As Calvero, Gabe Liebowitz seizes the enormous potential that hides inside a pop song. The shine, the bombast, the pathos of pop: it's all there in his first solo songs, which erupt in light like casinos on the Vegas strip. They are love songs, and songs about losing love, and songs about losing oneself in the rush of singing out all that loss—songs about the way songs can obliterate the individual and open a door onto the universal. Liebowitz’s songwriting sensibilities swirl together the explosive choruses of Bruce Springsteen with the glittering escapism of Ellie Goulding, a unique hybrid he alchemized during his years involved in Chicago’s live music circuit. As a bandleader, he got a feel for the scale and the heft of rock music with seismic hooks. As a solo performer, he’d punctuate variety shows and his own local songwriter showcases with no-holds-barred covers of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” and Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Encouraged by his former college roommate David Singer-Vine, Liebowitz started co-writing with other artists. "I became fascinated with all the nuance and craft that went into writing a pop song," he says. Most recently, he worked with Terror Jr on their debut album Unfortunately, Terror Jr. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Calvero">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.