Gabe Gill brings unpacks suburbia on new EP ‘Crickets’

Date: 6/26/2023

NORTHAMPTON — Crickets are deceptive little creatures. Despite being hard to locate, their palpable chirping often functions as the soundtrack to summer nights. We often see them as simple denizens of the shadows, but much like everything in this world, there are certain complexities and imperfections that make them unique, like how they have ears on their legs or how they rub their wings to make music.

While crickets are ubiquitous, it is no secret that they are often associated with suburbia, a place that carries its own kind of deception. Although viewed as areas where people live peaceful and ordinary lives, the suburbs are often a banal shield from reality and places where a homogenous mixture of garrulous conversations occur.

The insularity of suburbia, while cozy and congenial on the surface, leaves an eerie blank slate for creatives to grapple with. Over the years, we have seen countless movies and TV shows offer different versions of what suburbia really looks like under the surface. From the seedy depravity found in 1986’s “Blue Velvet,” to the all-too-real white liberal racism found in “Get Out,” the suburbs are at times bastions of antiquated, and ultimately troubling, principles. In other words, there is a darkness under the uniformity.

As a songwriter, Gabe Gill is always surveying the complexities under the surface, so it is no surprise that he uses the suburbs as a starting point for his creative endeavors this time around. On his new EP “Crickets,” the Northampton songwriter explores the more complicated side of suburbia through three different songs/stories.

“These three stories all take place in a house in the suburbs,” Gill told Reminder Publishing. “I wanted to explore the darker side of that environment, a sense of things looking as normal as possible but feeling “off.’”

Gill accomplishes that goal by using his EP as his version of a suburban anthology series, where each protagonist faces their own individual obstacle, but all three are bonded by their disillusionment. Holistically, It is a thematical departure from his previous project “How Memory Works,” but it still captures Gill’s innate attention to detail.

“Thematically, I was trying to move away from myself after ‘How Memory Works,’ which was such a personal album that mostly deals with thoughts, memories and emotions,” Gill said.

On “Crickets,” Gill steps outside of his body to combine his usual satiny pop melodies with poignant songwriting, a juxtaposition perfectly in line with the theme of deception. He flexes his songwriting dynamism within this project, using different methods to show the ways in which, both figuratively and literally, each protagonist wants an escape from their undesirable situations.

Gill’s ambition shifts in multiple directions, which ultimately keeps the project engaging throughout. There is very little mundanity in this rendition of suburbia. Instead, a boiling conflict ensues on the eponymous track because of a husband who is possibly cheating, while an aspirational protagonist becomes the crux of “Robbie,” a story of someone trying to find something beyond their family confines (“I wanna fly,” Gill/Robbie screams).

Those stories, and the one on “Screensaver,” which follows a protagonist looking to find rest through substance use, are hard to locate on the surface of the suburbs, but easy to hear if you live there long enough. The protagonists, like crickets, are denizens of the shadows replete with complexities and imperfections.

The project is tied together with a palatable plate of pop reverie courtesy of Brasstracks, a producer who has worked with the likes of Harry Styles and BTS.

“Brasstracks impacted the vision massively, producing and co-writing every song,” Gill said. “Although I sing the records, Ivan [Jackson of Brasstracks] co-wrote every part and helped me bring my ideas to fruition in ways I could have never done alone. His sonic inventiveness, along with that of Dominic Missana, really shaped these records especially.”

Cascading synths and buttery drums evoke a feeling of summer across these three tracks, making the seriousness the of topics a little more digestible. Tiny flourishes, like the sound effect of crickets chirping, and a harmonica on “Robbie” help to refine the setting further and strengthen the storytelling vibe Gill goes for.

Listen to Crickets below: https://on.soundcloud.com/6d41K.