"Coast" by Gone Gone Beyond
Gone Gone Beyond
Gone Gone Beyond describes themselves as future folk. Their upcoming album 2030 (due June 25th) most definitely reflects how these multi-instrumentalists blend various styles - from folk and jazz to electronic and psychedelic. One could describe folk-soul-rockers Gone Gone Beyond as a supergroup of sorts, all deeply connected by spiritual practice, yoga, and meditation, lovers of the earth and togetherness. David Block (whose other project is The Human Experience) is the composer/creator of the LA and New York bunch. Danny Musengo is a multi-instrumentalist from New York and Iowa. Vocal phenom Kat Factor is a native of Santa Cruz, CA, and Mel Semé is a singer and musician from Cuba and Barcelona.
With "Little Moon" and "Gravity" released in 2020, along with Gone Gone Beyond's gospel-inspired release "Coast", the band has a refreshing acoustic version that fuses country and Americana, the perfect soundscape for the band's recently-filmed video from Mexico's Baja California. Joined by guitarist Sean Rodman of the band Moontricks, this special version will be released on April 27. The word "anthemic" gets tossed around a lot, but "Coast" is absolutely a song to describe as such, with twinkly, twangy guitars and a call-and-response melody led by Kat with warm hmms from Mel. There are moments where you could imagine this track appearing on a Bob Marley, Fleetwood Mac, or Creedence Clearwater Revival record. David Block, one of the four founding members of Gone Gone Beyond spoke candidly about his talented band members, the creation of "Coast" and more with IndieWavves exclusively for The Deep End:
IndieWavves: "Coast" is a timeless song, honestly very anthemic and an effortless blend of styles that has the power to connect people. What is the origin of the track, and how did you record the acoustic version?
Gone Gone Beyond: The interesting thing is that the live version and the recorded version are different. Of course, one of them having electronic elements. It was kind of prophetic how this came about, we wrote this while on tour with Moontricks in October 2019, and we were passing through San Francisco, and I told Danny this new song is coming. We were on this really ambitious, self-promoted tour, trying to sell over 7,500 tickets. I said, "Man, I feel like all of this is out of our control, and I'd just like to let it roll, let it unfold." We were sitting on the steps with our friends Moontricks. Suddenly, five months later, we're sitting there like, what song do we want to put out? Then it's like March 13 or 14, and we're locked down, and then the song is like, holy shit, this is like our anthem, so we have to "Coast" for a little while. So we can go fucking crazy like the rest of the planet or just coast and just let life do life. The song kind of became an anthem for the moment. It was really the first time we connected with these guys because we were so busy with the tour. It was so effortless just hanging with the guys on the steps. It just wrote itself. "Coast" was an evolution for us where you really hear the folk influence shining in a way, and it was really the first time we had a featured banjo. Sean from Moon Tricks is playing banjos and guitars on the song. We love working with this guy. He played lead guitar on at least seven of the album songs and ended up singing lead on several of them.
IW: What makes Gone Gone Beyond a supergroup?
GGB: For me, it's a supergroup because there is no lead singer; it's The Beatles. It's Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; it's the Eagles. It's a true synergy, it's a true collaboration, and that's what makes it feel like a supergroup; we split everything equally. The thing is greater than each of its individual parts. The group reminds me of Zero 7. Then you've got José González and Sia. Do I hope we continue until the end of time? Yeah, I do, but I know that each of these people has something to say, Kat is working on a solo record, Danny is working with some other people. It's a family. I really think Gone Gone Beyond is - music is our vehicle, music is the boat, but really it's a movement. What we're working on is how do we join other movements that stand for something. How do we inspire people to really rise up and feel hopeful and feel faith that they feel their divinity? This music is sacred, and it doesn't sound like church music.
IW: How does each member of the band bring the "beyond" to Gone Gone Beyond?
