Gabriels: A soulful gospel fusion for the masses 

As the sun peeks through the thick grey clouds that rolled over The Park stage at Glastonbury, Jacob Lusk emerges in a custom green and blue satin robe. With a mic in one hand and the crowd in the palm of his other, his timeless voice animates the tired throng, lifting spirits and (possibly) curing hangovers. Formed by a trio of music fanatics, Gabriels is comprised of the classically trained Californian musician Ari Balouzian, the aforementioned Compton-born frontman Lusk – an undeniable vocal firebrand and ex-American Idol contestant – along with the Sunderland-born producer Ryan Hope, who named the group after St. Gabriels Avenue where he grew up. 

 

Bearing witness to a Gabriels performance is akin to being a member of a congregation roused by exalting vocals and inquisitive lyricism that range from resisting generational dysfunction (‘Bloodline’) to how our ability to connect has been inhibited by technology (‘Love And Hate In A Different Time’). It’s genre-traversing music for the soul that bonds all who are fortunate enough to hear it. Fittingly, when we meet to talk about the band’s rising success just before the Glastonbury performance, Lusk excitedly spins a yarn about how such an eclectic mix of personalities actually came to meet in his church years prior. 

Balouzian had made a career by scoring films, while Hope was an established film director who made music videos for the likes of Drake, Massive Attack, and Pharrell. Eventually, Balouzian and Hope began working with each other to soundtrack short films and needed a choir to feature in their latest project. At the time Lusk, who had a record deal and was trying to get his solo career off the ground, also happened to be the composer for the gospel choir at his church (he’d initially started singing for congregations at four years old). In search of heavenly voices, Balouzian and Hope attended a service to try and set up a studio. 

 

‘My church is off Crenshaw, a very historically Black neighbourhood, so I was like “what are they doing here?”’ After hearing Lusk sing, and being stunned at the power and range of his vocals, they decided to meet up at Hope’s house in the desert for ‘one or two week’ intervals ‘every four or five months’ to record music together. Eventually, they wrote a song called ‘Loyalty’ for a Prada film and recorded a song about loss to process the pandemic, before deciding it was time to put more energy into the group.

They all play a major role in that they each have a hand in every part of the song-making process. ‘If all three of us are not in the room, then we don’t like to really do it. Because it’s just not the same,’ Lusk explains. The trio usually meet up for a ‘bro day’ where they drink beer and watch films to unpick the songs afterwards – maybe even taking themselves to similar settings from the storylines, which usually leads them on an intellectual journey that results in a lightbulb moment for a track. For example, an upcoming song titled ‘Glory’ came about after watching the Tina Turner documentary. Sonically, they then blend their rock, soul and electronic influences together as they build the track. ‘Ari loves Nick Cave. Ryan is a big Moodymann fan. I love everything Whitney Houston and CeCe Winans and Aretha Franklin,’ adds Lusk.

 

With such disparate backgrounds and interests within the group, the result is an eclectic mix, but the music is so enriched that it has the likes of Elton John and Gilles Peterson hooked. The band’s new single ‘One And Only’ has a euphoric backing choir, classical strings, a wonky doo wop piano melody, and Motown-era soulful percussion. It travels through space and time to pick up the best of the past while sounding refreshingly new. 

Breaking down the formula for the band’s sound, Lusk says: ‘I actually feel like it’s somewhat futuristic because we’re blending a lot of sounds, but a lot of people feel like it’s retro.’ That’s probably a good thing. Recently, The Atlantic wrote about how old music is massively out-performing new records on streaming platforms like Spotify and iTunes. It’s a fact that intrigues Lusk as he lists his idols. ‘Who is our generation’s Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross, Dolly Parton, Beatles or Queen? I ain’t gonna shade nobody, but if this is all it’s going to be then I’m scared,’ he says. In time, new artists might have to make music that scratches the same itch, which is where Gabriels comes in. ‘My hope is that I can be one of those people that is able to make music that you feel.’ 

 

Unfortunately, just as the band decided to put all their energy towards building a music career together, the pandemic hit and the world seemed to fracture. Each of them experienced grief and pain for a variety of reasons, but music offered them a salve. In Lusk’s case, at a loss with how to show up for ‘my people and myself’, he found himself singing a hauntingly beautiful rendition of ‘Strange Fruit’ to ‘channel’ the ancestral pain of the protestors. Their recent run of tour dates has reaffirmed their aspirations to pursue music. Not only has it exposed Lusk to the UK’s festival culture for the first time (‘people really love music in Europe, they rock out with it even if they don’t really know it’), but Hope also recently remarked that being out on the road, and connecting with huge crowds on his home soil, has made him feel like he is ‘living his dream’.

The band hasn’t travelled to Hope’s hometown of Sunderland yet, but Lusk has picked up on the classism towards the area via interviewer’s questions. ‘It’s a little bit like the ‘hood from what I understand; people have made little jokes and I’ve cringed.’ The expressive frontman also notes how he’s witnessed Balouzian navigate being an Armenian American in different environments as they travel, too. ‘See, we may have different experiences, but there are these threads that bind us together,’ he says. 

 

And therein lies the magic of Gabriels. It is the meshing of worlds old and new, the ideas of people who grew up in vastly different environments, the work of entertainers from different creative backgrounds, and the passion of friends who come together through their mutual love of good music.