The Act: GOSPEL MUSIC
The Record: DUETTES
The Formats: FIVE-TRACK LIMITED EDITION 10¬ù / DOWNLOAD
The Label: fierce panda
The Catalogue Number: NING 233
The Release Date: TBA 2010
The Tracklisting:
1.I MISS THE SHIT OUT OF YOU with SoKo
2.GAMOPHOBIA with Shirley Simms from The Magnetic Fields
3.AUTOMOBILE with Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura
4.REINHEITSGEBOT with Darren Hayman from Hefner
5.ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL TOGETHER with Cassie Ramone from Vivian Girls

The Truth: this one is for the indie lovers ‚ five tracks of homespun homegrown homemade shoe-scuffing heartbreakpop featuring a ruffled array of alternative special guest singers. GOSPEL MUSIC, aka Owen Holmes, is the man at the eye of this particular humble hurricane. When he isnt emailing Camera Obscuras Tracyanne Campbell or Darren Hefner Hayman he is playing bass with cheery Floridian indiepop critters Black Kids. And when he isnt working on Black Kids somophore album he is laying down hobo-jumping leftfield nuggets when run the gamut from Johnny Cash to Jonathan Richman and beyond. But dont just take our word for it ‚ this is what GOSPEL MUSIC has to say about himself¬¶

On me:
Just turned 30. Currently live in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, which isnt quite as bad as it sounds. Grew up in the Southern Baptist church, which is every bit as bad as it sounds.
Graduated from university with a degree in journalism, worked for several years as an award-winning staff reporter for a liberal weekly paper in Jacksonville. Covered City Hall and the environment. Refused to write about music. Play bass in Black Kids. Im ?ìthe new indie bass gold standard,¬ù according to the US Associated Press. Growing up, music in my house was mostly limited to gospel, though Id occasionally overhear my fathers Jimmy Buffett cassettes, to which I now attribute any early idea I had of the nature of The Pop Song. To this day, I fiercely defend Mr. Buffetts pre-1984 catalogue.
I started writing and singing my own songs a few years ago.

On duettes:
I had a couple of duets laying around, and one day I thought of the spelling ?ìduettes¬ù (to connote short, small-sounding, detail-oriented songs). I thought this was so brilliant that I purposefully wrote a few more duets, and thats the EP. Song ideas mostly came during the delirium of my two-hour, many-mile runs around Jacksonville. My personal record for the half-marathon is 1:36:49; Im running a full marathon this December. Songs were then written in my apartment, in the kitchen, usually with a five-gallon batch of beer brewing on the stove, or while waiting for pasta water to boil (always put in a fistful of salt, and for Gods sake, no oil).
The only guest singer Id met is Soko (while touring with Black Kids). As for the others, I employed the sleuthing skills honed during my days as a reporter to find their e-mail addresses. I sent each the song I had in mind for her or him. They agreed to sing them with me, and Im still wondering whether the universe is playing a trick on me. I recorded the album myself, mostly in my apartment. When I say ?ìrecorded,¬ù I mean that I stuck a microphone in front of whatever I was playing. I played everything except for the drum set. ?ìI Miss The Shit Out Of You¬ù makes reference to the delicacy known as the boiled peanut, one of the few things that makes me proud to be from The South.
?ìGamophobia¬ù includes what must be the first use of the term ?ìin escrow¬ù in recorded music. (?ìSo long as you stay a gamophobe, these hips are in escrow,¬ù sings my lover, vowing to withhold her body until I marry her.)
Regarding ?ìAutomobile,¬ù I really do have a little Honda, and its paid for, and it has four doors.
?ìReinheitsgebot¬ù is the name of a 500-year-old German law mandating that beer be made only from barley, hops, yeast and water.
I chipped one of my front teeth recording the jaw harp on ?ìAre Your Parents Still Together?¬ù The tooth is still broken and will almost certainly remain so.

The Gospel Music ep "Duettes" is available to pre-order right now from the rough trade shop and recordrop.com (where you also get sent free mp3s with your vinyl copy)

www.myspace.com/gospelmusicfla