Q&A: Del Water Gap is Ready To Let Listeners Into His World with Debut LP Out This Fall
WITH SINGLES THAT HAVE MILLIONS OF LISTENS THAT HAVE LEFT FANS ACHING FOR MORE - Del Water Gap is ready to release his full length project his listeners have been waiting for. S. Holden Jaffe, the artist behind Del Water Gap, has been releasing singles since 2015 and finally this fall Jaffe’s self-titled LP, Del Water Gap, will be released. After years of hit folk-rock tracks that are lyrically profound, Jaffe’s LP will be emotionally raw, with a pop influence. A taste you can get from the singles Jaffe has already released, like, “Sorry I Am”, “Hurting Kind”, “Better Than I Know Myself” and most recently, “Perfume”.
Out via Mom+Pop on October 8, the LP reflects a more mature sound for Del Water Gap, and serves as a listening experience for listeners to truly get a better sense of the direction Jaffe is going with his music. Opening up about his state of mind while writing the songs for the LP and the relationships that guided his art, Jaffe reflects on the making of the project and what we can expect in our Q&A below. A similarly confessional nature that can be found in his upcoming LP, we’re excited for what this next chapter has in store for Del Water Gap.
LUNA: How are you doing this summer now that things are opening up?
JAFFE: I’m feeling shy but hopeful. I feel like a kindergartener in my first week of school. A lot of, “Will YOU be my friend, now that the world will never be the same again??? and how about you, will YOU be my friend?” The sensitivity has made me better at filtering out people that don’t feel healthy for me to have around. I’m starting to reconnect with close, elemental friends of mine and realizing I haven’t seen some of them in person in two years. I catch myself feeling guilty about it but then I have to remind myself that it’s not my fault.
LUNA: You’ve got an LP coming out this fall - congrats! Can you share a favorite moment from the making of the project?
JAFFE: Gracias - I know everyone says this but making this LP had felt like a bit of an endless pilgrimage, marching on and on, it’s a vignette of my life in the years after I left college. I was living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and working a few jobs, I handed out trays of finger food at bougie parties, I set up photo booths at the US open, I mixed live music, I taught guitar lessons, and did Photoshop work for old ladies. I painted a basement and listened to every episode of Serial twice through. I would go to the studio at 6 pm after work and make music till 6 am, and then wake up and do the whole thing over again. I worked with my best friends and a few strangers. One of my favorite moments was one I had with one of my co-writers and co-producers Mike Adubato; we had been working for the weekend in Boston with our friend Gabe Goodman and had just gotten our foot in the door with the song “Hurting Kind”. Mike and I had just gotten on an overnight bus back to New York and were sitting across the aisle from each other, each with our AirPods in listening to the latest rough of the song, silently jamming out and just fucking beaming at each other. There’s no feeling quite like when you’ve got a rough of a new song you love. It’s like striking gold in your backyard.
LUNA: So far we’ve heard “Better Than I Know Myself” and “Perfume” from the project and we’re loving it. How would you compare “Better Than I Know Myself” to the rest of the project?
JAFFE: “Better Than I Know Myself” came together after a night in my old Bushwick studio with Claud. I had recently started dating someone and Claud had been going through some relationship stuff too and we started talking about the feeling that someone can become a mirror for you when you get together; the feeling that your person can get to know you better than you could ever know yourself. This song is about closeness but also about the nerves of a new relationship, the ache to be wanted, and the fear of someone changing their mind on you. This is a new relationship song, and I think much of this record is about the middle parts of love, or the end of love, or the ways that love changes when it’s really begun to sink in.
LUNA: This LP showcases a more vulnerable side of yourself, but with the nature of how long it takes albums to get out how do you feel about the emotions you presented in the LP? Do you feel farther away from them now or do you still resonate?
JAFFE: I feel more connected to this LP now that it’s finished than I ever could during the process of making it. It feels like a really complete statement to me, and seeing it tied up and ready for the world to receive has allowed me to have a much clearer idea of what it is and what it isn’t. It has afforded me a new perspective on what the last four years of my life have really been.
LUNA: Do you foresee any song in particular off of the LP connecting most with your fans?
JAFFE: I haven’t really any idea - there are so many unforeseeable factors that go into whether a song connects or not. So much of it comes down to alignment, and how open people are to receive your particular story at any given time. I think our lives are constantly changing the needs that we turn to art to fulfill.
LUNA: Which track means the most to you?
JAFFE: “It’s Not Fair” means the most to me. It’s been hard for me to listen to. It’s a very true-to-life story about a time when I was struggling a lot with mental illness and some drug problems, staying up all night drawing these elaborate flow charts on poster board in an attempt to organize my thoughts and calm down. It’s a song about mourning a relationship and a simpler time. I’m doing much better now but I still get a pit in my chest when I walk around that old neighborhood in NYC. I started it with my friend Taylor Janzen and finished it late one night sitting on my bed in LA. I cried and cried as I tracked the vocals, whispering into an SM58 in an attempt to not wake up my roommates.
LUNA: How did your relationship with Plummer guide any of your artistic choices in the “Hurting Kind” music video?
JAFFE: I believe Charlie and my connection made this video what it is. Our ability to communicate with each other and our shared love of cinema shaped what this project became. This video is the first time I’ve had an idea look exactly the same in the world as it did in my head. Charlie was a thoughtful and powerful leader through the process, and I think making art together brought us much closer. He’s turned me on to so many special films over the years, and it was inspiring to be able to incorporate some of our shared favorites into our collaboration. Pre-Covid we used to sit up late on his couch and eat gummies and he’d talk me through film after film; my own private idaho, paris, texas, hiroshima, mon amour… the list goes on. I’ve learned a lot from him.
LUNA: What led to the shift from your more folk-style previous music to the more pop-inspired LP? Was it intentional or was it a happy accident?
JAFFE: I grew up identifying as a writer who used music as a platform to share my writing. The first records I made were a product of my heroes and my limitations. I was a decent guitarist and a bad singer and I realized early on that if anything, my writing was going to be the thing that set me apart. So I kept my recordings simple. I was enamored with Dylan and Nilsson and Randy Newman. When I moved to New York I put a band together and slowly started learning how to record and produce. As my time in college wrapped up, I started producing some indie-pop stuff in between waiting tables to make money, and as a result, started consuming much more pop music. I think after a few months of listening to nothing but Christine & The Queens and Miike Snow and Broken Bells and stuff, something clicked for me and I realized I didn’t need to separate the music I loved and made for other people from the music I made for myself.
LUNA: This past year has allowed for a lot of time to reflect and regroup. What’s a key takeaway you’ve had from quarantine?
JAFFE: I’ve gotten better at not giving my negative thoughts too much power. I read somewhere that most strong negative emotions last twenty minutes. I’ve felt really lonely but I’ve also been able to tell myself it’s okay to feel lonely.
LUNA: A fun one - what color best represents this LP?
RGB hex #’s e9318d, 4fafcf, d0ff37, 141101, & fffffe.
LUNA: Lastly, what intentions do you have for the rest of this year?
JAFFE: I want to find a home before I go on tour in October. I need to nest somewhere and know that all of my things are in one place. I want to work on journaling and try and write a few songs. I need to get my car serviced too.
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