Gold Connections’ Will Marsh Talks About Growing Up and “Getting To Now”

Will Marsh of Gold Connections joined WNRN to talk about the Central Virginia band’s latest EP Ammunition. The five song collection of propulsive guitar-driven slacker rock seems tailor made for the stage, but with touring out of the equation Marsh found himself with the headspace to tackle other areas of the album release cycle, like creating a pair of ambitious cinematic music videos.

“We haven’t played a show since January of 2020, so working with a bunch of talented people [on the music videos] was somewhat analogous to things like sharing a stage with other bands. I’ve been kind of taking it where I can get it when it comes to being creative with other people.”

Although some of the songs were written as far back as 2016, it is hard not to hear a reflection of the combativeness and anxiety that has been omnipresent over the past year.

“Ammunition is not about violence but it is about this feeling of … we need to bring everything we’ve got, in terms of spiritual power, to deal with the current situation.”

The album was tracked in early months of 2020 in Charlottesville, where Marsh pieced together studio time by bartering with gardening work and tapping the home studios of friends from fellow Charlottesville indie bands Stray Fossa and Lowland Hum. Having previously recorded outside of Virginia, Marsh talked about the feeling of finally making an album in his hometown.

“Bringing it all back home was really special because there’s that [Charlottesville] aura, which was actually kind of new for us because we are a Charlottesville band but we’d never done it here before.”

Additionally Marsh self-produced the EP for the first time, a step he said he felt ready for after working with – and learning from – ace producers like Will Marsh of Car Seat Headrest.

The making of the album was cathartic for Marsh, who expertly wields a series of one-liners on standout track “Stick Figures” as a way to access underlying feelings of sadness and “profound nostalgia” that haunted him after finishing college. Today he says he is happy about the direction he is headed as a musician and a human being, but that writing and recording these songs was a big part of getting to now.

“Art is just a way I process things and grow. I’m happy Ammunition is out in the world, it has helped me get through hard times and hopefully it will help someone else too.”