Golding, the Gold Coast’s indie electronic darlings treat us to their latest track, Boxing Underwater feat. Cailin Russo.
If you like RÜFÜS DU SOL, Running Touch, or Chet Faker, you’ll adore this new tune. The song’s atmosphere is wistful, even a shade gloomy, but undeniably charming, co-written by pop musical powerhouse Jarryd James.
Cailin Russo’s subtle vocals blend seamlessly with Jay’s to produce harmonic, captivating melodies. The elements combined, along with a contemporary and crisp production, form the recipe for what may be Golding’s most affecting work to date. Nicholas Stevens (Havana Brown, Manu Crooks, Onefour) shot and directed the video for “Boxing Underwater” at Fastback Studios.
The real-life couple Mikalah and Zohar, who feature in the video, are drawn into the plot by Jay and Cailin’s songs, which weave a seamless narrative for them. When asked about the concept for the clip, Jay explains to FIB,
“It was a little bit of a collaboration. Like, I’ve always wanted to do a performance clip and then also mix it with a couple, sort of thing. I just had that idea in my head for like, months. I think I wanted to do it for ‘Don’t Waste Your Love’. I’ve kind of been wanting to push this idea for a while.”
This release comes fresh off the back of Boo Seeka’s “Don’t Waste Your Love”, which is on the cusp of hitting 1 millions streams on Spotify; and “Alone. Together” which is nudging 2 million streams. Golding are certainly carving out their place in the competitive indie electronic landscape.
We sit down with Jay to chat about Golding’s latest track ‘Boxing Underwater’ and his new role in Boo Seeka.
Jay: So, I’m playing and performing in Boo Seeka [now] as well…
FIB: So you’re basically official?
Jay: Yeah, yeah. Just doing both at the same time… I’m just, right now, kind of in that learning to juggle both (mode). And now, how I’m going to do it all and yeah. But so far it’s been pretty good and easy. I live with Ben from Boo as well.
And you guys played at So Cal festival recently in Qld?
Jay: Yes. Yeah. Oh man, that was a dream. Like, everyone has been so thirsty for live events. To be doing that was just [awesome] and they treated us like kings. Like, we were there for like three days. They sent us out to, like, Great Keppel Island and just did a bunch of really cool stuff.
And was there a big crowd at SoCal?
Jay: Yeah, it was massive. I think it was like, maybe eight thousand or something like that. It was solid, I was surprised to do it. But yeah, and we had a really good slot, I think we played like eight o’clock at night.
8pm, that’s a good time slot…
Jay: Yeah, and they went hard on production too. Like, they had like everything that you could think of. It was beautiful.
And what was the energy like? Was it that was your first official performance together?
Jay: Yeah, officially, together. We did one small one in Maitland and it was kind of like, a little tiny secret show. But that was our first kind of big show together. So that was a special, a special moment and it was the first time we did “Don’t Waste Your Love” together as well. So that was a special show for us.
And it was a good crowd?
Jay: Well, it was amazing. Like, Boo has never played in Yeppoon or even Rockhampton. So Ben was a little bit nervous, he didn’t really know what to expect. But there was a lot of Boo fans and yeah. But like I said, everyone’s been so thirsty for live music so it was just, like an explosion of happiness and good energy.
And so, [due to covid] you’ve had to cancel your Sydney dates.
Jay: Yeah, we’re gutted. It’s just, there’s been a lot that have been cancelled… Canberra got cancelled as well. I’m not sure if we’re doing West Oz anymore or not. It’s just, it’s a bit of a mess. I had everything in my calendar, now I keep getting like these really sad reminders. Like, “oh, you were supposed to be playing here”. Yeah. “Sweet, yeah”. It’s ok, I think we’re looking like next year is looking good – I feel. Like, no one really knows, but I genuinely think that we’ll be back to doing more shows next year.
It’s supposed to be better, next year…
Jay: Yeah. I don’t think anyone can handle much longer.
Cailin Rousso features on the new track. What was it like to collaborate?
Jay: It was a dream come true, hey. We’ve, especially me, I’ve followed Cailin for maybe like three years, like I’ve just been a fan of hers for a while. And I got to know her dad as well as from the popular band, Unwritten Law… So that’s her dad. It’s like an older punk band. So I kind of found her through him and I’ve just, been a fan for ages.
And when we wrote the track, we actually wrote the track with Jarryd James. And that was going to be kind of our first collab and he was going to be on the track, but we actually had a clash of dates. Like, he just released his latest record. And basically, it was just a label dispute. They didn’t want to have in bringing something else out with another artist during that cycle. So I instantly was like, even when, after we wrote it, I thought it would be really cool if it was a female counterpart for the other part of the song. And I immediately was like Cailin’s like, the top of my list.
So we just sent her a cold, like, DM on Instagram and literally just sent her the track. Like, ‘we don’t know each other, but I’ve been a fan of yours for a while. I just think that you would take this track to the next level. Give it a listen and just hit us back. If not, all sweet’. And I think she wrote like, I think, maybe two or three days went by. And I was like, “she probably just didn’t see it or whatever didn’t like it”.
And she wrote back just, “yep, let’s do this”. And it was just on from there on. And she’s just so, so great man. And like, the easiest person to work with in the world. I had a lot of really cool creative ideas on the track as well. And even the film clip, like, we obviously had to shoot in different countries in L.A., She was just like, yeah,
just took the clip to a whole ‘nother level. She’s just oozes, like, charisma and just cool and yeah.
So you shot the clip in L.A.?
Jay: She shot hers in L.A. and I shot mine just here on the Gold Coast and the couple scenes stuff is here on the Gold Coast as well. Yeah, but she just, it’s weird like… With some artists, you just don’t have to give them any direction, like they just fit in. She’s just one of those artists that just was like, she was art, you know, she didn’t have to do anything.
And then the director, Nick, who put it all together. He did a shoot similar to this one for a watch company. I can’t remember what the company was. I think it might have been Nixon or something like that. But it was so perfect like the romance and the chemistry, and the way that was shot I was just like, “that is beautiful and so well done”.
So we hit him up and we basically said “listen, like, we’re not going to give you much direction. We want you to do what you do best – and that’s what that is”. So he just, he did it so easy and just shot it so well like we, I think we didn’t change anything. We got the first cut back and that was like, – this is the first time for me, ever, that [I got] the first cut back and I just was like, that’s it. It’s done grade it and let’s get this thing out.
He nailed it, but yeah. The couple and live performance thing was definitely like, a share [shared idea]. But he had all the vision and all of the locations. And he’s just a genius, he’s really good.
The clip is quite intimate. It has a feeling of nostalgia…
Jay: And they’re a real couple too. Those two are a real couple. He said that’s the secret apparently, is that you’ve got to find a real couple. Because the chemistry, that obviously, it really comes through when you film it.
I know you’ve had some cancellations, have you got any shows coming up?
Yeah, we’ve got a couple there’s I think this four shows left on the Boo tour that we’re still we’re still doing. The first one is in Brisbane at the Triffid. I think that’s at the end of this month. There are four, I think, left. And those are going to be really interesting because, like I’ve done two Boo shows now and the last one I did, I was really [dead] after it. And now I’ve realised that I have to do a Golding set and then a Boo set directly after. So that’s going to be a very tiring run of shows. I’m kind of happy there’s only four now because I probably would have died on that tour… Would’ve been pretty exhausting. But yeah, there’s a couple of shows that we’re really excited [about]. But yeah, Brisbane will be our, our first show. So we’re pretty excited about that.
To check out Golding’s remaining tour dates, visit the band’s official Facebook page.
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