Following the 2003 release of his major-label debut album Chariot, US singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw found himself topping the charts around the globe with his breakthrough single “I Don’t Want To Be”. The melodic guitar-pop single was a massive radio and chart hit, enviably catapulting him into the spotlight of success.
However, despite the on-going commercial success of the single (which was helped out by becoming the theme for US TV series ‘One Tree Hill’) DeGraw found he’d hit a wall, unable to overcome the popularity of the single, and frozen by its success and the life of it’s own that the single took on.
His follow-up singles were over-shadowed by his certified hit, and as a result the subsequent singles failed to take-off like the lead single did.
“It can be stifling having that kind of success… but if you’re going to have a problem, then that’s a really good problem to have,” smiles the singer, across the boardroom table of the SonyBMG offices where we’re chatting, overlooking the skyline of New York City.
High in the sky, comfortably ensconced in the epicentre of one of the music industry’s leading headquarters, and reflecting over his early success, DeGraw is chatty and friendly, fully-aware that any break-out success story in the competitive music industry is a good story… even if it did ultimately asphyxiate the rest of the music on his first album.
“The fact is, when someone hands you a $20 bill, you take the $20 bill and say thank you very much – and that’s how I felt with that song. Earlier on I scratched my way through the music business, I really did, and I was told ‘no’ by just about everybody at some point. The truth is, I’ll take the success where I can get it – I’m not picky,” he adds candidly.
“I had a moment of uncertainty when I released the follow-up single ‘Charity’, which was the title track to that album. I released that single thinking that it was the perfect follow-up single to ‘I Don’t Want To Be’. It had a similar groove, but this one had a little more swing in it. It was difficult to get that song played as heavily as the first single because radio was still so focused on playing the first one over and over again,” he shrugs.
A new direction
Returning this month with a new self-titled studio album, DeGraw says that the album’s first single ‘In Love With A Girl’ is the perfect bridging single from the sound of his first album, to the new slightly-grittier music he’s recorded for the new album.
“When I finally finished writing that song, I felt like I had written the correct song to reintroduce myself with for the upcoming album,” he says of the lead track. “I really felt this was the right song to follow-up my last record with, especially because ‘I Don’t Want To Be’ was the hit it was in so many different countries. It’s reminiscent enough so that people will be able to recognise me through it, but at the same time I felt it had something fresh to it.”
If audiences were of the understanding that Gavin DeGraw was quite simply a nice-enough, and an unobjectionable melodic singer/songwriter, DeGraw says that he wanted to change that with the new album, to show off a style of music that was rockier, and more reflective of his live performances. The new album is a much broader palette for the artist to display his musicianship. From the tuneful guitar sounds of the lead single, to the bouncier ‘Next To Me’, and onto the bluesy swagger of ‘Young Love’, DeGraw sounds rawer and less refined than he did previously.
“I think that the first album had a cleanliness and a sheen to it – it wasn’t offensive, but at the same time it didn’t necessarily hop in your face and say this is exactly who Gavin DeGraw is stylistically,” he agrees.
“I guess it was a little safe, but with this album I wanted to really sing. I think that the approach to my vocal performances on my first album – although I feel really confident about them – was a little timid. This time around I think that my vocal performances sound more ‘present’, and it’s more up in your ear. I think it’s more revealing to what the sound of my voice is. I thought it was important to expose all the vocal characteristics of my voice so that I could really distinguish myself, and my own sound as singer.”
As his new single continues to steadily climb the US charts, Gavin DeGraw is working on plans for his international schedule, and hopes to return down under – where he toured briefly in 2004 – to reacquaint himself with Aussie audiences and artists in the near future.
“I’m hoping we’ll be back out in Australia in the coming months; I really want to do some more shows out there to show people what I’m really all about with this new album,” he says eagerly.
“Also, I did a couple of gigs with a really talented singer who was from Australia, named Missy Higgins. She’s really talented, and we did some dates in the US together. If that’s a reflection of what goes on in Australia then that’s definitely a music scene I want to be involved in.”
Gavin DeGraw out now through SonyBMG.
