London songwriter and producer Tusks returns with third album Gold

London-based electronic songwriter and producer Tusks, aka Emily Underhill, has returned with her third album, Gold, out on Friday, April 12, via One Little Independent. The new record follows on from the release of Dissolve in 2017 and Avalanche in 2019.

Gold was half created at Underhill’s home in London and half during two solitary trips to Devon, where many of the songs found their inspiration. In need of some space, away from a shared house that had just been through a pandemic together as well as from a relationship that was coming to an end, Underhill travelled to the south-west of the UK where the bulk of the writing was done. Returning to London, Tusks partnered with producer Tom Andrews to bring the tracks to life from studios like Ten87 in Tottenham and SS2 Recording in Southend.

Synth-heavy and fuelled by emotionally charged layers of vocal harmonies, Gold maps various stages in the breakdown of a romance, but it also stops to consider the impact of isolation, individually and socially, as well as anxiety, mental health, and the wider effects of austerity. 

“A lot of this album was inspired by contrasting experiences,” Underhill said. “Processing a breakup and then falling in love again. Being constantly surrounded by people in lockdown, then suddenly being completely alone and free. Being in the city vs. being in nature.”

“We wanted to echo these contrasts in the production of the music, so we constantly moved between lo-fi and hi-fi production, sampling our own drum beats, recording them through compressed tin can mics, processing through loads of analogue gear and a 404, then switching to cleaner, larger sounding kits achieved by recording with mics in back rooms and the ceiling to give the impression of space.”

Two of the album’s early highlights, Adore and Artificial Flame, capture this contrast lyrically, examining two opposite ends of the partnership spectrum. “Adore is about falling in love with someone at the start of a relationship when you’re asking yourself if it’s a good idea, if you should fall for that person, or whether you should keep yourself guarded. Artificial Flame is about the point I’d also realised I was no longer in love with my partner at the time. It’s about coming to that realisation and processing it.”

The songs first took shape while thunder rolled and rain poured outside. “I didn’t really speak to anyone for days, and the storm came over,” said Underhill. “Weirdly, that ended up inspiring the chorus hook because I couldn’t light a fire without using a load of firelighters, which then made this massive green flame. I was kind of staring at it, then the phrase Artificial Flame popped into my head and seemed to sum up everything I was feeling.” 

Another album highlight, The Way, was written about finding calm in the turmoil. “I’d been out in the storm for a couple of hours, and in these mental 45-mile-an-hour winds listening to Porridge Radio, I came home and instantly sketched out this whole song on bass guitar. It was another one where it just kind of came out in one go from somewhere within me, like it had been building up over time. It’s addressed to anxiety. It’s about realising that whatever is going to happen is going to happen anyway; that’s just the way it is. I find that very calming.” 

On the title track, Underhill singles out the government’s handling of the pandemic. “It was written in response to seeing how the Tories acted and realising that if you have a certain amount of money and status, nothing else seems to matter— you can get away with anything. I felt like we were watching in real time how they just didn’t seem to care if people died or if any of this horrific stuff happened, so long as they weren’t going to get in trouble for it or their friends got rich. Somehow, they just seem to be immune to any kind of punishment and let off the hook. It’s more joyous at the end because that’s supposed to be about their downfall. I feel like I was hoping that would come by the time this came out.” 

Early on, Tusks drew comparisons to Sigur Rós and Explosions in the Sky, gaining support from the likes of BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac and Huw Stephens, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Mixmag, MOJO, Wonderland and more.

She released her debut album Dissolve to critical acclaim, produced alongside Brett Cox (Jack Garratt, alt- J, Marika Hackman). Second album Avalanche led Tusks further into the world of grunge and shoegaze. Taking inspiration from My Bloody Valentine, Marika Hackman and Wolf Alice, the album went on to gain her support from ever widening audiences across the world, as well as syncs on hit shows such as Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. 

Having previously supported Khurangbin, Ásgeir, Bear’s Den and Submotion Orchestra, Tusks embarked on her first European and UK headline tour at the start of 2020, including nights at London’s Village Underground (which she recorded and released as a live album) and Berlin’s Berghain Panorama Bar. In 2021 she collaborated with CJ Mirra on the soundtrack for feature film A Banquet. 

Tusks’ third album Gold was released on Friday, April 12, via One Little Independent and is available to stream now.