Premiere: Gemini Love Releases Springy EP, This Is Not Science

Tomorrow, millions of people will look to start the New Year off with a bang, putting their best foot forward in order to meet the lofty goals they’ve set for themselves in 2019. Capitalizing on this feeling, Gemini Love is kicking off the New Year with a release of their new EP entitled This Is Not Science, a record that marks a new chapter for the band to coincide with the New Year. The EP is available to purchase and stream everywhere on January 1st, but today, The Auricular is excited to premiere the five song EP, available to stream at the bottom of this article followed by a short Q&A with the band.

This EP follows the band’s debut full-length record, I’ve Got Cooties, which was released back in February of 2018, and further explores that album’s ruminating moments with more reserved flair and an expansive tone, one that’s been cunningly growing and expanding since their first release What’s My Porpoise? back in 2016.

EP opener, and lead single, “Alchemy” displays the band’s intrinsic tendencies, with indie rock plumes and power pop melodies forging a style that marries the various inclinations and triumphs of modern rock. From there, the EP moves to “Ancient Healing,” a song full of creative, twinkly melodies that feel like a delicate skip through somber observations that ultimately ends in a stomping affair that still carries a bit of a frolicky sentiment.

On “Dashing,” the band offers straight-forward rock therapy with a gentle strum melody and pointed lyrics that lay the groundwork for a bustling electric guitar engine to move the song’s message along. “Hell Has Moved,” with its serious connotation and wistful timbre, seems to be the modern rock version of Elvis Costello’s “This Is Hell” ditty, deconstructing the immortal quagmire through indie austerity.

The closing track, “Needs,” wraps up the EP perfectly, touching down on the quirky melodies, laid-back designs, and plangent themes that make This Is Not Science a delightful and beneficial listen. It also reaches upward too, offering a sound that peers out of the band’s rock purvey with a tone almost electronica in design, subtly expanding the band’s reach. But as the sound reaches up, the words stay grounded, offering common place phrases and feelings that resonant through the song’s twisting nature.

Then, at the finish, the band closes the song and EP with a classic power pop flourish filled with exuberantly distorted guitars and a cheering “whoa-whoa” singalong, all of which serves as either a reaffirmation of the band’s identity or a joyous release of the EP’s angst. Ending the EP on such a high is clearly not science, nor is the rest of the band’s charm, but it is certainty the mark of a talented band judiciously concluding a sublime collection of songs.

This Is Not Science is out everywhere the first day of the new year, January 1st, 2019, and a couple of days later — Saturday, January 5th — the band plays an EP release show at The Broadberry alongside Washington DC’s Broke Royals and Richmond acts Colin Phils and Silver Twin. More information on that show can be found here.

In the meantime, enjoy this exclusive stream of This Is Not Science and read up on our quick interview with Gemini Love’s Matt Burton about the EP’s genesis and the band’s future.

 

Where does the title of the EP come from?

We actually went through several different titles, from before we started recording until near the end of mixing. We finally settled on This Is Not Science because a lot of the song titles and their subject matter (“Alchemy,” “Ancient Healing,” “Hell Has Moved”) and even the lyrics in some of the songs (“She was like a scientist with no degree”) really set the stage for something that’s kind of metaphysical and pseudoscience-like. So the EP title is both a straightforward, almost comically blunt testament to that, and also a suggestion of what the listener is in for.

Does this serve as a standalone entity or a taste of something to come?

Probably more of the latter. Especially by the end of the EP, on the song “Needs,” you have electronic drums and sound effects guiding the tempo. That’s our first time tampering with that, and we’ll probably be incorporating a nice blend of real and electronic drums in our future releases and live acts.

What did you want to do differently with this EP than with the I’ve Got Cooties record?

I’ve Got Cooties was mostly the brainchild of our frontman Mark [Jones] — each song started as a singer-songwriter piece and the band would fill in their parts behind him. Here, you had a lot more song-building and passing around ideas. Most of these songs were written during our time as a 5 piece band. Mark or our lead guitarist Sebastian [Martin] would provide an outline of a song (“Ancient Healing“ and “Hell Has Moved” are written and sung by Sebastian), but once we got into recording, the songs would grow and change based on what the other members would add. For instance, our keyboardist Chas [Gilker] branched into using a ukulele with electric guitar effects to give some of the songs a really unique sound. All in all, the EP is sort of a graduation into a different space of sound from our last album.

The cheeky video for “Alchemy” was great. Are there Any more music videos planned like that?

Absolutely! There will probably be at least one or two more videos in the coming months. Mark is a huge film buff and pretends to be an indie director, and the rest of the band members have lots of ideas for videos too. It’s only a matter of time.

Anything specific with this EP the band is especially proud or excited about?

We really pushed and challenged ourselves as a band this time around. We set ourselves a clear schedule, assigned roles and tasks, and there was a lot of round table discussion and debate about where to take these songs and sounds. When your band is 5 people all giving their input, that can be really hectic, but we’re all really passionate about what we make and present, so what came out in the end is a body of work that all 5 of us built together. Hopefully, that unified front and energy we put into this EP will shine through to our listeners.

This Is Not Science is available to stream and purchase across all digital platforms on Tuesday, January 1st, 2019.