Monday, April 21, 2014

Gambles shares new music video via Cool Hunting + Upcoming tour dates + EP due 4/28


Photo Credit: Nola Palmer
WATCH: "You Won't Remind It" -

Gambles is proud to share the music video for "You Won't Remind It" which appears on his forthcoming EP entitled I Can't Keep Still When It Comes To You. The video is focuses on Chris, a homeless man Gambles' frontman Matthew Daniel Siskin has known for the last three years; in a collaboration with filmmaker Joe Wehner, Chris dons a GoPro camera and the result is insightful, jarring and beautiful. "For 16 years, Chris has lived between Versace and Vera Wang on Mercer Street. We've been friends for the past three; long conversations about his experiences, where he was from, his brother he lost touch with 35 years ago," explains Siskin. The video functions as a mirror that flips our perspective and makes us aware of how easy it can be to look another man in the face yet erase his presence. It's an insight into the experience of Chris and others like him. Shortly after the production of the video, Chris moved into The Bowery Mission after years on their wait list. Support The Bowery Mission - an organization that provided more than 382,400 meals, 34,850 bags of groceries, 93,700 nights of shelter and 48,600 articles of clothing last year - online.

Tour Dates:
 
April: U.S. with Jessica Lea Mayfield
04/22 @ Club Café - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
04/23 @ Garrison - Toronto, Ontario
04/24 @ Divan Orange - Montreal, Canada
04/25 @ Middle East Upstairs - Boston, Massachusetts
04/26 @ Rough Trade - Brooklyn, New York
04/28 @ Mercury Lounge - New York, New York
04/29 @ Johnny Brendas - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
04/30 @ Rock and Roll Hotel - Washington, DC
 
May: EU festival and headline dates
05/02 @ Liverpool sound city Festival - Liverpool, UK
05/03 @ Live at Leeds Festival - Leeds, UK
5/4 - Manchester, UK @ The Castle
05/07@ Communion Music Presents Gambles - The Miller - London, UK
05/08 @ The Great Escape Festival - Brighton, UK
05/10 @ London Calling Festival - Amsterdam, NL
05/11 @ Bedroom Disco -  Darmstadt, DE
05/16 @ Les Nuits Botanique (Grand Salon) - Brussels, BE
05/17@ L'International - Paris, FR
 
    
About Gambles:
Matthew Daniel Siskin began writing songs as Gambles in August 2012 with no goal or motive other than that the past few years needed addressing, and things that had gone unsaid for too long needed saying. The first song he released publicly, "Trust", was sang in a single take at the Rare Book Room with no words written, a song that Pitchfork somehow found a few weeks later and presented to the world. Gambles later returned to the Rare Book Room to record the
Far From Your Arms EP and his debut long-player Trust via his own imprint GMBLS. Now, only 7 months removed from the release of Trust, Gambles has readied a new four song EP entitled I Can't Keep Still When It Comes To You.
 
"I can't actually keep still, although the title has nothing to do with me", Matthew tells us from his home recording studio he's been building piece by piece. "I'm really fortunate that my best friends are both producers, angels basically - an older brother, a younger brother - there to guide me".
 
Matthew is speaking of Nicolas Vernhes (the older brother, and owner of the Rare Book Room) and BOOTS (the younger of the two - writer + producer to Beyoncé amongst a handful of other projects) - both of whom left their clear fingerprints on the new EP.
 
"I knew I couldn't just do what I had already done. Not because it was expected of me, but because, I needed new colors - had cravings. I wanted more sound, I wanted to challenge what I was and what I was doing. I'm also in a very different place than when TRUST happened."
 
"A lot of this scared the shit out of me, I felt surrounded by so much talent, making all these records - and I suddenly realized all I knew was my acoustic guitar and a single mic and my apartment. I wanted to be rescued, picked up, shown where the magic buttons were that other people had..."
 
As best friends tend to do, nobody came to the rescue. Instead, BOOTS began pushing Matthew to simply record himself, at home, as he had been - but this time using keyboards.  Over the span of a few weeks new songs came together.  "You Won't Remind It was basically me and an old keyboard, playing drums back from my computer through my speakers while recording that from my iPhone. You can hear the tiny shift on my knee. When BOOTS mixed the song, he found these hidden moments, little sonic textures - he's a fucking painter. I love my friends dearly."
 
This new process had reinvigorated Gambles, but the constant sense of hunting for what he hadn't touched was still on his mind. "The Sea was completely different, but something that will always be dear to me. It was recorded after a late night, myself, Nico and Boots - downstairs at The Rare Book Room. Nico turned on a mic, BOOTS stomped his boots, and Nico played a tiny Casio, I made up some words. It all happened in a few minutes. But I needed that approach too, I can't just sit in Pro Tools and move bars around, I need it to happen in the room."
 
The final two songs which complete the EP are hushed, and intimate moments between lovers. "I'm tired of giving away my secrets, I learned that on my last record. Music for me is generally about people I'll leave it at that - the song title Nola is a slight give away. It's just music, I needed to say both of those things - to both of those people, I mean songs."
 
I Can't Keep Still When It Comes To You will see it's worldwide digital release via Gamble's own GMBLS Imprint (through Secretly Canadian) on April 28th. Gambles will also embark on a month of shows across North America and Canada, followed by a long stretch across the UK and Europe through May.
 
Matthew has also set up  a website to house all EP related content. Not to mention, it's something you can write and edit yourself - a fully collaborative website.
 
"I'm sick of websites telling me what to do and where to leave a comment, you can go write whatever you want, drag around, play with it - just please don't change the tour dates since I want people to come to the shows." 
 
 

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