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“Gold & Youth” Prep For Local Gigs, Huge Tour, And Cold New Album

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by Grady Mitchell | Although local band Gold & Youth rightfully profess to make music perfect for midnight drives through urban streets (like a nighttime cityscape, their songs are largely dark but dotted with light), they’ve described their first album – released just over a year ago and entitled Beyond Wilderness – in more geographic terms, calling it their “desert record.” Both are apt descriptions. The album is at once slick and woozy, underscored by a gleaming technological edge. That digital character is balanced by the organic interplay between the baritone of singer/guitarist Mathew Lyall and the velvet, faraway voice of Louise Burns, who also plays bass and keys.

Just last week the band began writing the first songs for a follow-up record. Although they’ve barely started the process, the evolution of their sound post-Wilderness is already apparent. When asked what landscape embodies these nascent recordings, guitarist Murray Mckenzie answers without hesitation. “Tundra.” The sound is still desolate, but this time it’s colder, too. Drummer Jeff Mitchelmore says their new songs contain a darker, heavier energy with a strong shoegaze influence, especially in guitar. Where the recording of the first album was unstructured, now the band plans to write and record more purposefully.

But before they plunge into a second album the four are embarking on their largest tour yet. First they’ll cross the States alongside The Jezabels. Then they’ll work their way back across Canada on their own. For Vancouverites, they’re playing The Imperial on June 9th as well as the Pemberton Festival in July. These two shows will be your final opportunities to see them live for some time, for as soon as they’re finished they plan to hole up and complete a cold, dark, and beautiful record to satisfy the aimless drives of metropolitans everywhere.

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