Golden opportunity

Let me give a tip to all the musicians out there from the perspective of one who writes often on the topic of music. A fault many bands exhibit is that of being dreadfully homogenous from one song to the next. I don’t mind a band presenting a certain style, but you’ve got to give listeners something a bit better than a set list full of recycled style and talent.

Let us consider Portland locals The Golden Bears, a musical duo formed three years ago that is unafraid of switching things up. Listening to The Golden Bears you find music that stretches across rock, to psychedelic, to folk, melding together and not repeating itself over the span of an album. And in the end, it’s just some fine good ol’, kick-ass music.

The Vanguard caught up with The Golden Bears, comprised of Seth Lorinczi and Julianna Bright, to ask them about the band and their upcoming show at the Doug Fir Saturday, Jan.10.

Richard D. Oxley: How did the band start up?
Julianna Bright: Seth and I have played music together for over 11 years. We became a couple on our third band, a trio called The Quails, in San Francisco. That band dissolved hospitably when our bandmate entered graduate school and Seth and I came to Portland. We moved here in search of a yard to grow food in and basement to play music in. After we built a studio downstairs we looked for other folks to form a band with, but it just kept coming back to us.
I think in some ways we’d always played off of other band members with stronger personalities. Seth and I tend to be pretty gentle folk and it took us a while to figure out how to get started without anyone else to take charge. And honestly, it was actually quite a difficult period to pass through, a sort of writer’s block I think we both felt strangely responsible for. The thing that broke the spell was just jamming old ’60s punk riffs and playing every day.

RO: Who is who in the band? Is the band generally a duo?
JB: Seth and I write all the music and record it ourselves, with occasional guests. Kevin Robinson has been a creative ally from the start and has been sitting in with us on bass live. My old friend David Hamma will be joining us on guitar this time. When he can, Steve Perrone sits in with us as well.

RO: On your Web site you mention your daughter. Is she an inspiration musically?
JB: Our daughter will be two in March. We made the record when I was pregnant with her, and definitely those songs were written in anticipation of this new being entering our lives and all the mysteries that awaited. We’ve written several songs since that are lullabies and anticipate starting recording on a new record this year that will include those.

RO: What is the style and sound of The Golden Bears?
Seth Lorinczi: I generally tell people it’s “psychedelic rock.” That just seems the easiest thing to say, and it’s a genre I feel pretty unequivocal about. There’s a lot more wrapped up in there, I hope—’70s art rock, singer-songwriter stuff, trippy folk and jazz and whatnot. It’s not like the band is meant to be a time capsule or a recreation of a particular moment in 1967. That said, we use old equipment because it sounds right to us.

RO: What are the shows like for The Golden Bears? Is there a feel you like to create, or an atmosphere that accompanies the band?
JB: Well they’re spaced out a lot now, mostly to do with demands of other work and parenting. But they’re pretty transcendent for me. I grew up really, really, really shy, and so looking at people, singing to them, it’s kind of a miracle that it even happens. Hopefully people feel like we’re sincerely offering something up.
SL: For whatever reason we tend to smash all the songs together when we play. My favorite albums are the ones you listen to and you just fall into another world, and in part we’re trying to create a slightly different space for the 30 minutes or so that we’re on stage.

RO: From what I’ve heard, it sounds like you generally listen to vinyl. Is there any thought behind that? Will you ever release any albums on CD or further online formats?
SL: I doubt we will release anything on CD; everything I observe tells me the format is dying as we speak. And for good reason. They’re a time-sensitive format, which feels pretty criminal for something you pay $12 or whatever for. And of course they’re aesthetically extremely lacking. If we had the money we would release everything on vinyl, but this year we’re likely going to try to float little things out into the world digitally, such as some lullabies.

RO: Tell me about your album, Wall to Wall.
SL: It was a very long and at times very frustrating experience, but we really got to make a record completely on our terms, and we learned a ton making it. We used much of our house to make the record (recording all over the place, and using our living room as a reverb chamber) and used fun old tube gear for the most part, plus some homemade equipment. There are also some great guest performances on there, like saxophone from Jeffrey Brown from the Evolutionary Jass Band, and cello from Lori Goldston from Spectratone International in Seattle.

RO: What should we expect from the show coming up at the Doug Fir?
SL: It’s nice when people show up to see us, but really I just want to feel like we played the best we possibly could, and for a little while made something else happen in the room.

RO: If there were a sandwich made in honor of The Golden Bears, what would it be made out of and what would you call it?
SL: I’m not sure, but there would have to be some sort of vinegary sauce involved.