Diandra Interviews – Artists of 2020: Golda Is Being Herself

Interviewing Golda, her responses were thoughtful and encompassing of someone trying to be themselves in a world where people feel they need to do and be a million things by a certain time. There is a pressure on rising generation be all while stay put. To Golda, her music is a response to societal pressures as made by an individual who is seeing her sensitivities are her powers. The ability to see the worlds for all its facades and truths is a painful, glorious gift, in our interview, Golda discusses how music can be born from that.

Diandra: With your EP being called “Wish I Was Someone Else,” who do you wish you could be?
 
Golda: I wish I could be the bravest, most fearless, energized, unblocked, and healthy version of myself at all times. Or Johnny Greenwood’s wife. Just kidding.
 
Diandra: Your song are about the fears of being in your 20’s and 30’s, and feeling like you are blazing a trail you can never undo or turn back upon. How would define being a twenty/ thirty something in 2019, and how do you hope this new decade enlightens and grows that definition?

Golda: We’re a generation of very knowledgeable, scared of global warming, phone-addicted humans. Social media, that’s the worst thing for anyone’s self esteem – millions of people compare themselves against perfectly surgically crafted humans with photoshop on top of that while simultaneously worrying about the dying coral and burning forests and the lack of clean air. While we are fully aware of the climate atrocities happening and the insane life conditions of those in North Korea etc, we still feel a need to be trendy and hot. So we focus on the fuzzy, nice stuff, about having the newest fashion item, about eating the new ricotta jam toast at whatever brunch spot. We’re all internally freaking out while putting out a completely chill persona. This year during the LA fires, ash was falling out of the sky over LA, and people just kept going, no one stopped or talked about it, it was this obvious terrible thing happening at a questionably close distance and we just kept going, continuing with our planned activities. 

There’s an expectation that we should have it all – our dream job, complete mastery in our hobbies, the perfect partner, spiritually elevated consciousness, fit bodies, healthy boundaries but open to love, and also make good money. And we try to do it all but fail at doing everything, so we kinda do a bit of it all and feel overwhelmed. Then we wake up, and its already been X amount of years since you graduated and you still feel just as lost as you did then. But you get the job because you need money and a sense of purpose and you keep going because you have to have at least 2 years on your resume and then you’re on autopilot, and, sometimes, you have those existential moments of “is this what i really want to be doing? I hate this city, it’s so smoggy,” but then Monday comes and you’re back in your job. In the coming decade, we will be forced to change our habits and conveniences because the environment is unable to sustain the damage we’re doing to it, we will either adapt with new sustainable technologies or have to really minimize our lives.

Me: Woah! Facts!

Diandra: Your music dives into deep and intimate thoughts. How do you find creativity equates emotional and mental clarity? Do you find it meditative?
 
Golda: Music is definitely a therapeutic tool for me and helps me process complex and heavy emotions / life events I’m going through. I won’t really fully know how I feel about a turmoil in my life until I’ve written a song about it. Like I knew I was over my ex when I started writing an “I miss you song” and half way through I was like “wait I don’t miss him, all this feels like bullshit” and that was that. I ended up throwing the song out haha. When I had a really bad itchy rash, the only thing that helped was singing and playing music, it like overrode my itchy feeling or something – music is magical, we’re only now starting to tap into how it affects our brains but it’s transcending and otherworldly, it’s the coolest thing we have as humans. That and clean water; water is pretty dope.
 
Diandra: Do you feel your life path into music was destined, and do you recall the moment it was sparked?

Golda: It was a spark for me, but also a low hum my entire life. I was interning at a very corporate accounting firm and we were told to evacuate the building one day. I was on the 35th floor and as everyone was pouring into the stairwell, there was a jam in the stairwell, like people weren’t moving fast enough, and I could only go as fast as the person in front of me. It was REALLY scary for me and something hit me in that moment; “you have to be in music, you can’t die without having a life in music.” I called my dad when I came home that night and told him about my revelation. Of course, he wasn’t stoked and we had a big fight about it. But I knew from that moment forward, my entire life was going to be about music and that’s what it has been.
 
I also had a moment at my freshman year talent show where I was working behind the scenes with this boy I had a big crush on. I felt like he really “saw me”, but I’m pretty sure I was delusional haha. Anyways, I was so distraught that I was working the talent show and not even participating and I realized that I wanted to sing for people that day, not just keep it a me, myself. I cried and he listened, but it took me years to gain the courage to do anything about it. 
 
Diandra: What are the qualities you feel you have, as a person and artist, that you most treasure?

