ILIA – Gasoline (2025)
ILIA has been making music for over twenty years under various guises; however, a couple of years ago, he began to focus as a solo artist and has released three EPs and ‘Gasoline’ is taken from his newest one titled The Great Deep. ILIA’s chosen cover version is this 2015 track that Halsey wrote about her own experiences with mental health and suffering from bipolar disorder. This is evident from the dark lyrics, which portray a tortured soul: “Are you deranged like me / Are you strange like me / Lighting matches just to swallow up the flame like me”. ILIA’s own screams add an extra ferocity to what was already a passionate track.
The wailing electric guitars give off their own emotion, almost sounding like they’re in pain or crying. There’s moody, layered instrumentation throughout, and there is a sound similar to artists such as Metallica and Linkin Park. ILIA is well-versed in heavy rock, and his own band, Orgy, are due to take part in an upcoming US tour alongside Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. Opportunities like that, plus getting down to the last ten finalists to audition for The Smashing Pumpkins, show the adoration that ILIA is starting to receive.
IILIA directed the video for ‘Gasoline’ himself and features him and his band locked in to a live performance. It is atmospheric and dark, especially the shots of ILIA in the pouring rain. His previous video for ‘The Ones You Think You Own’ was filmed at the home of acclaimed writer-director and friend Shane Black, a location featured in David Fincher’s Gone Girl and Black’s cult noir classic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
With this cover of ‘Gasoline’, ILIA has taken the song to a completely alternate stratosphere. He has lovingly recreated his own version whilst paying homage to Halsey’s original. He has done with ‘Gasoline’ what Disturbed did with Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’.
Learn more about ILIA on Instagram, Facebook, Spotify and TikTok.
