Features My Gold Mask

Chicago duo My Gold Mask - drummer/vocalist Gretta Rochelle and guitarist Jack Armondo - have just released their new EP ‘A Thousand Voices’. To celebrate, we tracked the pair down for a chat about what they’re up to.

Hello My Gold Mask. Who is it we’re speaking to, and what do you do in the band?
Gretta - Vox and drums.
Jack - Guitar and Vox.

So, you’ve just released your debut EP ‘A Thousand Voices’ - how long was that in the works for?
It was about six months from the start to finish for ‘A Thousand Voices’, that includes the writing, recording, mastering, etc..

It was released in the States last year, wasn’t it? How was it received over there?
We think in general it’s been very positive. We see our songs from that EP pop up all over the internet, which is nice.

Are you getting a similar reaction in the UK?
It certainly seems that way… there has been a pretty enthusiastic response so far.

How do you go about writing your material? Do you have several projects on the go at once, or…?
We are constantly writing and every song has a different genesis. Sometimes it’s Jack coming up with a riff, sometimes it’s Gretta coming up with a beat. Then the song usually lingers in our heads, constantly getting tweaked. We even wake up with melodies in our heads to add to the songs at times. We usually have quite a few songs being worked on at once. There are a lot of half written songs that eventually get finished one by one. The main thing is whatever we write has to satisfy us both. If a song, melody or lyric is not fully embraced by both of us equally, then it usually gets discarded.

Are you attracted to particular themes when you write, or are the topics quite diverse?
We definitely have been gravitating towards what some may call ‘dark pop’ lately. Sounds that play with tension and release or invoke a feeling of melancholia seem to creep up in our songs a lot. But we don’t really let that fall into full on depression. We like contrasting that mood with the light nature of pop music. The lyrics are usually dictated by the mood of the music. We write a melody and ask ourselves: ‘what does this mean to us.’

What are your ambitions for the band? Is there something in particular you’re setting out to achieve with My Gold Mask?
We just want to write, play and travel. So wherever that takes us… we’re game.

Finally: If you had to recommend one of your tracks for potential new fans to listen to, which would you suggest?
We think ‘Violet Eyes’ is a pretty good place to start… but we want people to hear all of them!

MY GOLD MASK by bw music

My Gold Mask’s new EP ‘A Thousand Voices’ is out now.