Gospels

Made up of Alex Frenkel, Mike Gordon, Alex Marans and Owen Murphy, New York based band GOSPELS are ready to take over CMJ this year. We caught up with the band pre-CMJ to have a quick chat about what Gospels is all about.
Catch the band TONIGHT at CMJ! Tuesday, October 16th, 9pm at Webster Hall.

Gospels will be taking the stage for the Ooh La La Records Official Part with Starlight Girls, The Last Royals, Ambassadors and more!
What is the story behind Gospels’ name?
Gospels was the first we felt was a keeper.
How did the project come about?
A few of us were playing with groups in the bushwick, bk area…playing in basements and equally cramped spaces. At some point we decided to make the move to a stand-alone house in Queens. From there, we built up a sound we were excited about and started working on an EP.
It’s been stated that you recorded your EP “Animal Feelings” in your home in Forest Hills. How would you describe your creative writing process? Is it mostly a fluid stream of consciousness for the whole group or more organized?
One benefit of living in the same place is being able to work in different configurations, at different paces and with different production approaches. A vocal melody will sell us on bringing a song to completion.
How would you describe your music to a new listener?

Tough question to answer..our drummer just said “fierce, but stable”, so we’ll go with that.
Describe a regular day in Gospels’ house.

When we’re in rehearsal mode, we run the set together in our basement a few days a week. We also have our own recording rigs, so a lot of time is spent on new sounds and demos for the next record. During recording and writing periods, we’re working at all hours. We have this amazing attic that’s incredibly warm-sounding, so we head up there for some guitar stuff. The floor boards aren’t very well nailed down, it’s sort of like being in the bowels of an old ship.
What is the best part about participating in the CMJ this year?
Seeing a reaction to this thing we’ve put a lot of time into, for sure. Our friends have been scratching their heads wondering what the hell we’ve been up to in Queens the past few months.
What’s next for Gospels?
We start writing for the first full-length after CMJ, really looking forward to that. - Modern Mystery Blog

Made up of Alex Frenkel, Mike Gordon, Alex Marans and Owen Murphy, New York based band GOSPELS are ready to take over CMJ this year. We caught up with the band pre-CMJ to have a quick chat about what Gospels is all about.
Catch the band TONIGHT at CMJ! Tuesday, October 16th, 9pm at Webster Hall.

Gospels will be taking the stage for the Ooh La La Records Official Part with Starlight Girls, The Last Royals, Ambassadors and more!
What is the story behind Gospels’ name?
Gospels was the first we felt was a keeper.
How did the project come about?
A few of us were playing with groups in the bushwick, bk area…playing in basements and equally cramped spaces. At some point we decided to make the move to a stand-alone house in Queens. From there, we built up a sound we were excited about and started working on an EP.
It’s been stated that you recorded your EP “Animal Feelings” in your home in Forest Hills. How would you describe your creative writing process? Is it mostly a fluid stream of consciousness for the whole group or more organized?
One benefit of living in the same place is being able to work in different configurations, at different paces and with different production approaches. A vocal melody will sell us on bringing a song to completion.
How would you describe your music to a new listener?

Tough question to answer..our drummer just said “fierce, but stable”, so we’ll go with that.
Describe a regular day in Gospels’ house.

When we’re in rehearsal mode, we run the set together in our basement a few days a week. We also have our own recording rigs, so a lot of time is spent on new sounds and demos for the next record. During recording and writing periods, we’re working at all hours. We have this amazing attic that’s incredibly warm-sounding, so we head up there for some guitar stuff. The floor boards aren’t very well nailed down, it’s sort of like being in the bowels of an old ship.
What is the best part about participating in the CMJ this year?
Seeing a reaction to this thing we’ve put a lot of time into, for sure. Our friends have been scratching their heads wondering what the hell we’ve been up to in Queens the past few months.
What’s next for Gospels?
We start writing for the first full-length after CMJ, really looking forward to that. - Modern Mystery Blog

Who are Gospels? No one knows! For now, let us assume that an alien pod fell to Earth somewhere in the woods along the Eastern Seaboard, from which Gospels emerged to find an abandoned cabin conveniently equipped with instruments and a recording studio. In the forest, they communed with nature and various woodland creatures. Maybe they found an injured raccoon and then tended its wounds and knit it a raccoon-sized afghan. In the meantime, the mysterious quartet also wrote and recorded an EP titled Animal Feelings, the sonic equivalent of wearing a fisherman sweater on a gloomy day. Here’s the premiere of the title track, which wraps a dreamy haze around an alt-folk core.



The Animal Feelings EP will be released in 2013, and the band is set to make its live debut at CMJ. Ahead of Gospels’ appearance at the festival, we asked them a few questions via email to get a first glimpse.

You don’t really use the internet. What’s up with that?
Having a level of disconnect from the internet during the writing and recording process has been pretty freeing. We’ve seen some bands do interesting new things with visual media and the internet. Something in that vein might be cool.

Describe your musical style in a few words.
A friend of ours described it as “warm, fuzzy, brilliant, beautiful music.”

You’re making your live debut at CMJ. Nervous? Excited?
Mostly we were thrilled to see ourselves so close to GZA’s name in the first-round announcements. That’s reason enough for the band name…I think there’s a healthy balance of nerves and excitement. We can’t wait.

Any predictions for the first show?
Some confused Christians. And a great show.

Your forthcoming EP is called Animal Feelings, which is also the name of a song on it. Are you concerned with the feelings of any particular animal?
Good question. And a tough one. We had to Google the answer: A tarsier. - CMJ.com