Since their 2014 debut EP, Teeside psychedelic goth rock outfit the Golden Age of Nothing have developed a strong reputation for being an intense, meaningful, musical team.  With strong ambitions for their music to alter the train of thought of their listeners, the Golden Age have developed a catalogue of music which is encased with strong philosophical themes, introspective lyrics and wide sonic landscapes.

New album ‘Monuments’ promises to push the vision of Golden Age into a more focused direction with a collective theme of loss and what is left behind once something has gone.  Pre-released tracks ‘Sleepwalkers’ and ‘When we die there is nothing’ both demonstrate the depth of thought, and sound, of their new material.

We caught up with the Golden Age frontman Graeme Wilkinson to find out more about the album and future shows.

Hi Graeme, how’s the album sounding?

 

It’s sounding very bleak and very dark.  I don’t usually like the term dark as it’s a bit of a catch all, but it feels the right phrase to use for this album.  This album is very focused, we called it Monuments as it’s about things that have gone, and what is left behind once something is gone.

 

That sounds really interesting.  Did you have any particular people or things in mind who you were singing to?

There’s a few really, to give a few examples there’s a song called ‘Idiot Lament’ which is about Brexit, a song called ‘David Saw the Angels’ which is about David Bowie dying and  a song called ‘When We Die, There’s Nothing’ which is about Alzheimer’s.  We have a consistent theme, and consistent sound, for the record so it was important that all of the songs were right.

 

If the album has such a strong concept, were there any tracks that you had to leave off?

There was loads, absolutely loads.  Some just didn’t fit with the theme of the record.  Normally we write quite fast but this one took quiet a long time as we wanted to get it right.  As it evolved, the sound of the record changed so some songs fell by the wayside as they didn’t fit anymore.

 

It sounds really interesting.  Are you releasing some visuals to go alongside the music?

We will yeah.  The album can be pre-ordered now from our Bandcamp page, but before it’s released we will release a couple of videos.  We’ll release ‘Sleepwalkers’ and then one more which I think will be ‘Lost in Space Again’.

 

With such a strong concept to the record, and agreed vision, has the record shaped how the band seem themselves?

Yeah, I think so.  There’s a clearer direction we want to follow now.  A little less poppy than we’ve been before and a bit darker and more meaningful I think.  We want to try and pull people in a bit more.

 

Just after the album is released you’re out promoting the record with a few North-East gigs in April, what can we expect?

We’ll be playing some of the newer tracks and will drop some of the more poppyer stuff that people might have been us play before.  The songs were good for the time but we wanted to move away from some of that sound.  It was a bit of a wrench to drop some of the songs but we felt it was the right decision.  We’ve also just brought in a new guitarist, Mike Elliott, and that’s produced a bit more noise, and depth, to our sound.  We are sounding a lot more powerful now we have Mike.

Great stuff, NE Volume can’t wait to hear the full new album and see you live soon.