After spending much of the past few years on the road, it seems like the perfect time for LA five piece, Fool’s Gold to refine their sound yet again with their upcoming new album, Flying Lessons. Marking their second album with a solid lineup, Flying Lessons promises to capture the true essence of Fool’s Gold, and what better way than releasing the album on vinyl? Flying Lessons, which was recorded in a live setting, is set to drop on vinyl on Record Store Day (4/18) with the CD and digital formats following on May 19th. Check out our full interview with the band and their newest single, “I’m In Love,” below!
Interview by Dom Vigil
Hey! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! Can you tell us a little bit about Fool’s Gold for our readers who haven’t had the chance to take a listen yet?
Luke Top and I started Fool’s Gold in 2007 as an open ended project with an ever shifting cast of friends and musicians. At that time we were focused on digging into our African influences, in search of a deep trance upon which to dance the night away! Lucky for us, we weren’t alone and it seemed like the whole east-side music scene wanted to celebrate with us.
Fool’s Gold has had quite the journey since you guys first formed, and your upcoming album, Flying Lessons will mark your second album with a solid lineup – so did you have any major goals in mind for this album? Was there anything you really wanted to be able to accomplish?
After two albums and years of touring, we were excited to document how much we had grown together as a band- our grooves and rhythms are tighter than ever and we have a heightened sense of ‘group mind’- our ability to play well and merge with each other has deepened with every live show we’ve put under our belt. On the new album, we wanted to capture the loose feel of playing live, which is tricky when entering the studio where the tendency is to put everything under a microscope. Most importantly, we really focused on synthesizing all of our influences (world music and otherwise!) as well as all the experiences we’ve shared as a band to really establish our own identity as FG.
When you’re working on new music, do you ever feel pressure to outdo or outperform your old material?
Sure, old material looms in the back of your head- but I tend to take it as inspiration rather than pressure. We were definitely ‘in the moment’ when making this new album. The only constant is change, so you’ll never be ‘now’ what you were ‘then’, so it’s important to embrace what you are now, in this fleeting moment. Even the ‘now’ has already just become the past, so you gotta be open to the future. All that said, time is just an idea anyway.
The way that Flying Lessons is coming out is really unique, too. (Out on vinyl on Record Store Day and then digital and CD formats a month later) Was there a specific reason you wanted to release the album that way?
It’s important to remember that sound and music are physical phenomena. So with this thought, we recorded the majority of the album playing live in a room together directly to tape so as to capture the physical vibrations of the music in the analogue domain. We then transferred the tracks to the computer at a very high resolution all the while focusing on the idea that the music would end up right back in the analogue format, pressed on vinyl. There’s lot’s of debates as to if vinyl sounds better than digital, and to me there’s no comparison. Standard digital files don’t have the same high resolution to accurately represent how the music went down in the studio- but vinyl will! I grew up listening to vinyl and so in the album production process, it doesn’t feel like a finished record until that first spin on the turntable. In this regard, it’s special for us to honor this tradition and have our album out on vinyl first- and what better way than to celebrate on Record Store Day!?
You also recently released your new single, “I’m In Love.” Can you tell us a little bit about this track?
Most people guess that it’s a boy-meets-girl type of love song, but really the song talks about being obsessed with a false idol in youth. There are people in your past that seemed larger than life, and even though that fantasy may have unravel over the years, there is still a ‘love’ to be had for them. We call the false idol the “accidental king”- we have a cartoon of him on our album cover and he’s in the music video waving his hands at ya’.
What are you most excited about for the release of Flying Lessons?
We’re excited to get back on the road and up on the stage again to play this new music for our fans. Our songs generally take on a whole new life after playing them night after night, so I’m excited to see how these songs grow and change. You never know where they’ll lead you if you’re open to it!
What would you like listeners to be able to take away from your music or live performances?
I hope listeners at our live shows give themselves away to the feedback loop of the live music experience- it’s like the infinity symbol, you know, the figure 8- the music leaves us and goes into the people in the crowd and then right back from them into us, and repeat, repeats, repeats.. This is the magic of music, connecting with one another, moving, dancing and becoming one.
On top of the album release, do you have any other big plans for 2015?
This album release is so huge for us- I can’t imagine what could be bigger!
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks to all our fans and family. We’re grateful to share our music with the world. Peace be with you!
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