Adriana: Can you tell me a little bit about each member of the band and their role within the group? Liz: I'm Liz. I am the vocalist for Gold Steps. I'm also the co-founder and I write songs for the band Alex: I'm Alex and I play guitar in Gold Steps. Zach: I'm Zach. I play guitar in Gold Steps as well. Mikey: My name is Mikey and I play the drum set in Gold Steps. Ryan: And my name is Ryan and I slap the bass in Gold Steps. Slap. The bass man.

Take the mic away from him.

<laugh>

Adriana: So I saw that you guys started this band in 2016. Who or what inspired this band?

Liz: Zach and I were in another band at the time. Um, I had joined a band that he had, uh, created with somebody else and, uh, we started dating and certain members of that band didn't like that <laugh>. So we were like, okay, well, I mean, we kind of write the songs so we'll just go on and do our own thing. And we had kind of creative differences anyways. We were trying to go a more pop punk minded route in that band. The other, uh, founder was really wanting to push for like punk music and we just were not, we were trying to do something a little more melodic and emotional. So, uh, we struck out to start Gold Steps. Um, we had already kind of had the name picked out beforehand. We were inspired by Neck Deep and their album, life’s Not Out to Get You. So we named the band Gold Steps after the song, um, from that album.

I know you guys have accomplished a lot during the time of like hitting over a million streams on Spotify and doing a full US tour.

Band: Woo woo.

Adriana: But what would you say is your biggest accomplishment as a band?

Zach: We have many accomplishments and goals that we've set and hit, which is nice. But I personally think that playing one of these big stages here at Summerfest is awesome. Like it is a huge goal. Um, and also Liz has something she would like to add.

Liz: Yeah, I was, I was just gonna say it, it's uh, right up there was playing Warp Tour, um, in 2018, so and so what and so what Music fest? So yeah.

Alex: I have one too. This was like a few years back. We had been on this tour and what was it? Was it the alternator went out? Yep. The alternator went out on our bus and we had a show in Scranton like the next night, and the bus broke down in like Buffalo. And so we rented two cars and half of us went to get a new alternator in New Jersey and the other half went to Scranton with the, the gear. And then we all met up in Scranton, played the show and drove back and Zach replaced the alternator. And it was like some, like, I don't know, a ridiculous amount of time without sleep. But I was proud of that accomplishment because a lot of people would’ve just like dropped the show or something, but we were dumb and didn’t, uh, and it was, uh, it was cool. It was sick. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s we, we played the 20 people in Spring. Yeah. It’s freaking awesome. Yeah. 20 people is great.

Ryan: So today is, I think being a now Milwaukee Band Summer Fest was always a big goal of mine personally, to play on a main stage and doing this today is super, super exciting. Michael: Yeah. I'm proud of you Ryan. I really am.

<laugh>

Zach: What about you Michael?

Michael: Me? Yeah. You know what? Um, I'm just proud of this group, man. We've been killing it. We've been working at the studio, uh, we've been playing live shows. Honestly. Everyone's grinding, everyone's focused, so I'm just proud of us.

Zach: You know what, I got one more. I am proud of us because we actually covered a song all by ourselves. We had no help from producers, which was frigging awesome. And that song is already out now. It's the creed cover that we did about what yesterday? One last breath. And, um, I, I mean other than getting it mixed and mastered, like we did it all ourselves.

Alex: We recorded it. We arranged it. Yep. Arranged and recorded it. It was, uh, it was a lot of fun. I like it a lot. I'm a little biased, but <laugh> same.

Adriana: You guys had an EP released back in October of 2022 called, that Ain't it. What's the story or inspiration behind that?

<laugh>

Zach: All You.

Liz: I'll take this one.

<laugh>

So, uh, previously we had worked with a producer, um, who kind of took us under his wing and acted as like a mentor of sorts. Um, but we kind of felt through the relationship there was a lot of like turmoil, um, in our relationship. There were times where he would like quit on us and we would feel horrible and be like, oh my God, how could we have done that to somebody? We kind of considered a friend and like it kind of ended up being this like crazy back and forth where he would quit on us then come back and we separated for a while and then he came back into our lives. Um, shortly after my grandmother passed and wanted to help us finish the record cuz we had started writing the record, took a break to move to Milwaukee and then picked things back up with Nick Thompson, um, from Hit the Lights, um, in 2021 and then this producer came back and worked with us and whenever there was something he didn’t like that we were doing, he would say that, ain’t it? So that happened a lot, even with songs that we felt like we liked. Um, you know, he’d be like, that ain’t it. So we’d move on to something else and try to put better songs together. Um, eventually during the mixing of this record, he ended up having another moment where he quit on us and we said, this was kind of the last time. Um, we wanted to turn that Ain’t It, into something that we had thought of as like a negative. Like, oh, that ain’t it, that’s not good enough to being like, that ain’t it is a positive thing like that ain’t it? Is like, we can do better. That ain’t it is, it’s not cool to shit on other people’s dreams or things that they like, you know, trying to turn it into a positive. So it was a little tongue in cheek, kind of like a little like, I, I don’t know, like middle finger in a sense of like all the stuff that we put up with, um, all the things that we denounced for ourselves, all the things that we had been too nervous or scared or anxious about. And so it’s saying like, that ain’t it to like the past. That ain’t it to people who don’t believe in us. That ain’t it to our lack of self-confidence in ourselves. Um, and so the record has songs on it that are about being assertive and saying that you’re over toxic influences and calling people out on their bullshit and just saying that I’m enough. I’m gonna rise above this and be the best version of myself that I can be. Well being just a little bit petty along the way.

