Pastel
Pastel’s Gabriel Brenner.
Gabriel Brenner aka Pastel shared the Hobbes Ginsberg & Chloe Feller video for the ambient hymn confessional of pains and passions projected through regal silk draped visuals for “I Ache”. Dressed in Pierre Rashard garb and invoking celestial ascending harmonies through sparse expanses of refrains and sustains of pure sentimental exposition (and exhibition); Brenner’s first single from the Bone-Weary EP (available now via Very Jazzed) shines a spotlight on the artist’s vocal range and arrangement that sounds like future cathedral pops committed to electro-pop devotionals.
Curtains, covers, and sheets of monarch purple hues set the tones amid hanging frames, a pedestal, a candle, and Pastel surrounded and dressed in tones that allude to his namesake. The song and video exists in a heavenly like realms where Gabriel is framed like a messianic/angelic figure bathed in a magical, mystical, metaphysical light. We talked to the artist about the new song, video, and EP in our following interview session feature.
Describe for us the making of the Hobbes Ginsberg and Chloe Feller video for “I Ache” and how the Red Lighter Films treatment brought out the more evocative elements and aspects of the song.
I’ve been friends with Chloe since high school, and she suggested I work with Hobbes and her on visuals for my music. Hobbes is a photographer and filmmaker based in LA that’s known for their off-kilter, humorous, and sinister portraiture and still lives, and I felt their work would mesh well with “I Ache.” Chloe, Hobbes, and I all talked extensively about visuals we had in mind, and eventually shot the video in a few hours in Hobbes’s studio. The song was inspired by a very emotionally exhausting experience, and Hobbes paid acute attention to that. They wanted to explore the feeling of collapse and how we often feel like everything around us is falling apart by quite literally creating a setting that was unstable and fluid. We thought of the video as a three-part movement, with each section of the video depicting each section of the song. Hobbes and Chloe drew from depictions of women and imagery common in classical paintings, and we were interested in queering the setting through moments of abstraction, wardrobe, the color palette, various accouterments, etc. We went for a dreamy surreality that would reflect the more ethereal, atmospheric elements of the song.
Give us the story, tales, myths, and legends behind the making of your Bone-Weary EP.
Bone-Weary EP came out of a time where I was spreading myself extremely thin, especially emotionally, and lost sight of myself for a bit. Once I was finally able to find time to process, I basically shut myself in my room and recorded Bone-Weary on my bed with a small MIDI Keyboard and a USB mic. Bone-Weary was one of the ways I processed all that had happened to me prior to its inception. Most of the EP was recorded in Spring of 2015, but the initial take of “I Ache,” was actually recorded the night of Halloween in 2014. I dressed up as the Domino’s Pizza logo and decided I had to record some vocal loops before I went out. Perhaps supernatural intervention was what inspired me to record that night.
Thoughts on how your approaches to productions, arrangements and atmospheres have evolved to this current point?
I definitely have felt a need to focus more on atmosphere in my music. With my debut EP last year, I spent a lot of time on beat-making, but this time around I found myself wanting to create open, fluid spaces to allow my voice to have more presence and power. I’m also really interested in tactility and how that can be expressed through sound textures, so I continued to explore with this upcoming release.The biggest change in my process, however, is the emphasis I now place on lyricism and songwriting craft instead of just beat-making and atmospheres. My songwriting process prior to Bone-Weary and “I Ache” was very insular, but I’ve since found the immense importance in sharing my work with others and getting second opinions, regardless of how terrifyingly vulnerable it makes me feel.
Thoughts on the latest and greatest from the LA scene right now?
I feel like I’m not very tuned into the LA scene unfortunately, but I’m really excited to see where Moses Sumney goes in 2016. He’s an absolutely incredible performer and vocalist, and his Mid-City Island EP was a big part of my listening in 2015. I remember seeing him early on opening for countless artists around LA, so it’s really great to see that he’s grown to his own headlining shows and is now getting Best New Tracks from Pitchfork seemingly every time he releases something new. All the success that’s undoubtedly going to come his way is more than deserved.
Other projects and things to look out for from both yourself and others in 2016?
I’m planning on collaborating with different artists to release a video for every track on Bone-Weary EP, so keep an eye out for those. I’m looking forward to whatever The xx, James Blake, and Frank Ocean put out this year. Their absence has left a bit of a void in my life. Lastly, I’m still praying every single day that Jai Paul releases something new sometime soon. He’s sorely missed. Jai 2016 maybe?
Listen to more from Pastel here.
