I found an interview with Gavin in a Danish magazine called GAFFA. From what I can figure from what the article says, the in-person interview took place in New
York on March 3rd this year. I think it's an interesting interview. It definitely has some stuff in it that I hadn't heard before...
I don't have a scan since I online have the online version of the article, but I translated it for you. I'm sorry if the wording is a little weird, but I tried to stay as true to the original article as possible.
The online magazine can be found here: http://www.bladportal.dk/papercms/data/magazine/837780/ and here's the translated interview:
A competitive person with funny hair
If you own a radio, you no doubt know the American girl-charmer Gavin DeGraw, who with hits like "I Don't Wanna Be", "Chariot" and latest "In Love With A Girl" from the new selftitled album, has carried on the proud craft of pop masters like Billy Joel and Elton John. GAFFA met the busy singer who never breaks an appointment.
By: Lars Löbner Jeppesen
Many musicians couldn't care less about cancelling interviews in the 11th hour and even standing up us nosy parasites, which is completely understandable, cause who really wants to sit and talk about yourself for God knows which time. But there's also very few musicians who couldn't dream of cancelling an appointment, even though they obviously have too many appointments. Gavin DeGraw is one of them. Because on this day the popular singer has lost so much of his voice that it almost seems reckless of him to show up for the series of interviews that wait ahead. Especially when you know that he has a sold-out concert the next day...
DeGraw begins the conversation with saying that he feels brilliant, but he does it in a hoarse whispering voice so soft that we have to sit so close that you could think that the conversation was secret.
- I've just had too many concerts and radio shows lately, sometimes up to four shows a day. But if I don't sing today, I should be ready by tomorrow. I had the same voice yesterday, but I had to go through with the concert, and there was a group of fans who had won access to our soundcheck, so I had to overstrain my vocal chords twice yesterday. But I got through the soundcheck by playing a bunch of old deep country songs.
You have to take better care of yourself. Of course you're still young, but if you continue with that rate of working, you'll end up losing your spirit too soon.
- You're completely right, but the fact is that I'd really like to win... and I don't really want to look back at this period of my life and feel like I didn't do everything in my power for that to happen.
But you can do that, even if you ask for a couple of days off. Because if you have to go through with concerts with half a voice, the audience will probably feel cheated.
- I know, I know, but I don't like to cancel.
Fair enough. Well, let's get on with the questions. What is it with you and all those hats? Do you have a chronic bad hair day?
- I have the ugliest fucking hair in the world, so it's just easier to put on a fucking hat. Just after I wash my hair it becomes all static and big, and if I don't wash it, it looks greasy and disgusting. Too much fucking work! It doesn't matter how long time you spent on combing you hair, cause the second you leave the mirror it looks different.
If I win, we all win
It's been five years since Gavin DeGraw released his début album Chariot. A long time in the world of pop where everything's about keeping the iron red-hot.
Why did it take so long to get your new album ready? Was it because the right songs didn't emerge, or was it because this huge industry machinery had to be brought into position?
- I had enough songs and was actually pretty satisfied, but I kept writing and changing my mind all the time. And there were probably also some delay because of this huge machinery. I lost my A&R-person and had to find a new one. So the whole process had to start all over.
Do you find it scary that you are dependent on a lot of people who don't really have anything directly to do with the music?
- Definitely, but it's the burden of this blessing. It's a blessing to have lots of people working for you, but it's a burden that you have to wait for them to get done. There are lots of things that you as an artist have to hand over to others. And even though I don't know what everybody in this huge machinery does, I just hope that they're doing their jobs properly. Because in the last end, it's like if I win, we all win, and that's why it's okay that I have to wait sometimes.
This album will most likely find its audience right as it's released, but how would you feel if it's a slow grower like your début?
- Personally I won't put a frame of time on it. I have to look at it as my second first album, because the audience and the music industry's taste changes all the time. It's like fashion. So if you had success once it doesn't mean that it'll happen next time. I hope that I represent something that fits with the fashion of the time or maybe is ahead of its time.
If we continue with the fashion terms, I'd think that class and style is more important than the whim of fashion, because it's more constant. That must be a goal when you make the kind of music you have devoted your life to?
- You're completely right. And that's why I become just as happy when my album breaks through right away, as I do when it happens more gradually. As long as it finds its audience. I would definitely like be seen as an artist with music that lasts, rather than a popstar that explodes and surfeits his audience. That kind of singers can be compared to a gasoline fire that burns intensively but only for a short while. I would rather earn people's respect. I wasn't best friends with my friends from the first second. That sort of thing takes time, a long time, but now there's earned so much respect that we would go to war for each other.
Piano lessons with a black eye
You began playing the piano when you were 8 years old. Why piano? I mean, at that age boys would rather beat on a set of drums if they had to choose an instrument.
- I'm a competitive person and because my bigbrother and bigsister had lessons, I wanted to as well. I don't know how my family could afford it, because we didn't have any money. But they had lessons, and there weren't enough money for me to have some, too. My sister stopped because it bored her, so I took over her spot. It's pretty funny cause I didn't like it very much. The songs I was learning were boring and I didn't feel like practising. When I was a boy, I'd rather play football with my friends or wrestle in the backyard. My parents actually have a picture of me, where I'm at a piano lesson with a big black eye and a ripped shirt. I was just like all other boys. Well, even though I didn't like the songs I had to learn, the lady that was teaching me did me a huge favor by putting up with my incompetence and later I asked her to teach me different chords and not just scales. Afterwards I went out and bought a couple of notebooks with music I liked, Elton John, Beatles, Doors, Billy Joel, Cat Stevens, Van Morrison and old soul singers. And the rest, as they say, is history.
