I’ve been digging much more ambient music lately, and Golden Brown is one of my favorite artists in this genre. Golden Brown is the instrumental music of Colorado-based Stefan Beck, and while you could certainly categorize it as ambient, he combines other influences, too.

Stefan’s Golden Brown records are played on acoustic and electric guitars, other stringed instruments, and keyboards. He draws from a wide range of inspirations, as the Golden Brown sound sits at the intersection of psychedelic folk, ambient, cosmic Americana, and New Age. Many of his records have nature-inspired themes, and it’s all generally sublimely relaxing stuff to listen to.

In addition to Golden Brown, Stefan is also part of Prairiewolf, a similar group that released a tremendous self-titled instrumental record last year via Centripetal Force Records. Stefan is staying busy, as he just released a new Golden Brown album called Kindness last month, and he’s working on new material for the project. He also tells me Prairiewolf is working on a new record that will be out later this year. I’m eager to hear the results.

Stefan was kind enough to answer my questions in an emailed Q&A format, and it was great getting to know him more. Check out the interview with Stefan of Golden Brown below, where he discusses his songwriting process, how the natural world inspires him, and much more.

Interview With Golden Brown

Third Eye: Thanks for doing this interview! Can you give us some background about yourself and the Golden Brown project?

Golden Brown: I have been recording under the name Golden Brown since about 2006. At the time, it was very much a lo-fi bedroom recording side project to a band that I was in (This was the time frame of Whiskers and Skullcap. Albums that I don’t love listening to now – I had no idea what I was doing. I try to just see them as necessary steps along the way). Eventually, Golden Brown grew into a band that included cello, upright bass, pedal steel/banjo, and accordion. After that, it morphed back into a solo home recording project (around the time of Lonesome and High Tide at Gold Beach). After High Tide, the project went dormant for a while. I eventually started writing and recording new music in 2018-2020, and that is what led to the creation of Flora and Fauna of the Uncanny Valley.

Third Eye: I know you’re also involved in other projects like Prariewolf. Are there any other side projects outside of Golden Brown and Prariewolf that we might want to know about?

Golden Brown: Prairiewolf is my main focus apart from Golden Brown. I do have a long-simmering collaboration with Nimbudala that will hopefully be out sometime, but I don’t know when. I am a big admirer of Steve Targo’s work as Nimbudala and Inner Travels before that. The collaboration, in some ways, sounds like some elements of our respective styles, but in other ways, it is very different and its own thing.

Third Eye: What’s your songwriting process like for Golden Brown? Has it changed or evolved over the years?

Golden Brown: Most of the time, songs originate in one of two ways. One way would be through improvising and adding/subtracting different layers til I find the right combination of elements. Usually, in this mode, I will start with a loop or an organ drone as a base and build from there. It doesn’t always work; sometimes, it just ends up in the trash. Sometimes, I’ll find one element, like a guitar track or keyboard part, that I like and use it as the basis of the song. This way of writing is how most of the music on Kindness came about.

The other way I write is through a daily morning guitar practice. I try to play every morning (even if it’s just for fifteen minutes). I’m not a morning person, and this kind of works to my advantage – playing before my brain is fully awake in the morning allows me to come up with new things without overthinking them. If I come up with something I like, I’ll record a video of it on my phone and save it to develop more at a later date. This kind of composing is more along the lines of how the songs on Wide Ranging Rider were written.

Small sensory details

Third Eye: Judging from your social media pictures, I imagine you get a lot of inspiration from nature. How does the natural world influence your music? For example, do you enjoy incorporating field recordings into your songs?

Golden Brown: You are correct here. I am very lucky to live in a beautiful place with easy access to hiking trails. I’ve had folks say that my music sounds ‘very Colorado,’ but I don’t quite know how to pin that down. In a more abstract way, I think being outdoors and getting in the mindset where you notice small sensory details (be they sound, sight, smell, or touch) puts me in a similar mind state as making music. Both go best when I am present, aware, and in the moment, and able to quiet my thoughts.

I have used field recordings from hikes around here (Longmont, CO) on some music. Luminous was probably the most I’ve used this approach – in that case, I tried to use field recordings as a starting point for some of the songs and build the music from there.

