Gold Wolf Galaxy @ Sunset tonight; chat here

I found out about self proclaimed Doom Rock Disco duo Gold Wolf Galaxy aka Spencer and Johnny some time ago and upon listening to their debut album I instantly knew that the thing would be something that would get many, many spins in my CD player.

The music is dark, synth heavy and catchy as all hell. The music is also something that you aren’t hearing anywhere in Seattle right now.

At times throughout the album it’s as if I’m listening to a lost track from Justice mixed with Boys Noize with just a hint of Mr. Oizo. Oh, Gold Wolf Galaxy, you sure know how to make a boy swoon. I had the chance to chat with Spencer and Johnny in what I am calling “The Interview With The Greatest Answers Ever Given Ever”. A nudie party? Check. A near semi-truck crash? Check. Lots of made up words? Check. Shirtless poetry? Eff yes.

Gold Wolf Galaxy play The Sunset tonight with Gems and I Will Keep Your Ghost.

the mixtape: Hello boys. Thanks for chatting! First off, I’ve got to ask: where did you get the name Gold Wolf Galaxy and how high/drunk were you?

Gold Wolf Galaxy

Spencer: Hi Sean! We’re glad to be a part of what you’re doing. We love the mixtape and we love you!

The name GOLD WOLF GALAXY was inspired by a few different elements. We knew we wanted a color, an animal, and something epic. We also wanted something that sounded spacey, kind of tuff, kind of cool, and kind of fun. GOLD WOLF GALAXY is a combination of those things. Other than that, I’m not sure what the process was. Johnny and I come up with weird, random shit all the time; but I do remember that it took us awhile before we found something we both liked. Johnny’s a great poet and writer so words and names are important to him. I focus more on style and feel. I wanted something that would fit the music we’re making. I think we both did in the end.

tm: Spencer, you come from an electronic music background and, Johnny, you come from the world of metal. How is it that you two met and when did you guys realize that you could work together on this project what with almost opposite ends of the spectrum in music taste?

GWG

Spencer: Johnny and I are family. Johnny married my cousin, Joani 11 years ago. Johnny was in a band for a number of years. While he was out there touring, I was making electronic music on my home computer and DJ’ing a little here and there. Johnny’s band ran its course and we decided to try making music together. We started creating tracks in my bedroom and found that some pretty fun stuff came out of the collaboration. Our music backgrounds are on different ends of the spectrum, however; if you think about it, there are some metal melodies out there that would fit perfectly into a good electronic song. Overall though, Johnny and I are just big music fans in general. We like anything from Michael Jackson to Wintersun to the weird, crazy shit no one else will ever like. Justin Bieber. Just kidding. We also both love some of the really talented stoner-metal bands like Graveyard, Witchcraft, Earthless, and Witch…stuff like that. There’s a great classical composer named Rondò Veneziano who incorporates drum kits and bass guitar into his music. We’ve been in love with his sound for years now and his unique arrangements have been the inspiration for how we’ve approached some of our melodies. In the end though, I think we create music that people from all music backgrounds can enjoy. Our songs can be anywhere from happy and dancey to more aggressive and metal. We’re often told our music is very cinematic and fitting for a Sci-Fi film. We like to think of it as disco, classical, dance, and metal, all mixed together. We call it DOOM DISCO ROCK, which will give you the biggest juice bonez ever! Is this answer to your question way too long? I’m sorry.

tm: What are your roles in the band and do you have any interest in becoming a full band at any point?

GWG

Johnny: Spencer shaves the chickens and I wax the hogs. Those are our roles and we relish them. Yes. Full band. Like Ice Juice Meal, our favorite evarr! Look them up today.

Spencer: Ha! I handle the production side of things. I’m the one behind the computer for hours trying to make everything sound as good as I can get it. I’m still learning a lot and I am in no way a master at this, but I continue to get better every minute I spend in these DAW programs. I also play the keys/synth at our live shows. I control all the lights and the decks and mixer, which is where most of our music is being played from. I’m all over the place when we play live!

At this point we don’t have plans for any band additions. We like the idea of featuring guest vocalists. For the next record we plan on having a guitarist sit in on a song or two. Every artist envisions the potential for something different on a track and that’s what we want to take advantage of.

tm: If you weren’t playing this Halloween show with I Will Keep Your Ghost and Gems, what would you be doing?

GWG

Johnny: I would be looking for work on my computer!