Golda: My voice comes from a really genuine authentic place and I feel so deeply what I’m singing like, something is coming over me. I try to come from a grounded rooted and open crown chakra kind of place (I know that sounds new agey as f*** but it’s true). As a person, I care a lot about my friends and the people in my life and I’m insanely loyal to them. I treasure my goofy side too, I’m a giant goofball jokester and that got muted a little bit, growing up, because of social standards and whatnot. Thankfully, I re-found that side of myself in college.

Diandra: You taught yourself to sing at age 5. Who were the singers you used to emulate and why?
 
Golda: I taught myself to sing opera when I was 5, my mom would play pavarotti and I would just copy the way he did things, I would do math homework at the kitchen table and just sing. I wanted to sing so loud my mom could hear me upstairs. I thought about pursuing opera but the music doesn’t fully resonate. Another huge influence was Alanis Morisette! I just loved how deeply she felt what she was singing. The first song of hers I became obsessed with was “Your House” and then “Uninvited”. My best friend at the time actually had to help me unlearn all her vocal tendencies because I was singing too similarly to Alanis. I watched someone dance to “Your House” in a freeform lyrical style and it was so entrancing and beautiful and hit me right in the heart. Then Christina Aguilera, the song “Beautiful”, I don’t think I really learned how to sing from Christina but I was so so so into her vocals always, just so powerful. I’ve always loved Daniel Rossen’s (Grizzly Bear) vocals too, his way of pronouncing and his tone is lovely. And Thom Yorke of Radiohead, of course. I’m a hodgepodge of a couple hundred or so different artists I’ve been obsessed with over the years.
 
Diandra: How would you define your voice: both in style and message?
 
Golda: I’ve been told my style is Baroque Folk Pop, but it really changes all the time. My voice surprises me still, sometimes it wants to sing with a twang, Sometimes, it wants to be operatic and falsetto. Sometimes, it wants to be really quiet and intimate, and sometimes it just wants to be loud and screamy almost. My message as an artist gravitates around the heavy emotional weight of being a human and wanting others to feel like they can release / feel seen through my music.
 
Diandra: How do you know, as a songwriter, which songs are for you versus which songs are for others? How can you tell a “golda” track?
 
Golda: I’m only writing for myself these days so they’re all in consideration for me. I like to record the songs I write and listen back and if I still like them months later then I know they’re worth sharing with others (on stage, recording, etc). I run my favorites by some friends to gage what they think too. Playing them out is helpful because people will come up and tell you their favorite songs that you played that night.
 
Diandra: Working behind the scenes of the industry, as an assistant and songwriter, how do you feel that time helped you see and define what it means to be an artist?
 
Golda: It’s made me a bit jaded to be honest, a lot of pop music is absolute garbage and gets pushed out because the people who wrote it have big teams with people who are used to big money so they keep forcing their music on the public and if someone hears something enough times, they’re going to get used to it and play it themselves. Then those artists become brands that can then sell more goods / services through the “artist” lens but really they’re just a channel for consumerism. But I get it, money is nice. There are real artists out there, too, that aren’t just the same repeated pop-sex-money thing like, Phoebe Bridgers, Andrew Bird. They’re doing it right I think. I try to model my career after them.
 
Diandra: What is the best advice your parents have given you in life that would inspire a song?

Golda: Ha! I think it’s more of how they talk to me / look at me that inspires my lyrics – I wrote a song called “more” in August how my mom just wanted more from me in my life, she wanted me to be an accountant or lawyer or a consultant whatever CEO. I was going to a gig once with my guitar and I looked at my mom and asked her if she saw me as a musician and she said “I see you as a CEO business owner”, parents sometimes just don’t see us, they see the image they wanted you to be. And that’s ok I guess, as long as there’s mutual love all is well.

Diandra: With so many worldly influences, what art, books, films, histories, and artists, across the globe, have inspired you?
 
Golda: I grew up listening to Radiohead, Alanis Morisette, Fleet Foxes, and Grizzly Bear so they have definitely inspired my musical leanings / tastes / vibe. I’ve always loved the films The Lion King (original) and Memoirs of a Geisha. I was obsessed with the show Dexter growing up as well as Spongebob Squarepants. I’ve always been really into colors – like I just understand colors and shapes really well so I find them inspiring, too. I think the most inspiration I get nowadays is from just going really inwards and dealing with the old stuff that never fully healed – I heal through meditation, energy work, etc. I like to travel too even if it’s painful while I’m traveling because I feel like I’m being unproductive and just purely consuming consuming (a lot of traveling is “where are we eating next???” and not “how am I contributing to society,” which is cool sometimes but makes me feel bad). I’m currently reading Murakami, I love his writing; it’s always very emotional and honest. 

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