As Gavin himself predicted the voice is back with full force at the concert at New York's legendary club Bowery Ballroom. Which means that the many females at the packed concert got lots of opportunities to scream with joy over the charmer with "the ugliest hair in the world."
I don't have a scan since I online have the online version of the article, but I translated it for you. I'm sorry if the wording is a little weird, but I tried to stay as true to the original article as possible.
The online magazine can be found here: http://www.bladportal.dk/papercms/data/magazine/837780/ and here's the translated interview:
A competitive person with funny hair
If you own a radio, you no doubt know the American girl-charmer Gavin DeGraw, who with hits like "I Don't Wanna Be", "Chariot" and latest "In Love With A Girl" from the new selftitled album, has carried on the proud craft of pop masters like Billy Joel and Elton John. GAFFA met the busy singer who never breaks an appointment.
By: Lars Löbner Jeppesen
Many musicians couldn't care less about cancelling interviews in the 11th hour and even standing up us nosy parasites, which is completely understandable, cause who really wants to sit and talk about yourself for God knows which time. But there's also very few musicians who couldn't dream of cancelling an appointment, even though they obviously have too many appointments. Gavin DeGraw is one of them. Because on this day the popular singer has lost so much of his voice that it almost seems reckless of him to show up for the series of interviews that wait ahead. Especially when you know that he has a sold-out concert the next day...
DeGraw begins the conversation with saying that he feels brilliant, but he does it in a hoarse whispering voice so soft that we have to sit so close that you could think that the conversation was secret.
- I've just had too many concerts and radio shows lately, sometimes up to four shows a day. But if I don't sing today, I should be ready by tomorrow. I had the same voice yesterday, but I had to go through with the concert, and there was a group of fans who had won access to our soundcheck, so I had to overstrain my vocal chords twice yesterday. But I got through the soundcheck by playing a bunch of old deep country songs.
You have to take better care of yourself. Of course you're still young, but if you continue with that rate of working, you'll end up losing your spirit too soon.
- You're completely right, but the fact is that I'd really like to win... and I don't really want to look back at this period of my life and feel like I didn't do everything in my power for that to happen.
But you can do that, even if you ask for a couple of days off. Because if you have to go through with concerts with half a voice, the audience will probably feel cheated.
- I know, I know, but I don't like to cancel.
Fair enough. Well, let's get on with the questions. What is it with you and all those hats? Do you have a chronic bad hair day?
- I have the ugliest fucking hair in the world, so it's just easier to put on a fucking hat. Just after I wash my hair it becomes all static and big, and if I don't wash it, it looks greasy and disgusting. Too much fucking work! It doesn't matter how long time you spent on combing you hair, cause the second you leave the mirror it looks different.
If I win, we all win
It's been five years since Gavin DeGraw released his début album Chariot. A long time in the world of pop where everything's about keeping the iron red-hot.
Why did it take so long to get your new album ready? Was it because the right songs didn't emerge, or was it because this huge industry machinery had to be brought into position?
- I had enough songs and was actually pretty satisfied, but I kept writing and changing my mind all the time. And there were probably also some delay because of this huge machinery. I lost my A&R-person and had to find a new one. So the whole process had to start all over.
Do you find it scary that you are dependent on a lot of people who don't really have anything directly to do with the music?
- Definitely, but it's the burden of this blessing. It's a blessing to have lots of people working for you, but it's a burden that you have to wait for them to get done. There are lots of things that you as an artist have to hand over to others. And even though I don't know what everybody in this huge machinery does, I just hope that they're doing their jobs properly. Because in the last end, it's like if I win, we all win, and that's why it's okay that I have to wait sometimes.
This album will most likely find its audience right as it's released, but how would you feel if it's a slow grower like your début?
- Personally I won't put a frame of time on it. I have to look at it as my second first album, because the audience and the music industry's taste changes all the time. It's like fashion. So if you had success once it doesn't mean that it'll happen next time. I hope that I represent something that fits with the fashion of the time or maybe is ahead of its time.
If we continue with the fashion terms, I'd think that class and style is more important than the whim of fashion, because it's more constant. That must be a goal when you make the kind of music you have devoted your life to?
- You're completely right. And that's why I become just as happy when my album breaks through right away, as I do when it happens more gradually. As long as it finds its audience. I would definitely like be seen as an artist with music that lasts, rather than a popstar that explodes and surfeits his audience. That kind of singers can be compared to a gasoline fire that burns intensively but only for a short while. I would rather earn people's respect. I wasn't best friends with my friends from the first second. That sort of thing takes time, a long time, but now there's earned so much respect that we would go to war for each other.
Piano lessons with a black eye
You began playing the piano when you were 8 years old. Why piano? I mean, at that age boys would rather beat on a set of drums if they had to choose an instrument.
- I'm a competitive person and because my bigbrother and bigsister had lessons, I wanted to as well. I don't know how my family could afford it, because we didn't have any money. But they had lessons, and there weren't enough money for me to have some, too. My sister stopped because it bored her, so I took over her spot. It's pretty funny cause I didn't like it very much. The songs I was learning were boring and I didn't feel like practising. When I was a boy, I'd rather play football with my friends or wrestle in the backyard. My parents actually have a picture of me, where I'm at a piano lesson with a big black eye and a ripped shirt. I was just like all other boys. Well, even though I didn't like the songs I had to learn, the lady that was teaching me did me a huge favor by putting up with my incompetence and later I asked her to teach me different chords and not just scales. Afterwards I went out and bought a couple of notebooks with music I liked, Elton John, Beatles, Doors, Billy Joel, Cat Stevens, Van Morrison and old soul singers. And the rest, as they say, is history.
As Gavin himself predicted the voice is back with full force at the concert at New York's legendary club Bowery Ballroom. Which means that the many females at the packed concert got lots of opportunities to scream with joy over the charmer with "the ugliest hair in the world."
