Planetary Group took some time to get to know Jay of Golding, an electronic duo from Gold Coast, Australia.
Planetary Group: Tell us about your latest release. How did you come to create it?
Jay: Boxing Underwater was made pretty much just in a day. I had a really simple arpeggiated kind of chord pattern and a really simple beat. And our good friend Jared James came over to my studio and we kind of just hung out and just spitballed some melodies and some lyrics. It was kind of born pretty quick – [in] about an hour and a half, the whole song was pretty much ready to go.
Then after that, you know, Matt and I got together with a good friend of ours, Ian Perez, and we just kind of pieced it all together. And then after that process, we actually got our friend Cailin Russo from California, an incredible artist, to sing on it. So it was really cool having all those people be a part of the track.
PG: Share a bit about your musical journey, from when you first started making music until now.
Jay: So for me, my musical journey started a long time ago. I think my next door neighbor showed me how to play a bar chord on a guitar, and that to me was just like… my mind exploded to know that you can just kind of have the same shape and move it anywhere on the fretboard.
Um, to me [it showed that] there are endless possibilities of, you know, writing music and how I can create art. So, at about seven years old, I started doing that and writing little songs, and then I played in a high school band… a pop punk band.
Somewhere down the line, I ran into Matt and met him at his studio called Loose Stones Studios. And we became best friends and started writing music together. I’ve known him for about 10 years, so it’s been a long time and a good hang getting to know him. And just in the last three years, we’ve just released a bunch of music and there’s a lot more that’s coming out. So yeah, that’s pretty much been my journey in a really short snippet.
PG: Let’s talk about the music that you love. Pick one album for each category below & tell us a bit about it!
- An album you grew up listening to:
Jay: Let’s just go with the first album that I bought. I remember my mom taking me to a record store called Tower Records in Newport Beach when I was a kid (I grew up in California) Yeah. I still remember that day so well. I knew exactly what album I wanted to get: It was The Offspring’s Americana. The reason I got it was the “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” song. But yeah, that was the first album that I went to a store to buy. And I listened to that record, like I dunno how many times over and over, and I still have this really vivid memory of my mom and I driving down the freeway rocking out to that album. So shout out to you, mom for being a cool mom and let me listen to that kind of music.
- The album that influences you the most as an artist:
Jay: I’d say Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. When that came out, there was just nothing like it, and for me it kind of just broke all the boundaries of what I thought I could do as an artist. It really opened my mind lyrically and melodically, and just even with using different instruments that I probably wouldn’t have normally used. That album still just has a massive impact on me every time I sit down to write something. So, um, yeah, Frank Ocean, Channel Orange, if you haven’t listened to that album, go and get it.
- The album you currently have on repeat:
Jay: There isn’t really one album that I’ve been listening to on repeat, to be honest, and I feel like everyone’s the same. We’re now in an era where people are just kind of flicking through singles, unfortunately. I’d say the last album that I listened to from start to finish, again, is another Frank Ocean record: Blonde. To me again, that was just another really great record.
And it just opened up another avenue of like, you know, cool ways of creating art. I’m obviously very influenced by Frank Ocean. But yeah, that is definitely still now an album I can put on and not touch it, not skip anything. It just goes from start to finish.
PG: What do you want people to take away from your music?
Jay: I hope that people take away their own stories. I enjoy telling people my story with our music and getting to share my personal struggles or wins in life, but I really, really hope that people find their own narrative in the lyrics. I try to write with, you know… being a little bit vague, so that can be done for the listener.
So I hope they get their own story and I hope that it takes them away from their life for a little bit, you know? I hope that it’s an escape for someone. For me, music is just a massive escape. Every time I put it on, I can kind of close my eyes and go somewhere else. Soif it can help someone in that way that’s pretty epic as well.
PG: What’s next up for you?
Jay: Probably just releasing more music. We have about four songs out now, so we’re really in need of releasing more music. So I hope we just put out a lot more. I think we have two more singles that are going to be coming out before the end of this year.
And then either an album or an EP for the next year, uh, depending on what’s going on. Yeah, it’s a lot more music and a lot more live shows as well.
Thanks to Jay for speaking with us! Watch the video for Boxing Underwater below:
