House Warming Party At Gold Medal Famous' New Digs

You’re Invited To A House Party At Gold Medal Famous’ New Digs This Weekend.

This is only partially true. While there is an actual house, the party will be entirely imaginary.

We’re actually trying to get you to have a look at Gold Medal Famous‘ new music video that aptly fits into our current pre-election climate.

We Bought A House was premiered last week over at The Spinoff where Editor Henry Oliver called it “a cultural masterpiece”, that “in three-and-a-half minutes summed up the aspirations of a changing nation”. Subsequently the song was picked up by RNZ’s Music 101, polarising the audience in typical Gold Medal Famous fashion.

The song is about the Kiwi dream of home ownership, a blank canvas with enough space for all your dreams and anxieties.

It is middle class ‘banksta’ rap.

“A lot of hip hop is about how much bling you’ve got so we’d thought we’d write about the ultimate kiwi status symbol: a house. It’s aspirational rap. The song lyrics are just the banal process of looking for and purchasing a house,” says new middle class home owner and GMF frontman Chris Wilson.

Gold Medal Famous have their eyes on Germany next, after recently re-recording two songs of their new album ‘Activity’ in German. Traditionally a cradle for avantgarde electronica, the band is currently in the process of scouting for an enthusiastic German label to help them act on their Fernweh.

Listen to the ‘Aktivität’ Singles Here

Story Angles

Chris is an advisor, Tamsin works in a bookshop and Vorn is a music teacher. That’s quite a dichotomy between their day jobs and their stage selves.
Too unique, perhaps? Life as an ultra-indie performance art band.
New Zealand’s housing crisis played out in our music. We Bought A House by GMF is only one example, there’s also Queen Neptune’s (members of the Drab Doo Riffs/Heart Attack Alley) Dream Home, Soccer Practise’s Windfall, Black Mould by The Phoenix Foundation, and Lake South’s Renters.
Are there cracks in the foundation of our national Tall Poppy Syndrome? Interesting other bands also creating an actual performance around their music include The All Seeing Hand, Orchestra Of Spheres, Scarlett Lashes.
Looking for a challenge? Explain the phenomenon that is Gold Medal Famous to people who haven’t seen them live!
International touring stories. Like finding underground (really!) venues in Tokyo without the aid of smart phones.
The Gold Medal Famous Band Manifesto – go on and ask them!

Some Gold Medal Famous Facts

Vorn Colgan – keyboard, laptop, kaossilator, backing vocals, percussion

Tamsin Grigg – guitar, backing vocals, percussion

Chris Wilson – lead vocals, theremin, noise boxes, percussion

‘Activity’ is self-produced, and was recorded between March 2016 and March 2017 by Vorn at his house in Mount Pleasant, Wellington, NZ. The liner notes contain a bibliography.

Mastered by Daniel Mañetto (ex-Voom, Drop Dead Redhead) in April 2017, at 0 Studios in Auckland.

Gold Medal Famous is a three-piece genre fluid electropop act founded in Wellington in 2008. Known for their captivating live performances, complete with intense audience interaction and comedic stunts, you might love or hate them, but you won’t forget what you’ve seen.

They are prolific recorders with 30 releases available on their own Bandcamp page in addition to their releases on Powertool.

‘Activity’, which follows 2015’s ‘Deep In The Heart of Saturday Night’, is a concept album about doing things.

The album was created using the “firing squad methodology”. The band created the sounds on electronic devices that they each took turns on, before passing on the device to another member of the group. This generated the sonic resources used as source material for the album to be arranged into the songs you hear. Gold Medal Famous don’t know which of the band members originally generated the sounds used, just as members of a firing squad do not know which one of them fired the fatal bullet.

What Others Say About Gold Medal Famous…

“It’s Retro-Futurism viewed through the lens of a 28.8k modem. Esoteric, sure, but also so so accessible, and so catchy. Doomed to never be a homeowner myself, I find We Bought A House on repeat in my head. ” – Muzic.net.nz

“The sampled sounds make for a driving beat, and the matter-of-fact lyrics are hilarious. ” – Briar Lawry, NZ Musician

“Their live show has to be seen to be believed. Clever, provocative and at times uncomfortable. They wear their political views on their sleeves and polarise audiences… Regardless of which side of the fence you sit, you will be entertained and find yourself talking about them long after the show.” –Andrew Maitai, Powertool Records

“Gold Medal Famous is performance that swings from deadpan delivery to writhing around on the floor. They make you dance, laugh, think…spot on social commentary about the shit that goes down in NZ.” –Jess Haugh aka Scarlett Lashes, musician

“GMF remind us that people have the right to create boring music in trousers, or beautiful, fucked up, weird shit in golden speedos. I know what I want more of.“
– Lake South, musician

“Gold Medal Famous is the kind of band you need to see at least once in your lifetime – they create a show that is as much art as it is music.” – Cerebral.nz