In this way, GABBY SWORD lives up to its title. A record to be wielded against previous iterations. To clear the ground for new growth. Smith’s work has always stood out in its honesty and vulnerability, but aided by collaborator and spouse Barrie Lindsay (AKA Barrie), the new material is more forthright in nature. More succinct in its path to the truth. Smith first took on the name Gabby’s World for 2018’s Beast on Beast, though if that album offered glimpses of the titular landscape, then GABBY SWORD is the first proper invitation to the listener to take a step inside.

I had the pleasure of asking Smith some questions about the record. Read on for a deep dive into its influences, imagery and accompanying visual art.

Thanks so much for speaking with us Gabby, and congratulations on the new record. You are no stranger to putting albums into the world, but is it fair to say the experience of releasing GABBY SWORD felt a little different?

Thanks so much for having me! Releasing this album definitely felt different in so many ways. First of all, I hadn’t released anything in quite a while. When my last album, Beast on Beast, came out in 2018, my life looked almost nothing like it does now. To name a few differences, I was living in Brooklyn, I had set personnel in my band, Gabby’s World was touring all the time, but also I was in undergrad full time. Now, I live in France half of the time and the other half wherever, I’m married, I’m out as queer, I don’t have a set band, and I haven’t toured Gabby’s World in a long time. It has felt really different to write and record under these new circumstances. 

Also, over the past five years the music industry has shifted so dramatically! Ways of promoting oneself and touring and releasing and making money… it all looks totally different and it changed so quickly. So in response to all of these things, I decided to do an experiment. Instead of releasing music the usual way (maybe two or three singles and a full album release date), I put out one song each month for all of 2023. By December 1, the whole album was out. 

I thought it would be a good idea to shake things up a bit and see if I could generate new interest in the project by making it feel like a subscription, but without the commitment or something. Fans could have something to look forward to every month and new listeners would have more opportunities to be exposed to the music.

There’s a tangible sense of rebirth across the record, something which feels as hard won as it is affirming. As though previous versions or imitations of yourself had to be vanquished in order for something more truthful to finally break through. In many ways this feels like the first literal dispatch from Gabby’s World?

TOTALLY! That’s such a good way of putting it. Even though this is the second album under the moniker, I feel it’s a lot more representative of my taste, sonic palette, and decision-making. 

Could we talk a little about the influence Barrie Lindsay had on this process and the record more generally? It’s interesting how something so inherently personal can owe so much to outside influence, and how different ways of seeing both music and the world can both break new ground and reveal older truths.

I think Barrie’s influence comes through in two major ways. The first is that she’s a profoundly good listener. This skill can manifest as an overall productive energy or as addressing something specific I’m trying to achieve. I can communicate a vibe or a really vague idea of what I’m going for and she’ll get it immediately, sending me off in the right direction. I can also have a really specific idea of what I want, like an exact drum sound or a particular synth sound, and she’s able to make it happen. She’s very skilled as a producer and musician and knows her way around her very organized library of sounds and plugins. It’s really cool and it makes exciting things happen in the studio. 

The second way that Barrie influenced the record is her unique way of encouraging me to keep chasing my vision. Anytime I get off-track, she’s right there to gently nudge me back toward the goal, whether it’s in writing, producing, or overall career woes. I guess that’s also part of being such a good listener, but she is so motivating and motivated and it makes her a great person to work with. 

She’s also an incredible visual artist. She took several of my press photos, co-directed and filmed some of the many music videos that accompanied this album, and produced even more videos and photo shoots throughout the album cycle. Barrie is amazing!

Has it been difficult, revealing a more intimate picture of yourself? Dropping a mask is often held as an empowering action, but of course there’s comfort in a certain level of concealment. There must be something daunting in songs like ‘Sank’ with its personal picture of grief, or the examination of identity on tracks like ‘Closing Door’?

My songwriting has always been pretty diaristic and felt revealing, but I think this album has a lot more straightforward language. Writing more directly was a challenge I set for myself, starting with when I wrote ‘Sank’. I tried to apply that ethos to all of the songs on the record as best I could. I think now I’m addicted to writing this way and would probably struggle to go back to my old, more cryptic ways!

I have to ask about the title. A sword is both an object of attack and self-defense, as well as something with ceremonial weight. Could you speak a little on what it represents for you?

