Interview with Del Water Gap: Talk Florence Pugh, Touring With Maggie Rogers & Favorite Live Artists
don't you know me [Music] thanks for meeting with me today I'm here representing her campus I'm also representing the festival M3F so really excited to get to chat with you, hear more about you, learn more about you. yeah so I guess we can get into it then so tell me about yourself um I know your name is Holden but um tell me about your origin story I really want to know where the name Del Water Gap came from because I love it and I also feel like the first time I saw it on like the Spotify like charts I was like that is a name that I will feel like I will remember I love to hear that yeah I it's uh it's funny I've I've been using it for so long I have lost sight of it a bit you know yeah like seeing your own face in the mirror like yeah that's a face so hearing you said that it's interesting is awesome I'm glad I was in that I was playing I when I was a teenager I was playing drums in a in an annoying rock band in uh New Jersey and I had started writing songs and I really wanted to sing the songs they wouldn't really let me because I was the drummer so I a bit vindictively decided to make a list of band names for my own project it's amazing there's a park in New Jersey and Pennsylvania called the Delaware Water Gap and I saw that written somewhere in Sharpie and I thought that's a really cool name and I didn't know what it meant at the time but it ended up on my list of my vindictive list of band names and it ended up just floating to the top so I ended up writing and recording some songs when I was finishing up high school and um putting them out under the name dullwater Gap and and since then I've it's it's it's been the name that I use for music follow-up question do you ever feel like you have an identity crisis with the name Holden because you're so attached to like Dell Water Gap now yeah I mean it's gotten simpler over the years because double what I got used to be a band so yeah I read a few people it became a solo project about three years ago four years ago about so um it's been easier I think I think it's it's honestly just a bit of a problem practically because I find that artists that use a name that they could introduce themselves as yeah they just have an easier time connecting themselves to their artist project you know so I don't introduce myself as Dell but everybody shorten it up hey what's up I'm Dell but I I never I always you know introduce myself as Holden and then if it comes up I'll say you know I have this project I'll Water Gap but it's um I don't know there's there's good parts about that too right like getting to separate but like I have some friends who use their their given names as their artist names and it's just yeah it's it's just like a different different thing yeah okay back back I guess to origin story and you um you actually started off your very first headline tour at shubas in Chicago and I live in Chicago and I live right next to shubas so how does that feel like starting your very first headline tour versus now being you know a few years down the road and working with Maggie Rogers you have such like a strong history with um and then playing an out because sold out show might I say at Argonne Ballroom which is one of the most iconic Chicago venues in my mind it's beautiful it's my favorite venue ever um how does that feel it's just the kind of mind shift of playing that like really small like intimate venue and then moving to that huge venue that's sold out um with one of your favorite people yeah I mean I think these types of conversations and those types of questions are a really good moment to check in I think when life is changing really quickly it is really easy to miss it and forget where you started um especially on tour and tour is you know you live in this reality that is running alongside normal reality you know you're sleeping 3 A.M to 2 p.m you know you're driving a lot you're eating weird food you're doing laundry at weird hours everything is feels really removed from the world and so your sense of time gets very warped and that is something that has caused me quite a bit of distress on tour in the past especially long tours my mental health has gotten a little bit itchy and going into this tour one of the things my therapist suggests that is that I have a gratitude practice like a really active gratitude practice I love that also love therapy um and part of that gratitude practice is that before we go on stage my bands and I we try to focus on all the shows and all the decisions that brought us to where we are in that moment practice of honoring exactly what you're talking about and saying you know last time we were in Chicago played the 500 cap and the time before we played a 250 and now we're here at Aragon and really trying to bring that forward and think about that and hold that in your heart because um yeah I don't know our the line of your expectation shifts so quickly right as you succeed in your life changes um so it yeah it feels absolutely surreal and you know it's it's um not something I ever thought I'd do when my album came out I thought I was gonna tour for two weeks you know another album and ended up being almost two years and then um a handful of support tours so I've been able to pretty much see all of America and play in most of the major markets and secondary markets here and um yeah it's so beyond what what I expected so um yeah trying to hold some active gratitude that's awesome I mean it's definitely hard to stay grounded I'm sure because like you grew up kind of in the New York area playing probably like grimy basements and totally um I want to shift into I actually discovered your music by a little-known like Spotify playlist called the feel good indie rock playlist I don't know if you know much about the Spotify indie rock playlist but like that is my that is my actual like entire music taste is this playlist and I think they