stripes.
Derek: It depends on what song you're listening to...

HTR: That's the other thing that I really like - you don't have a specific sound. You've got a nice general sound that allows you some versatility song to song.
Derek: I think at first we thought that was bad, because we didn't know if we were finding "a sound" or not... I like to pull our songs in any direction, as far as they can go.
HTR: I think it's good, you're not a one-trick pony. If you've collectively written a bunch of stuff that isn't all the same but it works together, then I think you're doing something right.
Sean: We didn't really answer that one.

HTR: Well, who are your influences? What do you eat up on a daily basis, musically?
Sean: It depends on when you're talking about. I was listening to a lot of Depeche Mode when we first started writing, and The Beatles - pretty constant.
Derek: Tom Waits
Sean: Tom Waits is pretty much now all I listen to - our music doesn't really sound like him.
HTR: I'm on a recent Tom Waits kick, too.
Chris: It's a good kick to be on.
Derek: When I was growing up my favorite band was the Foo Fighters. Because I was so much younger, I actually got into the Foo Fighters before I got into Nirvana, so I kinda went backwards. After that I just became a big Dave Grohl fan - I like Queens of the Stone Age a lot, and that's kind of where my drumming comes from originally.
Chris: And I was the opposite of that. I started playing guitar in like 5th grade, because of Kurt Cobain. I was a grunge kid, and then a metal kid.

HTR: Are there any bands or musicians in Houston that you think people need to pay attention to?
Sean: Well, The Gold Sounds. [laughs]
Chris: We were good friends with The McKenzies before they broke up, they were really good. I don't know if they count as a Houston band, but when we saw Ume we were just like, "Oh my god, this band is so badass."
HTR: Yeah, they're transplants from Houston.
Derek: I think News On The March is one of the better bands, and The Eastern Sea - I guess they're from Austin, but they play here a lot.
Chris: Muhammid Ali... I heard one of their songs and I really liked it a lot... Rocrament? Have you ever heard of Rocrament?
HTR: Rocrament?
Chris: The guy that's in The Small Sounds - who are playing with us - he's in Beetle also. We saw Beetle one time, and he came out in another band, Rocrament, afterwards, and they were dressed up like Robots. They had this manager that was like a scientist and would 'oil' them and stuff, and they played metal - it was what Tokyo Space Cadets would've been if we'd put more time into our music.

HTR: Do you guys have a favorite memory from the Houston music scene?
Chris: I see shows a little bit more, but we live in Deer Park. It's kinda hard - we don't get to see too many shows. I want to...
Sean: I can't remember the last show I was super "wowed" by - but I missed a lot of shows that've come through. As far as local bands, Ume was the last one I really liked.
Derek: What was the guy - he sang in the Zeppelin cover band too... Penny Royal! They were really good I thought.

HTR: Back to the album - where did you guys record it? Was it spaced out over time, was it done all at once?
Sean: We recorded a lot of it at our house, and in a church to get a bigger sound for the drums. But then we ended up re-recording it in a studio. We left one track that we recorded in the church as is. The rest of it was recorded in The Bubble, in Austin.
HTR: Did you guys go up there to work with someone?
Sean: Yeah, the guy who recorded and mixed the album is Alex Lyon.
Chris: We tracked all of it in like five days. That was more than a year ago, because that was in January [2009].
Sean: That's how our band moves...
Chris: We recorded that in January, got it mixed in February, and had it mastered in April. We shoulda had it done around late summer, but ...
Sean: I had twins, and this guy [Derek] just had a daughter.
HTR: Well congratulations!
Sean: So we were kinda set back by those things.
HTR: Yeah, I hear babies take time.
Sean: Babies do take time. They take a lot of time.

HTR: Is this going to be a big cathartic release for y'all to finally get it out there, since you've been sitting on it for so long?
Derek: YES.
Sean: I think out of all three of us, Chris is going to be the most excited about having the album out. He's always been the one that's pushed, "guys we need a cd, we need a cd..." whereas I've always been more about building a fan base.

HTR: The release is Friday night at Walter's, right? Who else is playing that?
Chris: TV Torso - I think they're from Austin, and The Small Sounds - who we were kinda hesitant about because their name is really similar. Paris Falls, also - there's another band that we should've listed. They were the first band we asked.
Sean: It's six bucks for 21 and up, eight bucks for under 21, and doors are at 8 pm.

HTR: What's one thing you want everyone to know about The Gold Sounds?
Derek: It's hard to answer that question without sounding conceited.
HTR: Well, this is an interview that I asked you to do, so it's not conceited. What's the one thing you want people to take home from this?
Sean: Man, there's bands on top of bands... that we at least tried to do something original, you know?
Chris: I just want to stick out a little bit... I want people to see our show because I think our live show is really pretty f*cking good and I think if they saw it they would agree.
HTR: I definitely agree. I mean, you guys had me sold off that one show.
Derek: That The Gold Sounds aren't a side project.

HTR: Say some poor unfortunate soul does not make it to your show on Friday night. How can they get the album?
Sean: We'll have it at Cactus.
HTR: That's right, you guys are doing an in-store [Saturday].
Sean: [You'll be able to] get the album online, CD Baby has it.
Derek: We'll try to have it at the record shops around town.
Sean: Or just e-mail us, or Facebook us.

HTR: Cool. Well thanks for sitting down with me guys. I'm looking forward to the show.
The Gold Sounds: Thanks.