Best known for his time in wildly influential emo band Christie Front Drive, Eric Richter has had a musical career worth acclaim. From Christie Front Drive to Antarctica to The 101 and now Golden City, Richter continues to create some of my favorite music. He was nice enough to accommodate SAL and answer some of our questions.

You have said Golden City was honestly just friends getting together to play. How did it evolve from that beginning?

After The 101 disbanded it was clear to me that I needed to step it up a notch and get a second guitarist. Jeremy, The 101 drummer, was still interested in playing so all I really needed was a guitarist and a bassist. Jim worked/helped out at Limekiln Records, The 101’s label, and always mentioned at shows that he played guitar and would love to play with us so that was a no-brainer. Chris, was a fan of CFD and Antarctica and was always present at The 101 shows. I ended up talking to him a lot and remembered that he had once told me that he was a musician. I don’t remember why he came to mind when I was getting Golden City together, but he just did, so I emailed him and asked if he was interested.

Your musical evolution from Christie Front Drive to Antarctica to The 101 and now to Golden City is quite interesting. Talk about your move away from guitar based music and your move back.

To tell you the truth there wasn’t a lot of thought going in and out of musical projects. I have a fairly wide range of musical influences so doing Antarctica after CFD made perfect sense to me. Glenn, Chris, Nicole and I all really loved 90’s shoegaze and synth-pop so it just made sense to go that direction when we teamed up. Ben had slightly different musical tastes, but he enjoyed playing what we were writing. I feel when your dealing with a band dynamic you really just have to go with whatever naturally happens. After Antarctica broke up I found myself noodling around with simple rock songs so I got a couple people together and started The 101. I was really into the idea of doing a simple power trio at the time. That didn’t work out so well, so Golden City is more or less me fixing what was wrong with The 101 and really trying to do it right again.

I’ve seen it written several places (including by myself) that in essence Golden City seems to borrow from Jimmy Eat World much like Jimmy Eat World borrowed rather liberally from Christie Front Drive. Any thoughts about that?

Interesting.  Do you think we sound like Jimmy Eat World?  If we do it’s definitely not intentional.  I haven’t really listened to them since the “Static Prevails” era.  Not that I wouldn’t borrow from them, they’re great, but anything you hear in Golden City that reminds you of J.E.W.  is most likely coincidental.  I say “most likely” because I think you can subconsciously borrow from something you’ve heard before while writing songs, but I doubt if it’s the case with J.E.W. since I really don’t listen to them much.  J.E.W. did get a bit of criticism after the CFD split 7”.  I remember people teasing them and calling them “Jimmy Front Drive.”  Honestly, the only thing that I think they got from us was a tempo change.  They were kind of an upbeat pop-punk band when we first met them and I think they liked the fact that we played slower and smoother.  As far as songwriting, I think they’re in a league of their own.  I’ve never heard a J.E.W. song and thought to myself “hey wait, we did that!”  In short, I’ve never felt there was borrowing on either side, at least I don’t think so?

Any plans to tour for Golden City?

Not in the traditional sense. Right now we’re kind of stuck on the East Coast paying bills and trying to get by. I will eventually find the time to tour again, but I’m not sure when that will be.

Your thoughts on the evolution of Christie Front Drive’s influence. It is pretty remarkable to me how much I hear CFD even still in bands today.

It blows my mind that CFD is still talked about.  I’ve said this a thousand times, but we were just one of those lucky bands that were in the right place at the right time, playing the right music.  I loved CFD, but it beats me why we’ve casted such a long shadow.  Either way, I’m very appreciative.

Has your songwriting process changed from project to project or has it remained similar for the most part?

It was a bit different in Antarctica not being the principle song-writer, but I’ve been more or less doing the same thing since the beginning.

Obviously, the music “industry” has changed a lot since you began Christie Front Drive. What’s your thoughts on the current musical climate being better or worse.

If you ask me it’s a disaster. What I loved about music growing up is dying a slow and ugly death. The biggest loss for me is the loss of the “album”. I’m sure this makes me sound like a dinosaur, but what I truly enjoy is listening to an entire piece of work, not just a couple catchy singles that the label and artist thinks is going to get them paid. And why does everyone have to be so good looking? Look at the cover of The Band’s second album and tell me that you have to be good looking to write great songs. It all makes me kind of sick inside.

You have been involved in projects that are so different from one another despite carrying over some nuances from one to the next: Christie Front Drive, Antarctica, The 101, and now Golden City. Which of these projects was the most satisfying musically and why?

I don’t really have an answer for that. I can say that The 101 was definitely the least satisfying due to the fact that there was always a voice in my head saying “something not right.” I still ultimately enjoyed playing in The 101, but I knew that I could do better. As far as CFD, Antarctica and Golden City are concerned, they’ve all been as satisfying as the next, just in different ways at different times.

Did you have a vision of how your different bands should sound like when they started or is that something that just naturally occurred?

Like I said earlier, I’m a big champion of just letting things happen naturally. You can tell when a band is forcing a sound. When I’m doing all of the writing, you kind of know what to expect

Anybody in particular that you would like to collaborate musically?

Wow, I’ve never really thought about that before. There was a plan at one time to start a long distance mail to mail band with me, Jim Adkins (J.E.W.), Jeremy Gomez (Mineral) and some friend of Jim’s, but it just never happened. That would have been kind of cool. (Can we unearth this plan please! – Will)

When are songs 0000-00000-1-A through 7753-60784-1-D going to see the light of day?

Never! Much too volatile of a project.