honestly steal my music like I think they like somehow hacked into my Spotify and I'm like what is this girl listening to and add it to it um [Music] all of it yeah um and you're in there but you're always at the top like might I add like you are literally oh two like that one is always in the top and I'm so proud um but yeah how do you think Indie music has shifted in the past few years and specifically with um kind of these playlists and Spotify in the algorithm them promoting you guys music and music that might not have been um you know there if we were in a different time yeah I mean God I mean everything is changing every year in the music industry is it's an insane time to be doing this the technology is changing every year what people want is changing the rapidness with which as a Creator you need to put out music is changing you know TikTok is obviously completely completely changed the music industry um I feel really fortunate that I had been putting on music for a number of years I really feel for new artists like really new artists who are just putting out their first releases right now on Spotify because I think unless you have a real like gatekeeper on your side like a big major label or a big advantager I think it's really hard to crack just to like cracks that system I know that the people at Spotify really do Champion unknown artists and yeah they're they are to thank for so much of what I've been able to do from with my career but also there's just so much music coming out regardless of how awful they are and good at research they are there's just you know it's something like I don't remember the exact number but it's something like a hundred thousand new songs a week it's coming out that's crazy but creatively I think there's obviously probably a lot of trash in there but I think there's probably a lot of really brilliant stuff too and I think the technology and this sort of leveling of the playing field means that like anyone who has some money can buy uh you know a recording setup and make a song which is insane no actually 200 let me buy this piano and I mean can I play it not well but that's how I got into music you know I like was bad at Sports and there was like a an interface and a microphone in a closet at my high school and I started recording and um you know I think like Indie music in particular to answer your question more directly I think that I think that it's a really good time for Indie music because I think that people I have seen a lot of younger artists who can take their careers really far without a label um I've always been it had at least one foot in the label system you know mostly Indie labels but um you know a lot of the artists that I've become friends with and toured with like you know girl in red or Gus Dapperton um I think I think Dayglow is similarly like yeah I've been able to take their music really far without signing to the label you know I think a couple of those artists maybe have just signed to labels but yeah I was about to say I was like I didn't realize daylo wasn't on a label that's very important yeah but I think he he definitely at least started you know independently and yeah and there's so many examples and I think that it's good for Artistry because I think that if you can build a real fan base before signing to a label you can get a tremendous amount of Leverage you know and that means that you just have a more favorable situation and actually own music and and get more resources and um yeah so I think for that reason it's really exciting but it's complicated you know it's a complicated time for music I think a lot of people have take a lot of issue with um inhibited the algorithmic churn you know of just what we get served and how there's less human curation and less attention to detail but I I'm I'm sort of undecided on all that you know I have my records that I love and I love finding new music um yeah okay I will I'll keep that in mind okay another question on I guess shifting how do you think live music has shifted in recent years um because I saw Maggie put on her Tick Tock about just the huge crowds and like a lot of people have been passing out but not even in the unsafe regard um just how do you think kind of fans and live music have really shifted since covid specifically yeah well I was personally really afraid that I would never get to tour because I was just about to start touring when Covid started and then obviously you know there was even two years where there was it was completely illegal to play a show and I think the greatest fear was that you know people would never want to go to shows again you know that it would be replaced by all the other experiential um opportunities we have now you know but um I think coming out of covert and going right into touring I mean I played one of the first shows back at Red Rocks and then when yeah with Mount Joy when my tour started like our tour was one of the first like International tours that was hitting a lot of places and that was only just because of the timing of it we like got in really early and um contrary to my fears I mean I I really feel like I came out into a world that was especially hungry for connection especially hungry for live music um I mean it was wild I think I think I think there was you know even a bit of a bubble you know I mean touring came back so strong right after and of course were blowing out all over the world and it pretty much completely sold out in like two weeks um congrats that's awesome and thank you and um so I I think this is all to say like the the proof isn't the pudding a bit that like I think we really need that connection that in-person connection and I think that people really want to be in a room with other people and feel that energy and connect with an artist they love and hear music like moving the air so I think that's been you know incredibly reaffirming I think the the other side of it is that yeah I mean people are like more conscious of