There’s something beautifully ironic about how laid-back “Settle Down” feels, considering it’s a track about emotional chaos. But that’s the kind of layered magic Joshua Gellman deals in. A multi-instrumentalist based out of Nanaimo, BC, Gellman doesn’t just play music—he invites it to breathe. And on his debut single, he does it with a slow-burning groove that’s as much a warning as it is a vibe.
Built around a thick bassline and the warm squelch of a vintage Hohner Clavinet, “Settle Down” walks the line between ‘70s soul and something far more personal. You can feel the jazz school polish—Gellman and his collaborators (most of them VIU-trained) don’t miss a beat—but it never gets clinical. The groove is lived-in, even sweaty in parts, while Gellman’s vocals carry a casual intimacy that keeps things grounded. Like someone telling you to breathe, not yell, with a smile that suggests they’ve been there too.
There’s real muscle in the arrangement, but the track never overplays its hand. The funk is loose, the message is firm, and the energy—despite the subject—is oddly uplifting. “The song is about someone who’s losing control”, Gellman says, and you can hear that urgency in every snap of the snare and every flick of clav. But you also hear care. It’s not a lecture. It’s a hand on the shoulder, maybe at 3am, maybe after the fifth beer, gently saying: hey, settle down.
About Joshua Gellman:
Joshua Gellman comes off as a bit of a musical nomad—charango in one hand, Fender Rhodes in the other. Raised on global sounds, steeped in jazz, and clearly unafraid to throw genres in a blender, his debut is less about showing off and more about showing up. Honest, groovy, and remarkably self-assured, “Settle Down” sets the tone for what could be a quietly bold debut album in “Speak To My Dreams”. We’ll be listening.
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