DS Interview: Ian MacDougall (Riverboat Gamblers, Band of Horses) on Broken Gold’s new music.

Ian MacDougall is best known as a member of Riverboat Gamblers and Band of Horses. However, another of his bands, Broken Gold will be releasing new music in 2024.

Per the band’s press release:

“The record is a real ATX affair, with Ian being backed by members of Alejandro Escovedo’s band, Black Books, and Del-Vipers, while Stuart Sikes (A Giant Dog, Black Pumas) recorded and mixed it.

“Spiraling” highlights a more confessional approach to MacDougall’s songwriting; tackling the mental toll of a life stitched together between regular touring and the various hometown jobs taken on to make ends meet in between. 

In his words: “I’d always felt…changed or sort of crazier in a way, after being away so many times over the years. When you keep layering that on over and over. What is normalcy, what part of my life is the ‘real’ life?”

I interviewed MacDougall via text and email about Broken Gold’s origin, its present work and the future.

MerGold (Dying Scene): How did Broken Gold get started?  

Ian MacDougall: Broken Gold started shortly after I started working at a wonderful punk rock pizza place/bar called The Parlor here in Austin TX around 2010 or so.

Gamblers was in between tours and I needed a job that was cool with me taking off at a moment’s notice. I met my soon-to-be best friend Rich Cali while working there. He played drums and was from Asbury Park New Jersey, and was at the time married to one of the daughters in the family that owned the business. We bonded over our mutual love of Springsteen and the Clash as well as Fugazi and bands like Rites of Spring. We got along so much that they stopped scheduling us to work behind the bar at the same time because we would goof off so damn much. During this time original bass player of Riverboat Gamblers, Pat Lillard, had recently left Gamblers but still wanted to play in a band, but something…different.

Prior to playing guitar in RBG, I had a band I sang and was the principal songwriter in and Pat pushed me into starting something with me singing again. We wanted to do something melodic, simple, kind of like a punk rock American shoe gaze thing with elements of The Clash, Fugazi, Alejandro Escovedo, and Springsteen. Over time Rich moved, Pat got busy with starting a family and we had some members come and go. We’ve shared drummers and bass players with the Gamblers several times but now the lineup is: Myself singing and guitaring, Ben Lance on guitar, Bobby Daniel on bass, and Sam Rich on drums. I’ve been lucky to play with some huge talents over the years and this lineup of Broken Gold is no different. It sounds incredible lately.

How did you decide on the band name? 

At the time Austin was crawling with pawnshops, especially on the East Side where we spent most of our time. Every pawnshop and billboard said “WE BUY BROKEN GOLD” or “BROKEN GOLD? YES!” We thought that was a great name that related with some of the subject matter in the lyrics as well as being a bunch of free advertising around town. Something that was once valuable and then destroyed but still desired by people. 

How does Broken Gold differ from your other band or your other bands, past and present?  

It’s a whole different muscle, playing-wise and tonally. I have to play with my guitar strap higher than Gamblers. Haha. I have to say playing in BG and all the experimenting with different things for us as players like alternate tunings and the use of capos really set me up and had me prepared for a band like Band of Horses which I joined as lead guitarist eventually. A lot of the guitar techniques and tones were very similar.

As far as how it’s different from Gamblers? It’s me singing for one. I’m the primary songwriter as opposed to RBG which is a group of songwriters. Broken Gold is a bit more dynamic with tones/sounds, volumes, and speeds as opposed to the blitzkrieg powerhouse that is the Riverboat Gamblers. I’d say we’re a bit more on the ‘punk’ side of things than Band of Horses but similar in vibe…like it wouldn’t be that jarring hearing one of those songs and one of these bands come on shuffle or something. 

Why was now a good time for a follow-up release? 