To begin with, it’s really easy to misread Gabby’s World as Gabby Sword, especially when it’s mashed together in a hyperlink, like “gabbysworld.” Oliver Kalb pointed that out to me and it made me laugh. I’ve kept it in my back pocket as an album title for years, pretty much since the project adopted the moniker. 

Separately, my friend Luke Jenner once said that every artist is carrying around a metaphorical sword that they use to get ahead in their industry. He said that even if you think other musicians are your best friends, they’ve always got their sword ready on their person and are likely willing to use it against you if they have to. Even if they don’t mean you any harm, it’s just how one keeps their precarious position in the industry safe. 

I don’t like that I see the merit in such a cynical approach to interacting with one’s peers, but it’s especially applicable in such a precarious industry as the music world. I see it come out sometimes in others in professional social situations and, admittedly, sometimes in myself, despite my best efforts. I think about it a lot when I’m navigating professional events and try to remember to leave my sword at home, or if I forget, in the green room.

Lastly, an album is such a powerful vehicle through which to announce who you are and what you’re about. The title GABBY SWORD is like, here I am, here is my sword that I poured all of my recent energies into. I’m going to use it to show you what I’m all about. It’s tangible and it’s the beginning of its legacy. If I ever had to own a sword, that would be its name. 

Can we turn to the artwork a moment? It sometimes feels album art is neglected these days, often relegated to a thumbnail on a screen, so it’s always a pleasure to come across a record where the art feels such an intrinsic part of the release. I’d love to hear more about that side of things.

Part of the joy of releasing a song every month was that each one had to be accompanied by artwork. I had a blast figuring out the visual vibe of each song. I often felt so inspired that it led to several music videos to accompany the songs, way more than I expected to or than I’ve had on any previous albums.

I also had the pleasure of working and collaborating with so many visual artists whom I’ve come to admire over the past several years. I was just waiting to have a reason to reach out to them. One of those people was Allie Oldfield, who I’d been following on Instagram for a while, and who made a beautiful landscape illustration for “Powerful.” I ran into Zoë Greenway at SXSW last year who ended up making two of my favorite videos, for “33” and “Theme from Gabby’s World.” I’d always wanted an excuse to work with Sang Patten, Ginger Leigh Ryan, and Mae Stark, who photographed, made up, and styled me, respectively, for the photo shoot that I’ve used for a lot of the artwork and press. And, of course, it was such a treat to collaborate with Grace Weir, a true human multitool, who schemed with me on four music videos and the graphic design for most of the single art. 

And lastly but most importantly, is Kirini O.K., my childhood best friend, who painted the album cover. We reconnected in the past few years and I was absolutely floored by the work she was making. She makes these hyper-realistic, absolutely stunning oil paintings. We worked together on the concept for the album cover and I could not believe what she made. It was way beyond my expectations. She’s such a genius and I’m so lucky to have gotten to work with her. 

Do you know what the future looks like for Gabby’s World? Do you feel you have laid concrete foundations with this album, is change always going to be a part of the process? 

The beauty of Gabby’s World is it’s reflective of whatever I’m going through and whatever I’m into at the moment. I hope to continue to change and grow and have that reflected in my work. What’s immediately next is focusing on a live show for a while. I haven’t gotten to perform Gabby’s World in a while and I’m really looking forward to it. 

GABBY SWORD is out now via Carrot All Records and available from the Gabby’s World Bandcamp page.

Photos by Sang Moon, album artwork by Kirini O.K

The post As I Restore You Disappear: A Conversation with Gabby’s World appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Back in December we introduced a new release from East Vancouver post-punks Aversions with single ‘New Whip’, a track which “combine[d] heavyweight riffs, pounded percussion and acerbic vocals to comment on our contemporary moment.” Album You Wanted the Bike has now been released, and as single ‘Undecider’ shows, the record builds upon the promised heft, leaning towards post-hardcore in its pummelling momentum. Written in the chaotic final days of the Trump presidency, it’s a song full of anxiety and latent violence, drawing on a whole host of political and social themes in three and a half minutes of Strummer-esque polit-punk. Check out the video directed by Bruno Trivelli of Death XII:

You Wanted the Bike is out now and available from the Aversion Bandcamp page.

Green Gardens – This Is My Fault

Leeds art rock outfit Green Gardens have announced a new record, This Is Not Your Fault, with the release of lead single ‘This Is My Fault’. Written in what the band say was “a whirlwind state of inspiration after hearing a Ralph Ineson monologue in which he’s crying and pleading with God to lift an imagined curse from him,” the track is the perfect introduction to the four-piece’s distinctive style, combining swaying, laidback harmonies with fuzzy guitars and an almost Medieval preoccupation with heavy themes and gothic imagery.

