GEMS: One to Watch for 2014

From the brooding sensuality of Banks to the stunning simplicity of Woman’s Hour, every raw emotion and every human sense has been carefully and passionately explored through sonically satisfying creations. Nestling quietly somewhere amongst the aforementioned two, come Washington DC’s GEMS.

The duo – Lindsay Pitts and Cliff Usher – first floated into our eye-line at the back-end of last year with the glistening “Void Moon”, which introduced us to their woozy combination of FX-heavy guitar and a breathy, soothing vocal with the ability to both entice and relax. Their warm, woozy hue immediately drew comparisons with the likes of London Grammar, Beach House and New York-based HAERTS, with the gloriously heady 1980’s sound, an influence confirmed by lead-vocalist Pitts; “Our musical influences at the moment include Tears for Fears, Peter Gabriel, Seal, Joni Mitchell, Buckingham Nicks, and the radio; the only station we listen to is WPGC 95.5.”

The first member of that list makes perfect sense, as their music is shrouded in desperation; “Could you ever love me again? I need to know / Our love’s not a sinking stone,” Pitts pleads in the forlorn lovers musing “Sinking Stone”, and it was out of this pain that the project took shape; “We were staying with a friend in a 100 year old carriage house in Washington DC. We’d spent the last couple of years traveling around the US, crashing with friends and family and living out of our van. It was a real low point for us, we had no money, our relationship felt like it was disintegrating. Sometimes those lowest lows can serve as a real inspiration; you have to make some kind of sense of things, otherwise what do you have?”

Indeed, Usher is relatively open about the emotional torment he has been through: “…the reality was that I’d been pretty miserable for much of my life. School always just felt like such a prison to me. When I finally got to the point of contemplating suicide I stopped myself and said, ‘this is insane; I need to live my life differently’. “

And glimmers of hope do appear; tentative concern is muddled with belief and this complex cocktail of emotions is further coloured with ambiguity by some spectacularly heart-warming melodies: “Medusa”, in particular – with its soring chorus and Usher’s languid promise (“If you cry out, I’ll be there now”) offers a welcome resolution to this longing.

“We write about what’s real to us. I’ve never been particularly good writing a story-type song. I like it to be real and emotional and convey a sense of existential longing, but mostly its words and phrases from my journal, and I try to get into the emotion of it.”

On top of this very real inspiration, the harmony they have found between stunning vocals and intuitive layers of production – warm synths, electronic drum sounds and most importantly that guitar, with its gorgeous watery vibrato – ensures GEMS are perfectly placed to continue exploring into the new year, and they’re ready for a busy one; “Next on the horizon is a video collaboration with BRTHR – two guys in New York doing some really amazing video work. We’ll probably release some more singles, play SXSW again, do a European tour, and put out our debut album before the end of the year.”

If the handful of tracks we have heard are to go by it will be a very special debut – GEMS indeed.