Stunning new album ‘Three Second Memory’ courtesy of the superstars from South Africa
Amid all the hype and perceived disposability of dance music these days, a duo from the southernmost tip of Africa quietly held their course. Musicians since they could hold an instrument, these two super-talents just did what came natural to them, writing and producing music that came from their soul. Coming up in the shadow of the then burgeoning electronic music scene for years, the boys of Goldfish were always a well-kept secret to the Electronic music explosion that largely glossed over their ground breaking sound and live show.
The industry wondered; “Are they DJs or a band?” Yes.
“You mean they play ‘live’ with ‘instruments’ AND DJ too?” Yes.
“Ok, cool! But, where’s the drop?”
Goldfish weren’t bothered. They were content with writing music and performing it for the crowds that got it. They knew that someday what they were doing would resonate with a bigger group of fans because, after all, this wasn’t music made in an hour at an airport; this was organic, soul inspiring music that was created by thumping and strumming real strings, blowing into horns making reeds vibrate, and by striking ebony and ivory keys to generate something real. Fast forward through to today and we now stand on a proverbial precipice in dance music history. Continue on with the same, or usher in a new era where music stands at the forefront. ‘Three Second Memory’ is an album that embodies the sounds, textures and emotions of the world we live in providing a living sound track to life as we know it, right at this moment. Written over a two year period, Goldfish have crafted a brilliant musical work that perfects the bond between digital and analog. You’re going to remember the music on this album, for it tells a story.
Interview : Dan Prince
Hey guys welcome to DMCWORLD. Let’s kick off with your own club, can you us a little bit more about Sub Merged Sundays…
“Basically it started 7 years ago when we went to Ibiza for the first time and what we witnessed there we really thought we could pull it off over too. There are a lot of similarities between Ibiza and Cape Town with the amount of tourists from not just within South Africa but from all over the world. We just thought it was a perfect opportunity to do a regular event over the summer and thus Sub Merged Sundays was born.”
Tell us about the venues you use…
“We have always had it by the beach; we started in a rough and ready venue if you like, much smaller and low key and it fitted with us at that time as were unknown and an up and coming band. We are proud to say that in the 7 years we have been doing this we have always had a summer party in Cape Town. This year has been incredible and we are more proud of the crowds we are getting. Now the venue is much bigger and it was always the venue we were looking for being on the beach, it kind of has that Ushuaia feeling to it.”
I want to chat about the album, can you give us a few words on the tracks and tell me about the album. Let’s start with ‘Drive Them Back to Darkness’…
“Well this is more like a journey tune, maybe described as a Doors influenced track I think is the best way to put it. It is very hypnotic; we actually found some very cool film samples, we have a very nice saxophone sample in there and some really cool jazzy Goldfish elements in there. I think Ray Manzarek dies when we were making this track and he had a huge influence on it. We were great Doors fans when we were growing up and that whole sound was just amazing.”
What about 3 Second Memory…
“I was actually in Hyde Park after we played a show in London and one of the little restaurants were playing Blue Boys Remember Me – and it just took me back as it’s like 10 years old now. I actually didn’t know the track name at first and asked the waitress, made a note in my phone and when I got back to Ibiza did a little remix. When we played it out at gigs we were getting such a great response from it we thought we should actually put it out. We spoke to the guys at EMI and they thought we could make it into something of our own and re-sample it. We had to jump through like a million legal issues but we finally got there, adding some of our own verses onto the chorus and that was about it.”
Trees and Jets…
“This one is quite a Balearic tune, obviously about Ibiza with the sunsets and the jets flying over your head. We recorded some samples of the waves after sitting on the beach for a while. When you listen to the track it’s just quite dreamy. It’s quite old school Goldfish…”
What about Giant Leap…
“This was a track that went through a whole load of incarnations before it ended up the way it was. It’s probably one of the deeper songs off the album. It sort of sounds like Everything But The Girl but with our own take on it if you like. The vocal is quite Hurts like, quite broken and it fits perfectly for the track. The track is really just about taking risks, especially when you’re making music.”