Gabby’s World – Mussel

When we say Gabby’s World, the project of New York producer and songwriter Gabby Smith, is releasing new album GABBY SWORD this this year on Carrot All Records, we mean year quite literally. Because Smith is unveiling a new song every month, concluding in a full release in December. The final offering of what Smith calls a “triad of gay awakening songs,” latest offering ‘Mussel’ represents the evolution of Smith’s sound and focus since albums like 2015’s O.K. A sincere engagement with what it means to become entwined with another person captured in a style at once physical and ethereal. Watch the video directed by Grace Weir, Barrie Lindsay, and Gabby Smith themselves below:

GABBY SWORD will be released on the 1st December via Carrot All Records.

The Handsome Family – Joseph

Hollow, the forthcoming album from The Handsome Family, originated in a single, unnerving moment shared by Brett and Rennie Sparks during a long winter night. “One night around 4 a.m. Rennie started screaming in her sleep,” Brett explains. “She screamed, ‘Come into the circle Joseph! There’s no moon tonight.’ Scary as it was, I thought, man, that’s a good chorus!” The resulting track ‘Joseph’ develops this moment into a wider context of supernatural foreboding, though within the ominous imagery lies a sense of humanity too. Something nostalgic, a sense of longing, as though within the portents and omens lies the promise of something almost romantic.

It’s 1:49AM
Crawl under the bed
Whisper my name
It’s time to begin

Hollow is out on the 8th September and you can find out more on The Handsome Family website.

Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim – As It All Goes By

Starling, the debut album from New York-based composer and violinist Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim, is both an encapsulation of an individual’s unique understanding of patterns and sound and a testament to the value collaboration. Together with Alfredo Colón (EWI/soprano saxophone) and Kalia Vandever (trombone/fx), Lim creates soundscapes within this spirit—unapologetically singular in its improvisation yet fully dependent on the input of others—with each musician offering one solo track on the album as though to call attention to their individuality before knitting back into the wider sound. Closer ‘As It All Goes By’ plays as the triumphant reunion of the these forces, bringing Lim’s vision to life it all of its detail and wonder. As Joey Chang’s album notes so cogently conclude: “Starling demands the right to self-determine, to be the driver of one’s own story, and to say, without apology, who you are.”

Oceanator – Part Time

We’ve written about Elise Okusami’s Oceanator quite a lot over the last few years, taken with her ability to explore pretty deep themes and feelings with fun and energetic indie rock. Co-written with Greg Katz (of Cheekface), new standalone single ‘Part Time’ (out now via Polyvinyl Records) might be the catchiest thing Okusami has made to date. A song about taking small steps toward making positive changes, it captures a sunny 60s rock & roll vibe with springy keys, crisp guitar riffs and the ear-worm chorus of “I know that I can get by if I try /Part time!”

Patio – En Plein Air

Their first new music since 2019 LP Essentials (which we described as “a knowing smile, a bitter laugh and an angry scream, all at once.”), ‘En Plein Air’ is the new single from New York post-punk trio Patio. Released via the good folks at Fire Talk Records, the song immediately shows that the band have still got it; all negative space, skittering percussion and razor-sharp stabs of guitar. There’s deadpan delivery and wry humour, a luminous vulnerability and even a subtle glow of disco bliss. The band say its a song about “winning a fight, for once, but by proxy—finding the right thing to say, but five years too late.” But as they say, better late than never.

‘En Plein Air’ is out now via Fire Talk and available via the Patio Bandcamp page.

Snake Lips – Smooth Brain No Wrinkles

Portland, Maine punk outfit Snake Lips are set to return with Dice EP later this summer with Repeating Cloud and Totally Real Records, and lead single ‘Smooth Brain No Wrinkles’ invites listeners into the distinctive personality of the project. Because, as the song’s title might suggest, the Snake Lips style combines its compelling energy with a mischievous irony, tapping into a Japandroids-esque momentum to unleash the cathartic potential of self-deprecation. Couple in the FromSoftware-inspired video, and the ‘Smooth Brain No Wrinkles’ will have you dodgerolling right the way through the summer months.

Dice EP is out on the 11th August via Repeating Cloud and Totally Real Records and you can pre-order it now.

