Goldfinger

Interview with John Feldmann

by: By Brandon Evans

I heard something once that I felt was fitting for this interview.  I think it was, “What was once old is new again,” or was it, “All things happen for a reason”?  If I had to make a bet, I would say that Goldfinger is ready to put both of these proverbs to the test with the release of their latest album Hello Destiny.  This is the follow up to 2005’s Disconnection Notice.  Difference is that this time around Charlie Paulson is back, the original logo is back, and yes…the space woman is back too!  Are the members of Goldfinger saying hello to their destiny?  Check out the interview, pick up the album and decide for yourself. 

You guys are going really old school with the release of Hello Destiny.  You’ve made the switch back to your old logo, and you brought back the super stacked space invader woman from your first album.  Was there any hesitation in doing that?

With Charlie coming back we just decided to make a record that was like our earlier albums.  Since the sound was so reminiscent of the mid 90’s into 2000 we decided to bring it back and I called my friend Alan Forbes who did the artwork for the first album.  It was just an organic thing.  It definitely wasn’t really planned.  It wasn’t a branding or marketing thing, we just figured that it would be cool to have the girl back cuz Charlie is back and the album definitely sounds more old school with him back. 

Rumor has it that you wanted to make an old-school Goldfinger record.  From what I found out, you want it to be something like Stomping Ground meets your first, self titled album.  What better way to do that then to have Charlie Paulson return to the mix.  What did it feel like to vibe together again?

Charlie really took the reigns on Stomping Ground.  That was the only record where we had an outside producer.  I pretty much produced all of the other Goldfinger records except for that one.  I recorded all of the vocals and all of my guitar parts at my house at my home studio and they would just fly that in to the session that they were having in the valley.  Charlie really played a lot of the guitars on Stomping Ground and because he was back we wanted to give him a little more free reign on this one.  I didn’t want to be a heavy handed producer with his guitar parts and I allowed him to do that which I thought brought back a lot of the Stomping Ground energy.  Our first record really was a quintessential ska punk album.  Its not really a Reel Big Fish kind of ska punk but there is definitely like a ska element to our first album that we definitely brought back to this one a little bit and it’s just classic.  I had written a bunch of songs and on the last two records I pretty much arranged everything on Pro-Tools myself and the other guys kinda came in and filled in the blanks.  On this record we really arranged things as a group and demoed them as a group so there is definitely a different approach than the last couple.

I read that you said you try to only write when you’re inspired because you don’t want to just “force some shit.” Is this something that you learned over time that you applied more and more on each record, or have you done it all along?

I really have this kind of theory that rock people kinda have 22 to 28 as sort of a peak song writing period.  I think that if you look back historically that’s when people get their most important and most creative stuff done.  Most bands make their landmark records when they are between that age.  I’m 40 now, but when I was 22 to 28 I just wrote all of the time.  I was single and I was inspired a lot by different girls and different heartbreaks and relationships and stuff.  As I got older I got into animal rights and more political issues and stuff.  I feel like the older I get I feel like I need to write.  I’m a producer and a song writer as well for other people and because it is a job I really want Goldfinger to be natural.  If I’m inspired by a person or something that happens, or my kid, or some animal rights thing, I want to just write about something I’m inspired by.  With other people, sometimes I just have to write.  Someone will come into town and I’ll write with them and I’ll try to figure out their history and write something for them, but for me it has to be inspired. 

You spend a ton of time in the studio, not just with your band mates in Goldfinger, but with a bunch of others that you work with (Story of the Year, Atreyu, Lostprophets, The Used etc.) Can you describe one thing in particular that you’ve learned musically or otherwise from the bands you work with?

You know (laughs) I have definitely learned patience and I’ve learned how to listen.  I’m really stubborn and butt-headed because I think my ideas are the best especially if someone hires me to steer the ship and be the producer.  I’ve learned how to listen for example on the first couple of records that I made, I produced like I was in the band and I’m not.  I just really needed to learn to listen and hear other people’s ideas out.  Once in a long while someone else’s ideas are actually better than mine.  It doesn’t happen that often (laughs), but it does once and a while.

(Laughs)

Is that what lead to you staying pretty hands off this time out on this new recording?  You said you wanted to let your band mates take the reigns whenever you could.

