{"id":32354,"date":"2017-06-15T07:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T21:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=32354"},"modified":"2017-06-16T07:57:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T21:57:40","slug":"gavin-degraw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2017\/06\/gavin-degraw\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin DeGraw"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\u201cI\u2019ll actually do my best to play all of the songs that I feel people have heard before because as much as I want to expose people to new music and want to act artsy and stuff like that I think it\u2019s my first job as an artist to play my fans the music that they\u2019re here to hear first and foremost, I think artists have a responsibility to do that. So I\u2019ll do my best to play everything that I believe they\u2019re there to hear and then some\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From Tour Release: Multi-platinum selling and Grammy nominated recording artist GAVIN DEGRAW has announced Australian dates for his 2017 An Acoustic Evening with Gavin DeGraw World Tour. Following a multi-city trek across Europe, Gavin DeGraw heads to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for club shows this July to perform songs spanning his entire career. The intimate set will give fans the chance to see DeGraw perform unplugged and stripped down configurations of some of his biggest hits as well as rare album cuts, some of which he’s never performed live. The tour will continue to support DeGraw’s fifth album Something Worth Saving which was released last September.<\/p>\n

While in Nashville, Gavin DeGraw gave us a call to talk about his upcoming return to Australia for his acoustic tour, what people can expect, the way his music hits people, working with Butch Walker, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

We\u2019re here because you\u2019re heading here on your acoustic tour, how are you going to be structuring these shows?<\/strong>
\nThese will be trio gigs, I\u2019ll be playing the piano and it\u2019ll be like a piano trio, so me, my guitar player and my drummer and my guitar player also plays upright bass so we\u2019ll see if we\u2019ll be able to bring the upright bass too, we\u2019ll see what the set-up is like when we get there. It\u2019s a fun show, man, it\u2019s funky and we know how to play, so it\u2019ll be for people who know what that is supposed to sound like.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it like going back and revisiting your songs and stripping them back to their acoustic roots?<\/strong>
\nOh it\u2019s great, it\u2019s great man it\u2019s actually very rewarding. I wrote these songs to be strong songs not to be just production tunes you know what I mean? So they\u2019re written from a real songwriter stand point and they really, really hold up nicely in this setting and I think actually some of the performances completely outdo some of the records to be honest with you which is great I mean it\u2019s like animal time for a trip, it\u2019s great. We dig in you know, it\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

Do you find that sometimes the songs seem to take on a different meaning when played acoustically?<\/strong>
\nYou know I\u2019m not sure if they necessarily take on a different meaning but I do think that there\u2019s another level of intimacy that happens because there\u2019s less overtones and there\u2019s less little cannon melodies to pull you away from the lyrical content, because there\u2019s more of a direct line between the listener and the vocal, and the lyric and the vocal is always the most intimate section or piece of the music you know in this type of music. So I really think it assists in feeling that direct emotional connection to the content of the song. I will say that there are moments where you feel that songs take on different meanings when you have conversations with your fans, someone may say hey your song such and such makes me think of my relationship with my son or my husband or whatever and I go wow I never wrote it like that, that was like about my dog *laughs* so there\u2019s a lot of different things you know? Or someone could say I got married to that song and it\u2019s really personal and you think oh that\u2019s funny because I wrote that song about being single, so *laughs* there\u2019s certainly many different approaches to interpreting a song and when you write a song you do want there to be some levels of openness there where people can internalise them in their own way and have their own connection with the material. So it is fun to me to hear it sometimes and sometimes they hear exactly as you hear it and you interpret it, it\u2019s rewarding and it\u2019s also fun to hear the different interpretations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really funny you should say that as I was going to say that on a personal note \u2018Not Over You\u2019 became a very important song for me at a crazy time in my life so I just wanted to say thank you for writing it and I wanted to ask is there was any chance you could play it in Sydney?<\/strong>
\nWow man, what a nice compliment thank you. Yeah I mean absolutely I\u2019ll definitely play it there as I was lucky enough to have some success there with that song on Australian radio so it was very much a surprise for me because I hadn\u2019t been there in so long and as a writer and an artist you don\u2019t necessarily expect to have success, particularly in places you don\u2019t frequent so I was really taken aback from it and was like wow this is really great, so absolutely, I\u2019ll actually do my best to play all of the songs that I feel people have heard before because as much as I want to expose people to new music and want to act artsy and stuff like that I think it\u2019s my first job as an artist to play my fans the music that they\u2019re here to hear first and foremost, I think artists have a responsibility to do that. So I\u2019ll do my best to play everything that I believe they\u2019re there to hear and then some, so I\u2019ll definitely play that song of course.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re also out in support of your new album \u2018Something Worth Saving\u2019 in the nine months or so since its release how has the cycle been so far?<\/strong>
\nPretty good so far, I think the first single did decently, the second single I don\u2019t think is doing what I want it to but you can\u2019t call them all you can\u2019t predict what each one is going to do, there\u2019s so many variables with response and with the songs out there and what you\u2019re playing against and also who\u2019s willing to play what you\u2019re putting out and what kind of day and things like that and there\u2019s so many things that you can\u2019t control. So I think the next move for me is to put out the title track, I\u2019ve never released a ballad as a single ever, so I want to put out the title track which is \u2018Something Worth Saving\u2019 because I think it\u2019s beautiful and I think there\u2019s a lot of things that aren\u2019t beautiful happening and I want to put out beautiful music to kind of take me to another place where I can kind of keep the dream alive of things being pretty, sounding pretty, sounding nice. I came from a place where not everything was very nice so I wanted to write pretty music to kind of create that fantasy land for myself so I think that title track is a good way to go and I think it\u2019ll be a nice way to mix things up. When Ed Sheeran released his ballad I said that was such a great little song and I thought you know what, this is refreshing to hear a ballad on the radio you never get to hear them and I thought that was a breath of fresh air for radio and as a listener just flipping through channels and being able to stumble upon that I was really happy about that and I sent him a text right away when I heard that and said \u201chey man I just want you to know that I feel like you wrote a classic, an instant classic\u201d and for a song writer that\u2019s a truly special thing.<\/p>\n

