An interview with Golden Python

Montreal math-rock maestros Golden Python have just released their new album, Biker Boys, to the world! Our friends in Stack Your Roster sat down with vocalist and guitarist Vincent Ford to get the full scoop on the band's history and influences.

Stream the album in full on Bandcamp & all your favorite digital outlets, and check out the interview below! 

Can you tell us about all the bands you all are in, how they're connected, and what exactly brought Golden Python together?

Vincent Ford:
I guess it really started out with our first real mathy project,Major House, which Julien and I formed duringCEGEP with two other friends. That project fell apart, but Julien and I wanted to keep the math vibe going, so we recruited Vincent Savary, who was then playing in technical death metal bandFirst Fragment. We wrote a couple songs together and finally decided we wanted to make this band a four piece, so we added another shredder to the mix, Nathanaël Labrèche. Julien knew Nath from CEGEP; we all studied jazz there at different times. Since then, Julien, Nath, and Vincent Savary joined this crazy polyrhythmic metal bandBisbayé. Julien joined my other bandGulfer two years ago, and I’m still active with my other bandStevenson.

You are all exceptional musicians with experience in many styles of music. Can you talk about balancing that technical skill with songwriting and composition? How do you keep yourselves learning and growing?

VF:
At this point we all have specific roles in the band, so it's cool to be able to blend our different influences together in that way. I'll usually come up with the punkier/more emo features of the band, whether through lyrics or my own songs, whereas Nath has a totally different style. Recently he has wanted to explore the more polyrhythmic aspects of Bisbayé, but in our more major scale-based, poppier song structures. From there we know the rhythm section will always come up with some sick arrangements to support our crazy ideas, so we definitely trust each others skills, which makes the writing process simpler for our songs that may sound technical for the listener.

Biker Boys has a lot of a grungy, indie style about it. What was the main source of that shift in sound? What kind of other styles will you incorporate into future Golden Python material?

VF:
Nath and I both got intoAlex G a year before writing Biker Boys, and I think that influence translates into songs likeSylvia andMeggy, for example. Right now I think our whole band is pretty hooked onPalm and the constant call and response thing they got going on with the guitars. We just hear too many math records that sound the same with all the clean major scale tapping and clean vocals on top, it gets redundant quickly. So to keep this project relevant for us we switch it up and get into darker territories sometimes, or we’ll have some songs with no tapping at all to bring out interesting rhythms in the back instead.

What is Golden Python to you? What do you hope to achieve or believe you have achieved with the project?

VF:
We wanna have fun for sure, not take ourselves too seriously, and we want to be able to push each other musically and keep growing as musicians within the band. Otherwise, to be honest, we're just trying to write good songs that people will vibe to while not limiting ourselves one bit. I'd say we just want to be free to do whatever the fridge we want.