Gold Lake take an alchemic approach to personal pain: interview

Tuesday 7th November 2023

Gold Lake

Gold Lake are a dreampop duo whose music charts the journey of a life felt in a dizzying myriad of emotions. Some bands tell stories, others capture fleeting sensations; many bottle one or the other of those into ~3 minute tracks for easy audible degustation. It’s rare – very rare – to discover musicians who, instead, aspire to tell the story of life itself – discovery, loss, innocence, experience, growth and diminishment – through a roiling soundscape of emotions. And that’s what Gold Lake do. The Spanish-born, New York-based pair infuse their compositions with a blossoming warmth and positivity which belies some of the more chilling sorrows of their own lives.

Having surgery to remove a brain tumour sounds testing, to say the least. To suffer a recurrence years later, as Carlos Del Amo (one half of Gold Lake) did, is the stuff of nightmares. Facing the potential loss of core skills for making music (or worse), Carlos emerged from what can only be described as medical trauma, with a clear mindset. To process the experience, he and his partner Lua Rios needed to create. Their first album, Years [2014], followed Carlos’ initial surgery. Before the cancer’s recurrence, he faced the unexpected death of his sister. Gold Lake went on hiatus while Carlos and Lua put themselves back together, but last month (October ’23) they returned with Weightless. It is an ode to personal growth, reflecting on experiences, and a commitment to move forward consciously from times of either elation or tragedy. The result is a poignant reminder of how something precious can emerge from the depths of pain.

We spoke to Carlos and Lua to discuss Gold Lake’s musical journey from Years to Weightless, their personal philosophies, and more…

FAULT: When discussing Weightless, you’ve opined that younger artists “hide behind… big ideas” while your experiences have, by contrast, made you “more honest”. On that basis, is it fair to say that you value intimacy more highly than philosophy in music and/or art in general?

Gold Lake: Perhaps what we meant is that when we were a little less experienced, we might have been less transparent with our ideas and now, in our own music, we value being clearer in our message. We do feel we all have a duty to be as honest as we can in our art. But as listeners, we love to see all kinds of different approaches, because you can always learn something, and we would never judge others. To each their own, which is what makes it interesting!

To be truly expressive and creative in the wake of a personal tragedy such as the one you experienced is, arguably, both the easiest and hardest thing to do. In its rawest form, emotion leaks out in through any and all forms of artistic expression, but to direct that into something that speaks to other people’s experiences as much as your own requires enormous courage, commitment, and strength of will. How important was it for you to write something for others to hear and relate to, not just something for yourselves?

Well, we don’t think it was ever a premeditated idea to write it for others. In our case at least, one usually starts to write with a basic need to shed the layers that start piling on as you move through life. But even that doesn’t seem entirely deliberate at first. Slowly it becomes a sort of cathartic process, and yet it was never a conscious thought. People are much more alike than some would like to admit.

Emotions are similar across borders and sometimes when you narrate an event, in the end it is the emotion behind it, if not the particular details, that everyone has experienced or will at some point in their lives. That’s what makes us connect with art and music from all corners of the world. We don’t need to experience the same exact things, to understand the emotion behind those experiences and relate to what those people lived through, in one way or another. Ultimately, it is the emotion that connects us with others, and that connection is the reward as well as the privilege.

How has your musical style changed since releasing Years (2014)?

We are still us, but in Weightless we have tried to be more direct. We still love to create a landscape for people to get lost in and travel to wherever their hearts desire, and we feel that element has been transported from Years into Weightless. But the journey is now clearer and more apparent.

Weightless is underpinned by the theme of internal growth and evolution. It sounds like that’s a very conscious process for you both: what do you do, either through your songwriting or outside of it, to ensure that you maintain that ‘forward motion’?

One of the best ways is by connecting with others, which is one of the reasons we like touring so much. Being able to communicate face to face is very important to us. And keeping a dedicated interest in the arts in general, in what is going on in world, in trying to become a better person. All of that keeps the mind going which is essentially what makes that forward motion possible.

Which do you prefer: recording or performing live?

We absolutely love both, and we are so very grateful that we get to do both. Recording is like the middle section of a song’s journey. After you’ve written it, trying to conjure the image of the song you have in your mind and putting it down onto something tangible is an absolute joy, admittedly sometimes with some frustration involved, but when you’ve managed to print the colours and feelings you wanted to convey as closely as you can, it’s incredible. And then, being able to recreate those songs, colours, and feelings every night and have them reach the people right in front of you, directly, is an extremely powerful experience.

Who would you most like to collaborate with and why?

There are so many. Jonathan Wilson for his incredible ability to extract warmth from every sound he records, the guys from Spoon for their angular sounds….

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

We will always make music, even if it’s just for us at home. Music is something we can’t not make! But: (Lua) I love writing, though I also sometimes fantasize with the idea of being a gardener! (Carlos) I love talking and studying about music, instruments, music history and all its ramifications, so maybe a musicology teacher…?

Which is home for you now: New York or Madrid? Do your ever worry that the influence of the former – plus the fact that you sing in English – will erode that of the latter?

We have lately spent more time in Madrid because of all that’s been going on in our lives, but we will be returning to our previous arrangement, which was to spend 2 or 3 months in one place and then another 2 or 3 in the other. It gives us the possibility of not missing either place too much :)

Lua is half British, and we have both been heavily influenced by Anglo-music since childhood, so the feeling of being from both places naturally permeates into our music. Even if we hadn’t lived in the US, there would still be an element of that in our music. But what NY has given us (and anyone who spends time there) is the ability or the “permission” to be more explorative in our music, because it is a place that has so much going on, everywhere, all the time.

We do have some Spanish lyrics in the works and will probably be releasing them in the near future, but our sound will remain the same, because we cannot change who we are, which is an amalgam of influences from all over. Our lyrics, though, are very much influenced by Miguel Hernández, Lorca, Machado, etc, only that they are in English. But the traces are there.

The fact that you’ve lived through a potentially fatal medical trauma, the likes of which can often paralyse people with fear, and continue to write and release music – and record and perform it – is the stuff of inspiration. Is there any advice you’d give to those who might be struggling to bear the weight of similar experiences?

Thank you for the kind words. Giving advice to anyone is weird because there is no one, unique way to face things. Every person will face what life brings in their own way and they will always do it with strength and courage because going through anything will always require that of them. Some people may take longer than others, but we all recover or learn to live with the events eventually. Everyone has the courage to do so, we just have to believe in them, be patient with them and let them know we are there for them.

What is your FAULT?

(Lua) Too many to list! But learning to face them, trying to correct them! (Carlos) I keep buying more vinyl than I can fit in my house.

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Gold Lake online: