Happy Music, Happy Times: Goldwood + Max Gertler Talk Humble Beginnings, Disney World + More!

Throughout the years, Brooklyn, New York has been the birthplace of many of Hip-Hop’s greats. From Jigga Man hailing from the Marcy Projects, to new legends in the making like Joey Bada$$ from Flatbush, BK is the closest thing to a Mecca that Hip-Hop has. Though the roster has been dense, stylistically, most of the BK greats were known for having a “Golden Age” sound — aka a more lyrically driven record with soul samples. Now, a new wave of synth driven, drum heavy, new age music is swarming in from the borough. Stars like Bobby Shmurda and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie have made it a bit more acceptable to go left, sonically, and that’s exactly what Goldwood and Max Gertler have decided to do with their new collaborative project, Di$ney.

Meshing crooning melodies with trappy lyrical content, the duo has emerged as a couple of internet favorites. Standout tracks from the tape are the viral hit, “Harambe Memorial Track“, “Space Mountain” and the self titled, “Di$ney” which is a personal favorite. Hailing from the collective, Delivery Boys, Goldwood and Gertler have been making music for sometime now. RESPECT. Mag had a chance to chop it up with the young duo about everything from starting out in Brooklyn, to early influences and Disneyworld. Check it out below.

RESPECT.: Where are you guys from?

Goldwood: I am from Brooklyn, New York.

Max Gertler: I’m also from Brooklyn. We actually grew up on the same street.

RESPECT.: What type of artists are you guys?

Goldwood: I am a Hip-Hop artist with some extra-musical qualities.

Gertler: I don’t know if I’d consider myself a Hip-Hop artist. I make rap music, but I see rap and Hip-Hop as two completely different things. I just try to make hauntingly beautiful music, sh*t that gives you the chills.

RESPECT.: What made you guys fall in love with music?

Goldwood: I think it was around my 12th birthday or something. I came to this sudden realization that the majority of my time was spent listening to music. It was during that moment that I realized I love this sh*t. After that, I really started living and breathing for music.

Gertler: I don’t think I truly appreciated music until love started getting involved. Once I realized a song could make me feel some type of way about a girl it changed everything. Plus there’s that element of nostalgia.

RESPECT.: What made you guys fall in love with Hip-Hop?

Goldwood: My brothers. Since I was a toddler they were playing Hip-Hop music for me. It was just everyday sh*t it was a part of my life.

Gertler: I actually hated Hip-Hop until high school. I didn’t like rap until I heard rap that I could relate to. Once I felt a connection it was game over.

RESPECT.: How did the idea for Di$ney come about?

Goldwood: (Laughs) Well, the idea came from Max. He had a rough breakup, took an impulse trip to Disneyworld and dyed his hair. He hit me up when he got back and said he was trying make a concept album where we go to Disneyworld and die… Pretty clever, huh? Obviously the project changed a lot since then but that’s how it came to be.

Gertler: What’s wild is the project completely changed meanings as we were making it. At first it was about that girl, but that was silly because I was the one that broke up with her. It was more like ‘you don’t make me happy so I need to go to the happiest place on earth’. My boy Evan got me in for free and we just went around EPCOT getting turnt. But as we were making the project, “DI$NEY” started to symbolize the idea of making it as an artist. We were putting everything we had into the project, because the idea was we were gonna go to Disney and never come back. Everybody thought we’re just on this vacation, but the goal was to do what we loved professionally. If you’re doing what you love it’s almost like you’re not actually working, so the goal was this never ending vacation.

Goldwood: People can expect some big things from us. Expect more music from me and Max, more music from the Delivery Boys. I’m coming out with a tape with the producer team 2Eleven. Tyrin‘s tape is coming out soon. You can expect some big name features and big name producers. We’re also doing a few college shows, so college people you better pop out. Oh and of course we have some music videos in the works.

Gertler: I got a solo EP dropping hopefully within the next month. It’s called Paper Route. We got a song with Black Dave dropping soon.

RESPECT.: Who are your inspirations?

Goldwood: Oh man, so many, but I definitely started rapping because of DOOM. There was a 2 year period in my life, like from 7th grade to 9th grade where I deadass did not listen to one other artist than DOOM. So I guess you could say he’s my biggest inspiration.

Gertler: I started rapping because of Eminem when I was 14. Tyler, the Creator inspired me to be creative. My musical taste has expanded greatly since then. But truthfully, I had to completely shut rap music out of my life while making this project. I was trying to make something that no other rapper has made before, so I didn’t want to be hearing what anyone else was doing. I wanted my experiences to my my inspiration.

RESPECT.: How did you guys start making music? What’s one time you wanted to quit, but kept pushing?

Goldwood: Man the first song I ever wrote was to the “Earl” beat and it was all about cutting up bodies and sh*t. I was hella into Odd Future. But I wrote a few songs after that and this dude Hugo had a mic at his crib and that’s how I recorded my first song in 9th grade. I can’t really think of anytime that I wanted to stop. There was a point my senior year of high school where my mind was in a drought and I couldn’t get anything down for months. That sh*t was wild frustrating. I guess I almost quit back then, or I told myself to make other music like punk sh*t. But that didn’t last long.

Gertler: I made music as a joke for a long time. I would make beats and just record freestyles on them with my boys. I did that for like four years, pretty much every day. Then at a certain point I realized I might as well do it seriously, because I obviously cared about it. For the past year I haven’t gone a day without making something new.

RESPECT.: Where can people keep up with you and your guys’ music?

Goldwood: You could follow my soundcloud (soundcloud.com/xgoldwoodx) , that’s probably the best. Follow my Instagram (@xgoldwoodx). Find me on Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.