GUV, the long-running project of guitar pop extraordinaire Ben Cook (ex-F**ked Up), kicks off the new year with “Chasin’ Luv,” a cut of perfect indie pop ahead of his album ‘Warmer Than Gold’ arriving January 30 via Run For Cover Records. Cook explains, “‘Chasin Luv’ was the last song written for the record. We wanted something immediate, an instant hit in the vein of early Primal Scream, and to bring the jangle that was missing from the record, but always present in the older GUV stuff.”
Cook continues, “Noah, Gavel, Matt, and I wrote and tracked it in about 20 minutes. Corey Rose from Color Green came by and laid down her drums in a single take. After everyone left, I worked out the vocals just as quickly. Everything on the song is one take, and from start to finish it was written and recorded in under an hour. It’s my favorite and the best GUV song ever made.”
‘Warmer Than Gold’ was made with an all-star cast including contributions from James Matthew Seven, Darcy Baylis, Hatchie, Meg Mills of Turnstile, and recording and production from Tony Price, Noah Kohll, Max Epstein aka Photographic Memory, Jimmy Dixon, Johnny Bell, Joey Oaxaca, Walter Sedriks, and Remghost. The record blends Britpop, baggy, classic indie pop, and first wave shoegaze through Cook’s unique lens, defined by unstoppable musical motion and breakbeat-driven tracks drawing from turn-of-the-90s British rave and rock music.
Cook, who grew up moving between Toronto and England and played in hardcore band No Warning and punk experimentalists F**ked Up from 2007 to 2021, says, “Warmer Than Gold is about slipping through two worlds. One ruled by luxury and the worship of status, and another that feels like an escape, a dream you can almost touch. It’s about buses, trains, planes, about big dreams in solitude, finding something real despite everything trying to erase it.”