That is the stage name for the Wollongong, New South Wales-based duo comprised of Marilyn Ng and Louisa Daniels. While I’m not certain which one is Gus and which one is Iggy, these two Au-gus-tinian- and Ig-natian-inspired songwriters have got something special going on beyond the clever nomenclature. They fuse a smooth, smoky vocal tone with an arpeggiated riff-based guitar style that sits somewhere in between the hypnotic picking patterns of Damian Rice and the lilting, leaning chord structures of John Mayer.
“Emmanuel” is a song you count in 4s, but Marilyn’s guitar patterns and Louisa’s mirroring vocal line flow with such an extended motif of syncopation and delayed resolve that the first couple times through the intro and verse, you get lost, and you stop analyzing and just appreciate the beauty of what’s happening.
Not surprisingly, Marilyn and Louisa cut their teeth in music when they were quite young. Louisa started singing early on and began writing her own songs when she was 10. Marilyn was set in front of a piano at 7 and started putting pen to paper at 13. For real though. That’s impressive. And for the record, Marilyn says she was heavily influenced by Blink-182, which I feel deserves a slightly raised fist and a subtle nod of solidarity. #EmoForever
A decade or so later, after two EPs, they released “Emmanuel”, a single inspired by the Incarnation of Christ. And as I get to know these women, their music and their story as a duo, I find it very profound just how central a role the spirituality of meditating on the Incarnation plays in what they do.
In fact, it was central to ‘Gus and Iggy’ from its inception.
It was early one Christmas morning – immediately after celebrating the birth of Jesus, the Word ‘incarnate’ – that Marilyn and Louisa had their first im-promptu collab. “Early Christmas morning about 8 years ago, we were at Maz’s parents’ house after midnight Mass at about 3AM, and just started jamming to a song by Brooke Fraser.” As Louisa shares this moment of connection, a craftful lyricist in her own right, she permits herself this one solitary cliché: “The only way to describe it is ‘electric’. We knew in that moment this was something special that we had to grab hold of and run with, so we started writing together”.
Fast forward several years, plus one day, and the foundations of Gus and Iggy come to a head in the early workings of the song “Emmanuel”. Marilyn shares the moment in which this song came into existence:
It was Boxing Day a few years back and I was just sitting [playing] on the guitar in the morning while everyone was still asleep. I was reflecting on the gift that was God's Incarnation to the world and what that means for me today, and I was just overwhelmed with gratitude. I imagined that it was the clearest of nights when the three wise men were searching for their Messiah. Then the first line came to me: ‘a star rose up in the evening sky, leading us to a saviour child’, and next thing I knew the first 2 verses flowed out of me.
Marilyn Ng
Without missing a beat, Louisa jumps in.
Maz brought all this to me and I was just stunned by the beauty of the guitar part. I’ve always been totally captivated by the Incarnation and so was just musing on that from what Maz had written, and wanted to connect that reality to the personal, to our experience of it (‘my life began’).
Louisa Daniels
Yeah, that’s the line that hit me like a roundhouse kick to the face, except instead of Chuck Norris’ sweaty boot, it was the Holy Spirit.
On that note, one thing I truly adore about the music of Gus and Iggy, and specifically about Maz’ and Louisa’s writing process, is that everything is incredibly Spirit-driven. Literally, in chatting with them about their music and the inspiration, each of these two women as individuals referred to their work as “co-creations” with God. Now as a songwriter myself, there’s usually a part of me that is a cynical prat and will roll my eyes whenever a worship leader says “God gave me this song” -- it’s like, nah mate, you may have been inspired, but you wrote that -- but for Maz and Louisa, this whole notion of “co-creation” is not just an empty platitude, and there is no false-humility here.
I think that’s what I’m left with every time I listen to this song. And for real, I’ve listened to this song at least 30 times since I first heard it last Tuesday. Best 5 Australian dollars I’ve ever spent.
Every time through, it’s the same thing, but it’s unique at the same time. I get lost in the technique, or at least I think it’s the technique. What is really happening is, Louisa and Maz are walking me through the greatest event in the history of the universe, the almighty and eternal God taking on human form and stepping -- no, crawling, as an infant child -- into our own fallen condition, so that one day we could share in His eternal and divine life. And that profoundly earth-shattering truth is expressed and articulated with such grace and beauty, of course you get lost. If our goal as creatives is to capture and express truth, goodness and beauty, these women are onto something real. “For me it’s a lot of sharing my prayer, what God is teaching me about Himself, myself, His love for me”, Louisa explains. “I find other people tend to resonate with that, and if it helps other people pray, that’s all we could ever ask for.”
Well, that’s me booking my flight to Sydney for tomorrow-ish.
Now it’s your turn. What do you love about “Emmanuel”? And how does the music of Gus & Iggy speak to you? Leave us a comment below and share some love with Maz and Louisa.
