If you can believe it, the Golden Sound Festival is only two weekends away, and festival goers will get to experience the new format, which includes a daytime family friendly outdoor amphitheatre experience at Keith King Memorial Park.
Alexis Young, frontwoman for Youngblood, and Neil Cooke-Dallin, of Astrocolor, are getting ready to blow the crowds away with their dreamy live music experiences.
Young says she excited to see Astrocolor again, although she did not play on the same bill as them as Youngblood, and enjoy all of the other bands that will be playing over the weekend.
“We’ve played with Astrocolor before at a couple different festivals. They’re super dope,” Young said, adding that she is excited to play in Golden and see what the town has to offer beyond the highway amenities. “I’ve heard amazing things from Golden. I have a bunch of friends say at the sound festival is super amazing.”
Vancouver-based band Youngblood has been together for three years, just a short amount of time in Young’s lifespan.
“I am 102, but I drink a lot of vampire blood,” she said. “Hopefully I just remain in this form for the rest of my life.”
The last three years as Youngblood has flown by, she said, adding that they first started playing shows a year before the release of their EP in 2016.
“After our EP came out, it was kind of a whirlwind of touring. It was such a crazy experience to go on tour in India, I never thought I would say I did that,” Young said.
Youngblood currently has one album, Better When You’re Close, and one EP, Feel Alright available online. Last week, they premiered the new song Dark Place, which is available on their website, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Tidal, Amazon Music,Google Play and Soundcloud to listen to or purchase.
Astrocolor will be travelling a bit further to attend the festival, hailing from Victoria, B.C. The band formed they crossed paths at Cooke-Dallin’s recording studio.
“We just kind of developed a relationship from there,” he said. “I ended up helping them with another two recordings, and it reached the point where they asked if I would join the band and make this a formal entity.”
Cooke-Dallin plays techno, building beats, and the other members in the band do improvisational funk and jazz over top. Typically, they record several hours of ideas, listen for the “golden moments,” and chop those up into samples.
“We approach our recording like a DJ would approach a remix,” he explained.
As the festival approaches, Cooke-Dallin said he gets excited to see what other bands are playing.
“Usually with other festivals I’m quite excited just to get the chance to see the other acts,” he said. “One of my favourite things is getting to experience projects you’ve never seen before.”
To learn more about Youngblood, and get a taste of their music style, go to www.youryoungblood.com. For more about Astrocolor and to hear what they offer, visit www.astrocolormusic.com.
The Golden Sound Festival kicks off Friday, July 27 at 9 p.m. at the Rockwater, and carries on throughout Saturday from 12 to 10 p.m. at the ball diamonds, wrapping up Saturday night at the Rockwater and the Riverhouse.
Youngblood and Astrolor are the second and third artists to play at the Rockwater on Saturday night. Playing back to back, Youngblood is scheduled at 10 p.m. and Astrocolor is scheduled for 11:30 p.m.
Tickets are still available online at www.goldensoundfestival.com, or for pick up at Darkside (517 9th Avenue N.).