GGB: Everyone has a defined superpower with axillary superpowers. I think of this band like The Avengers. Mel is from Cuba and grew up among church music. Now he's based in Barcelona, and he's really the best musician in the band. Mel has an unbelievable voice, his falsetto is dreamy as fuck, and he played 70% of the instruments on the whole 2030 record. He brings many polyrhythms, a lot of jazz background, and a lot of interesting phrasing and chord progression that allows it to cross over. Kat has the best voice I've ever heard, and she's like your clean-up hitter. Basically, in every show I've ever played, it's like a better show if she's singing. Kat also really challenges me as a producer because she can literally do anything. She's like the Phoenix from X-Men, where she's too powerful, and she can do anything. Her phrasing and delivery come from a background of jazz and standards, but also folk and Americana. We also love hip-hop and electronic music, and we have a big history of psychedelic too. Kat is also a super multi-instrumentalist. She plays bass, guitar, piano. She and Mel both have 11 brothers and sisters. Danny and I have lived together for over four years - we lived in New York, Colorado and LA. We have been a lot of the glue that keeps new ideas flowing, writing songs together. He's responsible for a lot of the lyrics. I'll develop a progression, and he'll take it and come back, and we'll have "Coast". His superpower is - he's a very strange creature - his way of channeling songs is singing in word-gibberish. And then he's like, "Oh brother, I have tried," and we like that. He has a raspy voice, and he's the one that sounds like a raspy old black lady a little bit. I lived in India for a while, Central America for a couple of years, I'm the producer and visionary, and I play anything electronic on the record. I produce, arrange, mix, master, basically everything from scratch.
IW: Your music is well beyond songs on a playlist or a live show. What about Gone Gone Beyond makes it a lifestyle or a culture?
GGB: The band is born out of the human potential movement, really. Our music has developed alongside our own journey of personal growth. The stories are about the simple person; that's what makes them universal. They're not about wake up, meditate, do vegan shit, like fluffy bullshit like that. Like, "Oh Brother, I have tried / there's some karma on my ride." All our journies of introspection to Esalen Institute, Summit, 1440 Multiversity in Santa Cruz, those kinds of groups and places where people are coming together. We've done a shitload of stuff at Burning Man. What kind of world do we want to see, what kind of future do we want to live in? I feel like all of the great movements that have ever really mattered are like music. I intend to be the soundtrack to the changemakers of this time.
IW: The acoustic version of "Coast" is quite magical. Isn't it the sign of a great song when you can perform it in different ways?
GGB: We want this to have the feeling of modern music, but it could be like the culture that surrounded The Grateful Dead. Like you could see the band a million times, and you could always have a different experience. We are trying to take things that have been maybe formulaic in the electronic world but try to do it more organic, change the tempo. The live version was interesting because we played it twenty different ways before we decided on the version for the video. It was the first time we all attempted to learn the songs, Sean and us. Mel was stuck in Europe in Barcelona for eleven months, and Sean was stuck in Canada. I, Danny, and Kat could get together, but the songs were never really played. The Baja version, I'm sure, will go down and inform some of the ways we perform the song for a long time. That is what separates a song from a track. People are starting to cover this song, and I'm like, wow if you can hum it or whistle it, it will always be memorable. I know so many people who make beautiful tracks, but it all blends into one thing in DJ culture. For me, it's like, what is the song, and how is the song going to live? How can we do the bluegrass version, and how can we do the funk and soul and rock n' roll version? That's what makes this band really special; you can count on that for most songs. The more we are together and exploring the songs, the more we can see the D'Angelo version of "Coast".
IW: As you gear up for the June 16 release of your album 2030, what can you tell us about the rest of the material and what Gone Gone Beyond stands for?
GGB: I would rather not tell you what the song's about and have you tell me how it makes you feel. We could also talk about "Canyons" - I really feel like this kind of is the message - the message is encapsulated in every song. Their message is for the future but written about right now and written through the lens of right now. For me, of all the albums I have listened to, I feel like many people just don't take the time to make an album anymore. Under most circumstances, I would never make such an ambitious effort on an album because it took two years to write this. But for me, it tells a really important narrative, and I hope that it's one of those records that people say inspired a generation. It feels like a bridging of worlds, which is the healing power of these worlds. It's music that draws on different cultural traditions.
Gone Gone Beyond's David Block took forty-or-so Angelenos through a once-in-a-lifetime journey called "The Lost Art of Listening: Forest Bathing Edition". Guests took part in a guided meditation and listening session of the 2030 album while hiking through Tuna Canyon in Topanga, overlooking the sun-soaked glow of Malibu. There was no talking, and cell phones were respectfully requested to be off. The patrons followed the paths and veered off into the brush and trees, danced, hugged, kissed, held hands, and immersed themselves in an album, the way it was supposed to be enjoyed - with no interruptions and being present. It was a spiritual journey through song and nature that we hope Gone Gone Beyond continues to curate in the future.
Written by Michael Menachem