being in crowds awesome touching each other and and that's all that's all good and I I think the responsibility just Falls more on you know the artists and the promoters and their venues to try to like educate people and give people the resources and make sure people stay safe no definitely well spoken there um I agree I'm I'm a concert junkie like if I I could not know any of your songs and I will go like I just love live music so in my own like as a fan I've definitely seen the shifting crowd and just the hunger like um like especially buying tickets that's been the real struggle for fans is like tickets will sell out within like an hour now so you really have to be on top of your game of like artists you love and want to see because um the resale Market's horrible too so it's just really tough I think for for fans and the in the the boom after covid um but it's great to be able to like I mean as you you're a musician be able to like sell out shows and it's it's just huge yeah I mean it is and and to your point about the demand and you know we're obviously in like a bit of a moment with Ticketmaster and trying to figure out how we all feel about that because because I mean the other side of touring which I mean you know people may or may not know about is just how hard it is right now as an artist to to make money and survive touring you know even if you're touring at basically the highest level and you know selling out five to seven thousand capacity rooms like just the nature of inflation and covet and fuel prices and all this stuff has most people that I know that are operating that level are either breaking even or losing money and it's um that's horrible the economy as well as just you know the way that the trickle-down works with um yeah when ticket sales it's it's hard to actually get that money out of people's hands and into your pockets which is a misconception you know I think a lot of fans like think that when they're buying a ticket um the [ __ ] you know a large share of that is is ending up with the musician which it often isn't but yeah um I know I think we're like smart as an industry and I think that we're going to figure out a way to make sure everyone feels taken care of I agree I think I think to Ticketmaster will have its karma um so that's that's my hope okay well moving you know on along what is your rehearsal process I know you guys talked about gratitude and really enforcing that kind of what is your going on stage prep like what songs do you really want to rehearse and perfect before you go on stage what what is that kind of mindset before you get on there yeah so we we do we do a few weeks of rehearsal before we go out um in La which is fun because a lot of it is the moments when I feel like I'm in a band you know we get to work on the songs together and be creative and it's a lot of just like long days of sitting in a rehearsal studio and working out the details which is a musician is really fun I mean that's like the best part is sort of getting to nerd out on gear and music and decisions and um you know and the hope is that by the time you get to the tour like you don't have to think I mean that's like the goal I mean it's the same as you know being a professional athlete or a performer or anything like the goal is to be so is to have the muscle memory so tight that you can just be open and free and turn your brain off and you know perform and the rest will be taken care of and so a lot of the process of rehearsing and getting ready for the show is doing things to just reinforce that flow State being able to get to that flow state so a lot of that is yeah just running the songs you know tens of times and then um you know really connecting as a group we do a lot of breathing together we do a lot of meditation together the um we we spent time sort of actively connecting you know like prolonged eye contact and um really yeah you know being able to share uh you know a goal for the set or a goal for the yeah the tour or um you know and I think as like the leader of the group it's sort of it's it's become my uh my my duty to just make sure that we are connected in that way and and make sure everyone's on the same page because you know uh if you're not a unit I think it really comes out into music yeah okay well speaking of kind of just being tight and really having all good things together what do you think is your kind of band you look up to that is just like absolutely kills it live um [Music] um it's a great question I mean I had the fortune going to so many festivals this year because you know I'd play and then I would just stay the whole weekend so you do end up staying the weekend I'm always curious I'm like I would love it a lot of people don't buy it I live in Marias, I think they're so cool they're like a real unit and they're like I think I think there aren't many real bands left you know because yeah my band's a solo project that you know I hire people to play with me and I think they're a good example of a band that is really a unit and they make the records together and it feels really cohesive and yeah their visual world and they're their clothing is always really on point and um love clothing yeah that's awesome so I've loved seeing them play um I saw Idols a few times oh it's um I mean they're they're just like a you know a very different example of memory is but they're just like they feel so like old school it's just like they're just like [ __ ] raw yep here's what you get and um a little bit older and I think Turnstile assembly yes they're refreshing they're just like they're doing their thing and uh and have sort of quietly become this like huge part of culture and I really respect that those are all amazing bands I concur um I've seen you played a couple of covers while you have been on tour um maybe one of complicated which is like one of my all-time favorite so what is one song that you wish you wrote so you could play it on tour all the time wow that's a