I finally had some time to focus on it. I’ve always done Broken Gold when I could get to it. When Gamblers weren’t on tour, and we toured ALOT, I would focus on BG but then we’d go back on tour. Over the years I ventured into working in the production world of higher tier artists like Foo Fighters, tours with Blink 182, and Band of Horses, etc. I was usually the Assistant Tour Manager on these and at that level, you’re touring off and on for years on end for a record cycle. Those jobs suddenly become your whole life and leave little much for anything else. When I eventually moved from Asst TM for Band of Horses to Lead guitarist, I just started passing on the ideas I had for Broken Gold to them as it wasn’t that far out of the wheelhouse of what they were doing. After 5+ years in that band, we made a great record but eventually parted ways.

I had all of these songs I had written and I was home all the time all of a sudden. Not working production, not playing in someone else’s band. I finally had time to focus on my stuff, Broken Gold and Riverboat Gamblers. It became clear that I needed to invest in myself for once and continue writing on these songs and focusing on what meant the most to me, BG and RBG. I had a wellspring of things to write about and it resulted in what I think is a real thought-out, dense, cohesive piece of work. We worked our asses off on this making it as good as we could get it. 

Did you have a specific plan for what this new music would sound or look like? Thematically or otherwise?

I didn’t really have a theme in mind when I started writing this thing but it has become evident now that we’re done with it. It’s about touring and being a working musician. The reality of what this life looks like. It can be brutal on your mental health, on both sides of the stage. Whether you’re working for bands or in the band. I’ve been doing this at all levels for more than half my life and still do. Private jet to stadium show that takes 2 days to prepare to punk squat in a Sprinter laying on top of an Ampeg fridge bass cab wrapped in sleeping bags because the heat in the van doesn’t work. Most of the time it feels like this never-ending adventure, every day is a new set of problems to solve and I love it…but it also led to a pretty severe drinking problem and all the things like not having friends when you come home, watching everyone you knew move on with their lives and start traditional families, your whole town changes, etc. When you decide to do this you basically decide to live in a vacuum of whatever band you’re involved with’s world, it’s like time traveling. You leave for 2 months, come home and never leave your neighborhood for a week, and go back out for another 2 months.

When you finally need to drive around your city everything different, especially in Austin. People always expect that you’re gone so you don’t hear from anyone anymore all that much. That’s not even mentioning what it’s like trying to make a serious relationship work. There definitely are people I’ve met that are totally well-adjusted and can make all of that work so smoothly, but I grew up from being a kid to an adult touring. Everything I learned about people, relationships, and “adulting” I learned while being out traveling constantly. I have had many “father figures” haha. I joined Riverboat Gamblers when I was 17 right out of high school and have basically been on the road in some form or fashion ever since. You never really have time to sit and reflect, possibly to a therapist, about everything that’s happened over the years because you’ve never really stopped and had time to. That’s a little heavy or maybe sounds like I’m complaining but I can assure you, I’m not. I absolutely love and am so lucky to have done all of the things I’ve been a part of. I guess as some sort of therapy I decided to write a bunch of songs about the other side of the life out there in there in the world I’ve experienced.

As far as the sound. I knew I wanted to make like “the ultimate BG record” haha, like a total distillation of everything I love about the music I’m really into. I love bands like The Cure, Psychedelic Furs, and the Smiths just as much as I love bands like The Clash, Blitz, Bruce Springsteen, Guided by Voices, and The Alarm. That and I’m a total freak when it comes to guitars, amps, and pedals. It’s my only true obsession and I knew I wanted to make a record with great fucking guitar sounds. 

How much of a collaborative project is this with the other members of Broken Gold? 

Very much so. I usually come in with a pretty thought-out idea but that morphs once we get everyone involved. Ben Lance is a guitar sorcerer. He is so unconventional in his playing and I LOVE LOVE what he does on top of what I do. I’d have to say I have a fairly traditional approach when it comes to playing for the most part, big chords, ripping solos, etc but Ben’s like a painter – he actually is a painter – but he adds textures and a lot of emotion to the solid foundation me and the rest of the guys lay down. I always run things by everybody in the band and share demos that we shoot back and forth. 

