Gloriana were buzzing with energy when I sat down to chat with them about the release of their third album, titled Three, which released this Tuesday. “If you work out at all – which I don’t, but if you do – I’ve heard it’s good for like, treadmill moments,” the trio’s Tom Gossin quips.
They deserve to be excited – the trio has worked hard to get this album just right, writing over a hundred songs, carefully selecting three outside cuts, and, after they thought they’d nailed it, writing a song they felt so compelled by that they went back into the studio less than six weeks ago to make sure they included it on the record.
“We wrote it maybe six weeks ago,” Mike Gossin says of the last minute addition, “It’s On Tonight.” “This album had been done for like a year, waiting to be released, and we sent it to [producer] Matt [Serletic] and we’re just like, ‘Man, we don’t mean to do this, but we really think there’s something here.’ He thought so too, so we put the album on hold for a weekend and recorded [the song] over the weekend.”
The song is uptempo and genre-bending, something that comes naturally to the pop-leaning trio. “When ‘Wild at Heart’ came out that was considered pop and there were a lot of gasps, like, ‘We can’t play this,’” Mike Gossin says. “But then there were a lot of people that rallied behind it and were like, ‘This is awesome.’ If that song had come out today, it would almost sound more traditional or old than what’s coming out right now.”
Part of that pop risk came from their producer, the Grammy award winning Matt Serletic, known for his work with Matchbox Twenty, Aerosmith, and even Willie Nelson, as well as being a member of Collective Soul. “He’s been with us since day one,” Reinert says. “He really helped shape our sound.” For the trio, working with Serletic has been a learning process as well. “It’s kind amazing too from the first album to now how much we’ve learned from him,” Tom Gossin says. “He’s the Yoda to our Luke.”
The twelve-track uptempo Three retains the band’s signature pop sensibilities and feels energetic and bright. “We wanted to set out with a really fun record that we could play live,” Reinert says. “It’s a really fun uptempo summery sounding feel-good album.”
Reinert leads the majority of the album vocally, something that the trio is especially proud of, especially in light of the recent conversation about females on the radio. “I’m such a fan of so many female artists who have influenced me since I was a little girl,” Reinert says, as the conversation turns to radio consultant Keith Hill’s recent comments on the gender composition of country radio and his statement that women are the ‘tomatoes’ of a format ‘salad’ comprising mostly men. “It’s degrading,” she continues, “and just a medieval way of thinking. Saying that women don’t want to listen to other women… well then why do women want to buy magazines with women on the covers?”
“I’m just sick of data being used to decide people’s musical tastes,” Tom Gossin says. The more play a song receives, the more receptive a listener will be to hearing it, and songs with light rotation in the middle of the night, as Mike Gossin points out, are naturally going to lose in a ratings war because they were never given an equal shot at exposure. “It’s subjective. You can’t do that with art,” he says of data collection and its driving force in airplay.
“A great song is a great song,” Tom Gossin adds. “I wouldn’t want a woman played on the radio just because she’s a woman, just like I wouldn’t want a dude played on the radio just because he’s a dude. Do they have a great song? Well then play it.” He laughs. “Can you tell we’re passionate about this?”
Passion is something the band has no short supply of – lead single “Trouble,” featuring Reinert with a no-bullshit attitude and a baseball bat, is a steer-clear warning to less than honorable men, and a direct shot at an ex boyfriend. That energy extends through the rest of the album, for an uptempo record, from the anthemic “Let’s Take A Shot” and the breezy “Ain’t Runnin’ Outta Summer” to the romance-hopeful “My Somebody.”
Three is available on iTunes.
Gloriana – THREE – track listing:
1.“Trouble” (Rachel Reinert/Mike Gossin/Jon Nite/Ross Copperman)
2. “Ain’t Runnin’ Outta Summer” (Tom Gossin/Mike Gossin/Ross Copperman)
3. “Are You Ready” (Tom Gossin/Josh Kear)
4. “Nobody But You” (Eric Paslay/Dylan Altman/Will Hoge)
5. “It’s On Tonight” (Tom Gossin/Mike Gossin/Danny Myrick/Rachel Proctor)
6. “Fight” (Catt Gravitt/Gerald O’Brien/John King)
7. “Wanna Get To Know You”* (Rachel Reinert/Tom Gossin/Ross Copperman)
8. “Let’s Take A Shot “(Mike Gossin/Rachel Reinert/Danny Myrick)
9. “Get Back That Goodbye” (Rachel Reinert/Mike Gossin/Jon Nite/Jimmy Robbins)
10. “Lighters” (Tom Gossin/Rachel Reinert/Ross Copperman)
11. “It Won’t Let Go” (Mike Gossin/Tom Gossin/Danny Myrick)
12. “My Somebody” (Lucie Silvas/Jon Green/Jeremy Spillman)