<laugh>

just a little bit

<laugh>

Adriana: With that being said, please explain your creative process for writing a song.

Ryan: Alright, I'm gonna say, so Liz normally comes at us with uh, a lot of voice notes ideas and they're really great cuz she'll just go into her car or do it whenever like inspiration strikes her and record it on the spot on her phone. And, uh, we see the, the good and the great, I'm not gonna say there's bad or ugly, but she'll send it to us and I mean, oftentimes it's literally just a voice note that turns into a full complete song in, uh, March We recorded in Massachusetts. And one of the, well, both of those ideas came originally from Voice Notes. Um, I can't look the TV <laugh> and, um, uh, sorry. Um, but yeah, so she'll, she'll send us stuff over and it varies, but a lot of times we'll get together off of what she has recorded vocally or melodic harmony and then we'll come up with the instrumentation and write a song around it and, um, collectively find the, the way to best implement. Yeah, I feel like this band, when we write a song, it like comes together, it's just a natural thing. Like the, everything kind of fits as we're writing it. We've had multiple songs where we're like, it took like, what a half hour in a practice and we're like, wow, that's incredible. Mm-hmm.

<affirmative>

So that's, that's pretty cool to have that. Hi

<laugh>

Adriana: So how do you want your image as a band to be perceived?

So that's something we've actually always struggled with as a band. Um, I think, I think the easiest way to put it is that I, I feel like we consistently feel like we're on the cusp of something, but we're just not cool enough to get into the right club. We're just not cool enough to get, you know, these big chances that we really want to, we work really, really hard, but I think we all kind of have suffered throughout our lives. Maybe not Zach, but

<laugh>

all of us have at some point been on. You've always been cool, you've always been cool. I have not, but we've all kinda struggled with feeling like an outsider or feeling like we didn't fit in or feeling like, like we have been called try hards before. And I remember like venting to one of our PR reps at one point and being like, I don't understand what's wrong with being a try hard. Like, we try hard. Don't you want people who put effort into what they do? No. Like working hard is cool. Y'all like loving what you do is cool. Yeah. Like taking pride in your work and wanting, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's alright. Like taking pride in your work and wanting to sound good. And I don't know, like, it, it's weird to me that people would, I don't know, people find a way to just kinda tear you down for so many things. So I think it's just kinda, we're at a place where we just need to kind of block out the noise and Yeah. I, yeah, I don't know if, I don't know if you're allowed to cuss on this.

Adriana: You can.

Oh yeah, I was gonna say, people just poop on us, you know, like that's not a cuss not fair. Yeah. I think, I mean, personally at the end of the day, I'm sick of labels and yeah, the gate keeping and all that. I think at the end of the day we just like doing what we do and having the most fun doing it. And if people are shitty to us about it, I mean, we just rise above it. Like who cares? Like know, I want people to look at us as a band who works really hard at what they do, works really hard at their craft, but is also like goofy and relatable and fun to be around. Like, we might be really serious when we're up there on stage or when we're practicing and stuff, but in general we're just like pretty easy going and honestly really goofy. Like literally Beer Fest is on in the background right now. I'm just, I Miss you. And so like, come and like Watch, it's about we're doing an interview. Yeah, sorry. But I mean like literally when we're on tour, we're just about having fun and like hanging out with other people and getting to know people and like if, if, if there's anything that people take from us, just that we work really hard, we put on a awesome badass show and they can still geek out with us afterwards while we're all making jokes about stupid quotes or like TikTok or stuff we saw on the internet. Yeah. So my last question for you guys is what are your future goals as a band? That's a good question. So I think that, uh, our future goal is to actually get a booking agent. Um, we want to, to tour the US nonstop and never have lives again. No, I'm just kidding.

<laugh>

Ryan: No, uh, we, we would like a booking agent and somebody who could like put us with the right people so we can play the right show so people can hear the music that we have. I mean, that ain't it. I want it to get the most traction that it can. Of course any band wants that for their album or ep, but I mean, that is our ultimate goal is getting a booking agent and being able to get our music in front of the right people and just feel like we've made it Well, I think kind of ultimate goal. I I feel like it's a little, you know, everybody's got different ones, but for me it's for Dua Lippa opening in for Dua Lippa with me. Amazing. Oh yeah. Dua Lippa, Taylor Swift. Yeah. Stadium Tour. No, just being able to do this professionally where we didn't have to rely on full-time jobs. We all work full-time jobs. We're not young. 20 somethings anymore. I'm not gonna give our ages away, but you can cut that off

<laugh>

I mean honestly like making it a career where like if music was the only thing we had to worry about as far as making the making ends meet, that would be amazing. What about me? Oh yeah. What is your course like, what's your vision? Would it be playing with Taylor Swift? Cause that's probably up there

For me. I mean, honestly it's kind of what Ryan said, like being able to make a living off of what you're, what you're working on, making a living off of your craft. Like if I'm not writing songs for Gold Steps, I'd love to be writing songs for other people. I don't know if I have that talent, but I'm constantly writing, I constantly have ideas come through. I mean, we don't even have time to write right now. We're just like kind of, we're going to the studio writing and then we're going home and practicing and playing shows and, um, but both of what they said, like I would love to be able to tour and play as many people as we can each night all while, you know, being able to afford a decent, you know, life, life at home. Like, I wanna be able to feed my dog the treats that she loves and not have to worry about getting home from a show at 4:00 AM and having to go to work at eight. Like, that's, that's a tough life. But that's where we're at right now and we do it because we love it. Yeah.

Adriana: Sweet. Anyone else?

No. Mike's reading your text messages.

<laugh>

Adriana: All right, well thank you guys for your time.

Thank you.