Feel the Up: Black Gold Sun on Community, Catharsis, and Saying Goodbye to Bottom of the Hill
Veronica and Anita on community, chosen family, and why no one will leave one of their shows sad.
There's a moment in talking with Veronica and Anita of Black Gold Sun where you stop taking notes and just start chatting and grinning, because the two of them elevate each other's thoughts the way genuine friends do, mid-"remember when." Then I have a hard time not sharing what it brings up for me; I'm getting woven into the conversation in what should be their interview. Their chemistry radiates to their stage presence; that alignment is evident in the music. Ahead of their EP release, a new video, and a bittersweet farewell show at Bottom of the Hill, we sat down to talk about what it means to build something joyful on purpose, in a time that doesn't always make room for joy.
The Itch Before the Band
Before Black Gold Sun existed, there were other bands these seasoned musicians took part in. Anita's musical history runs deep, including a stretch with Sistas in the Pit that we'll get to.
Veronica had been a Bay Area lifer, always in a band, always plugged into a scene, until she moved to Sacramento and found herself, for the first time, on the outside of it. It wasn't really about the music, she says. It was about connection. That absence brings her regularly back to the Bay.
Anita's many creative projects were spinning when something clicked around Election night 2024. She paused everything and thought, "Oh, America wants to do this?" She felt deeply that the world needed a Black girl punk band, something people could rage inside of, safely. People were hurting, and pretending otherwise wasn't an option.
Even the band's name carries that intention forward: Black, for their heritage. Gold, for the Gold Coast of Africa where their ancestors left from. Sun, because every time they hit a stage, they light it up. They characterize every song as an act of service and love. Reality gives people enough to be sad about already, nobody needs to pay money to feel worse. Every Black Gold Sun song is built to leave you up. According to Anita, they'll play a set, and they'll give you a hug to go with it.
I asked them which track off the EP means the most right now, and the answer came fast: "Feel the Up." [LISTEN]
"People need a release, and it's a release," Veronica says. The lyrics aren't ornate, there's no fluff to hide behind. That's the point. It's a song of pure praise and encouragement, the kind of thing most of us don't get nearly enough of, and all of us need. A video for the track is on the way, and the band can barely contain how excited they are to share it.
What Punk Gets Right and Where It Has Work to Do
Punk has always sold itself as the home for outsiders, the place that throws out the rulebook. Veronica and Anita believe that, mostly.
The DIY spirit is real, Veronica says: people booking their own shows, pressing their own records, putting out their own zines, no label required, and doing it with respect and openness. Anita lights up talking about what that actually looks like in practice: every ethnicity, every kind of person, furries showing up in force at Gilman and at the Colonial in Sacramento. "I'm just so grateful we live here," she says, though she's already dreaming about taking the band on the road and wondering how that same welcome will travel.
The ideal has some cracks. Veronica points to the gatekeeping that shows up — who decides who or what is "punk enough"?
Anita has a cleaner answer for the purists who might try that on her. "Have you ever toured with Iggy and the Stooges? No? I have. See ya."
Bottom of the Hill: A Bittersweet Goodbye
On September 9th, Black Gold Sun plays Bottom of the Hill, a venue that's closing its doors, and one that means everything to both of them and so many bands that got their first moment there. Veronica has played there, watched countless friends play there, and she's holding both grief and hope about what comes after. "Is this an ending, or is it a phoenix moment? What comes next?" There was an agreement in the room that it would be great for someone to swoop in and save it, along with its history — and if there's a tech bro or sis out there with the means to do something great for the world, here's an idea: buy the building, keep it alive.
Anita's earlier project, Sistas in the Pit (lineup: Ieela Grant on drums, Kofy Brown on bass, and Anita Lofton on guitar), credits Bottom of the Hill with their first big break, a show that helped build momentum toward bigger shows and, eventually, a tour with Iggy and the Stooges.
Around that same era, Veronica was playing in Dorata with Katie Colpitts of Skip the Needle. This interwoven thread runs through the whole scene, which Anita describes as zero percent competition and instead "beautifully supportive," when Anita left Sistas in the Pit, Shelley Doty of Skip the Needle joined on guitars.
The Oakland Tribune recently named the September 9th show one of seven not to miss before the venue closes. Anita's message for the walls of Bottom of the Hill, if she could leave just one thing behind: "Thank you for welcoming us ALL!"
Letting the Crowd Rewrite the Song
Live shows change things. Veronica describes how a song rehearsed one way in practice can shift entirely once they feel the room, with Anita pivoting mid-performance, chasing the crowd's energy in real time. A show at the Stork Club in Oakland is the clearest example: the curtain hadn't even fully opened before the audience locked in, and the whole room was electric before a note really landed. There's an admiration for the fluidity they bring to their performances, Anita's improv, Veronica getting it and adjusting, that makes the music organic and alive, embodying everything they put into it: anger, hope, strength, a little mystery of the unexpected, and embracing the moment.
About the EP
Is the EP where Black Gold Sun came from, or where they're headed? Their answer: neither, exactly. The EP is a time capsule of right now, the state of the world as they're living it. Songs like "Feel the Up," "Fight," "Woke Up Today," and "Trust & Believe" are meant to be opened two hundred years from now, the way people once sealed messages for the future, so whoever finds them will know exactly what this moment felt like.
When it came to creating the EP, there were no compromises. "We make what we want. Nobody is going to tell us anything." And they made it with gratitude to spare, recording at the historic Sausalito studio known as The Plant, home to the Metallica room, one of Anita's favorite bands of all time. The accompanying video was shot at Hyde Studios in San Francisco.
What the Community Gave Them Back
Veronica shared openly: confidence. She was always the odd duck, a little socially awkward, and Anita likes shoving a microphone in her face on a regular basis. Veronica is always focused on entertaining, not note-perfect, but present, delivering a message, and that's enough.
Anita's rule for the band is simple: if it ever stops being fun for them, they should tell her, it won't hurt her feelings, and go find something that is. That looseness is exactly what turns mistakes into magic. Like the time Veronica played a wrong run of notes mid-verse and the two of them just broke into laughter on stage, or the time Anita forgot an entire solo and they simply called it a remix.
One of the most beautiful things either of them has witnessed: a room with four generations of punks in it at once. Grandmas and their grandkids, side by side. Everybody is welcome.
Tradition, Broken and Built
Are they carrying on a tradition, breaking one, or building something new? Veronica said: all three. There's the tradition of punk itself, and they're claiming their place inside it. There's the tradition they're breaking, simply by being Black women doing this, bringing soul into a space that didn't always expect it. And there's the new tradition they're actively building, proof that women who look like them can do this music, on this stage, unapologetically.
Anita remembers a show in Alameda, looking out at a crowd with other Black girls in it and wanting to hit pause on the whole night just to check in with Veronica and QLynn, their drummer — are you seeing this? Punk, at its best, creates space for all of this: for every misfit, and for honoring, breaking, and building new traditions. All three, at once. That's Black Gold Sun.
