- My last album is still available at http://bandcamp.jessegimbel.com -


A great deal of current music is a response to other music. Groups try to break down sonic walls set up by previous bands, or attempt to emulate something they felt was lost from past eras.

Jesse Gimbel is an interesting case in the music world. He rarely ever listened to music before high school, and he didn't grow up in a musical family. The lack of influence allowed much various writing that came directly from thought or feeling, rather than being written all to fit in one genre. Learning guitar, bass, drums, piano, and other various instruments all had an influence on the music. With the history of writing, recording, and mixing himself, as well as photography and design, he was allowed complete musical control.

This comes out in Jesse Gimbel's EP "Letting Go Before I Begin", available February 28th. It shows the mindset occurring when feelings are suppressed, specifically during a particularly abusive relationship. The record pans genres, beginning with "Taken" - a guitar-driven alternative math-rock song explaining the experience of breaking free from an iron hand. Following this is "Where I Don't Want To Be", an epiphany, realizing one has the ability to make change despite what seems to be inevitable. The album ends with the cathartic "I Was Born", with the writer finally standing up for himself. The subject of the writing is explained by Jesse Gimbel:


"I wrote this album attempting to do just what the title says. I've spent the past years in drama that rivals the movies. I've been running and hiding, both figuratively and literally, trying to escape from a situation that quickly grew larger than myself and beyond my control. Threats, slander, high-speed car chases, and degradation of mental health are just some of the story. This album is my journal from those years - the songs are what it felt like.

I feel I owe it to my friends and those listening to let go of these things that have hung over my head, and move on to what I can control, and what I choose to do, not what I am forced to do. The album is my first step."

This album is already opening new doors for Jesse. With the relief of getting the thoughts in this album off his chest, he has already begun planning for future work, including a body of work consisting of absurd and extraordinary imaginings that are the results of strange little thoughts played out. "Letting Go Before I Begin" is just the beginning of many exciting things on the way.