Culture
Sami Kaiser talks about the moment Gel ‘clicked’ and working through a sense of self on their new EP
By: Nicholas Kobe
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WOUB) – Jersey-based band Gel has been pushing the boundaries of hardcore punk ever since they formed in 2018.
Initially an offshoot of the power-violence band Sick Sh*t, Gel was an outlet for the band to try a more traditional hardcore sound. However, Gel quickly grew beyond a simple side project, continuing to build that momentum in the last few years, which can clearly be seen in the online hype behind the group, and their ever-increasing touring presence.
Since 2020 Gel put out two EPs, a split, and their first LP, all of which we welcomed with warmth by both critics and fans. Gel’s most recent EP, Persona, is lyrically grappling with a sense of self while musically honing their sound to be more brutal, relentless, and tight.
WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe spoke with Gel vocalist Sami Kaiser ahead of the band’s performance at the Louder Than Life music festival later this month. Find a transcript of their conversation below, edited for length and clarity.
Nicholas Kobe: How would you sum up Gel in one sentence?
Sami Kaiser: Ooh, that’s a good question. I’d say Gel represents synchronicity in that the opportunities and the experiences and the outlets and everything we’ve been gifted would not be possible if not for us all finding each other in some way by circumstance, and luck, and I don’t know, fate, a little bit too. That’s not a sentence though. One sentence is tough.
Yeah. But what you were saying about kind of coming together by fate, when did you realize that “Oh, this is clicking, this is going to lead to success?”
Kaiser: So me, our bass player and our guitar player, we’ve been doing this together in some iteration. Prior to this band, we were in a power violence band called Sick Sh*t together, which we played in for five years. Then from that point after we started Gel, we just wanted to, I don’t know, write hardcore punk music and play those types of shows and stuff. Deviate a bit. Then Maddi (Nave) has been playing in the band for a few years now too. I’d say the connection and the clicking happened probably on our first full US (tour) as Gel, where we realized, “oh, kids are coming out to the shows, people coming out to the shows,” and it was eye opening. And it felt like in those moments early on that there was no ceiling to what we can give. It just kind of opened our eyes to understanding that we wanted keep going and that there was no definitive end, you know what I mean?
So, back then the feeling was “the sky’s the limit.” Does the band still feel that way?
Kaiser: Absolutely. There’s so much more to experience. I don’t really set concrete goals for myself. It’s never like, “well, for this year I want to play on larger stages.” I never really think about it in terms of that. I always approach goals in an open-ended way, with a sense of curiosity. So that feeling is still something I carry, and I know everyone else feels the same way as well. We have the addition of Alex (Salter), who’s been playing drums in the band and writing for over a year now. That also has felt like we’ve really fine tuned and clicked in our dynamic and we’re all aligned on that. There’s no ceiling and there’s always so much more that can be experienced and so much more that we can do creatively. I feel excited for what the future holds and what I can push myself to do. The optimism always stays with us no matter what.
That’s awesome to hear. The new EP, Persona, drops September 16, which is in just a few days (from time of recording). So how are you feeling about that EP right now?
Kaiser: Oh, I’m so excited. Stylistically, it’s less straightforward hardcore punk, which is what we’ve had or what we’ve been accustomed to and what we’ve created up until this point. And it’s still at its core that, but it’s a little different, freakier stylistically. Lyrically I put a lot of energy and effort into writing a comprehensive – not narrative – but I stayed true to my themes more.
My writing process is always a little scattered, but it was less scattered this time around. I’m very happy with what we put out and it’s almost like a bridge for a full length in a way. This is kind of leading us into a different direction. We would never go melodic. I never want to sing on anything, but I just mean as far as songwriting and collaboration, I’m going to try to experiment a little bit more, maybe go a little more post-punk with it, but it’s exciting in that it’s a new chapter, sort of.
You said you felt you stayed more true to your lyrical themes on this EP, and the EP’s title track is particularly interesting. What inspired the lyrics for that track?
Kaiser: I’d say it’s about feeling out of place in what you’re doing, but finding your footing in a world of opposition. When I write lyrics, I am often talking to myself, but I’m also talking to a broader thing – like as a symptom of a thing. I kind of touch upon my own feelings towards myself. It’s through the lens of feeling out of place as a femme in a harder genre of music and kind of wondering why people doubt your ability and talents and wondering why people are interested. You know what I mean? In the music and stuff. So it’s kind of like the internal strife and struggle of that.
Then also people liking for whatever reasons they do and lumping in to, I don’t know, I talk about a lot of things in that song, but I think it also, the core of it is persona, which I base around Carl Jung’s teachings, where it’s the persona being the outward projection of self, which comes from a lot of different factors. Some of it being the ego, some of it being trying to exist amongst an environment. There’s many reasons that go into why your persona is what it is. Everyone has it not in a showy way, but just in a existence way. Then also the movie Persona too, which is an Ingmar Bergman movie from the ’60s. That also touches on the dangers of a persona. The danger lies with any of the facets of self not being integrated, but the persona can be where the imposter syndrome lies, and it can be a paralyzing thing to try to confront internally and externally. So there’s a lot of things I talked about in that song, but it all relates back to just the facets of self.
Do you think writing about persona has helped you deal with those feelings in a way?
Kaiser: Absolutely. To put it to words, because I think very abstractly most of the time. I feel like in my mind, I know some people monologue, some people think in sentences and stuff, but a lot of the time I just kind of have feelings and I struggle to put words to them. So when I write lyrics, it can be a really, what’s the word – an insightful process personally, to be able to actually put it to paper and then it feels more tangible. But then also to be able to be conscious and kind of make it into an artform in the language I use. It’s an outlet and it’s a great channeling of those emotions. I feel like I process a lot through the writing and through performance.
What is it about hardcore music that makes it such a good outlet for you?
Kaiser: I think it works for a lot of people because on the surface it seems very abrasive. It seems very tough and closed, but it’s actually very vulnerable in a lot of ways. And that emotion, the anger, the rage, that is often associated with harder genres, I think can be very productive in this sort of controlled way to express, because everyone has these feelings to some extent.
To be able to either get it out by enjoying, by listening to this type of music or by performing and participating, whether that be live or writing from an audience standpoint or a creative standpoint overall, it’s a productive outlet on that front. These are emotions that everyone feels, and they can put people in a very emotionally vulnerable place. And I bring that emotional vulnerability with a lot of my lyrics, and I think they kind of go hand in hand.
It seems like a natural connection to me, and it can have a positive spin in the end. It’s not just spewing the negativity out there, it’s constructive and it’s a release, especially in the show format, like a 20-minute to 30-minute set time, that’s the time frame of that expression to its most actualized form, to its most physical form. I think it’s super productive. It’s better than, I don’t know, being mean to those around you. It’s better than processing in a less healthy way. It’s a designated time to do that.