Choose Your Own Adventure…
“Well it’s a song about adventures. I came up with a little rift on an old keyboard in the studio and I was playing this melody and we agreed it sounded a bit a like a nursery rhyme. We thought ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ was always a cool way for a track. A lot of songs always develop out of one simple melody and the whole song just developed from that. Same with the vocal in it too.”
He’s Crazy…
“He’s Crazy features Emily Bruce and she’s been on quite a few of our tracks as well. This is just a happy summery song if you like? It may or may not be written about our manager.”
Away Game…
“Away Game was a competition between us to see who can get the key notes right but I think we both cheated. It’s one of our escapism songs where it’s totally about losing yourself. It’s got a big saxophone feature in it also. It’s all about getting lost in the music, you know there is a big drug culture in dance music and we are kind of anti that so we use music as our escapism.”
Followers Of The Beat…
“This is a very jazzy release. It’s gone beyond that new jazz sound, we have really tried to develop it within our music. It’s got like a more influences of house and techno within it rather than the gimmicky new jazz stuff you hear these days. We wanted the vocal to sound old and disheveled if you like. Then we used the social media idea as there are a lot of followers on Facebook, so we decided to call it ‘Follow The Beat’…
1 million views…
“The subject matter in the lyrics is quite apparent.”
There was a funny video right?
“We kind of see it as the updated version of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’. It’s like a commentary on the way the music scene is these days. In the old days it was the radio or MTV, now it’s all about YouTube. You can get 1 million views and all of a sudden everyone is talking about you. Then you look into the darker side where people like to buy views and hits and even likes. We just looked at the fake parts of the industry.”
And the last one, Take Back Tomorrow…
“What was amazing was at the time we had just signed our deal and we thought we were going to get loads of collaborations. We did the skeleton structure and Dave did the lyrics live on the studio monitors in the take. It’s a very full on track.”
The album took 2 years, was it simply a case of taking it at your own pace?
“Yeah it was a combination of touring and we are in Ibiza every year, we are really quite pedantic. The musicians’ in us don’t like using VST instruments, we like real instruments like guitars and saxophones and you can’t really travel with a piano in your pocket. Being on tour in America and then in Europe takes its toll and chops into the studio time. I do wish we worked faster but I quite like getting it right. Plus we had to keep speaking with EMI who went into Universal so that took a while to get used to and then we agreed to release in October. It also gave us time to work on videos and look back at tracks we thought we could maybe change. We also didn’t want the tracks to be disposal, we wanted them to be long standing.”
What was your best club experience performing?
“Probably our festival in Amsterdam. It sold out the first year and this year we thought we would develop the live scene of Goldfish. We booked all our favourite artists on one line u and had 6000 people there and was just great. This was probably the highlight from an achievement point of view. We also played some new territories like Sweden which was amazing too. Then we played a festival in Sao Paolo to 8000 people which was just full of energy right the way through our set. The crowd knew all our tracks and were singing along.”
Funniest story from years gone by?
“We had a singer with us at Glastonbury who really needed a toilet. The toilets were all full and we needed to play. So we had a stage manager get on the walkie talkie all across the stages and eventually found one for him to go into, which ended up being a girls one. It was in pristine condition but it didn’t need to be shouted over the tannoy.”
Whos been your favourite producer?
“We love Joris Voorn, he’s just great.”
Finally what are the plans for 2014?
“We have an Ibiza residency, an extended tour of America and are promoting the album all over the world. We hope to target new areas as well to get our name out even further. That’s the plan Dan!”
LINK TO LISTEN/BUY:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/three-second-memory/id717299232
ARTIST LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/GOLDFISHLIVE
https://soundcloud.com/goldfishlive
www.goldfishlive.com
www.youtube.com/goldfishlive
www.myspace.com/goldfishlive
www.twitter.com/goldfishlive
