{"id":38197,"date":"2023-07-10T13:35:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T17:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=38197"},"modified":"2023-07-10T13:35:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T17:35:49","slug":"interview-sarah-goldstone-on-touring-with-boygenius-books-and-boston-octobers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/07\/10\/interview-sarah-goldstone-on-touring-with-boygenius-books-and-boston-octobers\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Sarah Goldstone On Touring With Boygenius, Books, and Boston Octobers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Goldstone plays the keyboard and sings with Lucy Dacus\u2019 band at Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I. on July 23, 2022. (Maya Santow\/WTBU)<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: Maya Santow<\/p>\n

From balancing her studies in philosophy and piano performance, to playing Allston basement shows with friends, to guest-starring on BUTV10\u2019s \u201cBay State\u201d as \u201cDrunk Girl Number 3,\u201d musician Sarah Goldstone had no shortage of quintessential Boston University experiences during her time on Commonwealth Avenue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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But Goldstone attributes her strongest memories of BU to solitary walks in Boston Octobers, spent listening to music, wandering around the city, and soaking up the distinctly undergraduate feeling of an open future. \u201cJust that kind of feeling of, like\u2014you could go anywhere,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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And since her graduation from Boston University in 2009, Goldstone really has gone everywhere. Her talents on the keyboard, violin, and vocals have taken her across the globe in the past two years, touring internationally with indie artist Lucy Dacus, and now Boygenius\u2014the indie rock supergroup composed of Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sitting in an East Boston caf\u00e9 on June 18, just hours before performing with Boygenius at the Stage at Suffolk Downs, Goldstone describes how it felt finding out that she would be joining Boygenius on their tour while she was in Dacus\u2019 band.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh, I was really pumped,\u201d she says. \u201cLucy had said that she wanted to have me there. Her manager called me and we chatted about it. It was exciting. I just love them as a group and separately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cBoygenius: The Tour\u201d began its United States run in early June and will be extending overseas to Europe in mid-August. Several of the tour dates, including the Boston show, are a part of the Re:SET Concert Series, featuring supporting acts like Bartees Strange, Dijon, and Clairo, with Boygenius as a headliner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Although the tour didn\u2019t begin until the summer of 2023, Boygenius\u2019 first full-length studio album, titled \u201cThe Record,\u201d was in the works much earlier. Goldstone recalls being told about the album at least a year before its March 2023 release\u2014a powerful secret to have been keeping, given the album\u2019s critical acclaim. \u201cThere was definitely a, you know, \u2018Don\u2019t put this on the internet\u2019 kind of thing,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone\u2019s first time hearing \u201cThe Record\u201d took place at a listening party with Dacus\u2019 touring crew in a Northern California AirBnB. With the knowledge that she would be touring with Boygenius, Goldstone approached her first listen to \u201cThe Record\u201d from a largely practical angle.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you take a record that was recorded with all these different instruments, and you\u2019re trying to squash it down to, \u2018Okay, what\u2019s a setup where I can do all of that?,\u2019 there\u2019s a lot of different ways you can do it,\u201d she says. \u201cSo when I was listening through, that\u2019s where my brain was going.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone\u2019s primary focus while listening was the keyboard. There is more to the instrument than meets the typical listener\u2019s ear, she explains. \u201cI feel like a lot of times people don’t know what keyboard\u2019s role does because people know what piano sounds like, but maybe not the other stuff,\u201d she says. \u201cBut there’s a lot of synth parts, there’s organ, there\u2019s something called a Mellotron\u2026all those weird sounds where people that come to hear it are like, \u2018I don\u2019t know what that is.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cMy first reaction was really technical, but then I started listening for real and, you know, some of the songs make me cry as soon as I hear them,\u201d says Goldstone of the 12 tracks that make up \u201cThe Record.\u201d \u201cSome of them are so funny, and, like, mean, and you know, that\u2019s fun, too. But it took a minute for me to experience it that way,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As Goldstone began touring with Boygenius, a few tracks emerged as her favorites to perform live. \u201cI love \u2018Not Strong Enough.\u2019 I mean, that\u2019s like, \u2018the one,\u2019 right?\u201d she says. \u201cI love \u2018Letter To An Old Poet\u2019\u2014 not just because it\u2019s the piano song! Actually, \u2018Cool About It\u2019 is one of my favorite songs, too. Plus the rockers, like \u2018Satanist,\u2019 and stuff like that, it\u2019s just, like, so fun. But every song is good, yeah\u2014no duds,\u201d she laughs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone also cites a fan project for Boygenius\u2019 \u201cTrue Blue\u201d\u2014a track heavily influenced by Dacus\u2019 solo music style\u2014as a favorite memory from the tour so far. \u201cI think they all put blue post-it notes over their phone lights\u2026as soon as they started playing it, blue lights came up,\u201d\u00a0 she says. As it turned out, a similar fan project took place at the Boston show later that night: during the chorus of \u2018True Blue,\u2019 the audience raised heart-shaped cutouts of blue paper over their phone flashlights to create a sea of blue for the band to see. \u201cIt sounds funny to say, but it made all of us kind of emotional, actually,\u201d she says of the earlier project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone notes the synergetic power of Boygenius fans\u2014the fan bases of the three indie rock forces coming together creates something greater than the sum of their parts, she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople are there for the unit,\u201d says Goldstone. \u201cProbably everybody has one of them that they gravitate toward more just in their own personal listening, or someone\u2019s music they\u2019re familiar with more than the others, but you can\u2019t tell that from the show, which I think is really cool. It doesn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re seeing individual fans of the three of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone cites Boygenius\u2019 closeness to one another as a major draw for their fans, aside from their music. \u201cI feel like people are fans of their friendship,\u201d she says. \u201cLike, we all want that. We all want best friends that we like to make art with.