Broken Gold is a miracle in some ways. Eight years ago, the band's primary songwriter and Riverboat Gamblers guitarist, Ian MacDougall, was riding his bike around Austin, Texas when he was struck by a car. He suffered a fractured wrist and vertigo as well as something called "internal decapitation," which can often be fatal. It didn’t look like he’d ever play music again. Gradually, and somewhat miraculously, he made a full recovery. He ended up making albums about the experience in the form of Broken Gold's 2010 debut Recovery Journal and 2014's more shoegazey six-song EP, Residency At Hundo Beach.Broken Gold really shines, though, on their new four-song EP, Turning Blue. Merging elements of punk, post-hardcore, and college rock, the title track is impossibly catchy (and deceptively morbid) and proudly carries on the tradition of fuzzed-out, feedback-fueled acts like Dinosaur Jr. and Sugar. Maybe most impressive is the fact that the band—which currently features Riverboat Gamblers members Rob Marchant (bass) and Rich Cali (drums) as well as Ben Lance (guitar)—have a sound that references the past in a way that's far more refreshing than it is reductive, sounding more like a celebration than a pity party.We spoke to MacDougall about his bike accident, the recovery process, and how this all figured into the their new EP.Noisey: I know this band came out of a bike accident in a way. Could you talk a little bit about when happened?
Ian MacDougall: In 2008, I was leaving [Riverboat Gamblers former bassist] Patrick [Lillard's] house riding my bike and I went a way home that I had never gone before, and of course that's the time this dude doesn't see me on the side of the road. He hit me going like, 50 miles an hour and I didn't see him coming at all. The next thing I know, I had completely time traveled from "I was on my bike and it was a nice night riding home" to being completely confused and naked in an ambulance. Then after that, I started getting better and eventually was like, "Well, I guess now I have something to write about." [Laughs]Is that what the first full-length was about?
A majority of the songs were about the accident itself, which was pretty descriptive, there wasn't a whole lot of poetic lyrics. I guess without thinking about it, it was a little bit conceptual. It's a cool record but it didn't really do anything and we didn't really tour behind it. There were songs about being in the hospital and then for a good year after that, I was just on Vicodin every day and there's some stuff about that too, and how I was basically trying to get off of it.Were you worried you wouldn't be able to play music again after the accident?
Oh, totally. It's crazy to talk about now because it seems like it didn't happen, but there were four months there where I was super freaked out. I totally fractured my wrist, but on top of that, I wasn't wearing a helmet. I got rocked in the back of my head and had something called internal decapitation where basically my skull and spine detached and reattached instantaneously. I should have been completely disabled. It's insane how I wasn't more fucked up from the accident. Then afterward, I had vertigo really bad, so I couldn't really stand up without my eyes rolling around in my head in circles which was totally involuntary and there was nothing that could really stop it, so that freaked me out.Yeah, that's a life-changing event.
It put a whole lot of things in my life way into perspective. It was like a Rocky montage of me trying to go to physical therapy every day, doing these hand exercises and everything I could to get back on my feet, use my hand again, and also get rid of the vertigo. There was all this stuff I was trying to take care of at once and I worked so hard at it out of the fear I would never be able to do what I do again. But everything kind of worked, I don't have any residual effects from it at all.How long was it before you performed live again?
[Laughs] This happened in October a couple of days before my birthday and I played a show with the Gamblers that following New Year's Eve with a cast on my wrist because I was able to move my fingers, I just couldn't move my wrist. I was like, "I'm totally going to play" and everyone was like, "Dude, I don't know if you're ready." Because at that time, I was only able to stand up and lurch around and put weight on one of my legs. I was like, "Fuck it, let's just do it, it'll be fine, I just won't jump around or anything." And I played the show but I was totally not ready. I had to stay completely still because I still had vertigo so even the littlest bit of bobbing my head would send my eyes spinning. That was the weirdest show I've ever played.How prevalent was that event when it comes to the Turning Blue EP?
With these songs, I tried to get away from it being just about me and wanted to leave it a little more open. There's some songs that are about basically being on the other end of my twenties and there's another song called "Ground Work," which is about the minutia and wheel-spinning that touring can be a little bit—especially with the Gamblers, we were going pretty hard. I joined that band when I was 18 and I just turned 30 and the band is slowing down a lot, and it's kind of weird being able to step outside of everything a little bit and look at the past 12 years. It just flew by and all of the sudden I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do if we aren't going to be touring seven or eight months out of the year, you know?I still listen to the Riverboat Gamblers all the time, especially [2012's] The Wolf You Feed. Why do you think you weren't a bigger band? It boggles my mind.
I think there are a lot of different factors. We never had any kind of image and the sound didn't fit in one specific box. We kind of had a little bit of everything going on so it was really hard for people to put their finger on. Plus, a lot of the stuff is just timing and luck. But that's not to say that cool shit didn't happen for the Gamblers. There was a lot of awesome stuff that we accomplished. Hindsight is always 20/20, but it's hard to know when you're working so hard to keep things afloat and the next thing you know, you're on the other end of it all. Those guys are ten years older than I am and now everyone is having kids and I've been on tour for ten years and I don't really have a resume to get a job. You can sit there and wonder about what if you had done things differently, but I love all the Gamblers records that we've done. We're still a band and doing stuff, but it's not as often as it used to be.What's the future like for Broken Gold?
I just want see what could happen because I've kind of had this band going as a project on the back burner that I do when I'm at home, and locally, but I've never really put the effort in to give it a fair shake like, "Let’s go out on tour an talk to people about putting records out." It's just really easy because three of us have already been playing together for years, so we know each other really well and we're friends so it makes it a lot easier. Sonically, it's much different than Gamblers but the people who get what we're doing really seem to like it so far. Like I said, I kind of want to see what could happen with it a little bit. We're writing a bunch more songs to hopefully do another record. At this point, it's trying to find out if anybody is going to want to help us put it out.It's pretty wild that a lot of the bands that influenced Broken Gold like the Replacements or Dinosaur Jr. are still active and touring.
