Meet GILT.

Made up of vocalist Tyler, bassist Nico, guitarist Tristan, and drummer Ash, GILT are a posthardcore emo band from Northern Florida who are ready to take ahold of your ears and take you on a sonic journey through pain, growth, and self reflection with the release of their debut album “Ignore What’s Missing.”

Balancing their time between becoming a growing emo sensation both in the music scene and on social media, GILT are the epitome of a rising DIY act, running all day to day operations and accounts on their own and making sure they connect with fans via more than just their songs. And now, navigating the field of promoting a new album while being unable to tour, GILT are figuring out how to find their way into people’s daily streams in entirely new ways.

And fortunately for us, we had a chance to chat with all four members of GILT about “Ignore What’s Missing,” the constant uphill battle that is 2020, and how they are currently blowing up in the postcore emo scene.

You can read our full interview with the band below, and be sure to stream their new album “Ignore What’s Missing,” out now.

Second Society Report: First off, the question we make sure we ask everyone: how are you all doing? Be honest! This year has for sure been a rough one for everyone but I want to make sure to check in and see how you are doing and send our hopes of a safe and healthy rest of 2020.

Tyler: So for me, this was the year, with this release as a metric, I was supposed to decide if I kept prioritizing music as a career, or if it took a backburner spot. I’m turning 30. And now I have no clue, haha. I guess if I had to pick a word, I’d say I feel unsure.

Nico: This year has been tough. I lost both my jobs, essentially.  I have been staying inside because I’m high-risk. It’s been detrimental to my mental and physical health, and a lot of my anxieties with operating in the real world have returned because of it. It’s been a difficult year for a lot of us. I think it’s really important to be honest about things just.. not being okay sometimes.

Tristan: I quit vaping and started visiting a therapist in February, which, that alone has made this year significantly positive in my personal life. This year is hard, but I see voices coming out of the woodwork and it’s empowering to see that social progressivism around me.  

Ash: This has been the toughest year I’ve been through and everything in my personal life has been a complete mess. I’ve been going through the motions of grieving my father’s passing last year and also managing what has been left behind. It’s been scary if I’m being honest but I’m looking forward to what’s to come.

SSR: Before we dive into the music really quick, I’d like to ask a get to know you question- how/when did GILT form? How did you choose the name GILT? 

Tyler: GILT formed in 2017, after I had been in a few other bands and I was writing material that just didn’t fit for them. “Numbers” (track 5 on the LP) was the first GILT song I wrote. It has the phrase, “I remember it, you casting gold over my skin” in it, which is the process of gilding. GILT is applying gold, and I think it’s got this dichotomy of being beautiful but cold, which is what I wanted the band to be in a thematic sense. Tristan and I are the only two original members, but we stay in touch with most everyone who has been in and out of the project as it’s evolved. 

SSR: Now for the music questions! You have just released your debut album “Ignore What’s Missing.” How has the response been to the album so far? 

Tyler: So, we’re a touring band. We’ve always been a touring band. We have no clue how to use the internet, and no budget for promotion. Our ‘release cycle’ was supposed to be a 2 month east coast run with multiple festival dates and we were terrified that with COVID canceling everything, we’d be releasing this to nobody. 

Come to find that in our first week, we’ve tripled our listenership on Spotify, and have over 10,000 streams on the album. Friends who know how long this has been coming, and who have been waiting to be able to share the version of us they saw live have been messaging us left and right. It’s completely unprecedented. We’re floored. 

SSR: How are you feeling now that it is completed and out for public consumption? 

Tyler: It’s like we were stuck on the first level of a video game for 3 years and now we beat the boss and the doorway opens and we’re at the beginning of level two. It’s amazing, but we’ve never made it this far, and the unfamiliar territory of trying to promote, considering labels, and doing activism when we can’t really occupy any physical spaces outside of our houses. 

SSR: What was the inspiration behind the album title? I feel you don’t see the title track as the first song on the album too often. Which came first- the song or the album title? 

