PropertyOfZack had the pleasure of speaking to Ben, Nate, and Devon from Such Gold before they took the stage opening up for Hit The Lights and The Starting Line in New Jersey just a few weeks ago. The guys and I discussed their end of 2010, their world tour, two new upcoming splits, and a debut full-length that will be out on the late summer/early fall. Read up and enjoy, it’s something you don’t want to miss!

For the record, could you state your name and role in Such Gold?
Ben: My name’s Ben Kotin, and I sing in Such Gold.
Nate: I’m Nate Derby. I play guitar.
Devon: I’m Devon, and I play bass.
 
Tonight the band is set to open for The Starting Line at Starland Ballroom in New Jersey, which is hands down your largest show to date. How are the nerves right about now?
Devon: They’re on end right now. It’s the first time we’ve ever played to this many people and it’s with a band that we grew up listening to since we were 13 years old.
Ben: We’re nervous, but we’re not, not prepared. We’re going to be good.
 
How did the show come together for you guys?
Devon: Kenny was on our record, and I think they were putting together this show and we were touring with Hit The Lights at the same time, so it was like a friend of a friend.
Nate: Basically, we got real lucky. We got asked and we said yes.
 
The show was originally supposed to be right after Christmas following your December dates with Hit The Lights. How was that small run with Hit The Lights? You’ll be playing with them tonight as well.
Nate: That tour was awesome. We had a lot of fun with them. It was our first time touring with a band that could draw as many people as they consistently do every night. All of the shows that we played with them were pretty big. They were probably close to 250/300 kids. We were able to draw some kids ourselves as well. We had a lot of fun with them. It was one of the first times we got like food, beer, and catering.
Ben: We actually were able to eat and have some money to spend for the first time ever.
 
Such Gold really had a busy end of the year with a tour with A Loss For Words as well in November and December. You’ll be releasing a split with them as well that we’ll touch on in a bit, but how were those shows?
Devon: Those shows were great too. We were consistently drawing kids every night and it was awesome. We played with a bunch of new bands as well.
Ben: It was awesome. We’ve done a lot of shows and other tours with them in the past. We really like those guys. We play Boston with them all the time.
 
Your touring in the latter part of the year was in support of your latest release, Pedestals. The EP, regardless of an early leak, has been a huge success among fans as well as critics to the point where it ended up in a large amount of Top 10 lists. Has it been a pleasant surprise?
Devon: It has definitely been a pleasant surprise. I don’t know if we anticipated it. It’s nice to know that the work we put into it was appreciated.
Nate: We never release something assuming it’s going to do well. It could go either way always. It’s just nice that it didn’t take and that kids and critics really liked it.
 
Was it tough to be positive after the leak happened?
Devon: Not really. Even when the leak happened, it was more frustrating than anything because we had that Smart Punk pre-order and all that stuff. At the same time we had been waiting to put it out for a long time.
Ben: It was great because everybody was listening to it and people were already giving us awesome feedback, but it was just frustrating for the physical copy release.
 
In terms of future releases, it’s been confirmed that the band will be doing two songs with A Loss For Words and then another couple for Into It. Over It.’s last Twelve Towns release. What are the progress in terms of writing for both splits? Evan’s will be coming out in February, right?
Nate: We actually just finished the recording for both splits. They’re all done.
Devon: They’re just waiting to be released now.
POZ: And you hit the studio with Steve?
Devon: The first time was with a new a producer for the Into It. Over It. split and the second was one the A Loss For Words one with Steve.
POZ: Are you happy with how both are sounding at this point?
Nate: We haven’t heard the full mixes yet, but we’re all really excited.
Ben: A lot of the songs are really natural. We had a lot of our own gear on the record. We’re really stoked on it.
 
How are the newer songs sounding compared to Pedestals?
Devon: It’s a little different. I would say that we’ve made a little progress. It’s in the same vein, but it’s definitely a big step for us as far as songwriting goes. We tried to explore some different ideas. There are a lot of different influences that you can pick out that wasn’t really present in Pedestals.
Nate: I think musically, we stepped it up a little bit.

Is there a tentative release month set for the A Loss For Words split yet?
Ben: RJ?
RJ Crowder-Schaefer: Before the summer.
Nate: We’ll say May.
 
Starting on January 14^th, the band will be beginning a world tour of sorts through the US, Australia, UK, and mainland Europe. How stoked are you guys for this, and are there any concerns about being gone for such a long time?
Devon: It’s so awesome that we’re going to be able to tour the whole world in the span of like two months. I don’t think there are any nerves about being gone for so long because it’s so diverse and it’s not like we’re staying in the same country.
Ben: It’s going to be nerve-wracking and stressful and we’re going to have to work hard for two months, but we’re extremely excited for it, and it’s all going to pay off.
Nate: We’re also playing Crime In Stereo’s last show, which we’re super stoked on.
 
 
Have fans seemed really excited for you to get out to all of those countries?
Devon: Yeah, when we first started out we had a lot of fans from Australia and once we started getting into Twitter and Facebook and stuff a lot of people have been hitting us up. When we played Fest there were a bunch of kids who came out from the UK and stuff and they were super bumped about it.
 
There’s going to be great bands with you throughout all the tours like No Trigger in Australia and Koji and Starters in the UK and mainland. How much are you looking forward to being able to play with them night in and night out?
Devon: We are super excited to play with No Trigger. I saw that band years ago with Polar Bear Club in a park near my house and it was a great show with their original line-up. It’s really cool.
Ben: We’re huge fans of that band, so it’s really cool that they give a shit about us and that we get to play Australia with them.
Nate: Also, we’re playing with Koji in the UK. We love Koji. We did like a two-week tour with him a couple months ago and he’s just a great dude.
 
The mainland Europe tour takes you guys through March. Might there be any downtime between then and the summer to start possible work on another EP or full-length?
Devon: It’s not announced yet, but we have another tour in the works. I
Nate: We have like two weeks at home and then we go out for a month on a full US. We’ll be home in May and start writing then.
Ben: For a full-length. We want to make that pretty clear that it’ll be a full-length.
 
When would you like to hit the studio or even release that full-length by?
Nate: We’re hoping to hit the studio sometime this spring into summer.
Ben: Probably May.
Nate: End of May or the beginning of June. Hopefully we’ll have it out before the end of summer.
Ben: We’re probably looking at closer to a fall release. Then we’ll support it all fall long.
 
Has writing for that started at all?
Nate: A little bit. We have some leftover ideas for the split that we’re going to keep developing.
Ben: We talked about putting a song from Pedestals on it and I think we might even put two songs from the splits to kind of fill it up and round it out. We talked about it, but we’re not really sure yet since it’s so far away.
 
If you guys do finish up recording in May or June, will you possibly be on the road during the summer?
Devon: That’s our game plan.
Nate: I’d like to go overseas again. We’d love Warped Tour, but we haven’t been offered anything for it. I’d like to do overseas again. We’re definitely going to be on tour all summer long though.
 
2010 was a great year for you guys, but it was also such a great year for the rest of the bands like Transit, The Wonder Years, Man Overboard, etc on labels like Run For Cover and No Sleep. Is this your year?
Nate: Yeah, well I guess we feel like we’re already part of that club. We’ve toured with most of those bands several times, and though we’re not doing as big as the things as those bands are doing right now, we’re right on their heels. This will be our year, for sure.
 
Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add or that we should be on the lookout for?
Ben: Look out for those splits. We’re doing a couple dates in LA before we go to Australia. Check out Rust Belt Lights from New York. They’re an awesome band from the same general genre as our. They’re going to start doing big things.