Yeah, it's pretty on-the-sleeve in terms of how the band sounds. It's pretty obvious who we really like or what the band is kind of going for. I'm stoked about the band. I think the EP came out really cool and I'm excited to do more stuff. We're kind of honing in on what we did on those four songs and the newer stuff is just an elaboration of that, I guess. This isn't just this side project thing to do on the weekends.Jonah Bayer is on Twitter - @mynameisjonah
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Ian MacDougall: In 2008, I was leaving [Riverboat Gamblers former bassist] Patrick [Lillard's] house riding my bike and I went a way home that I had never gone before, and of course that's the time this dude doesn't see me on the side of the road. He hit me going like, 50 miles an hour and I didn't see him coming at all. The next thing I know, I had completely time traveled from "I was on my bike and it was a nice night riding home" to being completely confused and naked in an ambulance. Then after that, I started getting better and eventually was like, "Well, I guess now I have something to write about." [Laughs]
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A majority of the songs were about the accident itself, which was pretty descriptive, there wasn't a whole lot of poetic lyrics. I guess without thinking about it, it was a little bit conceptual. It's a cool record but it didn't really do anything and we didn't really tour behind it. There were songs about being in the hospital and then for a good year after that, I was just on Vicodin every day and there's some stuff about that too, and how I was basically trying to get off of it.Were you worried you wouldn't be able to play music again after the accident?
Oh, totally. It's crazy to talk about now because it seems like it didn't happen, but there were four months there where I was super freaked out. I totally fractured my wrist, but on top of that, I wasn't wearing a helmet. I got rocked in the back of my head and had something called internal decapitation where basically my skull and spine detached and reattached instantaneously. I should have been completely disabled. It's insane how I wasn't more fucked up from the accident. Then afterward, I had vertigo really bad, so I couldn't really stand up without my eyes rolling around in my head in circles which was totally involuntary and there was nothing that could really stop it, so that freaked me out.Yeah, that's a life-changing event.
It put a whole lot of things in my life way into perspective. It was like a Rocky montage of me trying to go to physical therapy every day, doing these hand exercises and everything I could to get back on my feet, use my hand again, and also get rid of the vertigo. There was all this stuff I was trying to take care of at once and I worked so hard at it out of the fear I would never be able to do what I do again. But everything kind of worked, I don't have any residual effects from it at all.
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[Laughs] This happened in October a couple of days before my birthday and I played a show with the Gamblers that following New Year's Eve with a cast on my wrist because I was able to move my fingers, I just couldn't move my wrist. I was like, "I'm totally going to play" and everyone was like, "Dude, I don't know if you're ready." Because at that time, I was only able to stand up and lurch around and put weight on one of my legs. I was like, "Fuck it, let's just do it, it'll be fine, I just won't jump around or anything." And I played the show but I was totally not ready. I had to stay completely still because I still had vertigo so even the littlest bit of bobbing my head would send my eyes spinning. That was the weirdest show I've ever played.How prevalent was that event when it comes to the Turning Blue EP?
With these songs, I tried to get away from it being just about me and wanted to leave it a little more open. There's some songs that are about basically being on the other end of my twenties and there's another song called "Ground Work," which is about the minutia and wheel-spinning that touring can be a little bit—especially with the Gamblers, we were going pretty hard. I joined that band when I was 18 and I just turned 30 and the band is slowing down a lot, and it's kind of weird being able to step outside of everything a little bit and look at the past 12 years. It just flew by and all of the sudden I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do if we aren't going to be touring seven or eight months out of the year, you know?I still listen to the Riverboat Gamblers all the time, especially [2012's] The Wolf You Feed. Why do you think you weren't a bigger band? It boggles my mind.
I think there are a lot of different factors. We never had any kind of image and the sound didn't fit in one specific box. We kind of had a little bit of everything going on so it was really hard for people to put their finger on. Plus, a lot of the stuff is just timing and luck. But that's not to say that cool shit didn't happen for the Gamblers. There was a lot of awesome stuff that we accomplished. Hindsight is always 20/20, but it's hard to know when you're working so hard to keep things afloat and the next thing you know, you're on the other end of it all. Those guys are ten years older than I am and now everyone is having kids and I've been on tour for ten years and I don't really have a resume to get a job. You can sit there and wonder about what if you had done things differently, but I love all the Gamblers records that we've done. We're still a band and doing stuff, but it's not as often as it used to be.What's the future like for Broken Gold?
I just want see what could happen because I've kind of had this band going as a project on the back burner that I do when I'm at home, and locally, but I've never really put the effort in to give it a fair shake like, "Let’s go out on tour an talk to people about putting records out." It's just really easy because three of us have already been playing together for years, so we know each other really well and we're friends so it makes it a lot easier. Sonically, it's much different than Gamblers but the people who get what we're doing really seem to like it so far. Like I said, I kind of want to see what could happen with it a little bit. We're writing a bunch more songs to hopefully do another record. At this point, it's trying to find out if anybody is going to want to help us put it out.It's pretty wild that a lot of the bands that influenced Broken Gold like the Replacements or Dinosaur Jr. are still active and touring.
Yeah, it's pretty on-the-sleeve in terms of how the band sounds. It's pretty obvious who we really like or what the band is kind of going for. I'm stoked about the band. I think the EP came out really cool and I'm excited to do more stuff. We're kind of honing in on what we did on those four songs and the newer stuff is just an elaboration of that, I guess. This isn't just this side project thing to do on the weekends.Jonah Bayer is on Twitter - @mynameisjonah