San Clemente Newcomers Gabby & The Gondolas Love Feeling Lost on Debut Single "Steamed Rice"

Gabby & The Gondolas may be new to the scene, but "Steamed Rice" already feels like a familiar classic. Reflecting on his early 20’s, Kyle Neveau explains how he spent much of that time feeling lost. He manages to evoke oddly specific feelings, despite the lyrics that aim wider. From the very first note, the melody casts a bittersweet spell, enveloping you in a world of raw emotion. The track starts with an eerie guitar riff, followed by washed out drums and a hauntingly beautiful lead vocal. Despite its inherent sadness, this song possesses a certain cathartic quality. It reminds us that sadness is an integral part of the human experience and that through music, we can find solace and connection even in our darkest moments. If "Steamed Rice" is any implication of how his debut album Pollyanna will sound, we're certainly ready to listen.

Gabby & The Gondolas is the brainchild of Kyle Neveau, an indie rock songwriter from San Clemente, California. Neveau’s sound certainly reflects the beaches that San Clemente is famous for, but one could argue that Pollyanna, the debut LP for the project, covers a wide range of genres, from grunge to surf rock to Americana. “I like to call it art rock, it’s kind of a catch-all term I guess. Sometimes it feels like surf rock, sometimes it feels like Americana, sometimes something else. I don’t think so much about genres really, more so about the vibe of the song and the sonic picture we’re trying to paint. I guess when you have that approach it can be hard to quantify at times.”

This is the first single off of the debut 10 song LP, Pollyanna, which is slated to release on August 16th. The album name is a term used to describe someone who’s overly optimistic when they have no reason to be. Considering many of the songs on the album, even the upbeat ones, have a melancholy element to them, Neveau found it a fittingly ironic name. “For me, it’s a snapshot in time artistically. I’m constantly writing new songs and my sound is evolving, so it was important to get it down while it was relevant.” says Neveau. “A year or two goes by and the person who wrote those songs doesn’t really exist anymore. If I wait, I’ll lose it.”