Tyler: A lot of the album reads like a call-out post. There’s a lot of sadness, but a lot of anger at a society that constantly gets its priorities flipped. The phrase from that track, “Ignore what’s missing, focus on what’s not there” is an overall statement that applies to all of the themes that get touched on from addiction to police brutality. The song definitely came first, but it was a quick realization that it was the opener, sort of like a prologue, to the rest of the story. People really spend their time chasing material goods and personal salvation while failing to look at the world crumbling around them. Or worse, they see it and don’t care. 

SSR: Which song on the album was the most difficult to write? What about the most cathartic? 

Tyler: Probably “I Didn’t Want You As A Mirror.” There’s a lot of self-reflection and accountability on the record, but admitting those really petty inner thoughts so directly is still hard. It’s one thing to complain, another to try to change things, and a whole separate thing to admit what’s just past the point of being salvaged. Sometimes you just did dumb stuff in the past, and you can’t fix it, and you still have to wake up and be you every single day. 

SSR: GILT is a band that isn’t afraid to tackle politics, social justice issues, or other topics some parts of society deem too “taboo” for musicians to talk about, which is evident in both past releases and across “Ignore What’s Missing.” Why do you think it is important for yourselves or your audience to create/spread awareness about these issues via your music?  

Tyler: Artistry is selfish. Artists, by nature, absorb the feelings and ideas of everyone around them, then get the accolade all to themselves for regurgitating it. I think the only ethical way to make anything is to make sure it’s helpful to someone, and meets them where they’re at. 

Art can communicate in an accessible way that a textbook can’t, because it can speak with feelings, not just information. I think where a lot of radicals go wrong is thinking you have to get people to understand political theory as much as you do. That’s never going to happen. The best you can do is edge someone’s moral compass in the right direction. And of course, subtly name drop. I only knew about Chelsea Manning because of Kevin Devine, but even if I hadn’t done any research, the premise of the song is clear and the ethics are plainly stated. 

SSR: I know the last lines of “Sink and Tithe” grapples with this, but do you ever feel worried that you will lose support or fans due to how vocal you are?  

Tyler: I know tons of Blue Lives Matter republicans who listen to Rage Against The Machine, which is what that song is a direct sarcastic reference to. To me, that’s a fate worse than nobody caring about your band, so avoid that, we do spend a good amount of time clarifying just where we stand and what we promote and what we condemn. It’s scary sometimes, but it’s better for us to get some hate mail as a band than someone we love to get killed in the street, or someone feel like their life isn’t worth anything, or that they can’t ever be happy or feel safe. Like I said, this is an ethics topic to me. You can’t make art ‘for everyone’ and have it really mean anything to anyone, in my opinion. 

SSR: A slight side question- Speaking of your activism, back in July you were featured on “I Have A Mouth and I Must Scream,” which was dedicated to bringing awareness to the current climate surrounding the Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ movement. How did fans respond to that compilation? Do you feel it was a success? 

Tyler: Full disclosure, it’s hard to know when anything feels like a success in that realm. We raised a good chunk of change, and I love that we got to be on that split with people that we dearly love and that we finally got a chance to record a track with Ash doing vocals. That being said, donating to bail funds and community outreach groups can sometimes feel like we’re just slapping as many bandaids on as we can. 

During that same period of time we had friends in Portland detained by the feds. I’ve had friends shot with teargas cans point blank by cops who obviously were intending to harm them. It feels good to be doing something, but I don’t think any dollar amount would feel like ‘success.’ We’re just trying. Everyone is just trying. 

SSR: When you are writing new songs, do you write with the goal to create a singular track or with the goal of using said track as part of a larger collection of songs? If the latter, do you write tracks with specific themes in mind in order to turn them into a cohesive collection?

