Jason Gough was / is the leader of the overlooked slocore band Coastal. Their eponymous debut album from 2000 stands as one of the most underrated releases of its era: Tracks such as Northern and Celesta are hauntingly evocative and distinctly poetic. 2004’s Halfway To You followed in a similar vein, but since then Coastal have been relatively inactive, releasing just one studio album (2015’s Between The Snow And Streetlights) and a live LP in 2023. The band are unique in their ability to make quietly beautiful music that never feels saccharine or cloying (perhaps due in part to the minimalistic production). My conversation with Gough follows:
1 | Celesta is undoubtedly your most haunting track. It’s cryptic, crepuscular, and somewhat unnerving (despite paradoxically also being quite gorgeous). What are your thoughts on it?
It’s slightly strange to comment on a song that was written 25 years ago. I think haunting is probably a good way to describe it. The song is essentially about a loved one who is dying. The sadness of the one who is leaving is tempered by the belief that they will be going to celestial places. The refrain of ‘I wish that you would stay’ is vain because this is not a breakup, but rather the temporal termination of a loving relationship.
2 | What is your favorite Coastal song? Mine is perhaps the aforementioned Celesta.
I was just thinking about this a couple of days ago and hands-down my favorite song is We Drink to Remember (Jasinski Remix). I probably wouldn’t have said this 20 years ago. I would probably have said Drift or Until You Sleep from Halfway To You, but I have since become a fan of electronic music and if I had the ability, I’d make more songs like that one. Plus, it was cool since Aaron Jasinski produced our first album and to come back all these years later and have him remix this song was special to me. He’s an insane talent and not just musically.
3 | You used to play in a band called Loomer. The name was presumably borrowed from My Bloody Valentine, yet that band doesn’t seem to have been an influence on Coastal. What caused you to abandon noise-rock in favor of slocore?
You are right about Loomer, which was formed in 1995 whilst I was in college. We played out a lot but didn’t record much. We all had a blast playing in that band. At the time, no one was playing shoegaze music in Utah, so it was fun to introduce crowds to massive walls of sound. Oddly, I think we were more influenced by Ride, The Boo Radleys and Slowdive than My Bloody Valentine. At one of our later gigs, we were approached by a guy who wanted to fund the band and help us with promotion. He had a connection to Rick Rubin and actually played our demo for him. He said I sounded like Maynard from Tool. I think this guy thought he was just gonna snag us a record deal really easy and while Rick said about us that, “there’s something there,“ when things didn’t materialize he bailed and it kind of took the wind out of our sails. Then our drummer moved away and it became hard to get together. Luisa and I got married and so my lifestyle changed. Josh used to come to Loomer shows and we eventually connected musically. I’ve always loved mellow music and the guys from my previous band were more interested in straight shoegaze, so it was cool to find someone who was willing to play slow. Josh and I wrote songs and I recruited a drummer for Infrared (before we settled on Coastal). He drummed for us and I drummed for his band. He eventually left the state and we found Jim to play drums full time.
4 | You were (sort of) linked with Low at one point. What was it like to be in the presence of arguably the most quietly powerful band of all time?
My relationship with Low goes back to my college days when I was a journalist on the music beat in 1996. I interviewed Alan Sparhawk for our college newspaper. Plus I was intrigued as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints how a band of the same faith managed to keep their head spiritually above water and make a living in a business rich with temptation and often shady practices. We kept in contact and when they toured back to Provo, Utah, in 2001, we opened for them. Then years later at the Sundance Film Festival, we helped provide gear for a gig they were doing. And then on Valentine’s Day, 2003 we opened for them at the Union Chapel in London, which was easily the highlight of our career. Last year we did a cover of Shame at a Low tribute show organized around Mimi’s passing. We love Low and early reviews of our music tied us to them as an influence. Oddly, Velour 100 was more of an influence on me in the early days of Coastal. I’m happy that Alan is back making amazing music.
5 | You also were linked to the lesser-known dream pop band Lorna. What is your favorite Lorna song? Mine is The Last Mosquito Fight of Summer…
I discovered Lorna back in 1998 when we were both on mp3.com. I was blown away by their music, so I reached out to them and we’ve been friends ever since. I think of them as a sister band. We have collaborated on many songs and they joined us on stage at the Low gig as well as the previous night when we played with them in Nottingham, which was special to me because that’s where my grandmother came from. I think one of my favorite songs is Understanding Heavy Metal. Lorna is so talented.
6 | Was Paris Radio written in Paris?
It wasn’t written in Paris, but was inspired by my time living there. As the lyrics go, I woke up one night and couldn’t sleep and was staring out my window listening to an alternative radio station. There is a field recording in the Paris Metro that we used during that song.
7 | You list Slowdive and Red House Painters as primary influences on Coastal. I particularly hear echoes of Slowdive’s Pygmalion and Red House Painters’ long, slow, trancelike pieces (Down Colorful Hill, Katy Song, Funhouse). Thoughts?
No one song from Slowdive because all of them were influential. As to Red House Painters, some of my favorites include Mistress, Sundays and Holidays and Brockwell Park.
8 | Have you ever been “recognized” on the street as the guy from Coastal? Perhaps a somewhat shallow question. I’m nonetheless curious.
I have, though not often.
9 | Have The Beatles influenced your music? Do you think they’re the greatest band of all time? If not, who is?
As for me, I can’t say The Beatles influenced me. I guess if you’re talking about the greatest bands of all time, it has to be between The Beatles and the Stones — one of my favorite songs by The House Of Love, incidentally. But as far as whom I consider the greatest band of all time, I’d say The Field Mice. I mean, we chose the name Coastal from one of their albums. They’ve been hugely influential on me for years.
10 | How do you feel about Coastal’s relative lack of success?
We never set out to be successful. One of our early goals was to see how far we could push Coastal without investing any of our own money. We have lots of new listeners on Spotify each month, and London In February has racked up a lot of streams, which makes me happy.
11 | Do you think your band deserves to be listed alongside Red House Painters / Mazzy Star / Low / Codeine / etc. as one of the great slocore bands?
No, not at all. Although, we are grateful to have made our small mark on the genre. Watch for a new release later this year. Cheers!
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Brett Abrahamsen is a lifelong connoisseur of the experimental and obscure. He is also a science fiction writer (and an amateur philosopher of sorts). He resides in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
