Elijah Blake is well aware that Geminis often get a bad rep.
“I’m always hearing people say that Geminis are two-faced,” he acknowledges, before pushing back at the misconception of his zodiac sign. “I’m like, ‘No, there’s a duality to us.’ Me having a lot of friends who are Geminis, I don’t get that at all. I think we are the extreme of whatever emotion we’re feeling.”
Blake’s new album, The Gemini (released Jan. 16 via MNRK Records), isn’t an attempt to sway opinions about his sign. Instead, it’s a demonstration of his multi-layered artistry, shaped by life’s juxtapositions. The album follows 2024’s elijah., an introspective body of work steeped in “my thoughts, my stories, my joy, my pain, and my shame,” he told Rated R&B in a past interview. Even though The Gemini arrives nearly two years after elijah., Blake simultaneously worked on both albums. “I started on this album before I started on elijah.,” he reveals.
Blake was going through a breakup at the time and needed a way to balance the mixed feelings he had. “That’s why I called this album The Gemini… I was like, ‘How could I feel two extreme emotions at the same time?’ I was excited to be single again, but also, ‘Dang, I had hopes for this relationship.’ So you’re also mourning and grieving that. I was experiencing the emotions of ‘Work It Out’ [from The Gemini] at the same time of feeling ‘Ghostbuster’ [elijah.]”
“Work It Out,” the era-launching single, pairs a funk-pop backdrop with pleading lyrics for a resolution in a fractured relationship. The slick instrumentation that pulsates throughout can make you forget the weight of the subject, though tracks like the heartwrenching “Glass House” and the bittersweet “Shouldn’t Wanna Call” put his emotions front and center.
On “Shouldn’t Wanna Call,” “I almost passed out,” Blake chuckles about the belting note at the song’s end. “I’m trying to capture the true essence of the R&B that made me fall in love with music and holding these obnoxious glory notes. I want to bring back the drama to our male R&B.”
Below, Elijah Blake talks more about The Gemini, his desire to push beyond the norms and shares the story behind several of the album’s tracks.
It’s the week of your album release. How do you feel in this moment?
I immediately woke up with that stress on my back. It never fails, literally feeling like Atlas with the world on my back.
Where does that stress stem from?
It’s not necessarily for me because I’m in the place now where I’m having fun with it. But I see the hard work of my team, and I just want that win for them. I’ve accomplished so much so early: the songs I’ve written for other people; I even saw that this year “I Just Wanna…” went platinum. I’ve gotten my rewards, now it’s just walking in my calling, living in my purpose and making sure I’m pleasing in God’s sight. When I see all the emails from my team and everybody in the album group chat, I want to put another W on the board for them and make sure they see the fruits of their labor.
What inspired you to name the album The Gemini?
There’s a continuity happening. Now that I’ve got my footing as an independent artist, I want to world-build and tell my story, not someone else’s. People don’t realize I was under Universal Music Group for seven years. Whether you are sure of yourself or have a sense of your artistry, it still has to go through the checks and balances of people cutting the checks. Now I’m like, “Let me just tell my story.” That’s why [the previous album was] just called elijah. Let’s start with the spine and the base of it all. With The Gemini, I wanted to play into certain stigmas and stereotypes I ran from. In every project after this, I want to continue to play into a part of my identity.
What was your headspace like creating The Gemini compared to elijah.?
I was so serious during the elijah. project, and it’s not a bad thing. I just look at that person like, “Ooh, you were so serious.” The Gemini is more like a freedom fighter to me. I’m not asking for permission. The songs are what they are. It’s unapologetically R&B, unapologetically experimental and unapologetically Black. Allow Black artists to be free. Allow them to try different things, dress differently, express themselves differently, love differently, and you’ll experience another level of artistry within our community. I’m having a lot of fun and less pressure with the Gemini album.
When I was listening to The Gemini, as R&B as it is, it seems like you experimented more with pop and rock sounds. You’ve always had an alternative sound, but was it easy for you to tap into those areas with this album?
