After reviewing their smashing 2nd album Healing Is A Team Effort,  (http://www.metalrage.com/reviews/1793) I got a chance to interview Goldenboy during their Dutch tour. Below the result of an evening of beer, stories about Oklahomos and a taperecorder!



(Toke, Nils and BT)

For those who somehow never heard of Goldenboy, please introduce yourself to our readers.

'I am Nils, I play bass and do backing vocals. I�ve been a member since we started out. I�m Toke, I sing and play the guitar. And I�m BT. I play drums and percussions.'

Where does the name for the band come from?

T: It comes from an episode of �Seinfeld�, A friend of mine suggested it. It�s an episode where he calls his favorite shirt �Goldenboy�. He does not EVER want to throw it away. It becomes old�
N: I�d say it�s almost fallen apart.
T:�And worn out.
N: And in the end it becomes an issue that they discuss.
T: �What happened to Goldenboy?�

Were there any other options before this name?

T: No, there weren�t actually! Haha�
N: We went straight for that one, someone suggested it and we thought it fits our music.

Where does the name for the album come from?

T: On the road in the US.
N: On our last tour we went to the US and there were all these advertisements alongside the roads..
T: This was a family therapy kinda thing, haha�
N: Well we thought this band thing is sort of like that, and is a team effort. It�s a bit cheesy, but it�s sort of our slogan.
T : We had a lot of hours in the car during that tour, so we had like 20 to 25 different names for the album!
N: A really long list, one even stupider than the other haha�

What was the worst?

BT: Who�s your daddy�
T: What I want to do for a living is your daughter�
N: Or, Eating out all summer. With a parental advisory, haha�
That�s the thing if you get heaps of information like we did there, you get a lot of ideas and you can later filter out the best ones.

Do you consider this album a follow up in a straight line from the last album, or did you deliberately alter course?
 
N: I hope we evolved a little bit though, but we did nothing deliberately. We�ve just been working the formula�I think there�s a bit more variation in this record than the last one.
BT: We�re more mature now. We�re older!
T: One of the big differences is, that we�re better musicians since the last album and EPs, so there�s a bit more variation on this record.

What gear do you guys use? (Amps, drumkit, guitars)

BT: I use the Pearl master custom, the gold sparkle with ehh, what�s it called? Oh yeah, maple.
T: I used to play on a Fender Strat, but just recently I had my 30th birthday and I got the best gift ever! I got a Hagstrom guitar, Swedish design. It�s very nice.
N: Two different basses. The first good bass I ever got, is still the best bass. I bought it from BT�s uncle and it�s a Yamaha BB 3000, it�s built as a studio bass. The only famous band that ever used this, was actually the bass player from Mr. Mister, haha�(sings) Take, these broken wings�hahaha�But it�s built like a tank and it sounds great.
BT: And his bass has got a name. It�s Rut�

Van Nistelrooy?

BT: haha�No like the girl�s name Rut. R-U-T.
N: The name came with the bass.
BT: Yeah, my uncle named it.
N: It�s so beautiful it should be a woman. But it doesn�t come down to the equipment though. Apart from BT maybe, we were never these equipment geeks. We just played with what we had. Only the last two years we�ve been looking at pedals and stuff. Before that we just used the amplifiers sound, so it�s pretty basic actually.
BT: I am a little snare addict myself. I have like ten snares at home. I only play one at a time though, but each snare has its own sound

There are four members named in the album booklet, there were three at the live show and here right now. Explain!

T: Well, he quit, haha. We�ve always been a four piece. Our first guitar player quit when he found a girl in San Diego during a tour in the US, so he went back to San Diego and got married and still lives there now. Then we got a new guy, a really good guitar player and after the recording of the album he just wasn�t so into it anymore. He just got married�
N: Got a kid and retired. He didn�t want to spend his time that way anymore. He moved out of the city into the countryside and got a job and a house there.
BT: He did a great job on producing the last album.
T: Yeah he was the producer of the last album.
N: Now we just had to rearrange a couple of things for the next tour. We got Toke�s new guitar which looks good, that�s something, haha�and I�ve been taking dance lessons�
BT: I think we all found out that we�re better as a trio. We�re more tight. There�s more room for lines on the guitar, not all those solos.
T: When Jolstein, our former guitar player, started out with the band he brought in some great guitar playing, some great solos from�
N: From hell actually, haha�
T: Which we were not used to, so now I guess we�re back to the way Goldenboy was supposed to be. We�re not a guitar solo band. We focus more on vocals and melodies.

