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Rui Gabriel Compassion

Release Date: June 21st, 2024

RELEASE PREVIEW

TRACK LISTING

1. Dreamy Boys
2. Target
3. Church Of Nashville
4. Hunting Knife
5. Summertime Tiger
6. If You Want It
7. Change Your Mind
8. Eyes Only
9. End Of My Rope
10. Money

ABOUT

The inviting and perceptive songs on Rui Gabriel’s debut LP Compassion all tackle growing up. It’s about how the older you get, your priorities shift, friendships evolve, and responsibilities become inescapable. For Gabriel, the Indiana-based, Venezuela-born artist and co-founder of the acclaimed band Lawn, the changes in his own life inspired him to write a solo full-length that sounds like nothing the indie rock journeyman has done before. Across 10 vibrant tracks that combine ethereal pop with slacker-rock and piano-driven dance music, it’s a galvanizing showcase of personal growth and the grace you give yourself to push forward.

Work on Compassion started in 2018 when Gabriel was living in New Orleans. “I was living a pretty teenage life in many ways,” says Gabriel. “I worked at a pizza restaurant and would just go to shows or parties. I wasn’t doing anything other than music. I didn't have many responsibilities.” The songs he was working on at the time—tracks that didn’t fit Lawn but Gabriel still liked—initially went unfinished. But as Gabriel’s life changed, so did his songwriting and his desire to see his ideas through. “When I was writing lyrics, I was settling down with my partner and about to become a dad,” says Gabriel. “I was making choices about my life that contradicted the existence I had before. I had a different set of priorities.”

The songs on Compassion deal with youthful carelessness ("Dreamy Boys") and coming face-to-face with newfound responsibilities ("Change Your Mind"). It's consistently a biting, observant look at getting older thanks to Gabriel's unique perspective as a South American immigrant who's lived across the United States for the past 13 years. “When you are Hispanic, English isn't your first language, and you're in a music scene with a bunch of white people, you're going to stand out a little bit,” he says. On “Church of Nashville,” “Hey, Leonard Cohen is singing poems by the gentrified alley” he humorously aims at scene pretension and industry gatekeepers.

Compared to Gabriel’s work with Lawn, where he writes frenetic post-punk songs and yells, for Compassion he explores more straightforward pop sensibilities and showcases his singing voice. “I wanted to do a solo record to prove to myself that I could sing,” says Gabriel. Take the meditative, piano-based lead single “Target,” which is inspired by Dido and finds Gabriel gorgeously harmonizing with singer Kate Teague. He reaches similar infectiousness on the sunny rocker “Summertime Tiger,” which guests Stef Chura. Co-produced by Gabriel and Nicholas Corson (The Convenience, Video Age), Compassion is consistently warm, generous, colorful, and adventurous.

Compassion is a record about change,” says Gabriel. “It's a coming-of-age record but for somebody who's coming of age into their thirties.”

Carpark Records
Carpark Records

ALBUM CREDITS

All songs written by Rui Gabriel
“Target”, “If You Want It”, “Change Your Mind”, and “Money” written by Rui Gabriel and Nicholas Corson
Produced by Nicholas Corson and Rui Gabriel
Engineered by Nicholas Corson
Mixed by Bennett Littlejohn
Mastered by Andy Gross
Artwork by Andrew Auscherman
Inserts and lyric sheet by Grady Bell

Rui Gabriel - Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, keys/synths/piano, percussion, MIDI instruments
Nicholas Corson - Backup vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, keys/synths/piano, drums, percussion, drum machine programming, MIDI instruments
Duncan Troast - additional keys/synths/organ on tracks 3 and 7
Kate Teague - additional vocals on tracks 2, 4, 7, and 10
Stef Chura - additional vocals on track 5
Mac Folger - additional vocals on tracks 7 and 8

More Carpark Releases

Carpark Records

Rui Gabriel Compassion

Release Date: June 21st, 2024

RELEASE PREVIEW

TRACK LISTING

1. Dreamy Boys
2. Target
3. Church Of Nashville
4. Hunting Knife
5. Summertime Tiger
6. If You Want It
7. Change Your Mind
8. Eyes Only
9. End Of My Rope
10. Money

ABOUT

The inviting and perceptive songs on Rui Gabriel’s debut LP Compassion all tackle growing up. It’s about how the older you get, your priorities shift, friendships evolve, and responsibilities become inescapable. For Gabriel, the Indiana-based, Venezuela-born artist and co-founder of the acclaimed band Lawn, the changes in his own life inspired him to write a solo full-length that sounds like nothing the indie rock journeyman has done before. Across 10 vibrant tracks that combine ethereal pop with slacker-rock and piano-driven dance music, it’s a galvanizing showcase of personal growth and the grace you give yourself to push forward.

Work on Compassion started in 2018 when Gabriel was living in New Orleans. “I was living a pretty teenage life in many ways,” says Gabriel. “I worked at a pizza restaurant and would just go to shows or parties. I wasn’t doing anything other than music. I didn't have many responsibilities.” The songs he was working on at the time—tracks that didn’t fit Lawn but Gabriel still liked—initially went unfinished. But as Gabriel’s life changed, so did his songwriting and his desire to see his ideas through. “When I was writing lyrics, I was settling down with my partner and about to become a dad,” says Gabriel. “I was making choices about my life that contradicted the existence I had before. I had a different set of priorities.”

The songs on Compassion deal with youthful carelessness ("Dreamy Boys") and coming face-to-face with newfound responsibilities ("Change Your Mind"). It's consistently a biting, observant look at getting older thanks to Gabriel's unique perspective as a South American immigrant who's lived across the United States for the past 13 years. “When you are Hispanic, English isn't your first language, and you're in a music scene with a bunch of white people, you're going to stand out a little bit,” he says. On “Church of Nashville,” “Hey, Leonard Cohen is singing poems by the gentrified alley” he humorously aims at scene pretension and industry gatekeepers.

Compared to Gabriel’s work with Lawn, where he writes frenetic post-punk songs and yells, for Compassion he explores more straightforward pop sensibilities and showcases his singing voice. “I wanted to do a solo record to prove to myself that I could sing,” says Gabriel. Take the meditative, piano-based lead single “Target,” which is inspired by Dido and finds Gabriel gorgeously harmonizing with singer Kate Teague. He reaches similar infectiousness on the sunny rocker “Summertime Tiger,” which guests Stef Chura. Co-produced by Gabriel and Nicholas Corson (The Convenience, Video Age), Compassion is consistently warm, generous, colorful, and adventurous.

Compassion is a record about change,” says Gabriel. “It's a coming-of-age record but for somebody who's coming of age into their thirties.”

Carpark Records
Carpark Records

ALBUM CREDITS

All songs written by Rui Gabriel
“Target”, “If You Want It”, “Change Your Mind”, and “Money” written by Rui Gabriel and Nicholas Corson
Produced by Nicholas Corson and Rui Gabriel
Engineered by Nicholas Corson
Mixed by Bennett Littlejohn
Mastered by Andy Gross
Artwork by Andrew Auscherman
Inserts and lyric sheet by Grady Bell

Rui Gabriel - Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, keys/synths/piano, percussion, MIDI instruments
Nicholas Corson - Backup vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, keys/synths/piano, drums, percussion, drum machine programming, MIDI instruments
Duncan Troast - additional keys/synths/organ on tracks 3 and 7
Kate Teague - additional vocals on tracks 2, 4, 7, and 10
Stef Chura - additional vocals on track 5
Mac Folger - additional vocals on tracks 7 and 8

More Carpark Releases