Fool’s Gold is a Los Angeles collective that weaves together western pop aesthetics with African rhythms and melodies. The group started as a side project of two young LA musicians, vocalist/bassist Luke Top and lead guitarist Lewis Pesacov, who set out to explore their shared love of various forms of African music (specifically Congolese, Ethiopan, Eritrean and Malian), Krautrock, and 80s dance influenced pop music. They quickly wrote a few inspired songs and asked friends, friends of friends and even strangers to join them on stage.

Not too long after their communal beginnings, Fool’s Gold developed organically into a full-time band. Although some of them met for the first time on stage, they soon became an air-tight collective. The cast of characters includes Garrett Ray (of Foreign Born) on drums, Jimmy Vincent and Matt Popieluch (of Foreign Born) on guitar, Amir Kenan (childhood friend of Luke’s from Israel) sings backup vocals and plays keys, Brad Caulkins and Mark Noseworthy on saxophones/flute, and on percussion: Orpheo McCord (who studied percussion in Ghana as well as moonlighted as drummer for The Fall), Brazilian/Mexican visual artist Salvador Placencia, Argentinean pop star Erica Garcia, Michael Tapper (ex-drummer of We Are Scientists), all of whom play a beautiful array of hand-made instruments including: Ewe, Gungon and Djembe skinned drums; Gankogui, Bananna bells and claves; Kashishi, nut-rattles, goat-toe rattles, Chekeres, Axatse shell gourds and an over-sized tambourine Mizhar bought on the street in Cairo, Egypt.