News

GILT announce new EP ‘Conceit’

• 24th Mar 2022

GILT have announced their new EP ‘Conceit’ will be released 06 May in a new alliance with Smartpunk Records. You can hear the lead single from the collection, the affecting ‘Amethyst’ now. Its poetic, emotion-drenched, post-hardcore stylings are a sign of what’s to come.

‘Amethyst’ is a bridging moment for the band with GILT songs from every era getting lyrical shout-outs throughout Amethyst and signature reverb guitars, sparse drums, and navel-gazey vocals permeating the song. ‘”Wax wings remade ceramic” was our big breakthrough lyric in writing the track,” says vocalist Ash Stixx, continuing: “it’s an homage to “different mistakes in new and almost impressive ways” from ‘Through Mirrors’. We wanted to explore that mindset but get even more bleak about our own limitations. Shaolin (Jay Webster) from UnityTX absolutely crushed the task of conveying the unhinged freedom of not caring if you die, probably one of the most conceited feelings, and delivering that rage under a pile of literary and art school references to social politics. We spent two quarantine years studying the hardcore side of post-hardcore and we’re very proud to flex our new muscles, and lucky to have guests like Shaolin to push it to the next level. ‘Amethyst’ is the bridge between some of the optimism we had about growth and forward motion from previous material into the absolute temper tantrum that will follow for the rest of ‘Conceit’.”

‘Conceit’ as a whole explores the topic of grief in its entirety. Each song features a guest vocalist – Kind Eyes, Syd Dolezal of Doll Skin, Carson Pace of Callous Daoboys and Nat Lacuna of The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir all appear. It was recorded & mixed by Lee Dyess at Earthsound Studios and mastered by Matt Goings, with production consultation from Hansel Romero (Nightlife).

“We’ve spent a lot of time as an emo band talking about grieving and addressing pain, but Conceit is the first material we’ve made since my father passed, and there’s simply no way for it to not be about that in almost every regard because it affects every part of my life,” explains Ash of the EP’s concept. “Each song is a vignette, a ‘conceit’ in the literary sense where one emotional reaction to death is explored, bolstered by guest vocalists who were each chosen for their ability to stretch our ideas beyond what we could physically do. The title is a double entendre, these are all poetic metaphors, but the feeling of righteous rage has never come through more and the marriage between those two in ‘Conceit’ is, to us, perfect.”

Having navigated topics of gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, and mental health in their music, GILT are all about empowering their community. The band put together a livestream event during the pandemic – SnipFest – which raised money for gender-affirming legal name changes for people across the US. Born in 2018, SnipFest’s first incarnation raised money for the top surgery of a friend of the band. Though GILT have been a band since 2017, their 2021 EP ‘In Windows, Through Mirrors’ was an introduction to their new direction with drummer Ash Stixx stepping up to vocal duties with finesse. 

GILT kicked off 2022 playing shows with Sarah and the Safe Word. They’re also lined up to support Mannequin Pussy in Florida in May and they’ll be headlining across the US, Europe and the UK off the back of their new EP.

‘Conceit’ EP tracklisting:
1. Amethyst (ft. Shaolin G)
2. The Shape of Tools (ft. Kind Eyes)
3. Small Hollow Bones (ft. Syd Dolezal)
4. 209 (ft. Carson Pace) 
5. Trophy Hunter (ft. Nat Lacuna)

Europe / UK Tour dates:
May 28th Sat Berlin DE Decolonoize Fest
May 29th Sun Brno CZ Vegalité
May 31st Tue Bratislava SK Koncerty na garážach
Jun 1st Wed Vienna AT Kramladen
Jun 3rd Fri Würzburg DE Kellerperle
Jun 4th Sat Darmstadt DE Oetinger Villa
Jun 5th Sun Münster DE Venue tbc 
Jun 8th Wed Antwerp BE Muziekcentrum Trix
Jun 9th Thu Bristol UK Exchange (Basement)
Jun 10th Fri Newport UK Le Pub
Jun 11th Sat Leeds UK Temple of Boom
Jun 12th Sun London UK The Queen’s Head, Brixton 

GILT are:
Ash Stixx (they/she/he) – Vocals
Tyler Fieldhouse (they/them) – Guitar, Bass