I discovered Gizmo Varillas a couple of years back as he shares the same management as Jack Savoretti and has played various support slots alongside him. Though now based in London, Gizmo is a Spanish singer-songwriter who released his debut record El Dorado last year. Not one to shy away from the musical spotlight, however, he's back with second record Dreaming Of Better Days due for release on 6th July (pre-order the record here.)
Check out the latest single from the album, One People, below - I'm hoping to catch Gizmo this evening as he's playing at The Great Escape! He's got some more UK shows coming up, including a London headline show this Monday - find all the dates and ticket info here.
"I like the idea of sad lyrics with happy music. It balances things out."
I'm a little late sharing this track (I've been sorting out my submissions inbox and couldn't archive this one without sharing), the recent single from Gizmo Varillas, the first from his second album Dreaming of Better Days, released 25th May via Muisca Records. The tune, entitled Losing You, was written in response to shootings at a nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Speaking about the track, Varillas says that “I was really touched by what I saw on the train that same day [...] I was on my way to work, and I saw two men sitting opposite me, crying, holding hands. I must have internalised that, and the next day the song just flew out of my mouth, word for word. I used the name Maribel as a way of putting myself into the shoes of one of the Latin mothers who lost their child. That song is basically a letter to her. The sad lyrics provide some sort of depth, and the happy music gives reassurance.”
I first discovered Gizmo back in 2016, opening up for Jack Savoretti at Somerset House, and saw him open again for Jack almost exactly a year ago at Hoxton Hall and was really impressed on both occasions. While on first listen the majority of his tunes appear feel-good due to the rhythms contained within, the joyful music is "often undercut by wistful melodies or recognitions of life's grimmer elements." This was true of his debut album El Dorado, and is a theme which continues onto the upcoming record, which is said to "acknowledge mankind's darker sides, and seeks to find light therein." Check out the first single below!
Gizmo plays an album launch show at London's The Lexington on 21st May (tickets here) with more dates to follow!
If you know anything about me, you'll know I'm a pretty big fan of Jack Savoretti, so I was chuffed to win some tickets in the prize draw to his intimate show for War Child earlier this week. The last time I saw him playing at his last (and biggest) London headline show to date was to a five-thousand strong crowd at Hammersmith Apollo (read my post about it here), so the couple of hundred capacity Hoxton Hall made quite a change!
Texting during a gig?! Ah... Jack and Nikolaj are texting SAFE to 70444 to donate £3 to War Child (you should too!)
With the semester speeding by and my time at university drawing to a close, I'm starting to think about where my career after I graduate might take me. It's still pretty crazy to be able to say that I work in live music with Tigmus and special shows like last night (and most of Jack's gigs, to be honest) totally affirm my love of live music. If I ever end up working in management, touring with bands or anything like that, if I get to work with musicians who are half as talented and as hard-working as Jack then I'll be incredibly lucky.
Back to Tuesday... opening up the night, the supremely talented Gizmo Varillas took to the stage with just his guitar, a contrast to his full band set opening up for Jack at his Somerset House show in Summer. What he lacked in a backing band he made up for in charm and some pretty amusing chatter in between tracks, including the really exciting story that I've been seeing online over the last week or so (Wales Online), that Yoko Ono had given him permission to sample John Lennon's voice on No War, a track from his recently released debut record, El Dorado - check out the music video below!
The crowd suitably warmed up, a couple of people from War Child spoke a little about the charity (find out about the work they do here) before welcoming Jack and his keys player, Nikolaj Torp, to the stage. A couple of tracks into the set Jack warned us "we've never done this before.... well we do this every night as some of you might know, for many years, but we've never played any of these songs just me and the incredible Nikolaj Torp", encouraging us to talk amongst ourselves if they needed to figure out what key to play in. The night was full of lots of interaction with the crowd, and there was a really great atmosphere, a sense that we were all there to support this wonderful charity.
The pair played a beautiful set predominantly filled with tracks from the latest record, Sleep No More, including the singles When We Were Lovers, I'm Yours and Only You, which I filmed and you can watch below! Mixed in with those were a few of my favourite tracks... The Other Side Of Love, Sweet Hurt and Breaking The Rules (I was chuffed to bits to hear this version after seeing this video of a stunning performance on the recent German tour - seriously, if you're new to Jack's music, the vocals on this video are insane). It was a really great mixture of old and new tracks, and they finished up with the wonderful mash-up of Written In Scars and Knock Knock (video of that from Hammersmith here).
Despite it taking me three hours to get back to my flat after the show, it was a total blessing to be part of such a special evening, and even better that I got to share the evening with my mum who is also a big fan of Jack's - it seems all of our get togethers whilst I'm at uni over the last year have been to see Jack live, and neither of us are complaining. The next show is London's Royal Festival Hall (where I saw Poetry Live with school, so I'm intrigued to see a gig there)... it's sold out, as are a lot of dates on the tour, but all the info and remaining tickets are here!
