"all alone is all we are"

The band GOLDUST from Munster, Germany is one of the most efficient and ambitious Hardcore bands these days. Founded some years ago, the band managed to progress with every release they recorded so far, gaining more and more attraction and regocnition within the European Hardcore Scene. They will release their second album on Let it Burn Records and APIL Records in April. I'm not that stoked on Hardcore records these days, but DESTROYER | BORDERLINES is definitely one of them. If you're not familiar with the band/their latest release, you should head right over to their Myspace site to listen to their new posted track "Passage". (www.myspace.com/goldusthc)

I had a short email conversation with their Singer Lars and this is what the self-proclaimed "pretentious asshole" had to say. Enjoy!

Before we start off, I wanna know about your Bauhaus Tattoo. I have never seen it.
Hey Samuel, good to see that we dont need to introduce to one another anymore.
The tattoo is on my chest and it says "Swing The Heartache". To those who are unaware, it is an album and a song-title by a dark wave band called Bauhaus. I got it years ago. The typeface is quite unfancy and plain looking. I have taken the font from the Swing Kids split 10" inlay. I really thought that would be a cool idea. I think it actually might even be Times New Roman or something along the lines. It has a deeper meaning to me that i do not want to weed out here.
I might add something to this tattoo sometime soon.

We will get back on that topic later on. For the readers who maybe have not heard yet of your band. If you had to describe the band’s music and attitude in one sentence, what would that be?
Goldust is a hardcore-band, for the sake of creating rather then re-enacting.

As a person who has always wasted way too much time surfing the Internet, I have noticed GOLDUST already for a while. Brutal truth is: The way the band presented itself in the early stage as well as the musical output back then was really not my cup of tea. What’s your opinion now, looking back on the early months/years of your band? And do you often get that kind of reaction?
I would say we did a lot of mistakes back then, out of the reason we didn't know any better. I can not enjoy those songs much, probably they are a good act to laugh at.

You’ve always been really busy writing and releasing new songs. Actually, this is not that usual for most of the (european) Hardcore bands. Especially when you keep in mind, that most bands break up after their first 7“ anyway. Is there any philosophy behind?
While others bands and their members are at a state where they either sacrifice their life to the band or have no further obligations, each member of GOLDUST is stucked in his routines of every-day-life. Therefore we can't tour hard and be on the road all the time. So we are somehow in the fortunate state that we can either bore ourselves 2 times a week by staring at our own feet, and draw circles and play the old songs over and over again, or push ourselves, our capabilities and develop new soundspheres. With every song written and material created we push the boundaries a bit further and this leads to quite a productive output. We dont have a philosophy behind it. We just do what we do. Luckily we are being approached at the right time by the right people to release something.

To say that INTEGRITY as well as other Clevo/Holy Terror bands had and have a huge impact on your music is safe to say, I guess. Other than that, what bands, thinkers and/or art do inspire you?
We started out with no intention but to have a band. Concerning the beginning it is safe to say that Blacklisted and Integrity had a slight impact on us, some people compared us to Guns Up or Shipwreck, but i dont see that one resembled. Musicalwise it's hard to distinct certain influences. You see, we have got Robert on guitar who listenes to nearly everything from the 80s and 70s, hell, i don't even know what Robert favors. The collection on his iPod is the tiniest and pickiest one i have ever seen but there is definitly no hardcore but a lot of Pixies, Electronic and Kraftwerk. Then we have Christoph on drums who has got a taste for Krautrock and Black Metal and some obscure stuff. Christoph Gerhard on bass is seemingly the one that would listen and support most hardcore stuff but wouldn't mind listening to Metallica and Black Sabbath as well. Chris and me are somehow alike. We can not find much enjoyment in contemporary hardcore releases. We seek the outlet in all kind of genres as long as they transport a certain feeling. Concludingly the output of GOLDUST and how GOLDUST sounds is a melange of the 5 individuals and their tastes. Every single one plays their part and brings in their ideas and influences.
I can only speak for myself here i am highly influenced by art and creation itself and i can't narrow it down. May it be American Nightmare, Joy Division, Nirvana, Expressionism, Religious Psalms, Poems, Kafka, Poe, Philosophy, 80s wave, grund, black metal, Lord Of The Rings, Shoegazing, Psychology, Life itself, Movies, Jason Molina, Past events, Celtic Frost, Dead Heroes, Alive persons, Paintings. Fuck, i don't know where to begin and where to end. I try to be as open-minded as humanly possible as long as i find something that reflects or resembles my mind.

Dark, apocalyptic visions are chique nowadays. (Reversed crosses on every Hardcore bandshirt) You guys also deal with dark topics and kind of an „evil“ image. What’s your personal motivation behind this? I ask this because I do think, that most bands dealing with certain images have or at least should have individual reasons why they deal with such topics. And I also think that this is mostly missed these days.
I'd rather would not see GOLDUST in this context. We are not an evil, nihilistic, misanthropic band per se. We arent even an apocalyptic propaganda tool. This comparison got stale and lame so fast and i am quite aware what imagery other bands are choosing. You know, all this holy-terror-kindergarten, godfree here, VV for w, latin expressions, upside-down-crosses there. This is not our world. I totally see that it is quite easy to put that sticker on us. But it all comes from a personal perspective, if you think we are one of those bands, sorry, then you are terribly wrong.
This, what you may call it, dark and evil output is created in the chest of the 5 individuals in GOLDUST. This may sound generic but it comes naturally. Otherwise this band wouldn't make much sense. We dont sit hours uopn the material and debate like "we need a more dark edge so let's add this and that". You know, you can either grab the book of black arts or you can choose to swallow the sugar-coated fairy tale your mom used to read to you. Our choice comes naturally, not to suit a trend or being chique, attract a certain audience or to provoke a reaction. It's the potential each and everyone has got, it's either creation or destruction, good and evil. We have chosen to destroy by creating. At least we are creating something.

