Purveyors of: Genderqueer deep-house dance party
File next to: Cherushii, New Chance, Shamir, Body-San
Playing: Wavelength Winter Festival Night 2, Saturday Feb. 16 @ The Garrison. Get tickets here!
Regular Wavelength-goers will recognize Brandon Gibson-DeGroote from the wonderful electro-pop-gone-yacht-rock trio Most People, yet in Precious Jewel he passes the mic to his friend David Ocean aka BoyBitch, and turns his attention to making irresistibly danceable beats. Dave’s sultry voice soars over Brandon’s lo-fi deep house production on their tracks, while live the duo puts on a vibrant, colourful, gender-bashing performance.
As our Valentine’s Day gift to you, we at Wavelength are pleased to present the premiere of their new video for “Thinking of You,” in advance of their late-night dance-party set to close out Saturday night of 2019’s Wavelength Winter Festival. Jonny Dovercourt got the goods on the vid and what makes Precious Jewel sparkle.
Where do boyBITCH and Most People end, and where does Precious Jewel begin?
Brandon: Precious Jewel originally started just as me, as a way to produce the kind of electronic music I wanted shake my butt to when I wasn’t dancing on stage with giant puppets in Most People. But pretty quickly it became clear everything would be much better with Dave’s magical voice. So we started collaborating on tracks. We have worked together in the past in RaveTapes so we have a long history at this point, and his vocal style range is out of control.
Dave: Brandon’s creativity and drive are out of this world. It’s always a no-brainer to collab with him.
Your awesome new video for “Thinking on You,” directed by Seth Mendelson (and premiering here!!), features consensual touch and empathetic eye contact, two things many people sadly lack in their lives. Why was this important to communicate? Was there anything else that inspired the making of this video?
Brandon: The video started off as an almost funny conversation idea between me and Seth over the summer. Originally it was just a cute premise… hands undressing and then going all the way. But as we talked about it more, we saw it as an opportunity to really try to make something a little more special. Hands carry such an interesting power in terms of the energy they can transmit to each other. Like anything Seth does, he took the simple idea and sculpted into something much bigger and deeper. We also wanted to start the video in a sort of normative fashion and then let it just spiral into a big genderless orgy.
Tell us the life story of the average Precious Jewel song, if there is such a thing.
Brandon: Typically I’ll have some generally vibes of tracks I’m working on and basically Dave will hear it and just magically start riffing out magic. After that I’ll go back and organize everything into a more cohesive structure. Then, often we’ll go back and re-record several parts. From there I will likely obsessively tweak at it for a millions hours.
Dave: Truth. A million hours. The results are worth it.
Best place to go dancing in Toronto?
Brandon: There are a lot of great exciting parties happening a little behind the scenes in all sorts of hidden spots in the city. If you keep your ears and eyes open maybe you’ll hear about one!
Dave: Club 120 has been throwing amazing inclusive safe/queer space dance parties lately. The Beaver is always a sure bet as well. Phile Magazine, New Nails and the Rude Collective are always events to look for, and they pop up at various spaces. Most recently Phile Magazine had an incredible party at 500 Keele, which is a giant warehouse space that has been getting a lot of traction lately.
Best place to catch up over a coffee?
Brandon: Hands down best place to catch up for coffee is Jimmy’s.
Dave: Yeah, Jimmy’s.
Best place for a winter walk?
Brandon: City Hall/Downtown where the lights are bright.
How can we reclaim Valentine’s Day as a more inclusive celebration for everyone?
Brandon: Probably the only thing that can save Valentine’s Day at this point is hang out with some friends on Valentine’s Day and spend some time with your sweetheart on another day. To be honest, I’ll be playing Nightmare (the board game) with some friends, that way everyone is included!
Dave: I like that! I think I’ll go to that.
Brandon: Sweet! I’ll pick you up at 8!
Dave: Sweeeeeeet. Thanks. <3