TJ from GIFT talks ‘uninhibited’ third album, ‘Frenzy For The Thrill’
TJ from New York band, GIFT, talks to TOPNOTE ahead of a sold-out London show at The Lexington. Image credit: TOPNOTE
‘‘Frenzy For The Thrill’, it's about being unhinged, and tumbling towards something that you really, really care about, no matter what the cost is.’
TJ Freda, frontman of GIFT, finds himself wandering through the streets of North London with me, searching for a quiet and somewhat aesthetic alleyway from which to host our interview, since the soundcheck taking place at The Lexington, the New York band’s venue for the night, is deafeningly loud.
There’s a poignant link between our journey to relative quiet through the inner-city chaos, and the internal battles occurring in Freda’s mind that ultimately led to the creation of the band’s next album, ‘Frenzy For The Thrill’.
The record was developed after a period of burnout and anxious energy led the New York-based musician to stay with a friend in Los Angeles and decompress, after completing a series of frenetic touring for 2024 album, ‘Illuminator’. Following a relentless schedule of endless movement, dopamine hits and crashes, and all-encompassing artistic projects, Freda found that being in a new environment away from these cycles fuelled him with an inspiration and desire to delve into that mindset, in order to change it.
GIFT’s third studio album, set for release in January, is a toss up between control and abandon in the search for success, led by recent single ‘Hand To The Flame’ — a retelling of the Greek myth of Icarus, flying too close to the sun. Buzzy synths collide with room-filling riffs to mimic the violence of self-destruction, and a fiery spirit that’s not altogether harmonious.
As such, the ‘quiet’ alleyway we find ourselves chatting in is constantly interrupted by sirens, honking cars, and noisy pedestrians. Art mimics life, after all. Read the interview with TJ, before the band’s sold-out London show below.
NYC band, GIFT, release their third album in January 2027. Image credit: Xavier Guerra
This interview has been edited for clarity.
TOPNOTE: So how is it being back in the UK? And how's the tour been so far?
TJ: It's been great. We love the UK. It's our third time here, our second headline tour.
TOPNOTE: Is there a difference between US & UK audiences?
TJ: Yeah, definitely. Both can be unpredictable, I think British audiences can be really rowdy, but also really calm. It kind of depends on the vibe, I think London's similar to New York where you really got to get the crowd going versus… like when we go to Scotland or up north, people go crazy. It differs, it's nice to see the whole gambit of everything.
TOPNOTE: You named your album after a lyric in one of the new tracks, ‘The Fly’. What does a fly symbolise to you, and why choose it?
TJ: The fly embodies the desperate desire of something that is seducing you, charging full force towards something. The fly is the creature that will go towards something no matter what cause and effect happens. That's why we have electric fly zappers, they want that light so bad that they'll go there and inevitably… kill themselves by getting to it (laughing). So yeah, ‘Frenzy For The Thrill’, it's about being unhinged, and tumbling towards something that you really, really care about, no matter what the cost is.
TOPNOTE: Do you think artists naturally have a greater disposition to be like that?
TJ: 100%. The line gets blurred between life and art. You kinda become that projection of yourself that you’re putting forward to make that art. Sometimes reality becomes this confusing back and forth between embodying this thing you’re making and being an actual person. I feel like I got a little lost for a little bit. This album is reckoning with this balance of who TJ is, versus who I am as a musician. Sometimes it’s good to lean into it, but sometimes you’ve gotta have a boundary with yourself.
“The fly embodies the desperate desire of something that is seducing you, charging full force towards something. The fly is the creature that will go towards something no matter what cause and effect. ”
TOPNOTE: How do you create that boundary?
TJ: I think resetting, going to a new place like Los Angeles was interesting and helped me break from the routine. In New York I was really confined to a small studio and it’s this claustrophobic feeling all the time. I think now there’s a little bit more space, room to breathe. It’s a little tough in New York sometimes. The energy is so amazing, but creatively, it can be the most inspiring thing or a little stifling.
TOPNOTE: You said you wanted the album to be frantic and beautiful at the same time. How do you think you've achieved that?
TJ: I don't think for this album we let go of melody, that's been a throughline in the GIFT catalogue, but it's definitely approached a lot of different rhythms and crazy sounds. I think there's a lot more energy, I'm singing a lot more than I have normally… yelling, hooting and hollering! It's a loud record, the feel of it.
TOPNOTE: Whether sonically or the influences, what can fans expect to hear?
TJ: A really honest take of a band coming together and just making what we wanted to make with uninhibited energy. I think we're really trying to just be honest with ourselves and where the band's at. Sonically… aggressive. It's chaotic, it's beautiful, it’s got some quiet moments, it’s relentless.
TOPNOTE: Do you have a favourite lyric?
TJ: Oh… I haven’t thought about this yet. I tried really hard on the lyrics this time, I feel like I was writing some really personal ones. I really like the lyric from the last track, ‘Demon Inside’, that's ‘a tiny pill that turns me into stone’. That one's cool. And there's another one, ‘lost in jealousy / it eats my insides out / I like to watch it until my eyes hurt’.
TOPNOTE: You’re going on tour round the US after this, supporting Post Animal and Temples. How are you feeling about that?
TJ: Really excited. We've given a lot of attention to Europe and the UK in the last couple years. You know, the U.S. is a tricky place to navigate sometimes… a full US tour takes a lot longer than going around Europe. So we're basically doing the whole US twice with Post Animal and Temples. We're really excited to play some places we haven't played.
“It’s a little tough in New York sometimes. The energy is so amazing, but creatively, it can be the most inspiring thing or a little stifling.”
TOPNOTE: And is there anything you want to say to your London fans?
TJ: We're excited to come back. I mean, really excited to play The Lexington tonight, but the UK has always been very good to us and we owe a lot to British music in this band. Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream… big, big, big influences on this new album. Listening to a lot of Underworld, Chemical Brothers, a lot of the '90s people.
‘Frenzy For The Thrill’ is set for release on 15th January 2027.