ACL Interviews: Fool’s Gold
In our continued goal to bring you as much pre-ACL coverage as possible, we bring you our second interview of the festival season from L.A. based indie-pop group Fool’s Gold. We’ve been following these guys since their inception, and have particularly enjoyed their new album Leave No Trace. Leading up to their appearance at ACL in a couple weeks, we sat down with Fool’s Gold front man Luke Top to ask him about his band’s tunes. Follow the jump for full interview.
ATH: You guys have the perfect sound for festival performances, with the combination of various rhythms being included in your song construction. Does playing festivals seem like the ideal setting for just getting down with the audience?
Luke: We try and bring it in every setting! Your niece’s 10th birthday party, an in-store, or Glastonbury. As long as there are a few bodies with a craving for adventure and an inclination towards movement. Although sometimes those smaller shows, where you’re playing at floor level with the crowd, can be especially intense and magical.
ATH: Now that the new album is out on the streets, do you feel like ya’ll accomplished the goals you set out when you first went into the studio?
Luke: We made exactly the kind of album we wanted to make, time crunch and all. There is definitely a satisfaction in that.
ATH: Your site says this album moves from South American rhythms into a more disco/house feel. Are there other differences that come with this record, such as new members, various instruments being employed that hadn’t been used by the group before?
Luke: I would go ahead and say that’s a hugely inaccurate account of what we’ve been up to. But there are some differences this time around. For starters, we are a band of 5 members total, in contrast to the 12+ we had been experimenting with since we started.
ATH: What are the pros/cons of being an LA based band? You’ve traveled all around, so how does the music scene there compare to others?
Luke: There’s nothing like seeing L.A. through the airplane window as you’re coming home from a tour. There’s no better place to come home to for us. It exhibits a lot of mood and energy for us as artists. The “scene” is open-ended, there are no over-arching genres. It’s as vast and diverse as the people who live there. Perhaps that is one of it’s principle distinguishing traits?
ATH: When you hit the road, are there certain must-haves for the band, as far as music, food, equipment that you can’t live without?
Luke: Headphones. Earplugs. Vitamins.
ATH: You’ve got to make a sales pitch here…how do you convince the thousands of people at Austin City Limits that your show is the one they can’t miss?
Luke: Our music speaks for itself. We will pour ourselves into it, no matter what. If music fans are interested in seeing something unique and different, I hope that they join us. And our lead singer is SUPER HOT. We will be looking forward to it!
ATH: Is Foreign Born over for good?
Luke: Yes.
ATH: What’s the one (or two) things you haven’t accomplished as a band that you hope to do in the near future? Accomplishments you’re particularly proud of?
Luke: We’d love to play in more countries, Japan, Ethiopia, Australia, Israel? I’m proud of my guys for never faltering on giving it their all, no matter what scenario falls onto our lap…
Thanks again for the interview Luke. Make sure you stop by the Austin Ventures stage on Friday the 16th at 2:30pm.