GUS DAPPERTON
Fresh off of his latest single release "Post Humorous" off of his full album that's set to drop on September 18, Gus Dapperton stopped by to discuss the process of making this track and what fans can look forward to in the whole album.
INTERVIEW
Interview by Bridgette
August 19, 2020
Today I am joined by a very special guest, Gus Dapperton. Hello!
Hey, what’s up! How’s it going?
I’m great, thanks! How are you?
Pretty good, thanks for having me!
Thanks so much for being here! This is awesome because you have a lot going on right now, which is exciting! Your latest single “Post Humorous” came out on July 1. What was the process of making that track like?
The process of making that track: I was on tour in Austria somewhere and I was in a courtyard and started writing that song. My bassist, Ian, made this joke about the word posthumous and said “oh like that’s ‘post humorous.’” I don’t really recall what the actual joke was, but basically I took that and dove into this whole idea. It’s my favorite song I’ve ever made and I’m really happy and excited about it.
That’s awesome, I love that. I feel like that’s reflected in the lyrics; there’s a lot of word play, rhyming, and twisting of words. So that would make sense that that was the origin of it. Was that a while ago or pretty recently?
It was a while ago: between a year and a year and a half ago I pretty much wrote all of the songs on this album. I guess the last couple that I finished up were six months ago, so I’ve had it done for a while, at least all of the songwriting. I pretty much wrote all of it on tour, kind of just about the last couple years of our lives and whatnot.
Cool! Is there something about now that feels right to put it out?
Yeah, I think the things I’m talking about in it are fairly topical in terms of the emotions of feeling kind of trapped, isolated, and a little unstable and whatnot, and then having these forces around you that reel you back in. But yeah, I mean there’s not particularly any reason about now, but it’s been done and it was the plan, and ever since I released the first song I’ve gotten a lot of good responses and people reaching out and saying they really needed music in this time and have been able to relate to the music I’ve been putting out. So I feel like I have somewhat of a responsibility, as well, and I’m happy to take on that responsibility.
Totally, and you’ve also been super creative using the quarantine aspect, like in your lyric video for “Post Humorous,” which I absolutely loved. How did that come together?
Basically I think touring and music videos and other press and promotional visuals that go into the album roll out process, obviously we can’t do. But I think that should be fine; I think the music should always speak for itself first and foremost. So whenever we get to do those things, it’s great, but if not, I think the music should speak for itself. So it’s been fun to kind of create other DIY ways of making visuals and adding an element of personality to the songs. But pretty much that was just an opportunity to get all my friends into a music video and have fun with it!
Love it. I think everyone probably had fun watching it too.
Yeah.
You also had another huge single with BENEE this year. What was it like working with her on “Supalonely”?
So I’ve honestly never met her, we’ve just Facetimed a couple times. But pretty much, they sent me the song and were like ‘Hey, I think you would sound good on this’. And I was a fan of hers, and when they sent it to me I definitely heard myself on it right away. But it came really quickly and I pretty much just wrote it in a day and laid down the vocals and sent it over and they were like ‘Yeah this is great.’ So it was really just a simple back and forth, and we talk a bunch now but it’s funny because it was very much a virtual collaboration. Even the music video, we did that on separate days, like we didn’t even cross paths.
Ah that’s so funny, but I think it turned out so well. And she’s definitely a fan of yours, too. She was on our show and she was playing your music in her guest DJ set, so we love to see that.
Oh, that’s great!
I saw your performance with her on Jimmy Fallon, and you also did a live video of “Post Humorous” from your apartment. Obviously it’s not the same as a live show, but have there been elements of performing from home that you’ve enjoyed more?
I honestly enjoy being on my toes and having to come up with creative ways to do things, because I feel like I’m good at that. Like when there’s a lack of ways and means to do certain things, I kind of think on my toes and come up with ways. So it’s been fun to do other things like stripped down acoustic videos, and film them in different ways and in different scenarios, and then do ones with the band and then sort of plan the direction of it. So yeah, those ones are really fun to do, like filming a whole live take of the song with the band is really fun to do. But yeah, I definitely miss the reactions from crowds and stuff, obviously.
Yeah but that’s true, there are a lot of cool ways to get creative, and I’ve loved seeing the different content that’s come of it. Gus, thank you so much for spending your afternoon with me! Do you have anything coming up that you’re excited about that you want to share with everyone listening?
Yeah, my album comes out September 18th. It’s called Orca and I’m really excited about it, and I hope you guys enjoy it!
Awesome! Well thank you so much for sitting down and chatting with me today, it was awesome having you!
Yeah of course, it was nice chatting with you too.
This interview originally aired on WNYU Radio with Bridgette Kontner on August 11, 2020 on The Sound Between at https://wnyu.org/archives/2020-08-11-the-sound-between