"Bloom" By GOLD LIGHT from Joe Chang on Vimeo.
In the spring of 2014, Joe Chang began writing and recording the sophomore Gold Light effort at his friends’ home in Greenville, SC. Most of the songs^ tended to continue and explore in the “50’s-Roy Orbison-esque” vein Gold Light had become known for, while some veered on another path.
With a move to Charleston, SC, and throughout the winter, spring and summer of 2015, Joe began writing and recording these different set of songs with band/roommate Johnnie Matthews (Elim Bolt) in the apartment they shared downtown on Smith & Cannon Street. The result is Visions: An 8-song album available on Hearts & Plugs 11 March 2016.
Musically, it’s as if Chang hopped into Doc’s Delorean with Marty and 1.21 jigawatted from the New Sound of Chuck Berry’s 1955 to the New Wave/Post Punk of 1985’s The Cure, New Order, or Jesus and Mary Chain. Whereas the Self-Titled debut drenched with the heartbreak of unrequited love and longing, Visions rummages through the heartache of existence, trying to make some sense of it. The loss of innocence and childhood, memories, dreams, gods and souls, angels and devils, heavens and hells, are all reoccurring themes and images, searching for some path to truth, a journey that inevitably and crucially cycles back on itself, (sometimes without even consciously realizing, but just being) the eternal verity: you find that what you needed and wanted and were in search of, you had all along. – Albee Wrightback (Winter, 2016)
Gold Light is currently based out of Asheville, NC and features Joe Chang (Guitar/Vocals), Andy Woodward (Bass), Casey Ellis (Drums), Dane Smith (Keys) and Josh Carpenter (Guitar).