From New York City, Gideon King is an instrumentalist and songwriter for his band Gideon King & City Blog. The group just released a sophisticated single called “Love Knot” that draws from aspects of jazz, rock, folk, and soul. For the first 40 seconds of “Love Knot”, Gideon King & City Blog created a unique instrumental section. It is created by an artful pluck of an electric guitar.
The laid back tone of the background melody leaves room for Gideon King & City Blog’sheart melting vocals to take the spotlight. Vocalists Caleb Hawley and Alita Moses prove their natural abilities while alternate singing the verses independently. Caleb and Alita sing “Love Knot’s” chorus as a duet. After hearing the duet portion, listeners will wonder if the band members were born to harmonize with each other. Gideon King & City Blog use soft voices that are almost at the decibel level of a whisper, giving them a sense of vulnerability. Lyrically, “Love Knot” is an outlet for Gideon King & City Blog to sing about the many dimensions of love. They make the song easy to relate to because the message can be applied to any form of love, in their case, it’s the interconnection between band members. “Love Knot” reminds the listener about both the fragility and chemistry involved in any type of loving relationship.
Listen to "Love Knot" here.
Welcome to BuzzMusic Gideon King & City Blog! You have many hidden messages behind your lyrics in “Love Knot.” Can you elaborate on the message of the lyrics? If I elaborate then the messages will be unhidden and the sacred balance of the universe will be disturbed. Okay fine, I’ll divulge a little since you asked. Let’s see. There are relationships and there is the madness and broken circuitry of the average human mind. The lyrics to “Love Knot” are about the cloudy uncertainty that arises when relationships attempt to survive the madness. I don’t know, this is a hard question. Maybe the lyrics are even hidden from me. The meaning of any good song should be partially hidden from the writer. Songwriting is an unconscious process, in away. Otherwise, tunes get really literal and pedestrian lyrics control.
You grew up with a wide range of musical influences including Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Pink Floyd. How have these artists inspired your music style? Yeah sure. Unless you are some kind of freak genius the music you write is a mosaic of micro thefts. I’m most influenced by Steely because those guys blended jazz harmony with catchy hooks, funky grooves, and lyrical abstractions that painted bizarre and thought-provoking pictures. Wayne taught me that almost any two chords can interact to create beauty. Pink Floyd taught me that a tune could be articulate, elliptical, nonsensical, and totally beautiful all at once. Hendrix was just pure energy and frightening violence that was compelling and musically cool. Neil Young brought depressing to a new height in a beautiful way. The song “A Man Needs A Made” is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. The seal was so smooth and stylized from a sonic standpoint. I’m always drawing from this lifeline of inspiration. The extent to which my music is eclectic is the extent to which I have attempted legal and well-meaning robbery from the above talent and so many more artists.
As a band you seem to work together like a well-oiled machine, each with your specific purpose. Can you elaborate on how you communicate and collaborate as a group? All good musicians that I respect and like personally. I might be the worst technical musician of all of the members, so they tidy my shit up with their excellence. I create a tune, which is sort of like a sick patient. Then the patient receives some sort of treatment from each band member till it is vigorous. There is a promiscuous use of the word “collaboration,” but I’m telling you without an ounce of claptrap that each tune, by the time it is ready to be played live or recorded, has passed through the filter of each band member’s taste and skill.
You use the word “creative destruction” when you talk about your songwriting. What do you mean by this phrase, and how does it apply to your lyrics? All I am saying is that when you bring a tune to an ecosystem of good musicians, the likes of which are in GKCB, you are like a novelist bringing a book to an editor. We work together to pare back the waste. It is really hard to edit our own stuff; it is part of the idiocy of the human predicament that we actually think most things we do are worthy. We need people we respect to do surgery on our excess so that a simple and beautiful expression can leach to the surface. Basically, I can tell from the communal reaction when something sucks and we are all close enough friends now that honesty is the norm.