The Venezuelan-born, Indiana-based songwriter Rui Gabriel has just released his third single/lyric video “Church of Nashville,” off of his Carpark Records debut album, Compassion, out 21st June. Following the tense and lackadaisical lead single “Target” and the ‘sunny, jangly earworm,’ “Summertime Tiger,” “Church of Nashville” humorously takes aim at local music scene pretension and industry gatekeeping.
Initially written in mid-2018, “Church of Nashville” takes inspiration from a friend of Gabriel’s — who grew up in Nashville — that once vented about how tough it was to be taken seriously as a musician in the city because it fell outside of a “industry of cool,” and the way it ultimately impacted their self-esteem.
“I have nothing against Nashville and the lyrics are mostly supposed to be a character assassination of a certain type of person one can always find in a mid-sized to large metro area,” Gabriel elaborates. “There is a bit of myself in there too, especially as a transplant to New Orleans who grew up fairly privileged and decided to try out as a musician.”
The track had three different recorded versions with modified lyrics, before Gabriel decided to add electronic elements and focus on atmospherics, and features a sample from the Venezuelan presidential crisis protest of the last half-decade.
How are you feeling about Rui Gabriels’s latest?