Ground-breaking indie rockers Gossip have released their second single and video "Real Power," from their upcoming album of the same name. Back in the mix after 12 years, the trio will have a preview of the songs at the BBC 6 Music Festival in Manchester, which runs March 7-10.
Gossip: Hannah Billie, Brace Paine and Beth Ditto.
Their first single "Crazy Again" was released in November 2023, and signaled a return to form by way of producer Rick Rubin, who had helmed their 2009 release Music For Men. The trio had reconvened for a 10-year anniversary tour for that album and, at the behest of Rubin, started recording at his studio in Kauai, Hawaii in 2019. While Ditto and Paine had enlisted original drummer Kathy Mendonça (who had left in 2003 to become a midwife), 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic put those plans on hold.
Sometime in that period, Hannah Billie returned and the 11-track album was completed. Now with the new single "Raw Power" out, the band is set to make its presence "re-known."
Gossip - Real Power
In contrast to the first single "Crazy Again," which is awash in angelic vocals by Ditto (check out the NSFW video here), the album's title track is a fierce, funky anthem with a serious message. Sparked by the Black Lives Matter protests in her hometown of Portland, Oregon and around the world, Ditto relayed in a statement: "'Real Power' is about how awesome our city is and how it really showed up. The system was being rearranged and we were forcing people to reckon with it in a time when it could literally make you ill, in a pandemic. That's real power-people coming together, making those decisions to be in the streets."
Beth Ditto during the Gossip reunion tour in London, July 2019.
Ditto had not been totally inactive after Gossip disbanded in 2016. Rather, she had informed the public in an interview with Pitchfork that she had quit the band to spend more time on her plus-size clothing line and a solo career. Ditto made her solo debut with Fake Sugar, produced by Jennifer Decilveo (Miley Cyrus, Hozier) and released in 2017. She also starred in the Fox drama series Monarch as country singer Gigi Roman.
Real Power is set for release on March 22 and as mentioned, Gossip will be at the BBC 6 Music Festival at the O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester, headlining on March 8, where they will be previewing music from the album and celebrating International Women's Day. Tickets are available here.
