Ethan Gold

Ethan Gold, a native son of San Francisco, was raised in the hangover that followed free love, when the concept of family was trampled by baby boomers stumbling their way through history. His father is Beat-adjunct writer Herbert Gold, and his mother Melissa was killed in a helicopter crash along with the legendary rock promoter Bill Graham. For Ethan, the escape was always into new songs and the dreams where he hears them.

While living in a collapsing building in Los Angeles, Gold first stepped into public consciousness when he produced and arranged Elvis Perkins’ blog-hyped stunner Ash Wednesday. While moonlighting as bass player and resident musician in his brother Ari’s celebrity-driven folk party band the Honey Brothers, with Entourage star Adrian Grenier on drums, and also scoring his twin’s debut film Adventures of Power, Ethan continued honing his intensely sensitive music, eventually self-releasing (in America) his debut art rock album Songs From A Toxic Apartment to underground acclaim (“Emotions delivered with an unfiltered, glaring legibility”- Pitchfork; “The most interesting record I’ve listened to in the past 5 years.”- Rock N Roll Experience.) He then began rolling out a series of videos from the album showcasing his visceral approach, which eventually led him to side work as a video director.

While working on his next film score in New York, Ethan fell in a freak accident at a warehouse and had a significant head injury. Losing the ability to speak and to do complex tasks like sound engineering, during his convalescence his songwriting clarified further. He found himself returning to his childhood influences, being re-inspired by the futuristic sounds that were a refuge in post-hippie San Francisco. He dug up an album of synth “paintings” from high school, soon to be released as Expanses (Teenage Synthstrumentals), and completed a collection from live covers he’d released on YouTube of some of his favorite songs, from New Order and Bauhaus to the musical Hair. As a love letter back to the music that guided him as a boy, in the spring of 2018 Ethan is releasing this collection, as Live Undead Bedroom Closet Covers.

Underneath this activity Ethan has been secretly developing an alternate identity as Vyprz, a synth pop project with a cast of local singers. It’s steely, high-energy futurism with a message of spiritual renewal. “New Age New Wave” as he cheekily calls it. He also quietly played bass with San Francisco literary rockers The Size Queens, and finished the haunting score to the upcoming The Song of Sway Lake with his songs being sung by John Grant and the Staves.

Having regained the ability to perform and sing confidently over the last two years, Ethan is currently working on his true follow-up to Songs From a Toxic Apartment, the "Earth City" trilogy, with songs old and new, including his evergreen romantic-political anthem “Our Love is Beautiful,” which has racked up millions of views on unauthorized fan uploads on YouTube, and of fans covering his music this time. For the upcoming release, and as part of his recovery of his faculties, Ethan traveled round the globe, with a phone as the only crew, filming hundreds of people, which along with fan-submitted footage will become the official video for the song, and a love letter back to the world. Where his debut was intensely personal, Earth City is populist, but rather than the populism of fear, it’s a call for sensitivity in a world gone brutal, a reflection of humanity’s longing for love and vast nature within in the global grid of endless cities.

ethangold.com