Milwaukee-based band GGOOLLDD, which consists of Margaret Butler, Nick Ziemann, Mark Stewart, and Nick Schubert, are just getting their start, but have already made an impression on many, garnering a feature as a Nylon “Band Crush” and praise from AV Club for creating “synthpop that stands out thanks to impeccable production and catchy, danceable hooks.”
Their forthcoming third EP, Teeth, will be out December 1 via Roll Call Records, and their new single “Excelsior Springs” was released early last month. The band is currently getting ready for their California tour starting November 8 in Santa Ana and ending November 11 in Pioneertown.
We chatted with the band about their accidental formation, Margaret’s dream of riding a unicorn, and their favorite song to cover. Read everything below!
How did the band come together?
I really love Halloween; it’s the most important day of the year as far as parties go and there didn’t seem like there was anything super fun going on that year so I took it upon myself to throw something great. I couldn’t afford to book a band so I started one with a friend. We wrote a few songs, did a cover, had some friends play with us. The show was so bad but a fucking blast anyway. People kept asking us to play and we kept saying okay. Eventually we had to replace some friends and I actually had to take the time to learn how to sing worth a shit.
Here we are now, about to celebrate our 4th birthday, in an old church, dressed up like juggalos and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Who or what has inspired your sound and latest track, “Excelsior Springs”?
I’m not a fan of writing love songs, they just seem like sort of a cop out to me. However, this is a love song, to the sun. I’d written a song a few years before called “Dance Through The Winter” about working through personal trials but mostly just about my pure hatred for winter. As someone who spent most of her life living in South Louisiana, my distain for snow is up there with racists and traffic. Basically one of the worst things that exist on Earth. Therefore, I thought it appropriate to write something of the opposite, although far more straight forward lyrically, as love songs tend to be.
Is there a story behind your band name?
The first song I ever wrote was called “Gold.” When we were putting the song up on Bandcamp to promote the party, I also had to come up with a band name, and lazily, as this was intended to be a one time thing thought, well, “gold.” After a quick Google search to make sure I wasn’t stealing another band’s name, I realized that the only thing I could find was literal gold, bars and jewelry mostly. I doubled the letters, nothing else on the Internet called GGOOLLDD so okay, that will do.
What is your favorite show memory?
Stage diving into a room on top of a blow up unicorn raft covered in glow bracelets which I threw out into the crowd like I was on a float at a Mardi Gras parade. I wanted so badly to be on one of those floats as a kid, I also wanted to ride a unicorn so that was fulfilling a few dreams for me.
What would be your dream tour and why?
I haven’t really thought of it. I never intended on being a musician, much less touring, so every offer or route we get is the most exciting thing ever! As long as we’re on the road, we’re happy.
Tell us about your writing process; any unusual quirks?
Not really, we all take a part in writing every song and every song has its own personality. Everyone writes everyone else’s parts, there’s no ego in the process, everything is on the table.
What’s your favorite song to cover?
We did a cover of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac for our very first show. Sometimes we still play it if we need to add time to a set but we’ve never played another cover.
Filed under: Creation Stories Tagged: Creation Stories, excelsior springs, GGOOLLDD, teeth