BENGALURU: Having performed for over five years after his schooling, 22-year-old Gabriel Daniel released his second full-length album, Conflicting, last month. Appearing on stage, for the first time after its release, Gabriel is looking forward to finding out what Bengalureans have to say about his new work.
The album, consisting of nine songs, speaks on mental illness, specifically anxiety and depression, which Gabriel underwent two years ago. He began working on the album ever since.
“The album has been doing well so far, with several people connecting to my personal experience through music. Getting their feedback in the past two weeks has been encouraging,” says the Chandigarh born singer-songwriter. He calls his music style cross-genre, which includes Rock, Acoustic and Pop to name a few. The song has inputs from bassist Akshat Kiran Kavidayal and drummer Ajit Singh, as well as the influence of Alternative and Progressive Rock.
This also happens to be his first solo tour in the city.
“This is phase one of the tour, which is why the other band members won’t be joining. I wanted to test my songs. Our friends suggested they wanted a more intimate setting with the music and I’ll be talking about mental illness before performing solo,” he adds. The album, according to the artist, starts with a few happy and hopeful songs; while the rest turn dark, with heavy guitar towards the end — signifying the cycle of depression.
When asked about the challenges faced while creating the album, Gabriel explains that it was difficult to present his personal experiences through music for the world to hear. “Performing live was harder because it was like re-living the stories,” he says adding that his faith in God inspired and helped him get through the difficult times.
Gabriel previously received an award for the ‘Best Young Indie Artist’ for his debut EP Triple, and is now focusing on releasing a music video for his new album. In addition to that, he also writes about everyday joys and trials of life, on faith, love and belonging, hoping it remedies another life as it does his own.
The artist will be performing at Foxtrot Marathahalli on June 13 at 8 pm.