After a string of increasingly-accomplished singles over the last couple of years, Melbourne electronic duo GL have released their anticipated debut long-player, Touch.

GL’s bread and butter are their sparkling and beautifully polished retro production, draped with soaring vocal runs and lush harmonies. The ‘G’ of the duo is instrumentalist Graeme Pogson, while vocalist Ella Thompson is the ‘L’, and both had a chat to us about what went into making their silky smooth debut record.

You’ll be able to catch them live on their national tour, kicking off in September (dates below).

Number One

Graeme: I love heavily quantised music and this track was basically an attempt at the stiffest funk I could possibly make.

Indigo

Graeme: Written in Ella’s echoing room and hallway, she blurted out the chorus and the natural reverb made it sound heavenly, so we just went with it. We didn’t try to complicate it much more than that.

Ella: A story for Indigo.

When Your Love Was Mine

Ella: This is one of my favourites on the album, the lyrics and form are pretty simple and there are only a couple of chords, but the bass line really holds it together and sings it’s own tune.

Graeme: Big fan of the RX5 drum machine so it was a good excuse to use it on this track. We recorded this and ‘Number One’ with the excellent Andrei Eremin, who also mastered the album.

Hallucinate

Ella: I think we felt there was a flavour missing on the album, then ‘Hallucinate’ came along.

Graeme: Yeah, we wrote this one very last. It’s a looser feel than usual for us, but maybe that’s why it fit in so nicely.

Grip

Graeme: This has been a main fixture of our live shows since the very start, but it didn’t reach its full potential until Haima Marriott got his hands on it. In a moment of inspiration Haima created that rubbery, bouncing bass sound and gave the track a new lease on life.

Contact

Graeme: A sinister boogie track, the first of the album’s instrumentals steers things in a darker direction.

Scully

Graeme: Scully is sort of a synthwave influenced track but with with freaked-out, paranoid vocals.

Ella: Scully is inspired by unidentified life matter. Taking its name from the X-Files queen, I quite liked the idea that Graeme and I could undergo the deepest of investigations.

Warm

Graeme: Dreamy yet heavily syncopated ballad about the importance of warmth.

Ella: A song about second chances.

Honey

Graeme: The album’s second instrumental, just a quirky, rigid funk-jam.

Ella: It reminds me of Herbie Hancock/Mr Funk styleee, we had lots of fun with the vocal sampler and the word “Honey” slipped in there somehow.

Stars

Graeme: Ella’s cosmic-fantasy, ‘Stars’ is a driving, spaced-out electronic-funk track.

Ella: Yes, an intergalactic love affair.

Cheap Shot

Graeme: This was a last minute addition, we wrote it one night out of the blue and ended up convincing Haima to mix it for us at some ungodly hour. The title gave us a good excuse to use the wild-west ‘p-cheeeeow’ gunshot sample, al la ‘Back and Forth’ by Cameo.

Fall for You

Graeme: We wrote this one in Daylesford at our friend’s family cottage, you can still hear the birds chirping in the background of some of the vocal tracks. Heavily inspired by ‘All’s Fair In Love And War’ by Dynasty.

Body Language

Graeme: Our attempt at some New Jack Swing. The bridge of this still makes me laugh every time. Orchestra-hit and vocal-sampling indulgence to the 1/16th(3) degree.

Ella: I feel like lyrically this song brings home the concept of ‘Touch’.

Melanie

Graeme: This track was originally just an excuse to use the Simmons Drums I had impulsively purchased, but Ella’s hooks made it something real.

Ella: Lyrically inspired by Millie Jackson’s Caught Up album; a love triangle, a chain of broken hearts.

GL ‘TOUCH” AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Presented by i-D/ Midnight Feature/ Plastic World/ WME and Astral People

Saturday 3rd September – Rocket Bar, Adelaide
Saturday 10th September – Howler, Melbourne
Friday 16th September – The Foundry, Brisbane
Saturday 17th September – Newtown Social Club, Sydney

Tickets

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