Saman Khoujinian and Gabriel Anderson have been collaborating in some form another since their high-school days in South Florida. About 15 years ago, they moved to Carrboro, N.C., where they’ve since become offbeat fixtures in the region’s wildly eclectic music scene. Through their Sleepy Cat label, they’ve welcomed affiliations with artists from all walks of life—everyone from 91-year-old bluegrass institution Alice Gerrad and coed twang duo Blue Cactus to synth collective Delver and politically charged art-rockers DUNUMS.
T. Gold’s spacey-yet-intimate folktronica falls somewhere along that vast continuum. Ambitiously enough, Khoujinian and Anderson see For Life Is A Wonder And Its Cruel (Sleepy Cat) as a sonic and ideological blueprint for the deployment of imagination and community as secret weapons in the ongoing battle with the pervading socioeconomic shitstorm. (Or something like that.) Joined by bassist/engineers Alex Bingham (Hiss Golden Messenger) and Dylan Turner, keyboardist Joe MacPhail (SunSp.t) and random guests, T. Gold worked out of various living rooms and studios, including Betty’s (Sylvan Esso’s homebase in Chapel Hill).
Here’s more from Khoujinian.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Getting To Know The End”
“This one’s about the difficulty—and necessity—of some endings: relationships, eras, friendships, hobbies, etc. We were all set to lay this down on our little cassette recorder at our dear friend Alex Bingham’s house. Right as we’re about to do the take, someone came in to let us know that his garbage disposal just broke. Being the responsible daddy he is, Al leaves to address it. In that same moment, Dylan Turner walks in the door. He sits down and learns the tune, and we proceed to lay it down in a few takes. Best of all, we hit the end of the tape right before we actually finished the tune. That’s the take that made it onto the album.”
2) “Jewel”
“Here I tried to take a break from my usual songwriting milieu—ceaseless questioning, cynicism, exasperation—to express how truly grateful I am for my life exactly as it is, trials and all. The album title comes from a lyric in the chorus. It was also recorded at Alex’s house on our little four-track cassette recorder, with some overdubs after the fact.”
3) “Another Time”
“This track is about loving someone very deeply but needing space—and the resulting conversations. It features an instant-classic bass clarinet performance from our homie Danny Abrams, who tracked live with us while seated in Al’s kitchen.”
4) “Speak With Spirits”
“Here I try to express a little healthy skepticism around ancestor worship. Of course, the past can instruct and give insight, but idolatry and pedestaling is always vulnerable to misuse and willful deceit. This is the first track in the sequence that was recorded at an actual studio (Betty’s). The original recording essentially started where the vocals begin. About a year or more after we first recorded it, I pulled the track up at home and created the intro sound collage using samples and snippets from the broader track.”
4) “Assholes Only Take”
“Also recorded at Betty’s, this one is about folks who are in prime positions to give, but instead just take and take and take from their peers, their community, their family and their friends. I originally conceived of this as a D-beat punk song, but Alex campaigned for a country/funk(ish) rendition. The result is what you hear today. Can’t say he was wrong!”
5) “New Land”
“This song is about my first handful of years in North Carolina as a college student—feeling alienated, deceived and unwelcome—though mostly unable to put it into words until years later. This one features an Ornette-style sax arrangement from our friend Adam Schatz (Japanese Breakfast, Landlady, Sylvan Esso), who was residing at the studio while we recorded this.”
6) “Gone All Night”
“A song about a rough patch in a long-term relationship. It was recorded and mixed entirely live to two tracks on our cassette recorder by Dylan and features an actual, honest-to-goodness bass solo from Alex.”
7) “Instrumental”
“Man, I wish I’d given this one a proper name. But like every other step in making this record, I was at the helm while fumbling through my avoidant, low-attention tendencies. Not making excuses, just reflecting on how I could have made things easier for all of us. Noted for next time. This song was inspired by Noam Pikelny’s Universal Favorite.”
8) “Spaceman”
“A slightly silly-but-heartfelt song about the oceanic, revelatory feeling inspired by outer space. The first churnings of this one came about when I was in a deep Ursula Le Guin phase and reminiscing about the first time I truly saw the Milky Way when Gabe and I were camping at Hawksbill Mountain with loved ones.”
9) “305 ’Til I Die”
“We originally wrote this one for our label’s winter mixtape, where we solicited holiday songs from our artists in 2020. It’s a love letter to me and Gabe’s hometown of Miami—specifically about what it’s like to experience Christmas at 85 degrees as a little Iranian-American skate punk with friends from hyper-conservative Hispanic Catholic families. It also features my proudest lyrical moment yet, where I equate platinum recording artist Pitbull to Santa Claus.”
10) “Love Is A Dice Roll”
“Some days we win, some days we lose. We had a lot of fun flexing our electronic muscles on this one. Joe MacPhail is truly the standout performer—and he played just about every bleep and bloop heard on the track.”
11) “Wagoner’s Lad”
“An old song we first heard in a recording by Peggy Seeger. We first saw it performed live by our friend Ryan Gustafson (a.k.a. the Dead Tongues), who I believe first heard it via Doc Watson. Anyway, Peggy’s version is unbelievably beautiful. We originally recorded this to raise money for the Carolina Abortion Fund. It’s the only track on the record that features just me and Gabe.”
