Golden Triangle Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 10th 2010 1:24PM by Evan Minsker
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There are very few musicians who have experienced what the members of Golden Triangle have. The six artists from Brooklyn have eaten a raw eel in a gallery, watched a band member get strangled by a mic cord and chased out into the night, and occasionally practice with the occult. And why did they start the band? To go to New Orleans' biggest party. OJ Fanfelipe from Golden Triangle talked to Spinner about the band's reputation of being carnival-like and his not-so-secret love of "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

How did Golden Triangle form?

We formed because wanted to go to Mardi Gras. [laughs] Yeah. So, I got together with a couple people and we made a couple songs. Then three more people joined in the next time, and we made five songs, printed up shirts and drove down to Mardi Gras.

You got a new bass player and drummer since then, correct?

Yeah. We got a new bass player a couple years ago, and that's a crazy story in itself. We played with King Khan & BBQ and Vivian Girls at this party, and we played an after-party, so everyone at that party rushed over, 'cause King Khan was also going to play. So we ran over there and everyone was wasted at this party. And the PA was broken and our gear wasn't working, but we were still playing, and people were wasted, so they didn't care. But people kept jumping on stage and getting in fights with our bass player at the time. We just kept playing because she always got into trouble every show. I finally turn around and she's being strangled by a mic cord by someone, and then she starts hitting these dudes with her bass, got chased out of the club, and we didn't hear from her for eight months. We heard rumors that she was in a hospital with three of her fingers severed. [laughs] Anyway, that's how we got the new girl.How did you come up with the name Golden Triangle?

I think our old drummer thought of it in a dream. We just said, "Yeah, that sounds cool!" I don't remember the details of the dream, but we had a lot of crappy name ideas before, so that was a very acceptable one. Our other choices included Flesh Vegetable, which was terrible [laughs]. We had Strawberry Handjob. I'm glad we ended up with Golden Triangle.

How would you describe your sound?

It's like a carnival, maybe. We're into having all our friends perform with us. Sometimes our friends do rituals and occult kinds of things. It made it carnival-esque.

What kind of rituals?

One time our friend cut open an eel and ate the heart. It was a raw eel. All of us were eating it and we got guts everywhere. That was the last show ever in this gallery. We asked our friend if we could do this performance. It was like a cannibal, zombie thing. I took a bite out if it, too.

How was it?

Fishy. Not bad. It reminded me of sushi.

What are some of your influences?

We're more influenced by a lot of our friends who are artists. I'm influenced by New York, just living here. It's f---ing crazy. I really like The Velvet Underground and The Monks. And the usual suspects: I'm really into New Order and Joy Division. I get influenced by horror films. John Carpenter's music as well as films, I'm influenced by. He has the most awesome soundtrack music. And Joe Meek. It's like music that little people from the fifth dimension would make, probably [laughs].

What about musical guilty pleasures?

I really love listening to Britney Spears' "Toxic." I don't know if that's a guilty pleasure. That's actually kind of awesome.

What's in your festival survival kit?

A pillow and lots of nuts and berries. Lots of socks. Everyone likes bringing their snacks.

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