Melbourne based music artist Gio has just released Old Dusty Road, the latest in a string of single releases that include Free, See You Tonight, and Your Face which has since been added to over 250 curated Spotify playlists and attracted over 40,000 streams and YouTube views.
The less you say usually makes each word mean more…
Gio
The new begins modestly enough, an acoustic guitar, a familiar chord progression, and a vaguely disarming voice but Gio’s stylistic tendencies seem to have received a mild jolt. Gio’s style has often been described as a mix of Bruce Springsteen and Milky Chance with a vocal tone comparable to that of George Ezra.
However, on this new one, he is edging towards Coldplay territory, with sprinkles of jangly guitar, a restrained mode of push and pull and a melodic structure for which Gio’s vocal wraps around in a similarly, effective, sorrowful manner.
No doubt a large part of Gio’s appeal lies in his ability to expose dense-seeming, private emotional worlds with clarity and easy-going finesse. As the first verse reveals: Old dusty road, take me home I’ve had too many beers, and my son is on the phone / I’ve never felt this sad in my whole life I feel my time is wasting, my mind has gone.
Slinging together those lines, had too many beers with my son is on the phone make for a beguiling if not disquieting sort of visual. We can extrapolate from Gio’s heart-on-a-ragged-sleeve epiphany, that some form of redemptive course is required, if not, straight out solicited.
As the song’s bridge outlines: Love me, love me for one more day / Take me, take me oceans away / This long life all but kills with pain / And Lord knows I made too many mistakes.
As Gio says about his songs: ‘I think the simpler you can make the words, the better – the less you say usually makes each word mean more. I think I say things in my music that is exactly how I’d say them in person, there is no fluff and there’s a resonance that carries to people because it’s truthful and real.’
And perhaps it is this perceived connection between audience and artist that will propel Gio’s music career.
