Till final spring, trio The Gems – vocalist Guernica Mancini, drummer Emlee Johansson and bassist Mona Lindgren – had been near a breakthrough with Swedish traditional rockers Thundermother, having toured with Scorpions and Whitesnake and constructed up a strong fan base. However in an act of extraordinary solidarity, when Mancini was fired, Johansson and Lindgren adopted her out of the door. Now the three of them are again as The Gems, brandishing their debut album Phoenix, a defiant, riff-stuffed stomper that acknowledges the arduous instances and celebrates true friendship and willpower.
“Filippa [Nässil, Thundermother guitarist and founder member] determined that she needed to fireside me, from out of the blue,” Mancini explains. “We’ve had points for a lot of, a few years. It’s been powerful when it felt like we had been this shut to actually doing huge issues with the band. I’m perpetually grateful that Mona and Emlee determined to depart that tremendous profession alternative and take an opportunity on us doing one thing that we be ok with.
“I’d have by no means taken myself out of the scenario – and it was by no means a superb one, it was all the time poisonous. However now we’re in one thing the place we’re discovering happiness in music once more, and we have now a real friendship, loyalty and a sisterhood that solely a traumatising expertise like this may give you. We’ll have that bond for ever.”
This robust feeling of getting every others’ again supplies the inspiration of songs like barnstorming single P.S.Y.C.H.O, together with a sheer pleasure in performing them.
“Our exhibits are a superb time, with enjoyable, constructive vitality,” says Mancini. “It’s a high-energy rock present. We’ve a variety of enjoyable on stage.” A current cruise with Sabaton noticed them reconnecting with outdated followers and constructing a brand new fan base, one thing they’re set to construct on this summer time.
“Folks have been super-happy and supportive,” Mancini says of their rise from the ashes. “Folks seeing us not giving up, it looks as if a really highly effective message and one thing very lovely.”
Traditional rock is audibly near their hearts, however they are saying they’re not content material with protecting outdated floor – they’re seeking to transfer it on.
“It’s our mission to maintain the rock alive,” says Lindgren. “It’s vital to maintain the torch burning.”
“Traditional rock has been very stagnant, everybody simply retains repeating what everybody has already performed,” Mancini provides. “It will get so outdated. So a part of maintaining that legacy alive can also be refreshing it and daring to combine it up, like all our favorite artists did. We did a present this weekend and there have been a variety of females within the viewers, which we actually respect. Mixing it up the best way we’re doing, I believe it’s extra approachable for lots of ladies. We wish to get extra girls into rock, we wish to get a youthful viewers. Possibly by way of us they may discover all these legends that all of us love.”
Phoenix is out now by way of Napalm Data.