“We’re rolling and we’re making it sweet and it’s beautiful,” are the opening words to “Honeybee” from Gabriel Bernini’s fourth record You Got Me. Ordinarily throwaway studio chatter, those words might as well be the thesis for the record. While Sweeties, Gabriel Bernini’s first record for Dadstache, started out as an attempt to make a harder rock record than his previous records, You Got Me is a more gentle affair. Drawing from the folk-indebted rock of Wilco, Neil Young and JJ Cale - the sounds on You Got Me lean mellow, contemplative, like the afternoon sun drifting through an open window. 

    “I wrote You Got Me in my first apartment in LA. It was the first time in a while that I had nowhere to record new songs as I developed them,” Bernini recalls. “In Western MA I had a studio set up in my basement where I could record constantly. This record was written fully on acoustic guitar and then brought to the band for a 3 day recording session.” Whereas Sweeties was precise, rootsy power pop - a product of Bernini playing every instrument on the record, the songs on You Got Me stretch out, his backing band keeping it loose and laid back.

“This is the first to feature other instrumentalists besides myself. Recorded live at Spirithouse Studios in Western MA,” says Bernini. “Besides a couple harmony vocals there are no overdubs on the album.” Themes of love, support and a sense of home play out throughout the record, uplifted by a band made up of Bernini’s close friends and family. They share a musical history that lends the music a subtle confidence, and that familiarity helped bring the record together quickly. “I knew this group of people would be able to record these songs with me without any preparation or knowledge of the material,” he explains. “Every one of us comes from a similar musical background and taste that I think helped create a singular vision with only 3 days to record.“

Album opener and title track “You Got Me” perfectly encapsulates the feeling of a group of friends and family in the studio. “[You Got Me] is about the ongoing experience of finding your identity and the importance of having the support of friends and loved ones,” Bernini explains. It opens with studio chatter, the band goofing off before launching right into the body of the song, a warm organ and piano trading leads over a laid back groove.  “Under All Summer,” he notes,  “is about missing people and the effect it has on your life. Attempting to feel triumphant in the face of difficult times.” Similarly mellow, moments recall The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” before heading off in a direction more akin to something from JJ Cale’s Naturally. Like that record, the songs drift in and out, leaving their mark but never overstaying their welcome.

    “Believe Every Word” comes the closest to Sweeties - a punchy riff, the band driving, high gain guitar squealing, before dropping off into the slow, shuffling blues of “Love Is A Drum.” The record picks up again with the similarly titled “Love Is A Drunk”, Bernini leading a call and response between him and a piano, “if you’ll still be a friend, I’ll catch up with you someday” he sings.  “Do The Twist” leans fully into the boogie rock of JJ Cale, muted guitars over muffled drums, the bass dancing as leads drift in and out, Bernini crooning “I’m sinking, thinking about you.” Slide guitars, piano and organ trade licks back and forth until the song slowly fades out and into the quietest song in a record full of quiet moments, “In Another Life.” Layered acoustic guitar, twelve string, organ gently build under Bernini’s voice. It’s about “falling in love so much so that you can’t believe you ever had feelings for anyone else. Hat’s thrown in,” he exclaims.

    You Got Me is a document of the shared history of a band so attuned to each other they adjust on the fly in the takes that made the record, tiny moments of laughter between friends caught live on tape. You Got Me is out October 22.