Gatsby’s Estate is the solo project of Jonathan Zarola, who is the drummer in Snow Mantled Love (who we like very much; having covered previously here, their debut featured on out list of favourite EPs from 2012). His debut EP, Intro/Extra, was released last week and represents a significant departure from Zarola’s work with Snow Mantled Love. On the surface the four songs here are far more upbeat, with 80s-style synths and infectious melodies, but on closer inspection there is a subtle thread of something else, something more subdued and human.
Intro/Extra is the project’s first release and so a chance for Zarola to set out his stall, to lay down his themes and ideas for the project. He says that Gatsby’s Estate represents the “contact between grandeur and the subtle, social and recluse”. The aim of the project is to present the “decade of excess through a shadowed lens”. Such contradictions are at the forefront of the EP. Why is it, at a time of great material excess and moral freedom, that everyone feels so lonely? Obviously this is where the project’s name comes in. For all the pomp and splendour of Jay Gatsby’s lifestyle, for all the beautiful people who attend his famous parties, he is ultimately unhappy and alone.
You can download the EP via the Gatsby’s Estate bandcamp page, for however much you feel like giving.