The Golden Awesome are a Wellington-based four-piece playing loud, fuzzed-out, blissed-out guitar rock with girly vocal harmonies. In terms of influences, they veer between early-90s shoegaze and Flying Nun-style psychedelic jangle. Singer Stef Animal has previously played with Mestar, guitarist Johannes Contag with Cloudboy and Jay Clarkson, and rhythm section Matthew Steindl and Justin Barr are also known for their accordion-driven sea-shanty-meets-swamp-rock band the Raskolnikovs.

What is the inspiration behind the song 'Ruby'? What is it all about?

The Golden Awesome's music exists purely within the sounds created by the players - the inspiration is simply to form songs intuitively, making them fit into our ever-growing, ever-shifting, never-articulated concept of what the band is about. This song is titled "Ruby" to celebrate the birth of our bass player Matthew Steindl's daughter Ruby-Jean.

Who did you work with on the song?

The Golden Awesome do all their recording and mixing autonomously, with guitarist Johannes Contag having mixed numerous songs and albums from a range of artists over the 90s and 00s. "Ruby", as well as the rest of debut album "Autumn", was mastered by Warn Defever of His Name Is Alive, an 80s/90s US band associated with the 4AD record label.

Does it have a video? What is that about?

The video for "Ruby" is the Golden Awesome's latest video and was produced by Matthew Steindl. It was filmed entirely in New York City.

What other New Zealand artists do you look up to?

As far as musicians go, we are largely influenced by the artists traditionally associated with the Flying Nun and Xpressway labels. Current acts we enjoy include T54, Ghost Wave, Terror of the Deep, the Blueness, Detrytus, Beastwars, Little Bark, Marineville, Die!Die!Die!, Surf City, Street Chant, Badd Energy, Disasteradio, Manthyng, and many others.

What instruments do you play?

Voices, guitars, basses, drums.

What do you consider when you're getting dressed to perform (clothes/ makeup/ hair do etc)?

We like to wear casual clothes that we feel comfortable in, and our on-stage outfits may or may not match. Unlike with other bands we have played in, we have no intention of presenting a uniform band appearance. The music projects everything that this band is about; the visual dimension is simply a band on a stage without much further pretense than the high-volume onslaught coming from the speakers.