The year 2020 sure was not the most ideal time to form a band, especially for a group of musicians who never played together before. Indeed, frontman TJ Freda assembled New York rock quintet GIFT by cherry-picking members of some of his favorite other bands, crossing his fingers and hoping for the best.
Having assembled on a lark in the Big Apple from roots as diverse as Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Brazil and Boston, the musicians leaned on their collective deep experiences in numerous non-performing aspects of the biz as part of settling on a bold new sound – a dizzying blend of early shoegaze, classic 90s alternative rock and even modern pop.
Indeed, that GIFT emerged somewhat fully formed on their 2022 debut album Momentary Presence was a testament to the untapped creative potential laying deep within, and it was not long before the band was pricking up the ears of adventurous listeners both at home and across the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, Illuminator, their Aug. 23 debut album for revered New York independent label Captured Tracks, is the long-awaited payoff of GIFT s ever-growing musical and human chemistry. And while nods are apparent to label forerunners such as Beach Fossils, DIIV and Wild Nothing, GIFT are shepherding those elements into wondrous new vessels for the present moment – sleek, often danceable and frequently mesmerizing.
GIFT – vocalist/guitarist Freda, multi-instrumentalists Jessica Gurewitz and Justin Hrabovsky, drummer Gabe Camarano and bassist Kallan Campbell – are firmly enmeshed in the New York scene as talent buyers, photographers, DJs, audio engineers, art directors and, in the case of Campbell, an owner of the beloved Brooklyn DIY venue Alphaville. The melting pot of these varied skills helps make Illuminator an even more cohesive listening experience, with Gurewitz, a relative newcomer to making music herself, contributing a host of lyrics and vocal melodies and Camarano s drumming providing the crucial rhythmic underpinning to the album’s 11 tracks. Hrabovsky, who previously engineered at Asheville, N.C.s beloved studios Drop of Sun and Echo Mountain Recording, shared production duties with Freda for the first time.
“We had a lot more confidence going in,” Freda says. “The main goal was to take a big swing, embrace the pop sounds we love and clear the mist and clouds surrounding the last record to make it a lot punchier.”
Illuminator is led by “Wish Me Away,” whose earworm guitar lines, propulsive rhythms, riveting vocals and mind-expanding aural flourishes make it the perfect sonic springboard from Momentary Presence to where GIFT are going next. It is also a potent reminder that you can still preserve that twinkle in your eye even when you feel like everything s slipping away.
With GIFT repping the emerging New York scene for Captured Tracks, Freda admits he “felt a strong responsibility to make the best record possible. New York has featured a lot of post-punk and garage rock over the past decade, and we have just always wanted to do the opposite to what everyone else is doing. There is a new wave happening here much like there was in the early 2000s and 2010s, yet nobody is talking about it. It is going under people s radar.”
That is likely to change once the word is out about Illuminator, which sounds overjoyed every moment it is shaking up the sonic status quo. With new and unabashed inspiration from artists as wide-ranging as Madonna to MGMT, GIFT generates a dynamic genre fusion on Illuminator with just the right spritz of electronic elements and widescreen pop production techniques.
On songs such as "Light Runner", "Going In Circles" and “Destination Illumination,” Freda also demonstrates a newfound confidence and versatility, embracing pop music as a vehicle. “At our shows from the Momentary Presence tour, people would stand in the crowd wide-eyed without moving,” he recalls. “We wanted to get people moving with the new album, so we were really inspired by bands like Primal Scream, Oasis and Massive Attack. It is our psych-rock tribute to U.K. rave culture in the 90s.”
The message behind GIFT s new creations was just as important, with Freda, who has struggled with anxiety, channeling more of his raw feelings into the lyrics to a much more dramatic degree than on the debut.
“I do not want to feel sad when I am listening to music. That is never been the goal for GIFT,” he says. “It was always meant to be this escapist yet freeing euphoria that anyone could go out and dance to and feel amazing. But I also wanted to talk about some real feelings. There is this duality between darker lyrics underneath a joyous pop structure.”
To be sure, the relentless, often painful dance of love has never sounded as exhilarating as on “Going in Circles,” while the strident tone poem “Water in My Lungs” conjures the unreal feeling of watching a romantic partner both figuratively and literally fade from view. “This album has a lot of themes of going fast, time passing and things changing,” Freda says. “These moments can change in a split-second and affect the rest of your life. For better or worse, it is hard to control that. Instead, sometimes you just let yourself be taken – like you are surrendering.”
GIFT s instinct to push forward was further inspired by a growing friendship with Sonic Boom (Pete Kember), a key member of shoegaze/experimental rock legends Spaceman 3 and producer for bands clearly influenced by his own music, including Beach House, MGMT and Animal Collective s Panda Bear.
After connecting over a shared contribution to an A Place To Bury Strangers remix album, the musicians met up at Kember s home in Portugal – and proceeded to stay up talking until dawn. “He gave us a lot of sage wisdom about always remaining curious and not overthinking it,” Freda says.
It is no surprise, then, that Illuminator leaves on a sanguine note with “Milestones,” encapsulating the highs and lows traversed before. “For me, it evokes the sensation of witnessing your entire life – past, present and future – in a single moment,” Freda says. “It is nostalgic, yet filled with hope.”
Throughout, Freda and company thankfully do much of the hard work for us: falling in love, heartbreak. Watching events and moments go by like cars on the highway. People you once knew coming in and out. Grieving the loss of different phases. Watching everything happen simultaneously. For these and many other reasons, Illuminator, friends, will be the soundtrack to the throughline of your life.
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