Q&A: Fool's Gold's Luke Top

(Credit: Marianne Williams)

Luke Top's favorite L.A. haunts

Ethiopian cuisine, vinyl hunting, and a Lakers game

There’s no denying it: African music is trendy right now. But where most artists get their jangly Congolese guitars and Ghanaian polyrhythms by way of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” (we’re looking at you, Vampire Weekend), L.A.-based singer-bassist-lyricist Luke Top and guitarist Lewis Pesacov dig a little deeper, finding inspiration in artists like Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed and Tinariwen, a group of West African Tuareg nomads who filter their traditional call-and-response songs through a purple haze of electric guitar.

“We saw them at this small club in Los Angeles right before they did Coachella three years ago,” Top says of Tinariwen. “Even without their frontman, they killed us. Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was also in attendance!”

Out of Top and Pesacov’s shared love of African music—and especially artists who, like Ahmed and Tinariwen, fuse African music with elements of Western rock and soul—came Fool’s Gold, a loose collective of L.A. musicians who join Top and Pesacov in joyous, percussion-heavy jams that can frequently involve upwards of 12 players. Top, who was born in Israel but grew up in the Valley, sings lead vocals primarily in Hebrew, which keeps the band’s music distinctly non-American but also not so specifically African. Top calls it “international music” or, occasionally, “Hebreopian.” Even before the release of their debut album, everyone from Pitchfork to L.A. Weekly to French television (no, really) was raving about the band’s unique, high-energy sound.

Now with a self-titled debut album on IAMSOUND Records and a core group of eight musicians that also includes Pesacov’s bandmate from Foreign Born, Matt Popieluch, on guitar, Orpheo McCord (The Fall, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) on drums, Michael Tapper (ex-We Are Scientists) on percussion and Metromix TV and pop culture editor Amir Kenan (we're so proud!) on keyboards, Fool’s Gold are set to embark on their first national tour—but not before one last hometown date this Friday, Oct. 9 at the Roxy (opening for U.K. electro-poppers Metronomy).

Metromix checked in with Top via email to find out more about the origins of the Fool’s Gold sound and discover some of the L.A. native’s favorite hometown haunts.

How did you and Lewis discover that you shared a love of African music?
Lewis and I had an epic weekend up in northern California at our friend's wedding. We spent a couple days swimming in coldwater springs and sweating it out in a co-ed sauna. Perhaps all the hot/cold combinations exorcised some truth out of us, leading to mutual confessions about our shared passion for international music.

Were there some specific artists or regional styles that you connected over at first?
One of the first things we connected with was Ethiopian music. Mahmoud Ahmed. Tilahun Gessesse. Many of the artists found in the “Ethiopiques” [CD series].

I think people tend to pick up on the African influences most, but what are some of the other styles of music that you’re throwing into the Fool’s Gold mix?
Tropicalia. Krautrock. Hip-hop.

I’ve heard that some of the first Fool’s Gold “shows” were just informal jam sessions at backyard barbeques. Are you secretly a jam band?
It’s no secret that we like to open up our songs. If you ask us to play for four hours, we will fill it and ask no questions. When we started out, we would obsess over one riff for 20, 30 minutes at a time. We even had an “open stage” policy. So to answer your question: yes?

How many people are in the band? Is it sort of an indeterminate number?
Our hometown shows can easily have up to 12 members. The touring band is a different story. Each tour will dictate what is possible. We recently came to the realization that eight seems to be the ideal number for these songs. 

Both you and Lewis, as well as many other members of Fool’s Gold, are involved in various other musical projects, so you’re no strangers to the process of trying to build some buzz for a new album or new band. Has it surprised you, how much and how fast this project seems to have connected with people? It seems like every time I turn around, there’s another blog singing Fool’s Gold’s praises.
It’s been incredible. We’re all really excited that people are connecting with it. It’s a beautiful thing to see people coming together for something that might initially sound strange or foreign. It makes the whole experience of touring that much more poignant. If the press has anything to do with influencing people to come to our shows and shake it on the dance floor, then we are extremely grateful. Those direct connections with the audience are what truly inspire us.

L.A. probably deserves more of a reputation than it has for spawning bands with a unique, sort of polyglot approach to music—I’m thinking of everything from Dengue Fever to Little Joy to Ozomatli. Are you friends with any of those bands, or do you feel any kinship with them?
We’ve played shows with Little Joy and Dengue Fever, but I can’t say we know them very well. I feel what we are doing is very different, and although they are combining elements of world music into their sound, it doesn’t necessarily register as a built-in aesthetic kinship. If anything, all musicians share a sort of bond, as we are all somewhat on the fringes of society. And are all dipping into different cookie jars for different reasons.

You’ve already appeared on French television. Do French music journalists ask pretty much the same questions as American ones, or were there a few curveballs?
One of our very first interviews was the one for the French TV show “Tracks.” And to this day, it may have been the most intense. They really dug into us for a couple hours on camera, asking some really leading questions. At that point in our career I don’t think we were ready for it, but we handled it the best way we could. I remember one question that threw us off was, “When you were a child, what were your impressions of the African continent?”

I understand you’re a childhood friend of Metromix TV/pop culture editor Amir Kenan. Can you give us some random detail from his childhood that we can use to freak him out at the office holiday party?
He had a Great Dane named Rex (R.I.P.), who was mute, and used to scare the hell out of me. Every time I went to his house I could hear his loud gallop coming straight for the front door towards me. I feared for my life. Perhaps it was my first lesson in resilience. The family also gave him filet mignon every year on his birthday. Perhaps that was my first lesson in blind generosity.

Do you still play any backyard barbeques?
They are more rare these days but they still happen. We just did one this past summer. We are definitely open to it.

Fool's Gold plays the Roxy on Sunset this Friday, Oct. 9 with Metronomy and Destructo.