FEATURE STORY
GOOD AS GOLD ETHAN GOLD IS A SONGWRITER, PERFORMER, COMPOSER, AND POET BY TERRA PALEY
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than Gold is truly a renaissance person, songwriter, performer, composer, poet, and a California native. Fascinating is too bland a word to describe him. His family history is etched in rock and roll legend and the San Francisco literary scene at a time when counterculture was developed on the spot. His future is unlimited and most definitely not left to fate. He was raised in San Francisco, a thoughtful child who took in everything the city offered. His father is Jewish-American novelist Herbert Gold, and his mother Melissa Dilworth was a WASP child of the East Coast, who was killed in a helicopter crash with famed rock concert impresario and holocaust orphan Bill Graham. Ethan and his twin filmmaker brother, Ari became motherless at a young age. In this chaotic environment, Gold developed his love of music and an appreciation for Mother Earth. He taught himself several
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L’CHAIM SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE • JUNE/JULY 2022
instruments and to write music. After graduating from Harvard, he moved to LA and began work as a film composer (most recently Don’t Let Go for Blumhouse/Universal), music producer, and sideman, while slowly building a body of work ranging from instrumental music to his highly personal albums. A more universal approach to songcraft is heard on his recent album Earth City 1: The Longing, which hit several well-deserved international best-album-of-2021 lists. Normally in interviews, we cover the restaurant or the home of the artist. It was not quite post-pandemic when we met at the Los Angeles River. Ethan said he loves the blend of nature and concrete. He pointed out a plant poking through what might be impossible circumstances and that birds will soon be attracted to it-the cycle of life. It takes a sensitive soul to see the beauty in this drought-stricken
