The Golden Rule

Fearless Radio Podcasts

After putting out a charting debut EP and putting a year’s worth of club dates behind them last year, Chicago modern indie/surf-punkers The Golden Rule are one of the city’s busiest bands, with a 2015 EP titled Crowes in tow.
The Golden Rule started out as a solo project for singer/guitarist Mohit Mehta in late 2012. After a few one-off gigs and some finely-written tunes, the debut EP These Shoes was released in May 2014, well-received by critics and local press.
Soon after, Mehta recruited Rob Miller on bass and Malcolm Rutter on drums to help him slug it out in the underground rock and roll club scene in Chicago. “We met at a record store north of Lakeview,” Mehta explains about teaming up with Miller. “I was playing with another group and we had brought all our stuff there, and the owner shut us down for being too loud.”
Rutter came along by random coincidence alone: “We went to Loyola Univeristy together. [Mohit] was in business school and I was a liberal arts kid myself,” Rutter explains. “Malcolm and I both had the same circle of friends, probably met once or twice, but never really hung out or anything. It was so random how we got in contact,” responds Mehta. “Craigslist,” explains Rutter, “solves 90% of the world’s problems. It was how we got things started and how I got in the group.”
With the trio intact, The Golden Rule started to make a name for themselves as one of the hardest working original rock bands in the Chicago DIY scene. They proceeded to take Chicago’s indie scene by storm in 2014, playing 17 dates in the summer alone to support the release ofThese Shoes and the music for the second EP came almost instantaneously as the group came together. “I brought these songs to the guys and we wound end up putting these incredible tunes together in two hours, which was fun but not the brightest idea, because we had an ever-changing setlist every night we played,” explains Mehta.
Between the first track off the Crowes EP and the last, The Golden Rule channels the straightforward, no-BS rock-and-roll that was so celebrated by the originators of the genre. With unmatched delivery and tasteful freneticism, you just have to bob your head. And it’s clear these guys don’t slow down.