PHOTO BY: CARLIE WILLIAMS * COVER DESIGN BY: BIANCA GOMEZ
RELEASE DATE: 8/27/2021
FOR LOVERS OF: KACEY MUSGRAVES, JESSIE WARE, FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE, LINDA RONSTADT, STEVIE NICKS, CAROLE KING
PLAYLISTING: “MOONLIGHT” ON SPOTIFY’S GEMINI AND SCORPIO COSMIC PLAYLISTS - CURATED BY CHANI NICHOLAS
All SONGS WRITTEN BY DOMINIQUE GOMEZ
PRODUCED, RECORDED, MIXED AND MASTERED BY: RETO PETER AT THE TEAHOUSE STUDIO IN OAKLAND, CA
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: ANDREW LEVIN (GUITAR SOLO) ON “MAYBE I WILL FALL IN LOVE (WITH YOU)” AND “SOUL ROLL ON”; JACOB LANDRY (0F CARAVAN 222) (GUITAR SOLO) ON “ANONYMOUS LOVES” AND (LEAD GUITAR) ON “MAYBE I WILL FALL IN LOVE (WITH YOU)”; DAVE LOPEZ (LEAD GUITAR) ON “ANONYMOUS LOVES”; ELLEN CHEN (VIOLIN) ON “ANSWER”; RETO PETER (DRUMS AND BASS) ON ALL SONGS.
Dominique Gomez is a Bay Area based singer and songwriter. Influences spanning Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks to Alicia Keys and Florence and The Machine are funneled through a classic ear and millennial experience, culminating in a polished, contemporary take on golden era tone. Gomez’ forthcoming debut EP “Seasons of The Heart” brilliantly exercises that commitment to song craft, immediately plunging listeners into a beautifully narrated world of last-call guitar and the smoke tinged sustain of vintage electric piano on EP opener “Maybe I Will Fall In Love (With You).”
Detailing the myriad emotional and material crossroads of the 27 year old Latina’s life, it feels apt to describe “Seasons of The Heart” as the bespoke soundtrack to an intimate portrait film following a woman as she becomes herself. Gomez’ voice sails directly into listeners’ focus as she recounts her own coming of age, supported by equally bombastic production marrying the “live” quality of great talent with studio precision and clarity, courtesy of engineer/producer Reto Peter. Private epiphanies of purpose, anger, desire and anxiety are revealed earnestly by a voice at once outsized and tender, the texture of each track intended to show you as much as it tells.
“Moonlight” finds Gomez raking longing over the warm coals of an otherwise fulfilled life, realizing her anxieties and leaning into a deeper understanding of fear and motivation. As the singer “look[s] to the sky” for answers the song itself seems to lift and turn with her, into the certain glow of that titular light.
‘Anonymous Loves’ is a straightforward and promptly meaningful summation of the twenty-something experience. The kind of song that could only be written by a woman who has firmly planted her flag on that mountain and understands that the path of least resistance is often unhappy and rife with collateral damage.
“Soul Roll On” is a raucous Southern stomper and stirring testament to the life and untimely death of Stephon Clark, a young Black man murdered needlessly by Sacramento police in 2018.
“Answer” is part lullaby, part indie rock tone poem, where Gomez’ acknowledgement and eventual dismissal of the coldnesses of the world melt into a lush solo violin performance. The arrangement then blossoms into an atmospheric constellation of hope as the record comes to a close with one last cynical remark.
“Seasons of The Heart’s” expressions of sociopolitical frustration and environmental existentialism speak to the now, then and futures of us all, while perspectives of Latina and immigrant solidarity with local and global struggles against police brutality and climate change foreground the distinct and versatile voice of a woman whose concern for the world has shaped her life and art.