Gefördert von Neustart Kultur, Initiative Musik und der BKM

Inspired by the rhythmic grooves of ESG, the dopey drawl of Jonathan Richman, and manic energy of
The Fall, Gustaf’s live set is quick on its feet, constantly in flux, and obsessively catered to the people
in the room, resulting in a sound that is emotive, androgynous, and infectiously danceable.
Comprised of Tine Hill (bass), Vram Kherlopian (guitar), Melissa Lucciola (drums), Tarra Thiessen
(vocals, percussion), and Lydia Gammill (lead vocals), Gustaf got its start in 2018 when Thiessen
recruited Gammill to help drive her van down to SXSW. When Thiessen’s original tour fell through,
Gammill suggested pulling a band together to play in their place. With little more than a name and a
handful of t-shirts, they hit the ground running, playing hundreds of shows in their first two years and
earning a reputation as one of New York’s “hardest working…and most reliably fun bands” (Brooklyn
Vegan).

Finding early champions in all quarters, they caught the attention of luminaries like Beck and Matt
Shultz of Cage the Elephant - who had the band open for him at a secret loft party - and secured
opening slots for buzzing indie acts like Omni, Tropical Fuck Storm, Dehd and New York no wave
legends like James Chance and Martin Revv without any recordings to their name. They quickly
earned acclaim from outlets such as Oh My Rockness, who touted, “Listen, if Gustaf is playing a late
night basement show somewhere, or on a rickety roof, or in someone's shitty apartment, or just at
some regular old music venue...you should make all the necessary arrangements and go.”
Gustaf’s debut full-length album, Audio Drag For Ego Slobs, out October 1st 2021 on Royal Mountain
Records (Wild Pink, Alvvays, U.S. Girls), is a culmination of lessons learned on the stage and in the
studio. The album is a collection of anxious affirmations, existential dread, and blind joy. Recorded at
the Honey Jar Studio in Brooklyn with Carlos Hernandez (Ava Luna, Sneaks, Mr. Twin Sister) and coproduced
by Hernandez and Gammill, it follows last year’s Mine 7-inch, the band’s first recorded
material and a release that immediately garnered attention from outlets like NME and NPR who
dubbed the band one of 2021’s emerging artists, as well as BBC 6 Music who added the release to
regular rotation.

Both tense and loose, fluid yet uptight, Audio Drag For Ego Slobs sounds simultaneously like nothing
you’ve ever heard before while channeling the spirit and energy of the old New York scene. Feeling
like a cramped and secret house party, buzzing with kinetic energy and bristling with spirit, the title is
a tongue-in-cheek play on classic compilation albums such as “relaxing tunes for an enchanting
evening”. Lifted from the avant-garde multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, “Audio Drag” refers to
Thiessen’s deepened pitch shifting voice filter, while “Ego Slob” is a self-coined phrase to describe
someone who does a sloppy job of translating the outside world within the context of themself.
That “sloppy” ego slob spirit translates to the album’s controlled chaos, bursting at the seams—a
performance of hyperbole and cathartic emotional gluttony, sonically winking at the listener lest you
take them too seriously. Gammill’s swaggering half-spoken vocal melodies pierce through the album’s
central bass groove, bleating guitars and restless drums.

After a year away from the stage, the band is eager to flex their muscles once more as a live act with
plans to open for IDLES across the United States in October, as well as Pillow Queens in the United
Kingdom in November, and prove why Brooklyn Vegan once said, “There are a lot of bands making
arty post-punk, but very few who have a front person as magnetic, funny, and occasionally, scary as
Gustaf’s Lydia Gammill.”