You’re into movies, I’m not sure what you read, and I bet you’ve got some big opinions on the state of music. What’s inspiring you these days?
My consumption these days is maybe 80% audiobooks. I’m on a pretty steady diet of self-helpy pop psychology, biographies, sci-fi, pop science, short fiction, and collected works of a single author. My film diet is fairly similar, but with some horror and standup comedy sprinkled in. Almost none of my musical inspiration is coming from other music these days… that’s probably not a good thing. The last few books that rattled me sufficiently are: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, Empire of AI by Karen Hao, Determined by Robert Sapolsky, Columbine by Dave Cullen, Murderland by Caroline Fraser, In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.
A lot of your work—not this one from the Predator universe—deals with family dynamics. Without prying too much, have you found that sharing these experiences through music changes your existing relationships with family/friends/partners?
I think being transparent about my relationships in my lyrics has both opened and closed doors for me. Much of the ground gained in a relationship by exposing oneself may be lost by doing so in a broadcast format. I think my use of journalistic lyrics has helped me seem approachable and known by people I’ve never met, and thus feel less alone, but I think it’s ultimately a monologue, and relationships don’t get healed or improved that way. Perhaps sometimes a monologue is forgivable or appropriate when the objective is to teach, or model vulnerability, or confess, or create a time capsule for a child to open later… I’m not sure.
I remember at one of your shows (as Grüvis Malt) y’all played the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme before diving into one of your own songs. I don’t think people “got” it as that series hadn’t quite blown up. But I’ve noticed that about a lot of what you do, it seems years ahead of what everyone else is into. In terms of “success” (whatever that means) has that helped or hurt you?
That’s kind of you to say. At the time, Curb was on Season 3 or 4 I think… I think it was as big at that time as it was going to be, but the theme music hadn’t yet become a meme, so that might’ve made what we were doing a little less recognizable. We were just bored and on tour, binging Curb in the van.
If things I’ve done were a few years ahead of their time, then I suppose it could be true that innovation hurt my career success… But I think the best artists are capable of pulling the world along with them, so citing my timing as the primary reason my career has languished feels like an excuse to me. There was never going to be an optimal year to release Grace Land hahaha.
Innovation has always been a primary goal during my creative efforts. I think you’re inspiring me to try to unpack that. Why is that important to me? Should it be?
You’ve released some amazing covers. That probably doesn’t come without a little risk, but also reward. But what’s the driving factor when you hear someone else’s song that makes you go “I need to record my own version of this”?
I think the impetus to attempt a cover has always been the same for me: I just really like the song. It’s always about fanship and coveting: “oh man, I wish I’d written this song.” Often times it’s a lyric and/or melody that I fall in love with, and I just sing it around the house so often that I start to think tracking it is the only way to get some peace. I think I hold the original version in such high regard that I try to make mine very different; I’m almost never confident that I’ll be able to match (let alone improve on) the vocal performance of the original, so I try to compensate for that with rhythm and chord progression embellishments or departures that will share the attention.
Part of what I love about good lyrics is an ability to apply words to things that are very difficult to reduce to words. What’s something, anything, that you believe in strongly but can’t prove. Even better if no one has been able to prove it, actually.
I agree with you—I think that is an accurate depiction of a poet’s job. You’ve posed a hard question for me… I’m realizing it’s far easier for me to list things I don’t believe in. I think, having grown up in a conservative religion and escaped, I’m very skeptical of strongly held beliefs. I’m naturally stubborn but I want to be nimble and change my mind often. I suspect most things we get passionate about aren’t all that important. I believe in aliens. Lately. I sometimes believe in Simulation theory. I mostly believe in determinism. I believe humans are more often corrupted by systems than moral failings.
Where he lives
Bristol, RI. I grew up mostly in Cranston and Providence, RI, but arguably grew more in Portland, OR
Profession/Passion
My money comes from product design; my passion at the moment is parenting and synthesis.
Hot or cold drink
Harvest Latte with Macadamia milk
Third space
My car—it’s nothing to brag about but to me it represents full autonomy
Photo credit for the top headshot is by Tom Cook, art direction by Carrie Von Kiel. Final note from Ty: I mean this when I say you should stop what you’re doing and go listen to some of Gavin’s music. The three albums below are just a fraction of his catalog, but will give you a bit of everything from humorous to heartbreaking. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