Spencer: I think I would just be watching movies or something at a friend’s house. I normally don’t do much for Halloween anymore. I’m lazy. BUT, last year’s Halloween was super weird! This is a good story and I haven’t told many people about it. I’m big into photography and last year I was invited to a Halloween party by one of the models I’ve worked with. So I got to this giant house up on Capitol Hill and I don’t see many lights on or many cars parked outside and I was wondering if I was at the right place. I wasn’t dressed up or anything either. Again, lazy. So I go up and ring the doorbell and this guy in a full tux, bowtie, and masquerade mask answers the door. His mask was all white and covered his whole face…kind of creepy but in a cool-weird way. He asked me why I was there and if someone had invited me. For the sake of this story we’ll just say the model’s name was Jill. I told him that she’d invited me and he asked me to step inside and wait in the foyer. The foyer was empty…most of the rooms off to the side had little to no lights on and I didn’t see anyone around. I could hear faint voices coming from the massive flight of stairs, which the masked man started to climb. He came back with Jill on his arm. This is when it starts getting good. Or weird. Actually yeah, weird. She was only wearing lingerie and stockings. I was thinking, “Whoa, ok what’s going on here?” She told me to follow her upstairs to the party and at this point I didn’t really know what to expect. This didn’t seem like a party and she’s walking around in her undies. We get upstairs and there were about 50 people or so in this big living room….men and women. A third of them were completely naked and the others either had half their clothes on or were in a tuxedo or dress. I started giggling…uncomfortably giggling and asked Jill what was going on. There were rooms on both sides of me and I could hear people having sex. Jill asked me to follow her so she could introduce me around to some people. I politely said no and that I had to leave, that this was weird and I wasn’t expecting it. One, I had never been in a position like this before and had no idea how to handle it. Two, I was the only one wearing normal clothes and not a tux! I ended up leaving and didn’t know what to think. I was kind of dumbfounded. I kept thinking, “Do I go back?” Did I make the wrong move here? This doesn’t happen very often. It turns out they wanted to have an “Eyes Wide Shut” themed party…to the fullest extent, I suppose. I think they were just into that kind of thing and used Halloween and that movie to have an orgy…fucking nuts.

tm: Best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn/made?

GWG

Johnny: I was a Meg Ryan once…and Tonya Harding. It was sick as F.

Spencer: Best costume I think I’ve worn would have been when I was living in Florida. A friend and I dressed up as women and went around licking girl’s faces at parties. I think I was a tiger when I was little, too.

tm: Do you guys have a favorite candy?

GWG

Johnny: I’m more of a savory than a sweet. So give me oak-aged imperial stout and I’ll scream for momma.

Spencer: Not sure about favorite candy. I do love a good milkshake though.

tm: Shirtless poetry. What’s up with that and can I hire you to come to my house and perform?

GWG

Spencer: Ask Johnny about the shirtless poetry. No clue on that one.

Johnny: I love being shirtless. I really do. Yes, I will perform at your house. Poetry destroys worlds and leaves only super virgins and some toast on a thing. It also pays the bills. Poetry. I makes you famous. And momma’s gotz to getz PAID, zotches.

tm: You post some weird/funny/non-sequitor stuff on your Facebook page. I like that you’re a couple of jokesters. Best prank you ever played on someone?

GWG

Johnny: I once farted on a beast. He had a horn and I had to be careful with my moist buttoxx but it worked and then he turned brown and cloudy with bad faces. And we laughed. And it all burned.

Spencer: Best prank? This is a good one…I think I was about 17 or 18. My uncle used to prank his older sisters all the time, my mom being one of them. So his sisters would come home from dates and be making out with their boyfriends on the front porch and he would string the dummy up with a rope and drop it off the side of the house and scare the shit out of them. So his sons (my cousins) and I thought this would be fun but we had to up the ante a little bit. We decided to make a dummy out of clothes by stuffing them with newspapers and magazines and attaching a fake head. We came up with the idea of dropping it off of a bridge into traffic. We found a good bridge… kinda out in the middle of nowhere that went over a two lane highway. It was late at night and I wanted to make sure that the highway didn’t have a ton of traffic on it. We got to the bridge and tried to time it so that when we dropped the dummy, it would hit the windshield of a car. The dummy was soft enough where it wasn’t going to damage the cars. We tried it once with a passing car but timed it wrong and missed. We had to go down and grab the dummy and bring it back up. Then we saw a semi-truck coming and decided to try it out on this since it was a bigger object to try and hit. We dropped the dummy and it hit the windshield perfectly! The truck slammed on its brakes and went sliding a bit and almost jackknifed before coming to a stop. The driver got out of the truck with a horrified face. At this point I started feeling really shitty…like I just realized I totally fucked this guy’s day over. The dummy had blown up…I mean there was paper all over the road and the clothes had been torn and scattered everywhere. When the driver discovered it was a fake dummy, he started yelling. Luckily, he couldn’t see us and we booked it out of there! Hope that guy’s ok. I guess this was more of being an asshole then an actual prank. 🙂

tm: Are you working on any material for a new record? If so, what can we expect in regards to sound and overall radness compared to your most recent album?

GWG

Johnny: Yes. New material. Expect it all like crazy. Oh the sound. Oh the Ice Juice Meal again. “Meal World: it will be called.

Spencer: Yes, we are totally working on new stuff. We’re going to release an EP first and an LP next year. We’re working on new tracks all the time…constantly. I always start things just to see where they go and how it feels to me and then maybe a 1 out of 10 will come out with goodness and we take off from there. I don’t like trying to force a song. The more naturally it comes together, the better. We’ll be releasing a trailer for the EP as well. The trailer should hopefully be out in the next month or 2. It’ll be awesome. We like the idea of giving people a taste of visual stuff from time to time so that they can get an idea of what our music might mean or what might be in our heads, I suppose. The next album will be a bit smoother but much more tuff….maybe a little less Disco and a little more Rock’N Roll/OST sounding stuff. I’m pumped on where it’s going so far. We’re trying to get away from all the glitchy sounding stuff. It’s been way overdone. We’re over it unless it’s a remix or something. But yeah, that’s what we got going on over the next year or so. Pumped!