Glös

Formed as something of a collective whose participants bring substantial experience from an array of active and prior ensembles, Glös simultaneously operates as an intimate unit linking siblings with a longstanding associate. The project originated in 2005 after guitarist Keeley Davis and drummer Cornbread Compton sought a fresh endeavor once their prior outfit, the prolific emo act Engine Down, parted ways on amicable terms. Residing in separate locales, the pair exchanged ideas primarily through digital means, each developing material independently before sharing audio files for additional refinement. Once nearly two dozen songs had taken shape via this remote process, Davis recruited his sister Maura Davis, a former collaborator in the moody, Portishead-influenced semi-electronic quartet Denali. Based in Chicago, Maura supplied lyrics and vocals atop the largely finished instrumental foundations, thereby completing the geographically dispersed lineup. Following almost two years of remote composition and tracking conducted while the musicians remained scattered across cities, the trio—now operating under the name Glös, a term without inherent meaning that Keeley Davis and Compton selected for its vaguely European and exotic resonance—issued its first full-length effort, Harmonium, through Lovitt Records, the label previously associated with Engine Down, during spring 2007. Even while sustaining Glös, each participant continues parallel involvement elsewhere: Maura Davis fronts the Chicago dream pop outfit Ambulette, Keeley Davis handles guitar duties for the El Paso-based At the Drive-In offshoot Sparta, and Cornbread Compton supplies drums for Los Angeles singer/songwriter Matt Skiba’s side project Heavens.