A couple of South Coast creatives who've each had music running through their veins from a very young age, Love & Able are Emma Jene and Dylan Norris – a tandem who traverse blues and alternative rock with a slide serving of alt. country.
After first crossing paths when Dylan auditioned to join Emma's country band, the pair soon found plenty of common musical touchpoints intrinsic to their own output and the first threads of Love & Able were sewn together.The past year as seen the duo – who are also life partners – working on their debut album that they expect to release later this year. The first fruits of that project is the epic-sounding lead single 'Be Gentle With My Mind'.
"'Be Gentle With My Mind' is about poisoning one's mind with negative imagery of who they are as person from doubt that others brought upon them," Dylan says.
The birth of Love & Able; can you take us back to how you two first crossed paths at a hillside cafe?
Love & Able was not even a thought when we first met. Emma and I met at The Hillside Café in Nowra, where I was trying to go for a position as a country guitarist backing Emma, which was something I had never done before.
She slammed down a book with over a hundred songs and explained that she needed them ready to play in the next two months, and I said "not a problem".
Over a coffee we talked, about where we both found our love for music and how combining forces would strengthen our career path and we came to an agreement that this was the right path for us.
The oil-water nature of your respective creative backgrounds – country-folk music (Emma) meets alternative rock (Dylan); was it an instant attraction on the creative side of things despite the difference in the musical spectrum?
It was an instant attraction, as our combination of backgrounds sprung to life what we would hope to call our own sound.
Was it exciting as a creative to be exposed to new/ other sounds in your own music making that you hadn't previously experimented with?
It was exiting for both of us to be experimenting with new sounds. I was not a fan of country music to start with, but slowly I gained a love and passion for the style. As for Emma, it was an instant love for the new styles such as blues, rock and grunge.
'Be Gentle With My Mind' is your debut single; how does it introduce the sound-style of Love & Able?
'Be Gentle With My Mind' shows the first stage of the sound for Love & Able. We do intend to release an album later this year, which this song features on.
With that album, as the album progresses, the listeners will get to experience the full extent of our combined genres as each song is unique in its own right.
Lyrically, you traverse through mental health territory, spotlighting the harm that can be associated with self-doubt fed by others; lyrically do you prefer to craft songs that sway towards deeper, meaningful subject matter, to leave a positive imprint with listeners?
Yes, we would like for our songs to have deeper meanings for people to interpret in their own way. On the other hand, lyrically some of our songs are more about taking you on lighter, more psychedelic experience.
You've been working on debut album for the past year or so – how is the record progressing sonically/ lyrically?
Sonically, the album is pretty diverse as we will be adding brass and piano in some of the songs to come, while maintaining great guitar solos, ripping drums and unique basslines throughout the album.
As for lyrically, we have tried to grasp as many relatable and interesting outlooks on life that hopefully people can enjoy, and get taken on the journey of each song off the album.
Given Dylan's sound production background, have your produced, engineered the album in-house or have you sought outside help to add to the final product?
Dylan recorded most of the parts at his home studio. These parts include the electric and acoustic guitars and the vocals. The rest of the parts, like drums and bass, were recorded at Matthew Grey's studio, who also mastered the album.
You have a US tour planned later this year with stops including Nashville, New Orleans, New York and Texas; given everything the past two years, you must be super-amped to bring your music to new audiences particularly in America?
We did have an American tour on the cards, but was cancelled due to the unpredictability of COVID-19.
Can we expect an Australian tour as well?
We will hopefully be setting up a tour in Australia for next year, if all goes well for the album.
Not only a musical partnership, you've also become life partners – do you try and keep the music and personal aspects of your relationship separate or does each bleed into the other?
As partners, now all aspects of our life have all become one. We find it easier, as we are a great team.
You've both been immersed in music from a very young age; do you feel like music is flowing through your veins, that you need a creative outlet to express the best version of your selves?
Music being part of our lives for so long now, has become a part of us and we could not go without it in our lives. We live and breathe music. Being an artist is a life long journey.
Thanks for your time; anything else you'd like to add?
Thank you! We hope fans reading this like 'Be Gentle With My Mind' and come on the journey with us.