The reason Charlie left was because of the hardheaded producer guy that I can turn into.  I really wanted Charlie to feel like he had the freedom to explore ideas that maybe I would’ve shut down and be able to finish them out before I shut them down.  I guess I figured that it was sort of a new band so I wanted to take a new approach to it.  I just had my son Julian so I wanted to hang out with him and I let the engineer track the guitars and bass and I would do all of the arrangements for the drums and vocals.  I would come and hang out for a couple of hours, make my comments and leave and let him do his thing.  In the end it’s like we went through everything together.  He really stepped up and Charlie really became a song writer in his own right.  I think he understands a lot more now about song structures and about how songs work than he did back in 2004.  We’ve all grown a lot and he’s grown up a lot as a song writer.

You guys were able to fit a good number of guest vocalist onto the album.  You even managed to get your 2-year-old son to lay down some vox.  What was it like to see him behind the mic.?

I was kind of in the room holding him and playing with him.  We just recorded him making some noises.  He was only about 10 months old when I recorded him.  He can kinda imitate me singing now but back then it was kind of random noises and stuff on the beginning of the song Bury Me.  The song lyrically has nothing to do with him, but the baby noises fit the vibe.  I think that it would be cooler later on in his life.  I don’t know if the album format will be anything like it is now when he’s 12 or 13 years old but if it is then he’ll have a credit which will be cool. 

Get Up is an amazing song.  I know you’re a huge animal rights activist, and I couldn’t help but think that this song is about that!  Kind of like a call to action.  Tell me more about this song.

Yeah, I guess we were up in Santa Barbara and I wanted to write a true upbeat ska song.  I wrote the music first to that one and the lyrics were so earnest and the music was just so straight ahead.  I felt like I needed to write something to motivate people that were thinking about going vegetarian or that were thinking about going to the protests or whatever.  So for me it’s definitely an animal rights song that has an “If not you than who mentality.” It’s about actually making some change and doing something.  It’s not like let’s go out and do some A.L.F. action, it could be as simple as rescuing a dog or choosing not to eat meat three meals a night or something you know?  I just watched one of those vivisection videos, I’m not sure which one, it was one of the PETA videos maybe Bridges, but I was really inspired to write about vivisection.  I remember seeing this one scene of this monkey getting shocked.  I don’t know if you’ve seen any of these videos, but if you talk about it, its one thing, but if you see the videos it sticks with you.  I can’t believe that this happens and that it’s still allowed to happen and that it’s actually paid for by tax dollars.  It’s so crazy to me and I just really needed to write about this monkey I saw and I made it the second verse of that song.  Essentially, I think you’re right though.  The song was really a call to arms letting people know that we have to get out there and do something about it. 

When people get the CD chances are there is going to be someone that doesn’t know the motivation behind your song “Free Kevin Jonas.” Please take a minute to tell those who are unfamiliar about Kevin’s story.

I met Kevin I don’t know, probably like seven or eight years ago at a protest.  He was the guy with the blow-horn and he had organized the home demo.  A home demo is where we go straight to the source of the crime.  We go to the houses of the people that perform the vivisections themselves or the people that subsidize these big animal testing companies.  Basically we go there and say “Shame on you for killing these Beagle puppies or monkeys,” and try to educate the neighbors on what these people do for a living to be able to afford these houses that are usually pretty expensive in Brentwood or Bel Air or what not.  We just became friends from being in protests together and from having like minds.  He came over to the house and I made him some vegan milkshakes and we talked about everything from TV to the future of animal rights and things like that.  We did a benefit show for S.H.A.C. (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty).  This must have been three to four years ago and I had Story of the Year, The Used, My Chemical Romance and Good Charlotte play.  It was great because we raised a bunch of money for his campaign. 

Shortly after that he was detained because of this thing called the Animal Terrorist Act (part of the Patriot Act).  It basically says that if you do anything to affect these corporations from making money it could be considered an act of terrorism.  It’s like if you’re going to protest Neiman Marcus, and you’re convincing consumers from buying fur, which is a first amendment issue saying that you believe it is wrong, you can actually go to jail now.  If it affects the sale of product then it is considered an animal terrorist act.  On Kevin’s S.H.A.C. website he posted a bunch of these people’s home addresses, which is how we do the home demos, and posted a lot of their home phone numbers.  Some of the more extreme Animal Liberation Front activists called some of these people’s homes and left threatening messages or what not to try to convince them to stop working on the job.  Kevin ended up paying the price for some of these other activist’s acts.  All Kevin ever did was post home addresses and phone numbers on his website. 