 Strawberry Runners – Circle Circle

Their first new release proper since 2017’s superb In the Garden, In the Night, Strawberry Runners have returned with single ‘Circle Circle’ on Duper Moon Records. Lead Emi Night arranged the track alongside Michael Cormier O’Leary, and invited the likes of Benedict Kupstas, Erika Nininger and Stephen Becker to lend their talents. Written during the fevered state of illness, the song taps into the cyclical movements of a troubled mind, though Night pushes through the experience to find solid ground on the other side. As though learning to suspend attempts to fight against exhausting rhythms and instead recognise them as a part of life. What emerges is a sense of stability informed by understanding an compassion, a patience which lessens the impact of any specific discomfort or frustration in favour of a wider curiosity.

Find out more about Strawberry Runners here.

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“Eskimeaux is basically me: it’s an empowered persona that has brought me warmth and fulfilment in times of isolation and confusion about my origins”

And with this knowledge of the origins of the name comes a glimpse into what has shaped Smith’s sound. This is not a beginning. Smith has more or less grown up with Eskimeaux, grown into Eskimeaux. New album O.K. feels like the product of that development, borne out of a sense of purpose and artistic confidence that comes with long hard years of trial and error.

That said, while Eskimeaux is Smith, it would be a misnomer to label the project a solo venture. Quinn Moreland‘s pretty extensive history of Smith’s music career to-date for Impose hints at the influence other musicians have had on Smith, tracing the evolution of Eskimeaux from inception to present, which sees Smith at the centre of a talented group of people in Brooklyn (partly as The Epoch collective) who work together on their various musical projects. When you thank the likes of Told Slant, Bellows, Yours Are The Only Ears, Florist, Small Wonder, Sharpless and Mitski for helping create your record, you know you are in good hands. As our preview of the album stated back in March:

“While the proof will be in the pudding, it seems O.K. is a testament to the power of gathering good friends and kind strangers who are all pulling in the same direction, a reminder that good, carefully put together art has infinitely more value than whatever the PR men and women try to push at you”

O.K. feels like an epiphany, where Smith has found the required confidence (almost certainly with the help of her friends) to speak openly without distortion or the safety-net of irony. The biggest temptation when feeling isolated and alone is to accentuate the feeling of dissociation, to lie to yourself or others by claiming that being understood (ie. less alone) is not needed. This could be through angry, primal art which strives to remind everyone that they are merely phony, bullshit-ridden animals who will grow old and die, or by creating art so abstract and inhuman that no-one can recognise it, retreating into the false security of faux-mysticism which aims to transcend the need for human connection. While Eskimeaux was never near the extreme ends of these avenues, Smith’s early work did see her feelings/message buried beneath a haze of ambient noise. O.K. sees this stripped back in favour of candid pop songs which fit very nicely into The Epoch back catalogue.

The album confronts loneliness head-on, outlining the strange but undeniable fact that each of us are distinct creatures cut off from the thoughts of anyone else, even those who mean the world to us. In lieu of telepathy, we are forced to communicate in crude alternatives, arranging words and gestures haphazardly in the hope of them saying what we really mean. ‘I Admit I’m Scared’, a song which worries about the effects you have one your loved ones, puts this quite beautifully:

“And everything I said
spewed like sparklers from my mouth
they looked pretty as they flew
but now they’re useless and burnt out”

While all the songs are linked by sincerity, there is a variation of sounds and styles across the album. Opener ‘Folly’ is a folk song bathed in reverb and guitars, the narrator casting a significant other as something magnificent and unknowable. ‘Pocket Full of Posies’ is a creepy, gritty track of vulnerability, while ‘Broken Necks’ is a bona fide pop song, a heartbreaking collapse of a relationship rendered danceable with synths and clap-along percussion and a catchy chorus. Current favourite ‘The Thunder Answered Back’ is more fierce, bubbling with certainty before exploding in the cathartic refrain of “You coward, you hummingbird”. The track continues with a dramatic closing, euphoric and elemental: 

“I screamed out how’d it get this bad? And the thunder answered back
if you know not what you lack then you must unturn your back
Your inside is overcast you are tethered to your past
and it must feel like fucking hell to be a patchwork of yourself,
a bunch of scraps thrown and sewn around your bones
and though you’re alone it’s holding you too tightly.
But who are you?
From where do you come?
What do you believe in?
Whom do you love?”

