INTERVIEW

LOOKING INWARD AND MOVING FORWARD – Florida post-hardcore band Gouge Away is back, stronger than ever, and currently on a headlining tour across the States to celebrate the release of their long-awaited third studio album, Deep Sage. After a six-year hiatus from releasing new music, this record marks a pivotal moment in their journey—one shaped by resilience, reinvention and a return to their roots.

The seeds of Deep Sage were planted back in 2019 while Gouge Away was touring in support of their sophomore album, Burnt Sugar. By 2020, the band began demoing new material, but like many artists, they faced the unexpected challenge of a global pandemic. This pause forced them to reflect and recalibrate, with members relocating and adjusting to life’s evolving demands. When the world began to open up again, the band reunited in Portland, Oregon, to finalize their ideas. Months later, they found themselves at Atomic Garden East with producer Jack Shirley, where Deep Sage would truly come to life.

Recorded entirely analog and predominantly live, Deep Sage reflects a raw, unpolished honesty that’s become synonymous with Gouge Away’s identity. The band captured the immediacy of five friends playing together in a room—just as they had in their early days in Florida.

“It was super fun because it was like we were just playing together at a show,” frontwoman Christina Michelle shared. “We were laughing and very excited to bounce off each other. I think when you record that way, things come out that you didn’t plan.” With Christina in an isolation booth and the rest of the band playing together in the live room, the recording sessions were energetic and cathartic.

Sonically, Deep Sage takes a step forward while maintaining the urgency, noise, and introspection Gouge Away is known for. Pulling from the nostalgia of the bands they grew up listening to, the album blends visceral energy with deeply personal lyrics. It’s the unvarnished sound of a band weathering the storm, channeling their vulnerability, rage, and resilience into something powerful. As their headlining tour winds across the country, it’s clear that Gouge Away isn’t just back—they’re unstoppable, fueled by the grit of their past and the fire of what’s still to come.

Luna caught up with Christina Michelle and guitarist Mick Ford backstage at Chicago’s Cobra Lounge, just after their sold-out show. The band reflected on the transformative impact Deep Sage has had since its release, the creative process of the album and how tour has been treating the band.

LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?

MICK: Musically, Fugazi, Unwound, Nirvana – as boring as it is but it’s true because they’re the best – Lizard and Television. Angular stuff that has melody. Christina's vocal and melodic sense is definitely very different.

CHRISTINA: I try not to listen to what they listen to, so I can approach it in a different way. I generally like Fugazi, but I feel like the through line for all of us, even though we all like very different stuff, it's always going to be Nirvana and Jesus Lizard at the end of the day.

MICK: We all like music that is not what you would think we like. I'm a DJ, so I do a lot of disco, funk and boogie, stuff that's not punk at all. Like dance music. I think it’s a lot of taking inspiration from various genres and trying to translate it in our own way.

LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?

CHRISTINA: I feel like urgency is a big one. Introspection and looking inward is a big one. I feel like our early stuff used to be very straightforward punk songs about things like what's wrong with you and what's wrong with the government and very targeted. As we've grown up, it's a lot more inward looking.

MICK: If you can't understand you, how can you ever change anything outwardly? We're all responsible.

LUNA: With Deep Sage being out in the world after putting it together since 2019, how do you feel about the album and its impact a year later?

MICK: It was scary doing it.

CHRISTINA: It was a scary record to make, and then we did support tours and we're opening for other bands and other people's crowds. I think to do some headline shows, we're learning every night that people actually respond and have an emotional connection to the work.

MICK: You don’t feel like anybody will like it. We made a record that we love and that’s very us and that's really like heart on the sleeve. That's what we wanted to do, so people reacting to it is weird because we're used to people wanting to hear what we did when we started and we're a very different band from when we started.

CHRISTINA: I think we always expect that people want to hear our old songs, but the more we play live and headline our own shows, the more we realize people really like this record and it's a surprise every night still. “Dallas,” for example, when people get emotional and sing along, I'm still shocked because we really thought everyone was going to hate that.

MICK: I'll say we did four iterations of that song. The version that is on the record, there are four different versions of the song that we never put out before, like the first version of the song we wrote to the version that's on the record is completely different. The only thing that's the same is her melody. We rewrote the song around her melody, so it's crazy to work on something that long. Going from a song that’s a minute long and it's two chords, and then you’re making this six minute fucking song is crazy, but that's what the song asked for, so we did it.

LUNA: I would love to touch on the creative process behind the album. Recording Deep Sage completely analog and mostly live is a bold choice and Christina recorded vocals in an isolation booth while projecting them for the band to hear. How did this setup enhance the live recording dynamic and your overall connection during the sessions?

CHRISTINA: It was super fun because it was like we were just playing together at a show. Typically, the recording process is that the drummer plays for a whole day trying to get the best takes, and the guitar players play for days and days and try to get the best takes. Everyone is exhausted by the end of it, but we were just doing it live and it was fun. We were laughing and very excited to bounce off each other. I think when you record that way, things come out that you didn't plan. Things just happen and then you have it recorded.

MICK: It’s a very classic way to record. You can find videos of The Rolling Stones recording all their classic records, and they're all in the same room with sound boards between them. There's the percussionists over here, and they're playing guitar over there, and they would just do take after take after take, and that's what you hear. I think that's what we wanted it to feel like is the song, it's not pruned and it's not perfect.

CHRISTINA: It’s a record for the live show.

MICK: Which is also the Fugazi way in the way that the record gets you to come to the show. We just recorded it live. We did a lot of work, but the basis of everything is us which is important.

LUNA: The band is currently on tour to celebrate the Deep Sage release. Are there any specific moments or fan interactions from the tour that stand out to you as particularly meaningful?

MICK: The bartender downstairs is awesome. Jerome is awesome. He gave us some Malört because we were awesome. I've learned to love the little things. It's just people appreciating we played. It's nice that the staff or the bartender enjoys the music or at least the energy, that's always rewarding.

CHRISTINA: Playing “Dallas” in New York and people being very emotional about it, it hit me to a point where I cried during our set. I thought people would really not like this song, and people responded to it in an emotional way. They have their own personal things that they bring to it. I feel like we're all just crying in the club.

LUNA: Do you have any pre-show or post-show rituals or routines that help you get into the right headspace before hitting the stage?

CHRISTINA: I warm up so much and I probably warm up for 40 minutes. We usually do a shot of Jager together.

LUNA: Looking across your discography, is there a particular song that always feels like a crowd favorite or one you look forward to playing the most during a live show?

MICK: “Consider” because it’s fun and people always get stoked and we get to jam in the end. Any song that we get to jam and just go off the cuff which isn't very punk rock. It's more like Phish or the Grateful Dead, but we like that shit too.

LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?

CHRISTINA: I feel like I'm surprised every day that we're on tour. The rest of the year is festivals in the summer and some European touring.

MICK: We get to do Primavera Sound Barcelona, which is pretty fucking awesome. We’re planning on going and just enjoying the experience and seeing so many cool artists I never get to see.

CHRISTINA: I feel like everything right now is that we don't know how we're doing the things we're doing, but we're doing them and taking it day by day.