GEM CLUB

We’re recording an intimate Neighborhood Session for Audyssey and Dig for Fire on January 22nd in NY’s Lower East Side. Visit this link if you would like to attend. Hope to see you there.

We want to thank Bob Boilen so much for inviting us to perform at the All Songs Considered offices in DC. You can read his introduction and kind words for the band on their website here.

 
An acoustic version of Breakers we recorded for Watch Listen Tell in London.

  
Gem Club 2011 tour dates
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November 25 - Madrid, SP @ Primavera Club / Joy Eslava
November 26 - Barcelona, SP @ Primavera Club / Casino l’Aliança
November 28 - Manchester, UK @ The Castle
November 29 - Wakefield, UK@ The Hop
November 30 - Glasgow, UK @ Captain’s Rest
December 01 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
December 02 - London, UK @ Workshop
December 04 - London, UK @ Bowery
December 05 - Paris, FR @ Cafe de la Danse

Gem Club at NPR Tiny Desk Concert

The new video for 252 off Breakers premiered today on SPIN. We’re thrilled with how everything turned out and hope you enjoy it as well.

Thank you to everyone who lent their talent and energy to the video. You can see more of Matthew Salton’s videos here and photographer Charlie Engman’s work here.

BriAnna Olson’s new video for Twins was premiered on NPR’s All Songs Considered today. They also have a bit of us talking about the creative process as well. Take a look here.

Our debut full length, Breakers, was released today and is streaming in full here.
Get your copy on either CD or vinyl at Insound or the Hardly Art store.

We’re having a giveaway to celebrate the September 27th release of Breakers. Head over to No Fear of Pop and enter to win the following …

- Breakers on both CD and limited-edition white vinyl
- Acid and Everything CD digipak
- Three color T-shirt in the size of your choice
- Gem Club stickers and Breakers poster

We’ll select a winner on September 30th. Good luck!

 
CD and vinyl pre orders for Breakers are up today. 300 copies of limited edition white vinyl available through Hardly Art only. Order here

brand new video for breakers by brianna olson. free download of breakers and twins here. preorder the album on limited white vinyl while you are there.

We are thrilled to announce that our Acid and Everything EP will be distributed in Japan through Tugboat Records beginning today. Customers purchasing the digital version through iTunes Japan will also receive BriAnna Olson’s video for Animals. While you’re over there check out Tugboat’s other exclusive Japanese releases from El Perro Del Mar, Baths, and others.  

Christopher Barnes is hesitant to describe the sound of his own music. The singer and piano player makes up half of the Somerville-based band Gem Club (the other half is cellist Kristen Drymala). His reluctance is understandable — the duo’s music, while undeniably pretty, might come across to some as somber. “I think it’s contemplative,” says Barnes. “It makes you think about the past.” But now that the band has been signed to Seattle’s Hardly Art label, been featured on both NPRand Pitchfork, and has a full-length album coming out in September and a tour starting in October, it’s clear that thinking about the future is unavoidable. Barnes, a solo artist at the time, met Drymala at a show two years ago. “I’ve always really wanted to work with a cellist,” says Barnes. “I saw Kristen playing at the Lilypad Gallery in Cambridge, and I asked her if she’d be interested in performing with me at an ’80s-themed house party.” Both are classically trained musicians (Berklee and the Boston Conservatory, respectively), and after mastering slowed-down versions of  Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” and Duran Duran’s “The Chauffeur,” Gem Club was born.

Gem Club’s music is very intimate. How do you and Kristen achieve that vibe?
I write the skeleton of a song and all the lyrics. By time we sit down together, most of the piano parts, melody lines, and lyrics are fleshed out, so we really focus on finding what sounds right. A lot of ideas have to be chiseled away at to find the perfect fit so we can retain that space and intimacy. A fair amount of patience is involved; sometimes that means going back and tweaking, adding more breathing room or taking it away. It’s a flexible blueprint.

Where did the band name come from?
I’d been playing as Christopher Barnes and there are so many songwriters out there whose names I can never remember. So if I can’t remember, how is anyone going to remember mine?  I thought it would be funny if I used Gem Club as one person, so when I was introduced it would just be me. But it’s also an homage to a musician who passed away a while ago whose music I admire. I thought it would be a fitting way to say thank you.

Tell me about the band’s sound. It’s … dare I say … melancholy.
That’s just what comes out. I think it’s just the way I was meant to be able to communicate in an artistic way. I don’t sit down and say, “This is going to be sad,” or “We’re really going to have a good cry at the piano.” That’s just how I write; it’s not intentional. I don’t feel sad.

I guess that’s why I hesitate to use that word.
A lot of people say they can relate to it, or say that it’s so beautiful because it’s sad. To me, when I was writing some of these pieces it was the opposite experience — it was very joy-filled. I feel lucky that it can mean one thing for me and something completely different for someone else. It’s a double-edged sword because people are very really dismissive of things that are sad, but people also really relate to sadness.

Your full-length album, Breakers, is coming out in September. Where was it recorded?
I did the basic tracking in my bedroom. Then we went to Q Division down the street to slap on the schmutz and the magic. We followed the same basic formula as the EP [Acid and Everything], but I had some tips to make the recording process a bit smoother this time around.

So when you guys get famous in the next few months, as is apt to happen, are you going to move to Brooklyn, too?
No. No, no, no. That won’t happen. Me and Brooklyn are in a fight right now.

Full article: http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2011/07/28/a-gem-club/ 

download a free mp3 of the title track breakers from the hardly art website, or our webshop.

 

hey! thanks so much. we really appreciate your support. hope to see you around soon.

it’s on its way actually. it’ll be here in september.