Gold Casio is a Brooklyn-based band that’s taking the music scene by storm with its unique blend of space-age disco, indie-tronic dance rhythms, and pulsing psychedelic pop. Their beats and rhythms ooze Daft Punk or Justice, while their vocals sound like a Blondie meets Talking Heads supergroup. With a broad spectrum of influences ranging from ‘80s art pop to nu-disco and electro-funk, Gold Casio’s music is guaranteed to get listeners moving and keep their infectious melodies stuck in their heads.
After releasing a series of ear-worming singles in 2020, the band has been busy working on their debut album, Disco Hits Radio (Or, The Ecstasy of Ego Death), which is out now. Featuring 20 tracks that run the gamut of electronic music from the last four decades, the album is poised to take over headphones and dancefloors across the globe. With the captivating lead single “Womp” and other tracks like “Osaka Nights,” “Champagne Kisses,” and “Revolver,” Gold Casio has created a genre-defying journey of psychedelic pop that showcases the band’s exceptional musical range and talent.
In this interview post, we’ll dive deeper into Gold Casio’s creative process and explore the inspiration behind their music and the making of their debut album. Let’s find out what makes this band tick and what we can expect from them in the future.
Can you tell us more about how your diverse range of musical influences came together to create the sound of your new album, Disco Hits Radio (Or, The Ecstasy of Ego Death)?
In order to get the sound of this album we were pulling inspiration from a lot of disparate sources to make something that felt new and otherworldly. In that process we came up with the concept of an inter-dimensional pop radio station so we could put this diverse selection of songs together in an album where the listener feels a sense of subconscious channel-surfing; like a sweet spot between radio stations that has somehow stashed all of your soul’s greatest hits.
What was the creative process like for putting together the album as a cohesive whole, and can you speak to the inter-dimensional pop radio station concept that you mentioned?
We started with a big batch of demos and experimented with how they could go together before we started the recording process. We found ways that songs could flow together seamlessly and then chased those ideas during recording so that by the time the songs were nearing completion the arc of the album was established.
As far as the inter-dimensional pop radio idea, we were really into the concept of building a comic book universe around the album, so there’s this other narrative dimension you can engage with if you want. We imagined the album as an extraterrestrial message being cast from across outer space into the collective unconscious of our minds. A lot of the sounds in various transitions are from the collection of deep space sounds that NASA dropped a few years ago. The album kicks off with the sound of a gravitational wave.
With 20 tracks on the album, were there any particular songs or moments that were especially challenging to create, or that stand out as favorites for the band?
Our song $$ comes to mind. We had a really strong sense of the feeling and energy we wanted it to have, but it took a lot of chasing to get the track there. When we were recording it we had two different drummers sit in and do takes, and ended up splicing pieces of both into one very dynamic drum performance. After that it only took two sax players, dozens of layers of percussion, and an orchestra of Korg poly800 sounds for it all to come together. We released the music video for it last year, which as you will see involved also becoming masters of puppetry.
Your music has been described as blending various genres like indie-tronic dance rhythms and psychedelic pop. How do you approach genre-defying songwriting and production, and what do you hope listeners take away from your unique sound?
As a group we can play as a live band but also incorporate electronic music studio techniques, we like to be able to pull from both realms. When we’re writing we don’t think much about the genre, we are more interested in finding a sound we like and hope anybody listening will get lost in that music with us.
What can fans expect from your live performances, and do you have any upcoming shows or tours planned in support of Disco Hits Radio?
Fans can expect our live shows to be a party that doesn’t go light on the glam and glitter. Our stage performance combines the danceability of a DJ set with the raw live band energy of a punk show. Our visual themes come to life on stage as well with our stage outfits and makeup. You can catch us playing often in the NYC area and we’ll have some more extensive touring in the US a little later this year, stay tuned to our socials for future announcements.