Most of the bands we see outta Norway are melodic death metal bands drinking blood or Maria Mena! What�s up with the rock �n� roll scene over there?

N: There are a lot of bands actually�
T: Turbonegro of course�
N: I guess that�s the big export from Norway, as far as Rock �n� Roll goes.
BT: And of course Motorpsycho.
T: There�s not a lot of alternative bands, or rock, or indie rock coming out of Norway and making it Europe. I think the scene is quite crappy. There are a lot of bands, but not a lot of good ones. I�m not saying we're a good band, but yeah�whatever, hahaha.

Any idea whether the 6000 euro picture by Paul Bernard is sold yet?

T: Maybe we should correct the price a bit, hahaha
BT: It�s like 10,000 Norwegian kronen, that�s like 1,400 euros.
T: The highest bid is probably 6,000 euros by now�
N: We don�t know, but we can imagine that people are killing each other over that thing, haha�
T: I think the government should buy it and make an add campaign out of it, haha�
N: yeah, healing is a team effort�
BT: On the side of the road; welcome to Bergen!

Or stay in school, maybe?

BT: �or you�ll end up like this!
T: Hey, I�m a teacher!

Stones or Beatles?

BT and Toke: BEATLES!
N: I would say the Beach Boys.
T: That wasn�t the question! You have to choose.
N: I�ll say the Beatles then, or maybe the Beach Boys�They're the greatest thing with melodies I think. The Pet Sounds album is way up there. I can�t say that much bad about the Beatles as well. Apart maybe from the sort of folk ending�
T: Yeah they became hippies.

Ramones or Mot�rhead?

T: Ramones
N: Most definitely. Although we did see Mot�rhead live a while back and that was impressive.
BT: Sepultura was their support.

Nirvana or Pearl Jam?

BT: Do we have to choose?
N: I would say Bon Jovi, hahaha�
BT: When I was young I really loved both those bands, so it�s really hard for me to choose. But if I had to choose, I would say Pearl Jam. I have everything they put out. Even the live CDs they put out, I bought like twenty of them.

What bands did you grow up with?

T: 80�s hair metal. Bon Jovi, Poison�
BT: Kiss, White Lion.
T: For me after that I had my grunge period�
N: I�d say Guns �n Roses came in heavy. And Metallica also was a big thing for me.
BT: Yeah, I love Metallica.
T: Then the blue album from Wheezer and Dookie from Green Day changed things around for me.

What bands are you really into now?

N: Good Riddance. They released an album called It�s My Republic, it's really impressive to me. Also harder stuff like Thrice.
T: I�m actually really noticing that I�m getting older, because I�ve been listening to softer music now. Singer songwriters etc.
N: Also the last album put out by Green Day I still think is really good.

What is your all-time favourite album?

BT: I would have to say Foo Fighters and The Color And The Shape.
T: I will have to say two albums. Good Riddance and A Comprehensive Guide To Modern Rebellion and Bad Religion with Recipe For Hate.
BT: And also Johnny Cash of course.
N: There�s also a new band called Head Automatica and they released an album called Propaganda. To me that�s a great album, melodically superstrong, almost too much. I�ve been buying all the remasters for the AC/DC albums as well. Sometimes you have to go back in time to go forward.
BT: I bought the whole Zeppelin box and it�s fuckin� amazing.
T: I�ve got this teenage girl band I�ve been listening to for like 400 days now, they�re called Boys Like Girls. It�s just really catchy, sort of All American rejects kind of friendly punk. I don�t know, maybe I�m a girl.
BT: I really like the albums where Dave Grohl is drumming, he�s great aggressive. Like on his solo project, Probot, something�s happening there! I�m an aggressive drummer too, so�
T: No you�re not, hahaha�
BT: We actually had a sound guy on tour in the US. He said that he never saw anyone hit so hard. He had been working with Mudvayne and Deftones before that, haha�I don�t do it on purpose, but I learned it from a guy that said: You always have to hit a drum as hard as you can, so you can get the full sound. Else it will end up like some jazzy thing�

Which country or festival is special for you guys to play?

T: Netherlands of course, and the US as a good number two.

Anything you guys want to add?

N: Yes, Brann, our soccer team, just won the Norwegian league!!


(Me, BT, Toke and Nils)