Q+A with TJ Freda of GIFT
Pulling you under with a hot and heavy undertow of bass, big drums, ringing guitars and hazy, hushed vocals, GIFT’s “Later” is the perfect sultry power pop tune to close out the summer of 2024. On the verge of an album release and major US/UK/EU tour, lead GIFT man TJ Freda kindly answered a few questions about the new album, Illuminator, and some of the inspiration and process behind the sound of “Later”.
What's the story behind "Later"? What a bad-ass undertow of bass and drums in this song!
“Later” was actually almost a song I didn’t show the band to record for the record. I had a really short demo of it and didn’t think it was worth pursuing. I by chance showed the band not thinking much of it, and they immediately said we should finish it. I had been listening to a lot of Massive Attack and Disintegration by The Cure at the time and wanted to make something a bit down tempo.
The drums on "Later" are magnificently big... are you using a combination of drums and drum machines on the song, as well as the rest of the album?
The drums on “Later” stemmed from a session I did where I recorded live drums in so I could cut loops out of them and write to it. I ended up taking drums from that session and triggering samples on them. Then we took the triggered samples and recreated them with live drums.
Most songs on the album have some sort of drum machine mixed with live drums. I think everything except for “Later”, which is funny because that one stemmed from sampled drums.
And the vocals during the bridge remind me of Rachel Goswell in "Star Roving". Is there an intentional nod to her or Slowdive here?
Yes absolutely. That’s one of my favorite Slowdive songs and those vocals in “Star Roving” are so beautiful and haunting at the same time, big inspo for that part of the song.
Your forthcoming album, Illuminator, reportedly "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..." Can you say something more about how Madonna has inspired the songs or album?
We got really into the album Ray of Light, predominantly for the odd production choices by William Orbit. He was able to put acid house sounds into a big pop project and make it work. Many of his production choices on that album inspired us to go out of the ordinary and make some out of left field choices.
Do you have a favourite club or venue in NYC to play?
Our favorite venue to play in NYC is Baby’s All Right. The sound is amazing, most of our friends work there, and it's an amazing atmosphere. You can catch at least one of us there every weekend.
Are you touring the EU or UK with the new album? What's your biggest hope for playing live shows abroad?
We are going to EU and UK starting in October! We’re very excited to play abroad, much of the album is inspired by the Creation Records catalog and many other 90’s UK bands. We’re excited to bring our take on it abroad.
Anything else to mention that's coming up for the band?
We’re very excited to have this album out, we’ve worked very hard on it and it’s a very honest representation of who we are at this moment in time. We’re touring this fall in the US, EU, and UK. You can see tour dates here on our website.
Illuminator is slated for released 23 August 2024. GIFT has several dates in The Netherlands this autumn, including this year’s London Calling Festival here in Amsterdam, 25-26 October, and db’s in Utrecht, 1 November. Follow GIFT on Instagram.