The sense of loneliness never leaves, but it’s joined by the acceptance of the weird paradoxical truth that you can never be OK without first recognizing the fact that you won’t always be OK. And, perhaps more importantly, the understanding that everyone is in the same boat. Obviously, for this to be a comfort then people need to make it known, so it’s lucky indeed that ‘Alone at the Party’ is the anthem of this realisation, finding solace and community in the fact that we are all at some level lonely. This is what Eskimeaux does best, she says things that might not be cool or pretty or ‘normal’ in order to help. In this way O.K. is like an unveiling, an opening of the chest, with Smith delving into herself to show us every gruesome detail that we too possess. We see her heart and lungs and rounded ribs, the fragile threads of nerves and blood vessels which twitch and tremble in the spotlight, we see a space lined with thorns or glass or thick black bile in which sits something hard and smooth and bright, something that we recognise despite it having no shape or weight or name. Closer ‘That’s OK’ concludes the viewing, cleansing the cavity with peace and sewing herself back up safe in the knowledge that communication has finally been achieved:

“Frankie is face down in our bed,
you are downstairs
and all I want is to hear you say
is ‘we’re not the same but that’s ok’.”

O.K. is about reality, the moment we live in and the people we share it with. It’s about the things we want and the things we wish for and the things we can’t control. It’s about doing the best you can and hoping it’s enough, about accepting and learning and growing so that whatever hand you’re dealt, you carve out some semblance of meaning and happiness to make everything worthwhile.

You can buy the album digitally from Eskimeaux’s Bandcamp, on CD/vinyl from Double Double Whammy or on beautiful cassettes from Mt. Home Arts (see below).

Embroidery artwork by Susannah Lee Cutler

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Eskimeaux is the recording project of Brooklyn-based musician and producer Gabrielle Smith. Adopting the moniker in 2007, Smith has put out a series of albums which vary from weird experimental noise to sad bedroom folk. Her forthcoming album O.K. on Double Double Whammy is said to be ‘beat-driven and poetic bedroom pop’, which sounds pretty good to us.

The usual Eskimeaux band consists of Felix Walworth (of Told Slant), Lago Lucia, Oliver Kalb (of Bellows) and Jack Greenleaf (of Sharpless), who also helped Smith arrange, mix and produce O.K. It seems clear that Smith has enlisted the talents of her friends to ensure that her album is as good as it could possibly be. As well as the DDW links, she is also a founding member of the Brooklyn songwriting/art collective The Epoch, and this release utilises all of her connections in the independent scene. Aside from the aforementioned band members, Smith also thanks Henry Crawford (of Small Wonder) and Mitski Miyawaki (AKA just plain Mitski) among others. The artwork is no less a team effort, with the main embroidery design by Susannah Lee Cutler (of Yours Are The Only Ears) adapted from a photo by Andrew Piccone, the cover photos by Richard Gin, the insert by Colin Alexander (of Flashlight O) and the spine by Emily Sprague (who you may know as Florist). While the proof will be in the pudding (i.e. how the full release sounds), it seems O.K. is a testament to the power of gathering good friends and kind strangers who are all pulling in the same direction, a reminder that good, carefully put together art has infinitely more value than whatever the PR men and women try to push at you.

Only one song is available right now but it definitely whets the appetites. ‘Broken Necks’ fulfils the poetic pop promise, with Smith’s sincere lyrics of love and altruism supported by unsteady percussion which give the whole thing that weird feeling where life has you sad and scared but you wouldn’t change it for the world.

“When I had a million arms I would wrap them around all your body parts
try to keep away all that could do you harm
try to keep out sickness and keep you warm

but every time the going got tough one by one they were falling off
While you were breaking your neck trying to keep your head up
I was breaking my neck just to stick it out for you
and I know we’d hang out everyday if I wasn’t 100 miles away

from our tadpoles gathering in the creek
and our baby birds learning how to shriek
All the eagles I still haven’t seen and the trees proudly alive and green
I could swear they are there just for you and me
whether friends or in love there’s an indisputable beauty”

You can pre-order O.K. now from Double Double Whammy on variety of vinyl designs. If cassette tapes are more your thing then luckily the good folks over at Mt. Home Arts have you covered (in what promises to be quite spectacular style – see below for an early prototype). We’ll write a full review once we get to hear it but trust our instincts and put your order in now.

P.S. The main photo is by the supremely talented Andrew Piccone.

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