1) Who are you, who is in the band, who does what in the studio and on
stage?
We are Golden Arm. Angus Carbarns plays bass and sings. Dylan
Childs plays Guitar and sings. Gareth Anderson plays drums and
sings.
2) How long have you been writing and performing in this way?
We have been writing together since the beginning of this year and
played our first gigs as Golden Arm at the beginning of the
summer.
3) How exactly do you work / write / record?
As a rule we will work out initial ideas for the instrument parts together
in the studio, then one or two of us will go away and lock themselves in
a cellar/attic/shipping container until the muse comes upon them
sufficiently for them to write a second verse.
4) How do you feel your studio/recording style informs the way you
perform your music live?
I think for us it tends to be more the inverse. In that the way we
play live informs the way we record in the studio. When we first
got together we wrote a manifesto to determine how we wanted to
make music together. An actual piece of paper with manifesto
written at the top. Much of the ideas boil down to wanting to write,
play and record as simply and organically as possible. When we
write a song, we put together the original ideas, then go back and
see what we can strip out, rather than what we can add. A sort of
“quality not quantity” idea. The same applies to recording. We try
and record as much as possible live to maintain the essence of
what the songs sound like on stage.
5) What’s been happening lately and what’s new with you?
We have been recording this week at Tape studios in Leith. We’re
laying down a couple of songs (“The Beast” and “Jesus preserve
us from the goodwill of our friends” )for a single coming out at the
end of the year. The engineer who’s producing the tracks appeared
on the first day of recording wearing a full length lab coat and sat
down to work without making any mention of why this might be.
It’s a battle of wills between us and him as to how long we’ll hold
out without asking. He is definitely winning.
6) When was the last time you played Edinburgh (and where)?
Our last Edinburgh show was supporting Jeffrey Lewis at Electric
Circus. We are all massive fans, so were flattered to have been
asked. As it turned out, we weren’t quite as knowledgeable about
his back catalogue as we had imagined. It transpires that he has a
song called “The man with the golden arm” that none of us had
heard and consequently he was convinced that we were some kind
of weird tribute/stalker band. An idea that wasn’t dispelled when
Dylan bumped into him the following day at a festival a hundred
miles away.
7) If you’ve played Limbo before, what did you like/rate about the
experience? If you’ve not played Limbo before, what have you heard
about it?
Golden Arm have never played Limbo before, although some of us
have in other bands, but we’ve all been many times as punters.
Playing Voodoo rooms is always good, as it’s like taking the stage
in a debauched Haitian casino and Limbo makes it extra special
as, unlike most promoters, they think of the gig as a whole and
what they can bring to it visually or from a dj perspective.
8) What’s next, coming up after this gig, for you and what are you
generally looking forward to right now…?
We will be releasing our single at the end of the year (date TBC)
and accompanying that with a short tour of the UK and a couple of
dates in Sweden. We’re very much looking forward to careering
round the country in a transit van bringing tight trousered joy to
the provinces.
9) How do you feel about Scottish independence now that it’s the final
week?
If nothing else it has been incredible to see how the independence
debate has re-engaged people with politics. Prior to this year
political engagement and voter turn-outs were at an all time low
since the advent of universal enfranchisement, so regardless of
your perspective it has made for some lively debate. It’ll be
interesting to see how quickly social media returns to photographs
of people’s lunch and lists of useful self tanning tips.
10) If you have any other passions/opinions you’d like to share, if
there’s anything else you feel strongly about, pls feel free to tell us
about it here…?
Finding a new U2 album has been surreptitiously inserted into
your Itunes while you sleep is akin to finding somebody else’s
underpants in your washing basket.