To me it seems like GOLDUST is heading more and more into a metallic direction. I was wondering if this has ever been a topic in the band itself? Is it important for you to be called a Hardcore band? Do you care?
We are a hardcore band.

You recently signed with Let It Burn Records to release your second full lenght in April 2010. It’ll be called „DESTROYER | BORDERLINES“. Could you elobarate on the name of the record as well as the overall-feeling of it a bit?
The first song which we have published is "Passage". I'd say it's the most straight-forward one, kind of the stupid aggressive grab-your-fucking-throat-type. It's definitely not a complete representation of the material included on "Destroyer | Borderlines". There are 12 songs on it which are quite diverse and of much wider range than our past releases. They blend the lines drawn by hardcore and metal even further. I dont really have a reference for it like it will sound like band A and band B mixed with band C.
Lyricalwise it digs really deep. It contains the most egocentric (yeah call it depressed) thoughts and feelings i have ever written. All the lyrics and writings are woven in one another. But it's not a concept record. Saying so would set the expectation way too high and i'm afraid i could never satisfy such an estimation. If you are familiar with our songs such as "crisis" or "aevum" you have a slight clue of what to expect lyricalwise. The content is quite harsh and extreme but i have chosen to write everything down upright. There was no other choice this time. The title refers to the band itself as well to the lyrical content.
It will make much more sense when you finally hold the record in your hands and you get the whole experience.

I want to change topics a bit. I was just thinking about it myself the other night: Hardcore, or at least what we label under said brand nowadays pretty much means running in circles, following rules and limiting yourself. If you won’t, you most likely end up as so-called Sell-Outs or you’ll just lose touch with the complete culture. Now, I don’t know if this is just my imagination based on my own experience, but I wanted to ask you about this. What is it, that keeps you „here“? And what eventually would help you disappear into nowhere fast?
Seriously. This is a total misconception of hardcore. Hardcore leaves no boundaries. It's argueable what kind of hardcore you enjoy or want to play. One should look into the wide range of hardcore and how many different styles are labeled as hardcore. This doesnt mean you have to buy into it or accept it. We never followed a trend or tried to be Germany's Next Integrity or something along those lines. As stated above we do what we do and that's it.

I know, that you are interested in Music in general. But somehow I noticed, that the most of the stuff you listen to - no matter what style – kinda represents a dark state of mind. Sir, do you ever actually listen to HAPPY & BEAUTIFUL music?
I may sound like a pretentious asshole now but who decides what is dark and depressed and what music is happy & beautiful?
But you are correct, sir, by saying that most of the stuff i listen to would be perceived as dark and depressed. I can't find much enjoyment in those easy-listening stuff. It makes no sense to me. I just need the heavy-hearted stuff that makes you cringe and leaves you with a sour taste in the mouth and makes you doubt that this world is the right place for you. Happyness through sadness, whether it is included in the lyrics or that really slow song "that makes you wonder if you will ever hear the next note". This is the kind of music i prefer over the weekender-radio-hits. Here are favourites of mine that are just too "heavy" in the sense of hard:

songs: ohia - the lioness
jason molina - let me go, let me go, let me go
pedro the lion - control
cat power - myra lee
benton falls - fighting starlight
the cure - 4:13 dream
deftones - white pony
codeine - fridig stars
crowbar - sonic excess in it's purest form
tw walsh - blue laws
grief - dismal

ok, i'm a pretentious asshole.

While we’re at it, do you sometimes think about playing other music than just metallic Hardcore? Or have you actually already done something different? Perhaps some almost forgotten projects you were once involved with? Or is it something you want to leave up to your Future-Self?
I am not a musician nor a singer. I'm a writer and i tell stories in simple manners but i do not want to scream at the sky for the rest of my life. In fact i was involved with a few projects. Among those i did the vocals in an electronic-goth project with 2 friends of mine around 2003-2005 or so? The project was called ALICIA LEDON and we've worked with vocoders, synths, drum-computers etc etc. We even recorded a record but it never saw the light the day. I wish i could regain those recordings but i am pretty sure they reside in the aether. I could see me return to such roots or something else apart from hardcore. Oh i don't care about the future. It's not a place for me.

I’m almost finished with my questions. But speaking of the future, what are the plans for GOLDUST for the next months/years? Are there certain goals you definitely want to achive furthermore?
We will tour with STORM & STRESS around april/may and do some weekend shows as well as play most of the LET IT BURN showcases and rehearse as usual 2 times a week. That's for the first half of 2010. We will try to promote the new record on our best terms. I would love to do another EP and a follow-up album. These are just lines i draw in the sand and the tide is always rising and lurking on the horizon.

That’s it. Here’s where you can put your Shout-Outs.
"All alone is all we are"