I remember a day late last Spring when, in an attempt to drown out the daily happenings of my State Farm office, a song came over the speaker on my desk that had such a profound impression on me that I started tapping my feet on my desk mat so loudly that my coworkers started sending me Skype messages asking me to chill. I still remember the song and still remember exactly what it sounded like the first time it pierced the threshold of my ear canals. I had just heard my first song by an artist I’d never heard of before – but who had one of the most refreshingly unique sounds I’d heard in recent memory – named GOM.
“Teeth” was perhaps the perfect introduction to Minnesota native recording artist GOM. I was immediately captivated by the up-tempo, campsite-type-beat strum pattern; and is if that weren’t enough, GOM’s vocals come in and grabbed my attention in a way that few vocal performances had over 2021. I am not at all going to act like I know how to describe this properly, but GOM has the very unique ability to take his voice from singing really deep to hitting a heart-piercing falsetto all within the same run. While the song clocks in at 2:52, it only took about :12 of them for GOM to gain a new fan (hint, it was me).
While “Teeth” is certainly worthy of dominating this entire piece, GOM hasn’t seemed to miss the mark yet at this point in his musical career. Having both the chops behind the mic and the boards, it seems like we might be witnessing the birth of a potential indie favorite. With only 5 releases of his own, and a feature with close collaborator and friend aldrch, GOM is still trying to find his bearing in this industry. His first release, “High” (2020), features a similarly infectious strum pattern and a melody that I’m going to once again say sounds perfect for a camping trip. He takes his first single to introduce a small bit of monologue at the end, something that will become a theme in his music, and in my opinion, adds a much more personal feel to every track. From 2020’s “High” all the way up to his most recent release “Hands” (Nov. 2021), GOM has progressively gotten more and more experimental – whether it’s adding more depth to his vocals or taking his stab at production where a guitar isn’t the main featured instrument (“talk 2 nice” with aldrch).
The only thing missing from GOM’s catalog at this point is a full body of work, but with where he is at in his career, very visibly still curating his own sounds – whether that’s sonically or visually – it’s easy to see why we haven’t yet gotten an EP or LP. Just from following his socials for the past 8ish months or so, it seems like he’s definitely moving towards something, but what that is we have yet to see. Aside from being able to hold his own, he works closely with friends like aldrch (previously mentioned) and Aurision alumni poptropicaslutz! It seems like this group of cohorts are all motivating each other in a way that’s pushing them to make some of the most catchy music you’ll find to date.
If you want to follow along with GOM as he begins to further cement himself as someone that’s here to stay, you can tap in with him on Instagram. Per his page, it seems like he’s been in LA recording recently, and we’re definitely excited to see what might have come from his time out west.
Tracks Mentioned:
“Teeth”
“Hands”
“High”
“talk 2 nice” with aldrch
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