Gallant is music’s true gentleman

Gallant makes beautiful music. His deep, conceptual love songs combine lyrical tenderness with progressive production and inimitable soul. In a world of photocopied, cut and paste pop, his records are snapshots of rare masculine vulnerability and introspection. He is the antithesis of bullshit and bravado and the antidote to saccharine insincerity.

After laying down the blueprint with 2016’s Ology, Gallant returned after two years on the road with “Gentleman” earlier this year. The track is complex and subversive and comes free with a Moonlight meets Hype Williams video. A new album is expected later this year. Hear from Gallant personally on happiness, audience empowerment and quitting society below.

You took some time out of recording after Ology, what were you up to?

I guess I made a mistake, I was touring basically non-stop. I got to do a few support tours, do some tours in Asia and Australia. I was physically working a lot. It sucks that that doesn’t translate into actual music. In hindsight, I wish I was still in the studio. But it was fun, I got to meet a bunch of people who listened to my first album and stuff and connected with what I was saying. Its was really fun to travel to different parts of the world and meet those people.

Were you able to reflect back on the first record in that time?

I think with a lot of people you do something and that’s it but the process of making that album was really exciting for me. It did what I needed it to do for myself after I finished writing it so I was ready to move on. Performing it was really fun and connecting with people who were listening to it was great – it did a lot for me. But I didn’t really go back to it. I’m really happy for what it meant to me at the time.

You said that you learned a lot about yourself recording the last record. Did that happen again this time around?

Yeah I think so. I think lyrically with my first album there was a lot of digging and looking into the mirror, that was very helpful. For this one, I’ve done a similar thing but also I’m exploring a lot more of the kind of music and art that I like and putting it all together so it feels  a lot more like an art project than my last album did – that was more of an autobiography in a way.

What do you think this record says about you as a person?

I think it probably says that I have a lot of shit that I need to work out. It’s really schizophrenic and it demonstrates a willingness to shave your head and give away all of your clothes and move to a remote island and never talk to any of your old friends again. It kinda reminds me of that impulsive type of person, whatever the psychology behind that might be.

It’s also just a really fun balance between things that on the surface feel really good and light which isn’t really something that I’d dabbled in before but then lyrically, it’s really uncertain, a little bit dreadful and on edge. Putting those two elements together was really fin – I think it’s a great allegory for what life is.

Have you always has that sense of wanting to disappear?

A little. I was a really shy person growing up, really quiet and I still am to a  degree. But I like the idea of changing up your whole shit. I’ve done it a few times. It definitely says something about my artistic approach – I want to put everything in to a project and then start something new, so I guess it comes back to that.

You came back with the song “Gentleman”. What was the concept behind that track?

I was thinking of different elements and ideas of masculinity and power and there are a lot of songs that guys do that have a lot of bravado. It sounds very violent and invasive in a way. And then at the other end you get really lovey-dovey and cheesy with it and it doesn’t sound genuine. It was actually my girl’s idea. She was describing what she saw in me. Which I thought was really odd, because I just thought I’m such a weird dude so I was interested to hear what she thought.

Then you took a conceptual approach to the video?

It was a combination of the themes of the song and visual things I thought were unique. I always wanted to make a video like that but I just wasn’t sure of what context. But what I ended up making was – at least in my head – something that was bold but only to the same degree that I am bold. It’s gentlemanly but not weak. It’s bold but not overly salacious. I think it’s a real portrayal, which is why I wanted to be naked in the video – to push myself a little further. I just wanted to make something I liked and I’m really happy with how it came out.

You recently wrote on Twitter that “artists don’t need any more power, we need to give power back to listeners”. Can you elaborate?

I think Spotify has been  really bit part of my life – I didn’t have an outlet in a commercial way to get my music heard before then. When I released my music on Spotify and through blogs and stuff the listeners were able to democratically select who was on top. It felt like the control was with the audience.

But that statement came from me playing at a Spotify event and they were saying how excited they were to launch all these collaborations with artists and be a label. I thought that was an extreme conflict of interest and really corrupt. That’s part of the reason HypeMachine had such a downfall. It’s because they suddenly decided to sign and promote their own artists and then the listeners go there thinking they can listen to something organically and put in a vote, but they are confronted with whoever is the artist of the week on HypeMachine.

I went on Spotify the other day and Drake’s face was on every playlist. It’s getting to he point where they are forgetting why they started this – they wanted people to listen to music in a convenient way that was also legal and gave the listeners the opportunity to pay if they wanted – it was listener focussed. I hope they switch back to being in the interest of the listeners.

You also wrote “Happiness is a Persian rug that looks like a pitcher’s mound because it has so much dirt beneath it”. What inspired those words? And do you feel like a happy person?

I’m in a little bit of a weird place in terms of happiness and all that stuff. I was looking at different solutions and looking at people I know who have struggles with certain things. It seemed to me that there are three ways you can go. There’s the pharmaceutical industry, which in my opinion is an easy fix – though there are situations when it is totally necessary – but it feel like a cover up. Then there are people who find their way to a better place but they adopt really intense Christian beliefs or Born Again ideas because they have to relinquish a lot of things they feel like they should be able to control to someone else because it makes them feel better.

And then the other way to deal with it is to be extreme – to quit society or to make drastic changes in your life on a regular basis. That’s not a forthright way of doing it either. I feel like when you people are really happy, they just don’t let certain thoughts get to them – they just say “I”m not gonna let that get to me”. It feels like sweeping a lot of stuff under the rug. I didn’t mean it as something super pessimistic or anything. I just thought it was an interesting idea.

Maybe when I get to a better place I’ll go back and delete it…

Listen to more Gallant here.