What does each member bring to the project?

The band is myself, Bobby Daniel, Ben Lance, and Sam Rich. These guys are so fucking great. I’m lucky to be playing with like, all my best friends. Bobby is someone I look up to just as a dude in general. He’s sober, an ua-runner, a father, and has been playing in bands of all kinds for decades, has seen it all. We met when I used to go see him play in Alejandro Escovedo’s band every Tuesday at the Continental Club here in Austin. Watching and hearing Bobby play bass at all those shows was just radical. Calm, collected, looking cool af, solid af, and not overplaying or playing too little. He’s just a great human at what he does and I’m lucky to have such a sought-after bass player in this town in MY band.

Ben Lance, as mentioned above, adds so much texture and dynamics, “color” as people would say, to this music.

Last but not least is our drummer Sam Rich, what a sweetheart. We met playing a show together with his awesome band Stella and The Very Messed when BG was drummer-less, I was just stomping a kick drum and a foot tambourine thing at that gig. We talked at that show and immediately got on so well. Like where has this guy been all my life? Also, he’s a super-consistent powerhouse behind the kit. This dude isn’t someone who just plays drums on the weekends with his buds, he’s like a full-on drum freak. He builds drums for a living. He plays in a bajillion bands and is now our go-to guy in Gamblers when other Sam (Keir) can’t make it. It became clear very quick that we had to be good friends and work together. I also liked that he seemed genuinely interested in Broken Gold and loved the songs. Everybody in this band is a total oddball lifer musician and just kills it at their instrument. This rhythm section of Bobby and Sam is more than anyone could ask for. They nailed basics for this record in like 2 days total. That was insane. 

How do you decide in which order to release the songs as singles?

“Spiraling” was the first song I wrote for this record, it’s sort of the summation of what a lot of the record is about with its lyrical subject matter. It also kind of set the tone for what was to come in the process of writing the record and the vibe. I see it as a mash-up of my two true loves, the music of Manchester in the 80s and Dinosaur Jr. We’re not gonna name the other singles just yet…but they are catchy rock masterpieces.

What’s next for Broken Gold? Will there be shows this year for the group?  

That’s an exciting question, What is next? Hopefully, this record blows up and we can get on a tour playing 2nd of 4 with the Bouncing Souls or Gaslight Anthem or something. There will hopefully be a ton of shows this year. We’ve been so holed up in writing, recording, mixing, finishing this record mode. Now’s the time when we get to share it with everyone and re-learning what we did in the studio to recreate it live! 

Anything else you want to add or think we should know or might want to learn about you and Broken Gold?

I want to give a huge shout-out and mention other folks who worked on this record. Stuart Sikes is my recording mentor that I actually apprentice under, He has a friggin Grammy! It was so great working with him on this. He really let us stretch out and find what it was we were looking for. Sage Nizhoni played strings on this, she’s a fellow Navajo I met at the music school I work at right now and laid down some beautiful strings. Don Cento added a layer of synths to our first single here “Spiraling,” it wouldn’t be the same without that touch. Alejandro Escovedo came in and sang on a few of the songs, that was literally a dream come true. I never thought all those years ago, watching him play and listening to his records that one day we would be singing together on one of my songs. Couldn’t be more stoked.

The icing on the cake was getting this mastered by Howie Weinberg, that dude mastered Nevermind, Disintegration, The Clash, Replacements, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy…just look at his discography on Wikipedia, it’s insane. Huge Huge shout out to John Kastner. He’s a musical hero of mine from his days fronting Doughboys, one of my absolute favorite records is their album Crush. I’m lucky to be managed by him and he really helped tie the room together on this one.

This thing will be out soon, it’s been on my mind 24 hours a day for some time now and I’m just glad finally someone other than my immediate friends and family are gonna hear it. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks to Ian MacDougall. Check out Broken Gold ASAP! Cheers!