Talk: Up-and-coming Gavin DeGraw

Only 26 years of age, Gavin DeGraw has the charisma and talent to boost himself tomusic… Only 26 years of age, Gavin DeGraw has the charisma and talent to boost himself tomusic stardom. Through word of mouth, he is slowly taking the music industry by storm. Signed to Clive Davis’ J Records, his debut album Chariot arrived in stores a little under a year ago. Since then, he has embarked on his first headlining tour. The Pitt News had the opportunity to talk with Gavin when he was recently in town for a concert.

Before you performed at last year’s Pre-Grammy party, Clive Davis introduced you as “the next big thing.” What were you feeling?

Sick to my stomach and terrified (laughs).

Alicia Keys was introduced much like you were and she went on to win a Grammy. Does that add any extra pressure for you?

Actually the pressure isn’t really for me personally to perform or to play. The only pressure is living up to the expectation of being introduced by someone like Clive Davis. I’m not seeking a trophy, I just want to make good music, tour and make records. I’m not really so concerned with the status of it. I think other people are more concerned about that for me than I am. It’s more like something that’s been put before me, it’s like “okay here’s the goal.” But that’s sort of considered an extra burden than what I was initially after, which was just to play for people and not be concerned with what ends up on my shelf.

That seems like a totally different attitude than a lot of the pop stars of the MTV era. Do you find that to be your mentality when making music?

Yeah, I think that’s really the most important thing. If you’re simply trying to achieve an audience that only goes to the Grammys or is Grammy-worthy in recent years, than you would be alienating a good portion of the public that like pure music. What is pop trophy-accessible and rewarded isn’t necessarily my favorite thing to listen to anyway.

It can be pretty ruthless at times trying to get your name out there when just startingout in music, and you’ve experienced that. What advice would you give to musicians who are trying to get noticed much like you were?

If it is what you really love to do, you just have to put everything else in your life on hold or to the side and just do what you love to do as much as you possibly can because it’s your passion. You have to be really tenacious and savvy as you can be about where you play also. Try to find places that are aside from your regular gig. Try to go to places where you know or hear people from the industry have gone, and hang at, and play places like that once in a while. Then you say, “It’s cool hanging out here, but I’m actually going to go play my regular gig, which is for regular people — people who just want to come hang out on Saturday night and drink and hear music.” Not to really busy yourself with the industry, but get the word out that you’re around, and you have a standing gig. You really need to just play because you love to play. Play for yourself and play for the people, but don’t play for the business because that will eat at you too much.

You’ve been described as a mix of Billy Joel and Elton John, with the soul of Stevie Wonder, as well as a number of other comparisons. Who would you say influences you?

I think that those are definitely major influences of mine, also the Beatles, Hank Williams, Willy Nelson, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and Van Morrison. They’re all really important, as well as a bunch of collections of classic rock that I listen to whenever I get a chance. I listen to — as much as I can — everyone from the popular, classic rock and soul, from The Four Tops to the more obscure stuff, like The Strawberry Alarm Clock. Just as much stuff as I can possibly get my hands on. I love old-style music.

What are you trying to do with your music?

I don’t want to take it in any one particular direction. I try to keep the styles alive that I fell in love with and that I like to listen to and try and play, and just make all of them part of my own repertoire, part of my own writing style. And not really have a particular style. Rather have my consistency be my inconsistency. Have the freedom to do whatever I like. Radiohead changes up their records all the time, that’s sort of what’s really cool and really horrible about them. Some audience members don’t want to hear their obscure stuff, some people want to hear the one popular record or two popular records of an artist.

Your music is very universal. Young and old alike can enjoy and relate to your music. But do you find that you get more of a younger crowd at shows, and why do you think that is so?

I think that at a lot of the shows in the beginning we’re going to get a younger crowd particularly because young people like to try new things. I also find that people who are a little older come to the show are into it also; it depends on how it’s getting out there, how they’re hearing about it. People are more likely to hear about it at college or in high school because everybody uses a computer in college and high school and everybody talks on the Internet. Word definitely spreads with technology; it’s definitely a sign of the generation. I don’t play to target a type of audience. I just want to write good songs, and I don’t want the people who are listening to my music when they are 13 to be ashamed that they were listening to me when they were 13 when they’re 30 or when they’re 40.

Where do you get your inspiration to write a song?

A lot of it is a personal, storytelling type of thing. Sometimes it’s something someone told me about what happened to them or I overhear a conversation or anything really, as far as the lyrical content goes. And the other aspect, the musical content, sometimes you think about an artist and you go “You know what I’d like to write something that maybe AC/DC would sing or I’d like to write something that Donnie Hathaway would sing.” So you sit down and pick the type of music that you’re going to aim for, for that song and that topic. Some styles of music lend themselves to certain types of lyrics. [For example] R’B music lends itself to sexuality. Rock lends itself to sexuality, politics and aggravation. Singer/songwriter music lends itself to love and heartbreak, and country music lends itself to work and to money problems, to family and things like that. They all come together for whatever happens in the song.

How has touring helped people get to know who Gavin DeGraw is?

For me, the whole point of touring is to show the legitimacy of the artist. To me, live music is the truth, and you’re only as good an artist as you are the day you show up. One day you feel like you’re doing great, and the next day you might think that you’re the worst artist you’ve ever heard. That’s part of the beauty of it, the fact that it’s unpredictable. The fact that it is unpredictable is what’s cool about it, and that helps create buzz. The fact that when you get on stage you can get nervous and the wrong thing can come out and you might go “Oh I gotta back pedal” and see how good your free wheeling skills are. It’s exciting to go out and try to do something different and to do the unexpected, or to try something new and blunder or do well, and to me that’s what’s so important. You get a chance to go out and prove yourself, and if you prove yourself you get the immediate satisfaction of an audience cheering for you. If you’re not that great then you’re learning, and you find out that this works but this doesn’t work. Touring helps you improve and you’re learning and when you stop improving or become content with where you are at, then you’re in trouble.

What goes on — on the road — when you aren’t onstage or prepping to go onstage?

A lot of writing, terrible movies. You ultimately run out of good things to watch, so you buy crappy movies on the road like “Three Truckers Go To Arkansas,” and you say “This is the most boring movie I’ve ever watched,” but you watch it because you’ve run out of good stuff to watch.

It’s your first headlining tour, so that means you get to ride around in a big, fancy bus. What’s in your CD player on the bus?

(Laugh) The last thing we listened to was the O Brother, Where art Thou soundtrack. (Sings the opening line of “Man of Constant Sorrow”) We’re just music lovers. When you just love music in general and you don’t think to yourself that you have to fit a personality or a type of group that you hang with then you can really get into music. Because then you’re not ashamed of what kind of music you’re into. Just throwing a football around doesn’t mean you have to listen to hardcore rap. Just because you’re nerdy doesn’t mean that you have to listen to indie. You don’t have to choose a social group to find your music, you just listen to music because you like it, and you get into whatever your heart tells you is good.