I can’t run from it, even when I try to. It’s so crazy you said this. I was in the Uber yesterday, and they were playing this yacht rock station. Being from Florida, there’s a radio station called Sunny 104.3 — that was my favorite station; all they played was yacht rock. So when I was listening, the driver was like, “Dang, you know all these songs that were 30 to 40 years before you.” My mother, being a Caribbean woman, wasn’t changing the station. It was either Celine Dion or yacht rock. I got to hear Aaliyah in between and, of course, Ginuwine when I would go to school and other things like that. But my R&B has always been an interpretation through the lens of a kid who grew up in the suburbs and “hood adjacent” in Florida.
What do you want listeners to take away from The Gemini?
I hope listeners take away how singular I’ve become throughout my journey. I’ve been compared a lot early on, and I don’t see much comparisons happening with the last three albums; that is the greatest reward to me. That beats any chart position. I hope this project is a reflection of how I’ve honed my individuality throughout the years, and I’m resting in it. I’m going to strive to even get deeper into a place where it can’t be so easily duplicated.
Elijah Blake Breaks Down Songs From The Gemini
“Open Spaces”
I wrote it from the place of where I was as an artist and a human being. It says, “Ravens can’t fly in cages. They need open spaces.” I’ve always felt like that as an artist. I’m not asking for permission to be free, but give me the space to be free, and you will experience an even greater depth to me as an artist. I just feel like, as a Black man, I was fighting so many battles. I’m not complaining because I think it strengthened my storytelling. But, I’m just like, “Damn, I can’t wait till I break through this box so that I can really express myself in another way.”
“C’est La Vie”
I keep trying to find components of my artistry that separate me from everybody else. Now we’re not even just competing with artists in the same genre; we’re competing with AI. I’m constantly searching for the humanity in my music to counter that. I’m like, “What are things about you that nobody knows?” I remember I was in a car with one of my friends, and my mother called. Usually when her and I speak, we’re speaking in Creole French. He was like, “I’ve known you all these years, and you just picked up the phone and started talking that shit fluently.” So I was like, “Just do a song in French where I don’t isolate people who don’t speak French.” French is my first language, and I wanted to do a song about love that pays homage to that in a way. That’s what c’est la vie means; it means “such is life” in French.
“Never Gonna Love Like This Again”
That was right after the last relationship. In true Gemini fashion, I’ll experience a breakup and be like, “I’m never going to do this shit again.” And then look up like, “Well, who the hell are you?” (laughs). When I hear that song, it’s so funny to me because I was literally boo’d up a week later. I feel all these things, and they’re true to who I am. It’s not dishonest. When I felt that, I felt that I’ll never love like this, don’t waste my time and everybody leave me the f**k alone. And then — you know I’m Haitian — so 20 minutes later, I’m back loving.
“Fool’s Gold”
“Fool’s Gold” is the last song that I did on the album. That song haunts me. I can’t wait to share the visual. It’s an eerie but beautiful texture to me. My trainer knows I love Vampires and superstitious movies. He was like, “Have you heard of Nosferatu? It’s technically the first vampire movie. It’s shot on film.” When he said it was in Old English, I said, “OK, I want to go see this movie.” When I got to see the movie, I kept writing in my notes how beautiful and poetic they were speaking to each other.
Basically, the tone of the movie that inspired this whole thing is Dracula says, “I’m going to give you anything of your heart’s desire, you just cannot love another man.” Every time she tries to love somebody, he kills them. He was like, “I will kill every man you love, but you will live forever.” She was like, “I’m still choosing love.” He kept saying, “Why must you go?” That’s why the main line in the song, “Why must you go? / Is it that you hate me?” It’s kind of saying — he’s like, “You say you hate me, but we’re still doing this dance. I don’t know if you know if you hate me or not.” I’m like, “Damn, that is so present in certain relationships and dynamics.” I thought that was a beautiful concept.
“Bubble”
I’ve always wanted to work with Claude Kelly. He’s one of my favorite songwriters of all time and of the modern age. Him and Chuck Harmony, who I adore as well, work out of Nashville. He had one opening, right before Christmas. I play him the album, and when I show up the next day, he has this concept. This one line changed everything. I was like, “What if we say, ‘Forget about the fires outside?’” And he said, “Oh, that’s interesting.” I was like, “Why did I say that?” The world wasn’t on fire. So we put that in the song. Less than 30 days later, the LA wildfires happened. I still have the voice memos. I’m hitting him like, “Bro, what? This is literally life imitating art.” I connect with that song on a deeper level.
Elijah Blake’s new album The Gemini is available now. Stream it here.
