Today, recent Paper Bag-signees [Gold & Youth](https://www.instagram.com/goldandyouth/?hl=en) present the second single off their forthcoming sophomore album, _Dream Baby_ (due November 5th via Paper Bag Records), a track entitled “Maudlin Days (Robocop).”
The Toronto quartet’s latest offering is a slow-burning, romantic and sentimental ballad, drenched in lo-fi and soft as silk. Interspersed with siren-esque calls and soothing, yet pulsing synths, it’s easy to get lost in the music as it envelopes you in a warm haze. Beyond instrumentals, the track is ultimately otherworldly in a thematic sense too, as it delves into the idea of humanity, of being really grounded in the world, especially in a time of such disconnection. As days begin to blend together and we lose sense of who we are as people, we must reach out to become fully alive once more.
Aside from the melodic mastery and conceptual existentialism of “Maudlin Days (Robocop),” what’s even more interesting is the story behind it’s title. _Flaunt_ had the opportunity to hear all about it when we chatted with Gold & Youth about the track, its accompanying lyric video, and more.
**What's the inspiration behind the track "Maudlin Days (Robocop)?”**
A substantial part of the lyrics for “Robocop” are a near verbatim transcript from when I was sucked into a conversation at a party last year with some finance bros, who kept insisting they had found truth (“about, like, everything man") after doing ayahuasca together on a boys trip. The entire exchange was one of total earnestness on the part of the bros, oblivious to tact, cultural sensitivities or fashion sense (one of them was wearing a pink and gold Givenchy tracksuit into the Ayahuasca hut). I engaged with thinly veiled contempt and entirely in bad faith, in a deeply embarrassing battle of wits. It wasn’t until later when rehashing the story with my girlfriend, a story in which I was so sure I was doing God's work in raining down ridicule and condescension with a half smirk (and to be clear, this story absolutely deserved ridicule and condescension), that it became obvious that I had slipped into just as much of a caricature as they had.
The Lululemon wall street jabronis vs the smug lefty band guy who claims to love humanity above all else but rolls his eyes at actual humans (even finance bros are humans after all right). Low stakes and who cares right? Not exactly profound. But it was a great jumping off point for writing about a real sense of alienation I’ve felt in so many social situations in my life, constantly wondering how much of it has been self-imposed. How often am I preemptively detaching myself from potential human connection to preserve some abstracted convictions about what my chosen friend group might say about me? Aren't these convictions about love, empathy and understanding just empty high minded rhetoric if I don’t try to actually love, understand and empathize with the actual humans in my life? "Aren’t people all we’ve really got man?!”. Deeply solipsistic bullshit. The name of the song is equally self involved. Any time I go cold and detach my girlfriend calls me “Robocop", which she stole from my bandmate's nickname for me on tour. Aloof, ultra stoic, but incredibly capable of driving from Vancouver to San Diego in a single go.
**What is your writing process as a band?**
Most of these songs were written as a cathartic exercise really, to give voice to the sentiments, questions and fears that I was struggling to articulate in any other form. I wasn’t really in a great place for a few years after we stopped touring our last record but then in a moment that would shake my disbelief in fate or providence, my favorite person re-entered my life after years apart and though I can’t recommend codependence as a form of salvation for anyone else, it was a stunning illustration of how human connection is the precondition for anything good in this life. As a birthday present, every week for a year, I would give her a record that had shaped my world, like Eno’s 'Another Green World' or Leonard Cohen’s 'I’m Your Man'. We’d listen to them and talk all night, voicing many of the same feelings as we’d had on our own, but this time as confederates in despair and partners in crime. Without needing to make sense of any of it, we would pour out our personal experiences, from grief and loss, to the grotesque lotteries of inequality, dealing with the societal neglect of loved ones falling through the cracks or destroyed by the war on drugs and incarceration. And then those conversations found their way into songs, basically as streams of consciousness lyrics which was a totally different process than how I’d previously written.
**Tell us about the lyric video.**
The lyric video was put together by the filmmaker Wayne Moreheart. He had some old VHS footage that just has this amazing vibe from a very specific time and place. It has this absurd juxtaposition with the music that I truly love. It’s a real “dudes rock” video and despite their flaws, dudes do rock.
**This is your first LP since 2013. What have you been doing for the past 7 years?**
Great question, I have no idea really. I probably wrote 4 of 5 albums worth of material in that time that I ended up throwing away before finally writing something I could live with, and here we are.
**What do you want your fans to take away from the album?**
Mainly that if any of the lyrics resonate strongly with you, you have my sympathies.
**Your new LP comes out in November, What does it mean to you, personally, to release this LP?**
Happy to be back in the game and genuinely looking forward to playing shows with my friends once all of this insanity lets up for a minute.
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