When LA based duo GOLDSPACE landed in my inbox in 2019 with their single, “Drugz“, I was instantly hooked by their sound. Familiar yet original, saucy af and performed with a polish usually seen after years of fine-tuning, I quickly became a Stan and have been hanging onto every note since. Blending influences from across the musical spectrum, GOLDSPACE has continued to push their sound to new levels, while maintaining a steady stream of releases, each of which have earned their place in my playlists, secured real estate in my heart and have forever been engrained in my brain.
Having launched the project in 2018, GOLDSPACE have showed no sign of letting up – and in my humble opinion, they are criminally underrated. Sexy and sassy, edgy and accessible, this duo has without a doubt found sound all their own and I see no reason to expect the magic to end anytime soon. Having been watching closely over the last few years as they developed into the hidden gem they are today, when their latest single, “Bad Love“, hit my inbox, I knew it was time to get in touch and dig a bit deeper.
Their latest offering compounds on the progress they have made since the beginning and once again proves that GOLDSPACE is a group that you should be keeping an eye on. Another great addition to their budding catalog, “Bad Love“, features sexy rhythmic guitar, stunning vocals (what else is new), slick production and just enough sub bass to make sure it even that OG’s can knock it in the whip. Nothing to delicate here, even though its seductive I promise no one will question your street cred once the drums slap. I could go on about how I feel about this new joint, but as usual, I will let the music speak for itself. After you give it spin and fall in love, keep scrolling to check out our interview and get to know a bit more about the personalities behind the scenes.
RDFO: It seems you guys officially launched in 2018 with GOLDSPACE. Personally, I’ve been a fan since yall hit me with ‘Drugz’ in 2019 and I have loved to watch the project develop to where it is at now. How do you both go about keeping things fresh and pushing new boundaries when it comes to making new tunes?
GOLDSPACE: So glad you fuck with Drugz! Honestly we don’t worry too hard about keeping things fresh, if anything we’re more concerned with keeping everything we make cohesive! Andre comes from a background of hip hop and rap, literally I was the first singer songwriter he’d ever really worked with and my influences come straight from rock and punk so we always kinda had a unique blend of sounds but I think we just constantly keep changing the process and the way we go about writing and building songs up and it keeps each song super unique. Also we are constantly finding and listening to new music from a range of genres and I think that’s super important. RDFO: As a listener it feels like there is great chemistry between the both of you. Can you tell our readers how you first met, how the first session went and when the first moment was when you knew you were onto something dope?
GOLDSPACE: Totally ya well we met a couple weeks into starting school at Berklee college of music. Actually we literally met on the street super drunk outside a Chinese place when I asked Andre to bum me a smoke haha. That night we pretty much became best friends and soon after that Andre had me sing backups on a couple tracks he was working on for the rapper Saint Laurant. That following summer Andre had a beat he’d actually made for the same rapper that didn’t end up being used and I liked it so I toplined it and it became our first single, Heavy Hitter. Gabe (Saint Laurant) also threw a verse on there which was dope. Since our first song was something we liked so much we knew we had to keep going, so we thought up a band name and got to work. RDFO: How are duties in the studio split? Do you both collaborate heavily on each step or do you prefer to keep duties more split until it comes to fine tuning?
GOLDSPACE: Our roles are pretty maintained, Andre on the production and myself on the songwriting, but we both usually dip into what the other is doing. RDFO: How long have you both been in LA and how do you feel the city has helped to sway your sound? If you are both not native to LA, where did you grow up and how did you first get your individual starts into music?
GOLDSPACE: Andre is from Seattle and the grunge scene out there definitely influences his style, and I’m from San Francisco. He played in various rock and jazz bands before he started making beats and getting into production and engineering. As for me, being in San Francisco I was super lucky to be into the arts in general. I started in classical choir. I did all kinda of stuff following, I was in rock bands, a riot grrl punk band in high school playing drums, jazz band on guitar in school, and I was working as a session musician at Jason Carmer’s studio in Berkeley and made a synth pop album with him. Then I went to Berklee. When we dropped out of Berklee we definitely knew we wanted to be in LA, basically because it’s the place to be for music on the west coast. We only moved here a few months before the pandemic so we had only really dipped into the music scene when we had to go into lockdown, so if anything the pandemic has had a bigger influence on our sound than the city. I think it forced us to both go back to our roots looking for nostalgia and it really helped us land where we are. We only really found our sound in 2020. RDFO: With such a genre-blending sound it is hard from a listeners standpoint to kind of pinpoint where the bulk of the inspiration comes from. Who are some other artists, producers and people who you think have played a hand in the sound that you have both developed as GOLDSPACE?
GOLDSPACE: When we started making music we were listening to a lot of R&B and rap. SZA, Kehlani, Kendrick Lamar, Saba, etc
RDFO: What is your current favorite record right now and are there any lesser known artists that you think are about to have a massive 2021?
GOLDSPACE: Right now we’re super obsessed with the band Slow Pulp, their music is crazy. We also have been bumping the new Ariana Grande and Ashnikko stuff. Topaz Jones just released an incredible single, Herringbone and he’s definitely gonna have a big 2021! RDFO: We know the world is far different than we are used to thanks to COVID… how has the pandemic helped to hinder or advance your creativity and where do you see the music business heading in years to come thanks to the sudden change in protocol?
GOLDSPACE: Like I mentioned earlier, the nostalgic feeling we needed from music really influenced what we’ve been making. When we make stuff we always just go like “what do we need to listen to right now” so that’s what we made and it gave us this whole new sound to the stuff we were making before like in “stupid mind”. It’s definitely sucked to not be able to have sessions in person with friends and other musicians that we fuck with but we’ve adapted with zoom and we really found a rhythm. The only thing that truly sucks about the music industry where it stands in the pandemic today is the lack of live shows. Playing live is absolutely our favorite part and we always think about it when we’re making stuff. I think that stuff is going to be a lot more cherished and live shows are gonna be a bigger deal when the pandemic is over. We’ve also learned that we truly can make music with anyone now, we don’t have to be in person and I think that’s something we’re definitely gonna take with us beyond all this. RDFO: Is there anything else you’d like our listeners to know? New music coming soon? Any solo projects or behind the scene stuff you are both working on either together or separately?
GOLDSPACE: We got a bunch of music coming this year, starting in March, and a lot of singles so just stay tuned and follow us on Spotify or Instagram to stay up to date on those!
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