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Having been on tour together for a few weeks, says Goldstone, the band\u2019s dynamic has begun to shine through even more onstage. \u201cNow that everyone’s comfortable, they’re starting to horse around a little bit, and they’re jumping around,\u201d she says of Dacus, Baker, and Bridgers. \u201cYou know, it’s just three friends that love each other so much, and they’re all very funny people. So it’s fun when they’re in the mood to do, like, comedy time during shows, you know?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Closeness as a band\u2014\u201ctour camaraderie\u201d\u2014is a familiar feeling to Goldstone, who says that Dacus\u2019 band grew very close during their 251 days of touring in 2021 and 2022. \u201cEveryone’s on one bus, and everyone hangs out together on off days, and it does feel like a family road trip sometimes,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Boygenius tour took a bit longer to achieve the same effect, says Goldstone. \u201cIt is a <\/span>much<\/span><\/i> bigger group. And everyone just works so hard, so there’s a little bit more distance with just getting to know everybody. I feel like now, a couple of weeks in, I’m starting to be friends with people on our own crew that maybe I didn’t get to hang with before, and that’s great,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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One way in which the group has grown closer, says Goldstone, is through books. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given her philosophy major during her BU days, Goldstone says she always finds time to read while on tour, and exchanges titles with the other band members as well.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re all trading books,\u201d says Goldstone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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On Dacus\u2019 tour last year, says Goldstone, the band passed around Joan Didion\u2019s \u201cPlay It as It Lays.\u201d\u00a0 In a similar way to which fans of Boygenius bond over the often melancholy tones of their music, the band bonded over the \u201creal bummer of a book,\u201d says Goldstone. \u201cWe passed it around, and everyone was like, \u2018Ugh, your turn.\u2019 Like, this is brutal,\u201d she laughs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cSo, yeah, there\u2019s some exchange,\u201d says Goldstone. \u201cLucy and I will exchange books a lot. Like, I’m really into a writer named Shirley Jackson, and Lucy read some last year.\u201d Goldstone\u2019s most recent tour read, Min Jin Lee\u2019s \u201cPachinko,\u201d she describes as an \u201cinstant classic,\u201d and she plans to lend it to Julien Baker to read next.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In addition to her literary influences, Goldstone also spent a great deal of time thinking about her musical influences in the past year while working on her upcoming solo record. The album, set to release on December 1, 2023 with Ruination Record Co., is highly influenced by her own friends, she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cSo many of my favorite people are on it, which is a fun thing for me when I\u2019m listening to it,\u201d says Goldstone. \u201cI hear all the little creative bits that everybody added to it and it makes me smile.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The album is also stylistically inspired by the work of Margo Guryan\u2014an artist whose 1968 album \u201cTake a Picture\u201d Goldstone describes as \u201cone of the best records ever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m definitely super influenced by her,\u201d says Goldstone of Guryan. \u201cShe has a high voice and the arrangements are really interesting\u2026I really like music with weird sounds and cool melodic arrangements.\u201d She also cites Beach House as a major influence in her production style, and says that she enjoys listening to a wide range of genres. When it came to the process of creating her own record, however, Goldstone says that \u201celiminating the choices\u201d helped her to be more creative on the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cLimitless choices can be kind of overwhelming, and not that creative, actually,\u201d she says. \u201cSo sometimes I like the dumb stuff. Like, let\u2019s just take some really shitty gear\u2014gear, you can hardly call it gear, like, my iPad, right?\u201d she laughs. \u201cAnd just sort of play around on that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone says that despite having access to more sophisticated equipment, she opted for a simple, nostalgic Casio keyboard to create her demos. \u201cFor me it kind of unlocked a little place where I was having fun doing arrangements on this, like, piece of shit keyboard. That was a fun part of the process for me, and definitely one I would do again,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone still has fond memories of Boston, which she tries to share with her bandmates during their brief appearances in the city. \u201cThe last time Lucy and I played in Boston\u2014which, whatever tour that was, I remember that was my favorite show of tour\u2014I took people to walk around the Fens a little bit,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Goldstone says that if she could,\u00a0 she would also bring the Boygenius band to Trident Booksellers and Caf\u00e9\u2014specifically for the French toast, which she fondly remembers eating with her mom\u2014and to her old off-campus apartment on Aberdeen Street. \u201cI just have so many memories of that street, like, I taught my friend how to ride a bike on that little dead end,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you go back to a place you used to live in, I feel like the stuff you want to do is the stuff that\u2019s nostalgic to you, and not the stuff that would make the tourist book, you know?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Some of Goldstone\u2019s favorite memories of Boston are \u201charder to qualify,\u201d she says. \u201cThe feeling of walking around, listening to music in October\u2026 sometimes it gets to October and I feel like I\u2019m still in that. Those are kind of the strongest things that stick with you,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now, with the rest of the Boygenius U.S. tour stretched out in front of her, an upcoming European tour, and her solo record coming out in December, Goldstone\u2019s music is carrying her far beyond Aberdeen Street and Comm Ave. With her work and performances, Goldstone brings to life the soundtracks of the contemplative walks of today\u2019s young Bostonians. They can look to her creativity, dedication, and talent to inspire their own bright futures.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Goldstone plays the keyboard and sings with Lucy Dacus\u2019 band at Newport Folk Festival in Newport, R.I. on July 23, 2022. (Maya Santow\/WTBU) By: Maya Santow From balancing her studies in philosophy and piano performance, to playing Allston basement shows with friends, to guest-starring on BUTV10\u2019s \u201cBay State\u201d as \u201cDrunk Girl Number 3,\u201d musician […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20911,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,1523],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38200,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197\/revisions\/38200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}