Photo by Pierre Auroux
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Fool’s Gold
Fool’s Gold is a young collective from L.A which started with the encounter of two creative minds, vocalist/bassist Luke Top and lead guitarist Lewis Pesacov. Parallel to their other projects, these two musicians, sharing a love for African music, Krautrock, and 80s pop music, started writing songs and asking friends and strangers to join them on stage. This experiment resulted in an eclectic group of musicians mixing western aesthetics with afro pop beats, on top of lyrics going back and forth from Hebrew to English. This inspiring multi-cultural band, who started out « playing at barbecues and backyard parties », knows how to combine the sunny L.A. feel to African rhythms perfectly. Here’s how Luke, the lead singer with a wicked sense of humor, answered our “Togetherness” Q&A. How did the band start? Two dudes became 15 dudes and then down to 5. Always with one basic rule: take a short musical idea and repeat it until you lose yourself. What do you think of collectives and with whom would you like to create one? Collectives can be hugely powerful in getting a message across and elevating each single voice towards something greater. Especially when they are multi-disciplinary. I’d love to create something using a slew of different forms. I’d probably start with professional dancers and build the creative empire from there. With whom would you like to co-star/direct/make a film ? I’d want to make a mockumentary and form a directing powertrio with Werner Herzog and Adam McKay.
With whom would you like most to go on a « tête à tête » ? I’d want to angrily spray Tea Party members with orange soda. With whom would you like to run a country? Thomas Mapfumo. What kind of group movement would you like to create ? National “Buy the New Fool’s Gold Record Day”. I would start it this year sometime in July. Which song represents « togetherness » for you the most? Any song by Kasai Allstars. Which current music festival has the most « together » energy to you ? The Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire (UK) comes to mind. It’s where freakishly dressed music fans brave the mud and cold weather and somehow manage to drop all their inhibitions and go nuts for a wide variety of sounds. They also spend their late evenings falling through trees and landing on carefully placed hammocks. I lost my shoes there. Who represents your « artistic » family ? Kobe Bryant. Mahmoud Ahmed. Kuku Sebsebe. Tewelde Redda. Luis Buñuel. Leonard Cohen. Tinariwen. Baba Salah. S.E. Rogie. Johnny Marr. Elsa Kidane. Toumani Diabaté. Thomas Chauke. R. Kelly. Serge Gainsbourg. Kanda Bongo Man. Jorge Ben. Roman Polanski. John Stewart. Lindsey Buckingham. Wallace Stevens. Derek Fisher. James Worthy. Chick Hearn. With whom do you want to grow old? I’m in a band, so by law I’m not required to age.