Remember Jacob Lusk? He’s the gospely soul singer who came in fifth place on American Idol season 10 in 2011. The singer fronts a band called Gabriels that’s making a mark since releasing an EP, Love and Hate in a Different Time at the end of last year.
Jacob and his band appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday night (August 16) to perform the lead single. Guest host Maren Morris introduced the band.
The story goes that back in 2016 fellow band members Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian had been working on a film together as director and soundtrack respectively, and in searching for a choir for the project they came across Jacob. “Via a few years of makeshift recordings in a rental property in LA, and experimenting with a range of sonics, they began to release music,” reports The Guardian.
After American Idol, Jacob worked as a choir director in Los Angeles and as a background singer for Diana ROss, Gladys Knight, Nate Dogg Ledisi and Beck. About his newest project, Jacob told Rolling Stone, “I’ve done songwriting stuff in the past where it’s like, ‘this is a radio killer; this is for R&B or for Adult Contemporary; let’s make this R&B record that’s gonna compete with Tank,'” Jacob calls the work he’s doing in Gabriels “…a breath of fresh air for me.”
No less a superstar than Elton John called the song “one of the most seminal records I’ve heard in the past 10 years.” The song is charting in the UK, and the band hopes to make headway on the US charts.
Gabriels ft Jacob Lusk perform “Love and Hate in a Different Time on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jacob competed on American Idol alongside winner and runner-up Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina respectively. He impressed the judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler with covers of Elton John’s “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and more.
The six song EP Love and Hate in a Different Time also includes the songs “The Blind,” “Professional,” “In Loving Memory,” “Loyalty (ft. Ashley Sade) and edit of the lead single. Check out the full set below.