You haven’t heard of No Gold? Okay, don’t click the “read the rest of this entry” button. Don’t read the amazing interview that follows! First, get your tuchus over to No Gold’s MySpace page and listen to Yucca Crown. Abandon this website immediately! Clear some dance/arm-flailing space and go check out this track if you haven’t heard it. Then come back and read the interview with Liam Butler, which is stellar. See you in three minutes and thirteen seconds…

…are you back now? Okay!

Three Chords No More: First off, the basics! Who are the members of No Gold and where do each of you come from musically? Have any of you played in bands before this one? And do any of you play in other bands at the moment?

Liam Butler: No Gold has five members. Jack Jutson plays guitar & fries eggs. Haley Pearse plays drums and makes hot sauce. Liam Butler plays bass and makes a curry, Ian Wyatt talks on an iphone & clears samples for us, & his guy Shitty Steve just joined, ostensibly to play second guitar but he always seems to disappear right before we have to play. Last time we played he returned to our van at about 7 am with no pants on & his hands covered in blue spray paint. Actually let’s just say we have four members. Every member of No Gold also plays in No Goals & No Globe which, combined with No Gold completes the powerful holy trinity of punk-dance-ambient music.

TCNM: In most of the gig pictures/videos we’ve seen, you seem to be playing to small crowds in almost claustrophobically small rooms. What can you tell us about the dynamic of playing smaller venues as opposed to say the Sled Island Festival that you played in Calgary at the end of June?

LB: Actually Sled Island was fun because we played in small places. The thing we hate the most in the entire world is a high stage. Fuck a high stage. Room size is not so big of an issue, as long as the stage is small and the place can get hot. We like a small stage & heat.

TCNM: With the 2010 Olympics on the horizon, what are some of the challenges you foresee for your band (and for other local bands) in the next six months. Do you think it be more difficult to book venues and get your music out there during the much-maligned “Cultural Olympaid”?

LB: Yeah, I think the Cultural Olympiad is going to be really tough on bands. The organizers are on some crazy shit if they think they’re going to get much out of a Japandroids bobsled team. Love you guys, but ya can’t bobsled!! That being said, the No Gold/Basketball (the band) team will clean up.

TCNM: On your MySpace page, you joke that your band falls under the genre of “Tropical / Healing & Easy Listening” but there is a nugget of truth in there insofar as you really do play bright, catchy music that people can (and often do) dance to. One commenter on your site wrote that “[Celebration Song is] certainly one of the most joy-inducing songs I’ve ever heard.” How did you decide that that was the style you wanted to play, especially in a city that is often described as gloomy and somewhat depressing?

LB: What we play just sort of rolled out of the three of us playing the music. No intentions. We have weird dreams and then get into a room with instruments and beers and whatever we play at the moment comes out & it is No Gold.

We’re just an aspect of the wide spectrum of music in Vancouver. There is music that is more focused on the dark, while still maintaining a slight light, and there is music that is focused on the positive while still maintaining a darkness. There’s room for both.

TCNM: One thing a person immediately notices at your shows is the smiles on the faces of your audience. No Gold, it would seem, plays music that makes people feel good inside. Was this super-positivity your goal starting out? Or is it more of a happy by-product of the songs you wanted to put out there?

LB: I think most people at our shows are just our friends who think it’s funny that these lanky awkwards are on a stage or something. Playing a show can be a pretty funny thing sometimes. We all like playing music, so we are happy when we get to do that. I also think people like going to shows and getting drunk and having a good time. I don’t think we’re a ‘super-positive’ band really, we have our dark trips like anyone else, but it is great to be able to play shows and have people there…it’s exciting and I’m consistently surprised.

TCNM: There was a commentary posted on your website recently (http://nogold.tumblr.com) addressing the rumours that No Gold has been influenced (to the point of ripping off) African rhythms. This is, of course, an absurdity to anyone who has heard your band but regardless, people will talk shit. How do surmount this type of negative categorizing and dismiss those who seek to pigeon-hole your band?

LB: Haters rule. I wish we could get heckled more, but usually the only people who heckle us are our drunk friends. I think Vancouver’s heckler scene is pretty undeveloped, honestly.

TCNM: Who are some of the bands in the city that you’re most enthusiastic about?

LB: We love to go to shows by these bands: Basketball, Defektors, Nu Sensae, Sex Negatives, Candles, ahna, No Kids, apollo ghosts, Twin Crystals, V.Vecker…

Super excited to see Random Cuts play live. We really like Babe Rainbow.

TCNM: Like many other bands in the city, you’ll be releasing a new 7” this summer. Which label is releasing your record, and what can you tell our readers about the new recordings?

LB: Our good friend Peter will be releasing the 7″ on The Broadway to Boundary records. We’re lucky as hell to have him putting out our music. Every 7″ on the label so far has been incredible. A full length on Unfamiliar records is coming out in the Winter. New new songs on it, more keyboard than our live stuff. Many many guitars. If the stuff we play live is like a sweaty night spent at a party at a hotel pool, then the album stuff is maybe like a fun time in your kitchen.

TCNM: You’ve just returned home from a bit of a Western Canada tour. How did it go? Can you share a highlight or two with us?

LB: It was a lot of fun. Highlights include Keith from Sex Negs walking around Calgary in a weird shredded up white denim vest, spraypaint at 5 am, playing an elementary school gym in medicine hat & bringing our own coffee/grinder/french press.

TCNM: What’s next for No Gold for the rest of the 2009?

LB: Recording, cooking together every night. Jack & Haley have some new beer brewed that I am excited to taste. I’m going to paint my bedroom. We’re playing at Nat Bailey Stadium on the 22nd of august, which is sort of a dream come true for me, with our best friends Basketball. They are coming back to town soon and we can’t wait to rule deep summer with their jams. also, we’re going to be selling No Gold home made hot sauce at our merch table soon.

Special thanks, once again, to Sarah Cordingley for the amazing photography.