They’ve played Glastonbury. They’ve opened for Mr Harry Styles. Sir Elton John described their debut EP in 2020 as “one of the most seminal records I’ve heard in the last 10 years”. By all accounts, the Los Angeles-based gospel-soul trio Gabriels have had a stellar run in the past couple of years. So it’s hard to believe their lead singer, Mr Jacob Lusk, was still working at a sunglasses company up until a couple of years ago.

“I’d be like, ‘I’m gonna be late, I’ve got to do this thing with Elton John, but I’m gonna come in after,’” says Lusk when we meet in a coffee shop near his apartment in Downtown Los Angeles. “I think they thought I was making it up. Like, this can’t be real.”

For Compton-born Lusk, there’s a pinch-me element to the group’s burgeoning success. As a former American Idol contestant burnt by the music industry, he began jamming with classically trained California composer Mr Ari Balouzian and the British-born video director Mr Ryan Hope for a bit of fun.

“It was never, ‘We’re going to be Gabriels. We’re going to take over the world. I’m going to be a superstar. I’m going to be Beyoncé. You’re going to be Michelle and Kelly,’” he says. “It wasn’t like that. Before, I was trying to be this R&B god. So, this was like, ‘Oh. You can just be yourself. There’s no pressure.’”

Primarily a producer who plays keyboards, Hope was equally laid-back. “I wasn’t trying to start a band in any way, shape or form,” he says.

Lusk was working as a choirmaster at his family’s church when he met Balouzian and Hope, who hired the choir for a commercial they were shooting together in 2016. It was an in-and-out sort of gig that Lusk wasn’t exactly enthused about. “In 20 minutes, I did a six or seven-part harmony with multiple stacks. Then I was like, ‘Anything else you need? OK, thanks. Bye.” And they were like, “Who. The. Fuck. Are. You?”

Balouzian and Hope were so taken with Lusk’s heartbreakingly powerful voice (“I think he’s one of the best singers on the planet,” says Hope) that they persuaded him to hang out again. Before long, the three of them were meeting up regularly to write songs that were a fusion of all their influences.

“Ryan probably knows more soul music than I know because I wasn’t allowed to listen to the radio as a kid,” says Lusk. “My vocalists are Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone, but they love Nick Cave. I didn’t even know who Nick Cave was.”

They didn’t consider themselves Gabriels until they booked a live show at a club night in 2017 and suddenly needed a name. Having been a techno DJ called Gabriels in a previous lifetime, Hope suggested they use that. “I didn’t click that it was a bible reference until after the EP came out,” says Lusk. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, Ryan, Gabriel is the messenger angel,’ and he was like, ‘Yes, you dummy. You’re the church boy. You’re supposed to know this.’”

“We approached it as one album,” says Lusk. “The songs are real stories and the music is heavy, so it’s a lot to consume. We were like, ‘Let’s treat this like a fine meal.’ You don’t get the soup, salad, entrée and dessert all at once."

Lusk has come a long way since appearing on American Idol in 2011, one of many to be swallowed up by the reality-show machine and spat back out again. “You have to be this particular thing. This is your identity, so you have to wear this and you have to sing like this because this is your sound.” He shudders. It was a “rough” few years of deals and managers falling through before he was able to find joy in music again. And he has Balouzian and Hope to thank for that.

“These boys have helped build me in a way,” says Lusk. “When I was struggling, Ryan was like, ‘I’ve got you,’ and he really meant it. Before we were Gabriels, we were just friends. I was worried because I gained 100lbs and I didn’t feel very good about myself. I was like, ‘These labels are gonna say mean things,’ and he was like, ‘Fuck them – if they say shit to you, then we walk.’”

Working with a choreographer recently, Lusk had a hard time looking at himself in the mirror. “She said, ‘You move so well on stage, you don’t practice in the mirror?’ and I was like, ‘No, I just do whatever feels natural.’ That’s what Gabriels is. We’re not trying to be something. We’re not trying to be cool. We’re just doing what feels good.”

They just happen to look cool while they’re doing it. Lusk is a big fan of a tuxedo, a long coat or a robe and takes style inspiration from the late Mr André Leon Talley, the legendary Vogue editor-at-large. “Jacob has his own style,” says Hope. “He gets the fabric and makes his own robes, which is pretty amazing.”

“I’m a big guy, so I’ve got to make this stuff because people don’t have my size,” says Lusk, who performed at Glastonbury in a custom green and blue satin robe. “It takes a lot of energy, but it’s been fun. It allows me to create something unique that nobody else has on. I remember when people used to get dressed up to perform and I want to give people that sense of ‘I got dressed up just for you.’”

It makes for a striking on-stage presence that feels, much like the music itself, old school yet progressive and incomparable to anything else out there today. “All of this, this energy, is because we want you to come and escape at our shows,” says Lusk. “You’re coming into Gabriels’ world; everyday stuff doesn’t matter.”

Amen to that.