good question um so I wish I wrote I mean one of my favorite songs of all time is Killer by Phoebe Bridgers I just think the writing is it is a song that I wish I wrote yeah sort of sad dark comedy of it is really brilliant and some that that feeling is something I've really tried to attain in my writing and I don't think I've been able to touch it in the way that she has in that song in particular um this sort of character writing and the yeah no I think you accomplished it some some dark comedy I just love I I I I really am a sucker for that that dark comedy and music and I think there's a really fine line of being able to do that in a way that feels very convincing and I think she's really good at that and I think there's a few other artists that come to mind like Henry Nilsson and Father John Misty, John Lennon's really good um Classics yeah amazing those are all great answers um okay I have to bring this up because I'm obsessed with her but Florence Pugh obviously recently in the interview said that they couldn't clear your songs um it was a Vogue interview did Vogue actually reach out and is why was why couldn't they clear your songs for the Vogue interview I've been told since we couldn't clear Del Water Gap that we're going to listen to some stock music so she actually reached out to me a few months beforehand and gave me a little context and I completely forgot about it no basically what happened like if Florence has been such a a supporter of my music and um I mean I've said this before but I think the greatest compliment as an artist is having an artist that you respect affirming your work she's been like a really positive force my life and you've become friendly and she reached out to me and said you know I did this Vogue interview and I asked them if we could get your music for it and they said that they're not gonna clear any music at all that they were just going to make stuff yeah so it wasn't really an issue with my music in particular it was just you know they just I guess just didn't have a budget or whatever so yeah he never actually reached out but she she told me she said hey I did this interview and the way that I worded it people might think that you turned turned Vogue down and just so you know I'm like I'm glad to clear the air then they weren't going to clear anything but um I gave you a shout out and um and that's that so yeah she told me I sort of laughed it off and forgot about it and then you know I woke up and my Instagram was like completely up and broken so and then the part was my uh my lawyer he's on Instagram he commented on the video like what was the clearance issue I think we're a little late it's so funny um that's amazing I love that she's been a huge supporter of you I love I love her as just a human being hilarious um I have to ask though what is your favorite Florence Pugh movie then I just saw this film um God I'm not gonna remember the name but what was it called she plays a she plays a nurse who is trying to oh yeah the Wonder yes the Wonder I really liked it I sort of I like too saw it passively and accidentally but I just love the mood of it I thought it was so cute you know it was so dark and dour and I think the time when I saw it I was spending a lot of time indoors working on my album and sometimes when I'm working on music I like to just put on a movie in the background and um I really liked that movie and um she's so brilliant um in Little Women I really think she's like the standout in that film and she made me realize that I was in Amy I was like I really always thought I was a Joe but no okay sadly and Amy but she killed it yeah she's a [ __ ] I still haven't seen Midsummer but I I need to at some point oh my god well you have to mentally prepare yourself honestly I think you would love it from what you're saying about dark comedy just in general it's dark I don't know if the comedy's there but it's good okay it was when she reached out but um you know she's obviously become like a really important part of our world and our culture oh and I also saw she follows you on Instagram which is just huge I wish she followed me on Instagram oh yeah let me know yeah talk to her talk to your people talk to my people um last couple of questions here um I know you said you've traveled a ton now with touring but is this going to be your first time I'm assuming not in Arizona for the m3f festival in Arizona no I played I played a festival called Innings Festival in town um which I believe was my first time in Arizona that was a great Festival it was one of the last times Taylor Hawkins played with Foo Fighters before he died which was monumentally sad but it was so really cool to have been able to um see them play that night I mean that that that's sort of the standout memory of that night um we played in Phoenix a couple times it was really hot and she had a great show in Phoenix I wish I remembered the name of the venue but it was it was like 110 degrees outside and my vibe and it started melting and we had to bring it inside no oh my God I'm definitely glad the festival's in March seems like a good time of year for Phoenix um well that's awesome I love I love that you stay for festivals I was about to ask is there any other artists on the lineup for this Festival that you're like really excited to to watch their set you see I gotta refresh um I couldn't even talk okay there's a good amount of like EDM like purple disco machine um and then there's like some smaller ones like ash coin yeah that's all on Friday Fridays got lots of amazing like I I wanted to see everyone but I cannot just look at this yeah okay Channel Tres I love Channel Tres. Channel and I became friends um in Morocco we did some work with Saint Laurent together and I'm such a fan of his music and he's the sweetest guy so I'm really excited to see him oh that's awesome Chiiild you know Chiiild yes sure I mean his son pirouette was one of my top songs of the year last year oh my God amazing he's great