The Rescues

If you’ve been paying attention to the singer/songwriter circles of SoCal, then perhaps you’ve noticed Gabriel Mann, Kyler England or Adrianne manning a microphone somewhere. Individually, each has their own claim to fame and moderate success to build upon. But it wasn’t until a mutual friend got married and hired them all as a wedding trio of all things that The Rescues truly took shape.

It’s hardly the typical beginning for pop legends and yet that’s exactly what the three-piece evoke comparisons to. Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles are an easy call when hearing the distinct sound of Crazy Ever After, the debut LP from The Rescues and it’s the “thick and indispensable” sound that Mann says they want to create. We caught up Gabriel to tell us about this new group that’s earning play on Grey’s Anatomy, Army Wives and the upcoming Rachel McAdams feature The Lucky Ones.

SSv: How is it to be separate songwriters coming together to create one individual piece after working on your own for so long?

Gabriel: It’s so great to have equal partners and it happened when we wrote for the first time. We had written together separately. Kyler and Adrianne had written together and I’d written with Adrianne, so we each had separate writing relationships like that, but when we all got together it was the right thing. It just felt very natural and easy and we all bring something a little bit different. It was that feeling like, ‘Wow, this is really unique.’

SSv: So you did all have prior relationships?

Gabriel: Kyler knew Adrianne from Berklee School of Music. My drummer went to Berklee and he said I had to come hear Adrianne. This was 10 years ago maybe and she was playing with Colin Hay. I was like, ‘Oh, alright.’ It was one of those things where you’re dreading going there and then the person is fantastic. She blew my mind and her voice is really unique and her songs are really powerful. It was just her and her acoustic guitar and she just killed it. It was fantastic.

Then I saw Kyler… I had been on tour and I had actually seen her posters up all over the country. Every place I went there would be a Kyler England poster. I met her pretty recently out here, but I don’t remember exactly how. I think we were both just around. I didn’t see a show of hers until much later. She’s got this voice that you just don’t hear in Los Angeles. You hear more quirky things here, but her voice is beautiful, this soaring bird. It’s a Nashville voice, whereas Adrianne and I are wackier than Kyler is.

SSv: If I were speaking with them, what would they tell me about Gabriel?

Gabriel: That’s a really good question. They would say… I don’t know. I have no idea. [Pause] I think my genearl contributions are outside of the norm. They are a little out of the box. My songs are a bit to the left and Kyler’s and Adrianne’s songs are a bit to the right. I consciously, also, when I’m writing take things to a place I haven’t been before. I think that I contribute a bit in that way. I’m also the guy voice. I singer lower than they do. [Laughs] My voice is also, not to sound pompous, but it’s unique. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. It sounds a little weird. It’s something you haven’t heard before and it sticks out. [Laughs] I feel that way about Adrianne’s voice, too, but not in a negative way. It’s a good thing to have something unique like that in a sea of voices that sound similar.

SSv: When you say you write outside the box…

Gabriel: I think I’m talking about everything related to songwriting – lyrically to structurally and also in terms of variety. I like to write things in a lot of different ways, not in terms of methodology, but I like songs to sound different from one to the next. I don’t like singing the same songs over and over, so I try to do something different every time I’m writing. I like it to be melodically different or chordally different or just something that will tweak it a bit that makes it unique.

SSv: So give me an example from the new album that gives me that sense.

Gabriel: The most obvious example is “My Heart is With You.” I thought it would be cool to do something a cappella. I thought it would be nice to have something where we really took our voices and put them right out there. And the one thing I could think of that would do that is to not play our instruments. The other reason for that is I think we rely on our instruments a lot to get us through writing. It’s like having a crutch in some ways. You can just play it, at least, and you have something. At least there’s that thing. As opposed to using your brain to write. That’s something I was taught in college.

When you study composition, something I was taught is instead of relying on your instrument, you use your brain. You write the melody on paper with your pen and pencil and it’s something you work your way away from over time, because it’s a hassle that way. But you also come up with something a little more interesting. That said, this song wasn’t written that way, but at least it was that idea. [Laughs] So I brought the idea of that song to the forum and said we should do something wacky and something that would stop our show dead in its tracks and would get attention in a different way.

SSv: You said in a quote that I read when comparing your music to The Eagles or Fleetwood Mac, you said that the world needs music like that which is “thick and indispensable.” What does that mean?

Gabriel: Those songs, to me, are thick and that connotes something you can really sink your teeth into. It’s music that sticks around for forever and doesn’t let go. They are songs that sound like they’ve always existed. Those are the songs I grew up with where I love that stuff and I know the girls feel the same way. We’re not ashamed of liking big pop songs. Pop in the original sense of the word – popular songs that people actually like and not pop songs you hear on the radio. Not the songs you hear just one time and think that they’re just cool but then you don’t hear them again.

We want them to be indispensable. We want them to be lasting. But we want to be a new act within that realm. This is what music is supposed to be about. This is why you fell in love with songs in the first place, not because you were trying to be cool but because they mean something to you. They made you feel something.

SSv: If this is really just a side project that blew up and you still have your solo careers, then how hard does that make it to do anything to promote the album or move forward? Do you do much of that?

Gabriel: Well, there’s a tour in November. They are brief tours so far. We’ll go out for a week. We’re not trying to do extensive touring at this point. Kyler and Adrianne are already touring on their own at this point. That said, if we landed some major opening gig, that’d be great. I’m sure we’d go out for longer. And there are other unmentionable things in the works that I can’t discuss yet. We do have a residency or two here and there in January. Adrianne is going to live here for a month and we’ll make another record. So without talking specifics, we are figuring out where and when to do our next extended tour. We’ll see what happens. The distance between us is definitely an issue and it’s something we’re working on.

SSv: What’s happening with your own solo career?

Gabriel: Not a whole lot. [Laughs] My solo career has given way to more writing and composing so I can tell you what I’m doing in terms of that, which is a lot more exciting than my stand-still career at this point. I did a record in September of last year and that’s my most recent thing in terms of creative output and I have a few things I’ve been working out on the piano. As far as composing, I’m working on a video game for EA [Electronic Arts] called “Saboteur” and I’m doing a TV show called Worst Week for CBS. I’m doing a bunch of random things for Mattel, the toy company. I’m just doing a lot of random things for them. I’m producing a friend of ours named Dawn Thomas, who is a fantastic singer/songwriter in L.A. I’m playing a live Arrested Development show on a Thursday. I wrote a lot for that show, so we’re having the cast come in and do this. So it’s everywhere and it’s out of control. I do have plans for another record, so that will be coming up sometime.

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Tagged as: Acoustic, Los Angeles, Pop, San Diego, Singer Songwriter

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