A quarantined Gladie reflects on lost love, siblings, and orange peels

Philly indie rock duo Gladie dropped a new EP this week. orange peels, written and recorded from the duo’s house, is a collection of three songs about old, half-forgotten memories, ended relationships, and the reflection that comes with stagnancy.

Gladie is made up of Cayetana‘s Augusta Koch and Three Man Cannon‘s Matt Schimelfenig. The duo released their debut LP, Safe Sins, back in February, and were one week into a headlining U.S. tour when the Coronavirus pandemic forced them to call it off. Koch and Schimelfenig picked up some gear from their Poconos recording studio on the way back, and orange peels was recorded in their Port Richmond home.

All three songs on orange peels deal with buried memories and the accompanying loneliness. “is that why you’re here” details the aftermath of a breakup, Koch singing “I sleep with piles of clothes on my bed so it’s not so empty / Should have finished that chapter on dismantling codependency.” The titular song expands on that loneliness, with “the negative space of you and I,” while closing track “sisters” shows the subconscious bonds of family, “Wires crossed in the parallels of thought.”

The tracks on orange peels describe situations outside of the isolation enforced by pandemic conditions, but the central themes of reminiscing on loneliness reflect on the artists holed up at home. The opening verse of “orange peels” strikes with special poignancy: “If I paint a still life of my current situation / There would be a lot of tools I use to subdue procrastination / The house is filled with unmade sheets and dishes piled high / But mostly what I’d focus on is the negative space of you and I.” With little else to do, cooped up at home, Gladie has been reflecting on lost time and the people left behind.

Listen to orange peels below.