Spellwork & Ritual Slaughter: An Interview with Golden Gardens
Golden Gardens are a Seattle duo that make lush, textured dream pop. In anticipation of their performance at our NadaMucho.com Presents show at Barboza on Friday, March 14, we chatted with Aubrey Rachel Violet Bramble and Gregg Alexander Joseph Neville about their band and their music.
NM: Give us a bit of history. How did Golden Gardens get to this point?
ARVB: Spellwork. And ritual slaughter.
NM: Yikes! Did I read somewhere that you were on opposite sides of the country for a while? How did that work?
ARVB: It worked much the same way it does now – we sent each other music telepathically and across the invisible sparkle-pathways of the Internet, back-and-forth, until a song reached interplanetary completeness.
NM: You describe your sound as “Dreamscapes and Anthems for Magical Minds.” Care to elaborate on that?
ARVB: I draw musical inspiration from the Sirens, and strive to create songs that would otherwise lure unsuspecting souls to their watery graves. What sound would one like to hear on his descent into the Underworld? I imagine a “Dreamscape” is a pretty good descriptor. Magical minds are just psychic twins that vibrate on the same wavelength we do
NM: Is Golden Gardens just a duo, or has the band grown to include more full time members?
ARVB: We have had the occasional additional member on stage, but like to keep things properly cultish and exclusive on the creative side. Our secret society is a party of two.
GAJN: We don’t play well with others creatively. It does sometimes work out performance-wise, though.
NM: Are you guys, like, going steady? Or just band mates?
ARVB: That’s a little insulting, NadaMucho. We’re more than band mates, we’re pals. Like Clarissa and Sam. And no, we are not dating. Well, unless you count our relationship with Thee Dark Lord Himself (Morrissey).
NM: Golden Gardens is a park in Ballard where lots of kids from Renton smoke cigarettes and wear Ed Hardy gear, which doesn’t seem very mystical. Why did you pick that for your band name?
GAJN: We are here to help the Ed Hardy kids, to teach them the cultural superiority of Tapout and Affliction shirts.
NadaMucho.com: What’s next for Golden Gardens?
GAJN: We are working on a DVD that will feature all four videos that our artist friend Ariana Dominguez shot for the Bellflower songs. We also started production on a new album fairly recently. We’re not rushing it and are taking our time with crafting the songs.
ARVB: The DVD will include never-before-seen video footage, special mixes of some of our songs, and secret messages about kittens. We plan to have it ready for an extremely limited release (~25 copies) in early Summer. Handmade packaging and enchanted details guaranteed. Keep an eye on wearegoldengardens.com for details as they shimmer up from the ether.
Golden Gardens will help NadaMucho.com celebrate its first site redesign in a decade by performing alongside NAVVI and Trentalange at our March 14 showcase at Barboza. Tickets available at: http://thebarboza.com/event/trentalange/.
LOVE them! xo