Artist Spotlight: Golden Child
By: Camila Castro
In an effort to connect the Orlando music scene and what this city has to offer, I had the privilege to interview Orlando's very own, Golden Child. He is A Central Florida native with a unique bass-heavy, dark yet melodic style. It was a delight to chat with Golden Child and really learn about him. After a three-hour conversation, I highlighted some of the main points in the excerpts below. Everything from his early life, aliens, relationships, to his current music goals were discussed. My main takeaways are that Golden Child is a very lucid and creative individual who can take his career in many directions. I have no doubt we will see him grow within the industry in years to come. To listen to more of his tracks, click here.
Interview with Golden Child:
Camila: Hi there, so tell me about your plans; what have you been up to?
Golden Child: In addition to making music, I am still serving tables. I'm trying to figure out what's next. If I want to move to California or what's next?
Camila: Oh no, don't move to California. It's so expensive.
Golden Child: It is, but I loved it there. I played at a music festival, the Untz festival, out there, and it was amazing. But it is super expensive. Have you been?
Camila: I have been to LA, it was nice. The people were OK, not particularly my cup of tea. I'm very straightforward and real with people. I found that the people were nice, but it didn't seem genuine – it seemed like people were trying to get something out of everyone. It all seems a little too much.
Golden Child: Yeah, when I was in San Jose, the lady at the coffee shop asked me what type of oat milk I wanted. She had like 15 different types.
Camila: See, that's too much and unnecessary, haha.
Golden Child: I think you are just beefing with Cali
Camila: Yeah I am haha. You know what is great? Hawaii, have you been?
Golden Child: Nah, I haven't.
Camila: If you like the ecotourism type adventure, it's not the place where you will wild out in a Mykonos type party. But if you like hiking, kayaking, surfing, etc.
Golden Child: It's definitely a goal of mine to go. However, with everything going on, things are so weird, I don't know what's next.
Camila: Like next? Career-wise? Musically?
Golden Child: All of that; it's great that shows are starting to pick back up. SO that's another venture. However, I really like being in the studio so much. Over quarantine, I was working with a lot of local artists and local talent. I didn't realize how many people here were trying to make music. So I was doing that, met a lot of people, made connections. Even completely aside from electronic music and all that scene. I was able to detach from all of it, but now that things are going back to normal, I have plugged back into it and now there are two sides to me. It's cool, though, because I like having both. Now it leaves me wondering if I want to go down the full electronic route or be a producer and being known for that? Or can I do both?
Camila: You can be like a Pharrell-type situation where he produces a lot of music, but every once in a while, you see his name pop up on a song. And your like WAT UP!!!!
**
Camila: I feel like after I turned 21, I have been front seat in a formula 1 car zooming, like where has the time gone?
Golden Child: Oh my god, yes. When my parents were my age, they already had me, buying a house, etc.
Camila: Yes, I can't even imagine taking care of another human being!
Golden child: Yeah, the other day, I went to iron a shirt and burned right through it. Like gosh, I'm incompetent.
Camila: It's OK. Failure is the way we grow at the end of the day.
Golden child: Learning to embrace it and just accepting a lot of things that are inevitable help with progressing forward. Still working on that, just one foot in front of the other when I wake up, so.
***
Camila: So I checked you out on Spotify because that's a thing, is your music Russian??
Golden Child: So that is something that was uploaded by mistake, and everyone has been asking about this. I have flagged it because it's not my music and left me wondering, "What is this?". It's not the first time it happens. Before, it was some weird music.
Camila: I was confused. I went to your top songs then the latest release. Maybe he's experimenting? Which totally OK? Or maybe you were tied to the Russian mob? Who knows?
Golden Child: Haha, no. The timing couldn't have been worse. After getting on the EDC flyer, a lot of people have been seeing it and wondering, "Did you make this?".
Camila: Congrats! You're performing at EDC.
Golden Child: Thank you! It has been a dream of mine since high school. Like I said, my life has been crazy. Even though nothing crazy has happened, it's a lot more than I thought could have ever happened. Now, I am just going with the flow.
**
Golden Child: You know what's crazy? I used to get made fun of. People would take my headphones in high school and be like, WTF are you listening to?
Camila: Yes, your typical "what is this, robot sex?"
Golden Child: Or "This sounds like two washing machines beating each other."
Camila: I love seeing those same people at music festivals, haha.
Golden Child: Yes, I see people in their cars bumping to music that criticized me before. What's even funnier is a lot of time; it'll be old stuff that has BEEN out when they would tease me. You guys are super fake, this has been out for years, and you're just now starting to catch on. Crazy! I am constantly on the search for new music. My friend RJ and I always find obscure people with only a few hundred followers, love their music, and watch them blow up in a few years.
**
Golden Child: I saw an interesting video that there is one location (in space) that has been transmitting FM radio signals, but the audio is distorted and sounds all crazy – it doesn't make any sense. There is a guy who sees this and views it as a metaphor and asks his audience to imagine a little girl with a pet goldfish. Through time both are getting older and she talks about her problems with the goldfish. But all the goldfish knows is that when the girl comes to the bowl, he feels the vibrations of her voice, and she will feed him. He has no idea what is happening, just that he is being fed when the vibrations come. If something is trying to reach out to us, we are basically the goldfish in this story, and the girl is the other entity.
Camila: Yeah, I mean, I find myself thinking about this stuff often. Not that I am any more comfortable with it. I just relish the thought often. We are so insignificant in the greater scheme of things. One random human, on a giant sphere filled with other humans, mind you, a giant sphere that's not really that giant in comparison to other planets and suns in space. Even the milky way is TINY in comparison to other galaxies.
Golden Child: Yeah, it is easy to see it this way and view everything as dull. But the important part is to stay present.
Camila: Exactly. Staying present, keeping your goals, and living to be happy. I watch 20 minutes of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and I get depressed. I have no idea how this man goes about his life. The space bubbles that are happening simultaneously, etc. There are endless theories. The wonderful and scary thing is that we will probably never have the answers in our lifetime. But the important thing is to just live life and enjoy the ride.