see who else is on here Jamie XX um so excited see who else yes it's a cool Festival there's a lot of friends friends of Quinn XCII and Chelsea Cutler a coin I really like those guys yeah it's like a really cool Festival obviously Maggie's playing exactly um it's also all going to charity so is there any Charities you want to shout out yeah I mean I have um been fortunate enough to work with the Oxfam America a bunch um they're just like an awesome like a little bit under the radar charity um I met Bob Ferguson who um he works there um I don't know exactly his position but I met him when I was 12 or 13. he was like an early music mentor of mine and he from the beginning you know he really talked to me my my little band at the time about how musicians uh we have a real duty to use our platforms to uh to help Elevate you know that's awesome that's definitely great advice so I met bobbin again when I was a kid you know I was playing to like 10 people that were all my parents friends getting that in my early on was really powerful and it's been it's been cool you know decades later to be working with him you know Alex Adam's been able to come to a couple of my shows and set up and we've been able to work together a bit on um online so I love them they do really great work you know they help they mainly do like food Outreach and get people fat um so they've been working a lot in Syria and you know trying to get food to the people over there that's awesome oh well thank you for shouting them out I'll definitely look um I know we are about time but I do have a couple rapid fire if you have a few minutes yeah let's do it okay um first off most fun city you've toured so far Amsterdam yeah Amazing Grace we did a bunch of drugs we just had the best show there and it was so beautiful and I met the best people what stadium or where were you guys playing at in Amsterdam they didn't milkwag in Amsterdam yes the best day we had the best food and yeah I'll never forget it yeah oh that's awesome um okay what is the first thing that you do in a new city like you you know hop off the tour bus and like what is the first thing you do find a coffee shop a lot of supporting people are coffee snobs they'll tell you because I think one of the constances in America is that you can find like a good coffee shop pretty much anywhere and it it can really ground you yeah what's uh what's your go-to order I really just what I call the beer shot combo is amazing a drip coffee and an espresso because I think like I'm sort of a basic guy in the sense that I love a drip coffee but I think an espresso is the best Testament of how good the coffee shop is so if the coffee shop has a great espresso they know what they're doing that's funny my I would call my like other personalities latte Lexi because I used to work at Starbucks back in college so I love that they call that a red eye actually yeah yeah like yeah yeah make your own concrete um okay what would be your like dream Festival headliner um for m3f or really any Festival that you would be playing out uh like an artist yeah um my dream Festival headline I mean I guess this is supposed to be rapid fire so I'm just gonna say Bjork yeah she's been like such a constant my life and I've seen her played a few festivals and she's crazy I literally love her I mean it's our gov ball and she brought like a 30 piece Orchestra so I I think we are for sure yeah yeah that's amazing um I guess that was really and I didn't really have that many um last thing though is what would be what is your first thing that you used to teach the old ladies on Photoshop I heard you used to have a little bit of an odd job background but I I dabble in Photoshop so what was like your first skill you would teach them uh copy and paste I mean commonly overlooked skill that is useful across pretty much all of technology is it for emails texting so teaching the old ladies how to copy and paste was big very big that is very helpful uh the more you know um cool well that's actually really all the questions I had I did have like a little follow-up one was just like how your grandma affected your relationship with music but I know we're kind of out of time no I mean I can answer that yeah my my grandma I come from a family of mainly very honored to stick academics you know my my brother's a lawyer and my cousins are astrophysicists and um they're all brilliant but not particularly creative and my grandma was the other artist in the family always she's a filmmaker so yeah she has been you know one of the one of the real allies for me she uh she's a harsh critic I've showed her my albums and she's I showed her my first album you know weeks before it came out and she told me I had to start over which is she did not did you start over no of course not I said no I just can't understand the lyrics and and understand the lyrics that no one's gonna listen to it and then she came to she came to my Webster Hall Show in New York you know it was sold out and all these people were singing along and she took it back she said okay I was wrong good I'm glad because she's like 97.98 right like 98 yeah just kicking it do you guys still
do um your movies your weekly yeah I do some Club every week yeah we just watched um what was it what did we just watch We just watched I have a little list here all quiet in the western front closet do you like it what were your thoughts do letterboxes I don't have letterboxd I just have this sort of extensive note here this has been amazing um thank you so much for taking the time I appreciate it I know obviously with your crazy schedule touring it and stuff um but I will be at m3f so if you want to shout me out I'm just gonna see you there yeah see me there let's hang out um we can get a drink we'll take a shot I don't know uh but yeah thank you again this has been awesome thanks for the chat I appreciate it well have a good day and I have a I don't know if you're playing tonight but thank you bye
2023-03-06 13:55