Every time someone does I have to ask about working with Butch Walker as I\u2019m a huge fan, what is that experience like working with his genius?<\/strong>
\nOh yeah, he\u2019s great man! You know I\u2019ve recorded with Butch probably a handful of times over the course of my career and the first time I recorded with him I walked in with a couple of songs, one of which was a song that I feel like was the song that got away and it was a song called \u2018Soldier\u2019 and \u2018Soldier\u2019 is still one of my favourite recordings of anything that I\u2019ve ever done and that\u2019s because of Butch, he gets great sounds and he\u2019s very song sensitive and I remember when I walked in with that song and I played it for him he just looked at me and said \u201cyeah man, I know what to do let\u2019s just play it as it needs to be played live and we\u2019re just gonna hit record and that\u2019s gonna be that\u201d \u00a0and that\u2019s what we did, it wasn\u2019t this overly massaged carefully done thing, it was a live performance of a group of guys hanging out just kicking it in the room just playing our hearts out, and that\u2019s one of the reasons I love playing with Butch and recording with Butch because I really think he\u2019s a song guy, he understands. So on this album when I reached out to him I said \u201cHey man, I wrote a couple of songs and I wrote them alone again and I just don\u2019t want anyone to touch them but you\u201d and he said \u201cman absolutely come by\u201d and I was right down the street at the time because he keeps a studio in Nashville as well, he keeps one out in Santa Monica as well but he keeps one here too and he said \u201cYeah man I\u2019m here man, just come by\u201d so which I did and I went in and played him a song I wrote called \u2018Making Love With The Radio On\u2019 and then I played him another one, I said \u201cI\u2019ve got another one man, it\u2019s a ballad and I know how everyone feels about ballads\u201d and he goes \u201cNo Man, I love you ballads, I love a Gavin ballad\u201d I said \u201cThanks man\u201d and I played it for him and he said \u201cyeah man, let\u2019s do this you\u2019ve gotta do this\u201d so we recorded that one as well and again, those are two of my favourite songs on this album just because his production style is so uninterrupted by studio tricks and laptop work, it\u2019s guys playing instruments together that\u2019s the thing.<\/p>\n

You know there\u2019s this thing that a friend of mine is a country musician named Dwight Yoakam and Dwight uses this funny term called ear mass which I love the term and he\u2019ll say someone else\u2019s ear mass might not line up with your ear mass and like that, it\u2019s the way you hear stuff and hear timing. So there\u2019s this great way that what he calls ear mass I believe works with playing live with other musicians and it\u2019s when people are playing music together there\u2019s that middle ground of timing, I play the rhythm one way on my instrument, the guitar player plays the rhythm another way on his instrument and the drummer does it his way on his instrument and that one thing that none of us is playing at all, that invisible timing that\u2019s that weird mass that you can\u2019t make happen, it\u2019s the one that exists in this invisible space that you can\u2019t touch, that\u2019s that magical time that no one\u2019s actually playing, no one can play that time, it\u2019s that little bit of mass that no one\u2019s playing and where we all meet in the middle and that\u2019s the mojo you know what I mean? That\u2019s where the mojo is and that\u2019s what makes something feel great, I mean I took what Dwight said about us all having different ways of hearing and I turned it into the mojo conversation you know? Which is what we all need, that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

Lastly as we have to run, let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2017 Gavin DeGraw wants to\u2026<\/strong>
\n*laughs* Gavin DeGraw wants to basically knock down all the walls of everything he\u2019s ever done and recreate everything from the ground up, that\u2019s what I want to do.<\/p>\n

I look forward to that!<\/strong>
\nMe too, man! I am going to wipe the slate clean, and I\u2019m not going to remodel the old house I\u2019m going to build a new castle you know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n

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AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE
\nMONDAY JULY 3<\/p>\n

METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY
\nTUESDAY JULY 4 (all ages)<\/p>\n

170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE
\nWEDNESDAY JULY 5<\/p>\n

For complete tour and ticket information, visit:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>
\nwww.gavindegraw.com<\/a>\u00a0&<\/strong>\u00a0www.livenation.com.au<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Nashville, TN, USA<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.gavindegraw.com<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> Something Worth Saving (Out Now \u2013 RCA)<\/p>\n

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