It’s the first case of its kind where someone was sent to federal prison over a website.  It’s the first case of its kind and it’s a first amendment issue because Kevin was saying that it was wrong and he believed that it needs to be stopped.  Kevin is not a violent person at all and a terrorist is the last thing that he is.  Kevin’s got this little Beagle puppy and all he is trying to do is save animals and educate people.  The government deemed him a terrorist and sentenced him to 7 years in federal prison.  I went to go visit him last month up there in Minnesota.  It’s really hard for me to talk about because I know Kevin so well and he is the most even-tempered, peaceful guy ever.  He is really passionate about animal rights so when you hear him talk he really leaves a strong message.  I wrote that song right after he got sentenced because obviously I feel that he was so wrongly accused of being a terrorist.  Knowing that Kevin is in prison with rapists and child molesters is so wrong to me.  He is just a beautiful human that wants nothing more than peace and for the end of suffering of animals.  I needed to write that song for my friend Kevin.  He actually did some liner notes in the album as well. 

Anyone that’s seen Goldfinger knows that you guys are in a league of your own when it comes to touring. You always bring a ton of energy to the stage.  As far as showmanship goes, give me an example of good idea, bad idea.

(Laughs) Well, that’s a tough question!  I tore my ACL two years ago jumping off of these monitor boxes.  I guess a bad idea is not stretching before a show.  I still have a limp two years later.  If you are going to try to put on a high-energy show like we try to do, then warm up.

I don’t know what a bad idea would be really, but Darrin Pfeiffer is a comedian on the side so we always have a Darrin moment.  One time we had to play at a college at ten in the morning and there was this box of doughnuts sitting on the side of the stage and Darrin just randomly started eating these doughnuts and was trying to be this funny guy eating doughnuts, then randomly he decided to pull down his pants and stick a doughnut in his ass and say, “Hey who wants a doughnut?” Then this kid came up on stage and eats a doughnut out of his ass!  After that, it turned into a Twinkie which is so gross!  Some people might consider that to be a bad idea, but I laugh my ass off every single, fucking time that I see some kid come up on stage and do that, so I think it’s epic!

We played up in Colorado last weekend for this radio station for St. Patrick’s Day.  I think you can Google it, Goldfinger Keggs and Eggs or something.  It was packed with like 600 people in a small Irish pub in Colorado.  People started lining up at 4am and by the time we got up to play people were shit faced.  People were so wasted, and I don’t drink so some people can get so annoying with drunk drunk, “I love you bro’s” and all of that shit.  So this kid was so annoyingly drunk in the front so we figured that I was gonna pour a beer down Darrin’s ass crack and this kid would drink it out cause he was so annoying.  Darrin told me in the morning, “Dude, I haven’t showered in like two days! My ass is so chummy!”(Laughs)

(Laughs)

I went up to the bar grabbed two beers and this kid just shoved his nose right in Darrin’s ass and drank it.  You can Google it and it’s pretty gnarly! 

He did a total butt-luge! That’s gross man! (Laughs)

Do you believe that we have control of our own destiny, or does the title to your new album Hello Destiny suggest that you came to find it?

I definitely think that we can control our own destiny for sure.  I mean, I think that there is a level of powerlessness that we have to deal with, you definitely can’t control other people.  The one thing that you can control is your own attitude.  I think that your attitude can create your destiny.  If you’re a pissy pants all the time with a bad mood, or just a grumpy guy all the time, people won’t want to hang out with you, and its hard to get anywhere in life.  For me, I don’t sing like REO Speedwagon or Styx or the trendy Freddie Mercury or anything.  I have an ok voice…just ok.  I just think that because we work so hard, or because we do the 385 shows a year, or because we work hard and keep going after I tear my ACL in the show, or I herniated a disk in my neck, it just goes to show you that hard work can pay off.  I think our workaholic attitude has definitely paid off and has created the destiny that is the reason that we are still talking about Goldfinger 14 years after the inception of the band.  I think that you have to work for it, and you need to have a good attitude about things.  I see it all of the time with the bands that I work with and you know, the bands that are the most successful are not necessarily the ones that are the most talented.  They are the bands that always have a great attitude and work super hard. 

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