Tyler: Although I try really hard to have a balanced life, I do write in sort of ‘batches.’ I’ll just go through periods of time where lyrics pop into my head, or music does. Largely, the two are unrelated. So our final process is a lot like combining these previously unrelated ingredients into something new. If you look at the periods of time each part was written, there are definitely themes being tackled that connect them, but even outliers can get tailored to fit during the combining process. It’s sort of chaotic, but it’s also neat to see how all the threads of your life over time can overlap and relate. 

SSR: A lot of your lyrics read as though they started out or could be stripped down to be read as poems. Is that how they are written or is that just a coincidence?  

Tyler: Most of them aren’t even complete poems when they start. They’re just one or two lines, usually written on receipt paper at work and shoved in a drawer until the next few good ideas hit, usually weeks later. Then when themes appear, and the lyrics are about 50% done, they get fit to the music. That way we can make sure the syllables fit, which affects which rhyming words will be used. 

SSR: What other artists have inspired you on your journey towards becoming musicians and now growing your platform? 

Tyler:  The whole reason I got into music was Max Bemis (Say Anything). His whole process of doing everything himself then bringing in more talented folks to record is how I’ve always worked best. His struggle with drugs is a big factor in me being straight edge. His outspokenness about mental health is what prompted me to start thinking about my own. Even recently, as he said a bunch of transphobic stuff on Twitter (which caused me to distance from referencing the band), I’ve been able to learn from his mistakes. 

I don’t want to grow up and feel like I’ve done enough good for the LGBTQ+ community that I’m above judgement or beyond needing to learn any more, which is what his ‘defense’ came down to. That’s like the direct definition of ‘You can be honest, and still be wrong’ from our song “Charity.” I think my best example of someone who made music I love, that covered serious social issues, and was also a fantastic part of their musical community is Geoff Rickley from Thursday. You can always catch me making some hot take about MCR only being more successful because they write songs about being sad, not about colonialism or the for-profit healthcare system. 

Nico: A lot of my inspirations come from artists that I look up in their performances, as well as their music. I Hate Sex, Cerce, Foxtails, Gouge Away, to name a few. 

Tristan:  Isaac Brock’s, Modest Mouse, plethora of music is one of the biggest inspirations for my own songwriting. The production and timbre is so choice. Mostly though, music has been my way of socializing and expressing my voice since I can remember. I would take a guitar to school nearly every day since sixth grade and now can finally do that without being alone in the band room but with friends.  

Ash: I feel as though I draw a lot of inspiration from a lot of people for different aspects. Jeremy from Skatune Network truly inspires me in terms of their creative drive, and I am in constant awe of them, they really create straight from the heart. I want nothing more than to just be constantly creating authentically like them. 

SSR: What do you hope listeners take away from your music- specifically from this LP? 

Tyler: One of the things we’ve gotten told at shows was, “This is music for me. About me.” People see themselves in us, and up until now, there hasn’t been a really high quality representation of what they experienced at shows. Hopefully people can take that sense of kinship and belonging home with them now, and use it as a safety net when things get bleak. Obviously, we hope it teaches someone something, or leads to some beneficial self-reflection, but largely we hope this brings solace to someone who feels like music, and the world as a whole, isn’t for them. Because both can be, and this is. 

SSR: Is there anything else we haven’t asked about yet that you would like to share with fans? 

Tyler: We run a fundraiser annually that in every previous year has functioned as a series of tours called Snipfest. All the door money is open donation, and all the proceeds go to selected recipients towards gender-affirming surgeries. This year is obviously going to be different, but we’d love to know what people want to see, or if anyone wants to get involved wherever they may be local to. Even if they don’t want to contribute to Snipfest, it’s important to know that you can help people, in a direct financial sense, with almost no money yourself. We’re not a big band, but we’ve given away thousands of dollars, and whatever your cause is, you can create a space for it and a dialogue about it and a community around it.

You can connect with GILT via the links below, and be sure to stream “Ignore What’s Missing,” out now.

Twitter / Instagram / Facebook / TikTok / Bandcamp