Continuing a revival of 50’s rock sensibility and 60’s brit-pop attitude Gringo Star shows that Atlanta’s music scene may contain more than meets the mainstream with their new track “Told Me Once Before.” There’s something admirable about the simplicity with which they’re approaching this vintage-leaning, but highly modernized sound. Thumping bass, hopping piano, and sparse chunky guitar lay a perfect foundation for the string and synth sounds that accent Furgiuele’s voice. The continuous rhythmic swing while the instrumentation ebbs and flows around it makes the already brief 2:38 runtime of the song feel like a flash. Gringo Star has leaned fully into an organic and honest lo-fi sound on this song while retaining warmth and presence.
‘Told Me Once Before’ represents one of the most minimalistic approaches to recording a song we’ve ever done. Most of the instruments were recorded live through a handful of mics. We tried to capture most of the song in the room live as a band on our ‘70s Neumann u87 microphone and later had our great friend Dave Claassen come in and add the string parts. It was a song I wrote during Covid isolation and Nick and I got together soon after and finished off the loose ends.”