Third Eye: If you could narrow it down, what is the best live performance you’ve ever seen, and why?

Golden Brown: This is a tough one! I go to see a lot of live music. But in recent memory, two that stand out are Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Zakir Hussain, and Rakesh Chaurasia at the Boulder Theater last November, and Bill Frisell, Jason Moran, Brian Blade, and Thomas Morgan playing the music of Ron Miles at MSU in Denver last February (the Ron Miles album Rainbow Sign is an all-timer for me, can’t recommend it enough!).

In both cases, a group of extraordinarily talented players came together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. All of them are total masters of their instruments, but in both cases, the emphasis was on a near-telepathic group dynamic rather than individual technical mastery. 

Third Eye: What are one or two records that “changed your life” and made you want to become a musician? What about those records makes them so great, in your opinion?

Golden Brown: The first album that comes to mind here is In a Silent Way by Miles Davis. I had never heard anything like it before. It wasn’t what I thought jazz was, and it wasn’t like the Miles albums that preceded it or followed it. I think a lot of my music is still chasing that floating feeling you get in the first few minutes of ‘Shhh/Peaceful.’ The layered keyboard parts from Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, and Chick Corea make an incredibly lush bed for the other musicians to play on top of. I think I tried to emulate this in a way on the song ‘Kindness’ and on the keyboard loops on ‘Whiskers.’

Loving the DIY ethic

Third Eye: What’s one record – new or old – you can’t stop listening to right now? And why?

Golden Brown: I’ve been on a huge Tom Petty bender lately. I’m not really sure why; I’ve always liked his music, but maybe it’s just setting into middle age and relating to some of the themes he was writing about more. Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers are perfect albums, in my opinion. If I had to pick one, it would be really tough. But that music has been resonating a lot for me in the last several months. This is funny because, apart from my near-constant Grateful Dead listening, I am much more apt to choose instrumental music over music with vocals and lyrics. But Petty was such a master. The songs are perfectly crafted but sound effortless. And the guitars always sound really good.

Third Eye: The term “psychedelic” in music can sometimes be hard to pin down and means different things to different people. What do you think is a good definition of psychedelic music?

Golden Brown: This is another tough one. It’s a term that gets used a lot and can have a huge range of implications. For me, it’s maybe music that confounds expectations in a way. I.e., a song that challenges what you think a guitar can or should sound like or how a type of music should sound. There is a whole other set of implications of the term psychedelic as well, kind of the lysergic synesthesia side of things. It’s hard to pin down. When I think about it, it actually maybe relates a bit to what I said earlier about being in nature/making music – psychedelic music could be music that creates or echoes that state of heightened sensory awareness and being present.

Third Eye: What are some short and long-term goals for Golden Brown and other projects you’re working on? What’s next?

Golden Brown: My goal for this music is to have folks hear it. I have no expectations of making a career out of it – we know how broken the music industry is. So, I am grateful every day for the folks who listen, and it makes my day when people tell me that they connect with it. 

I never, ever thought that I would have folks hear my music this much, and if you told me a few years ago that I would release albums on Inner Islands, Eiderdown, Centripetal Force, and Aural Canyon between 2021 and 2024 or that I would be playing in a band with Tyler and Jeremy, I would not have believed you. I feel extremely lucky to get to do any of this. I am so grateful to the labels I have worked with – the DIY ethic and the passion that these folks put into sharing this music with the world are incredible.

In terms of other projects, we are just wrapping up recording the second Prairiewolf album. Hopefully, that should be out in the fall. It’s really fun, in some ways an extension of the first, but also exploring some new ground. Beyond that, I will have a Golden Brown album coming out on Eiderdown later this year that is different from anything I have done before (its closest relative is High Tide at Gold Beach). And I am currently working on another more song-oriented guitar album, which I think will end up somewhere in between Wide Ranging Rider and Luminous in its sound.

Support Golden Brown by finding him on Bandcamp or Instagram.

Check out Golden Brown’s new record, Kindness, on Bandcamp here.

Consider supporting The Third Eye on Patreon here.

Sign up for email updates from The Third Eye below: