“All around gathered round in the auditorium/ You were there with your curly hair as the judge got underway/ But I’m working on my masterpiece so go away.”
Initially, I never would have imagined hearing about any great artist or source of creativity coming from the city of Hull. It’s not a place I think about often, nor have I ever been there. Then I received a mental slap: “Philip Larkin, you idiot!” Of course—that was it. Deep down, I had known all along that I’d heard of the place before, in one way or another. Without the help of ChatGPT – Honest!!! The great English poet, lifelong librarian, and, from what I’ve heard, back door admirer Philip Larkin did indeed hail from the city I was so quick to write off. Shame on me. And he himself for that matter.
That is besides the point, or a nonsense path into introducing Adam Greaves, singer-songwriter and man behind GAWLD – who also hails from Hull and whose music name has geographical reasons behind it. Noel Gallagher loved one of his songs so much that he ‘comedically’ (watch out if he tries it) threatened to steal his musical hook whilst listening on the Matt Morgan Podcast. In the following conversation, GAWLD (Adam Greaves) and I touch on a range of thought-provoking topics. But above all, this interview serves as an introduction to a great musician and artist who has a poetic instinct and ear for crafting songs and melodies. Every one of his cultural references are also great. I adore his music to the extent, I must, at times, blow smoke.
Adam, remain mysterious if you prefer, but can you give me an insight into your musical stage name – GAWLD? It’s unique.
Yeah, it comes from the Hull pronunciation of the word ‘gold’. Strong emphasis on the W. I’m from and live in Hull, it’s not the edge of the world, but you can certainly see it from it. I wish I had just started it under my own name sometimes, it would be a lot easier to explain. I think GAWLD sounds like something you’d find written on the side of some mad exotic tin of mackerel. I think the reason I went for the pseudonym GAWLD originally was because I found it a lot easier in the beginning to release my music if I was hiding behind what people thought was a full band opposed to just one person making and doing everything.
There’s not currently a lot of your music available online to listen to. Do you struggle to find the time, or are there many main restrictions for you in getting your stuff ‘out there’, so to speak?
Yeah, I mean, I started GAWLD just recording and releasing music (with zilch knowledge on how to work all the gear) in my flat as something to do. But I got with the process pretty quickly. I’m a songwriter and like to write constantly. Once I’ve written something, I want to do something new. I found it took forever to record a single tune, so I just packed it in and have been focusing on writing songs nonstop for the last 3 years. I think the way my head’s programmed; I work better with a producer pushing things along.
You know that I came across your music when listening to the Matt Morgan podcast, where he and Noel Gallagher listened to tunes sent in. You must have had a heart attack when Noel G compliments you in such a way to say he might rip off Draw Orgn?
Aye, that was pretty bananas. I sent it in at the last minute, so I wasn’t expecting him to listen to it at all. I was out on the piss and my brother called me saying ‘Noels just listened to your tune and loves it big time’. It was very bizarre. I used to be super self-critical of that song, I think because it didn’t have 14 guitar parts and a sax solo, I thought it was a bit flannel. I’ve come to realize it’s the one song I play that people seem to have a connection with the most. I’ve had people from America, Australia, and all over the shop message me how much the song means to them. That’s what it’s all about, I think.
In the song Draw Orgn you mention it’s a demo – what plans do you have to alter the sound, production-wise or are you planning to add more layers? Just my humble opinion, but I think it sounds tremendous as is. Elliott Smith and Jason Molina vibes for me.
I tried recording that song after that demo about a million times, and it never ever sounded as good. I just don’t think you can recreate some things. I’d been away in Ibiza, body popping and came back to gloomy dark piss wet through Hull, at the time I was living in this one-bedroom flat with my Mrs in the center of town. It was a listed building and had these great long halls and corridors running all the way through it. I always get excited to start writing music after I’ve been away for a while. That was literally the first thing I wrote when I touched that guitar, words and all. I was reading a lot of Fante, as I recall.
I’ve only read ‘Ask The Dust’ by John Fante, as I love Bukowski and was told he was copying Fante directly, initially. For me, Bukowski’s poetry was often better than his novels. I also think Fante had dabbled in a writer called Knut Hamsun?
Yeah, ‘Ask the Dust’ is definitely my favorite book of his, it’s a book I’ll go back to and read every now and then. I sort of got into Bukowski the complete opposite way, I got into Bukowski through Fante. I bought a collection of his poetry recently actually, he’s brilliant. I’m looking forward to getting into him more. Not read Knut Hamsun though, I’ll have to check him out.
What else do you read?
Book-wise I do read a lot of poetry, my book cabinet at home is just filled with tons and tons of them. I find when I’m struggling for a starting point in a tune there – its a good place to get inspiration. John Cooper Clarke was definitely the poet which triggered that off for me. I went to see him when I was 16 and it sort of changed everything. I love his sense of humor.
Who taught you how to play?
I taught myself, mate, I remember I got into music properly when I was like 12 or something like that. I begged for an electric guitar for months from my mam and dad, and they finally gave in and got me a cheap nylon acoustic. I was totally obsessed with the Sex Pistols when I was younger (still am), and I remember I managed to teach myself Pretty Vacant on it. Not too long after, they got me an electric, and I’ve never put one down since.
I’m sorry but Draw Orgn, as I adore that tune please allow me one last question on it – I often find the ‘gloomy dark piss’ the best environments to write or produce the best things. I’m mad about lyrics, and the composition and lyrics made me smile, the line about “Go away cos I’m working on my masterpiece” – that’s darkly funny. “I’ve not really been myself lately, for all my life” – the sadness and the juxtaposition of humor… It’s Morrissey-esque in its tone. Brilliant. Comment one last time, please!
To be honest, I think that gloomy melon-collie place is musically where I exist 90% of the time. When I write a fast, upbeat tune like “The Run” it shocks me because I don’t consciously know where it comes from. As far as returning to that place, I have two tunes which are sort of bookends in the story I’ve been trying to encapsulate so far, they’re called “Strawberry” and “Valentine”. I honestly think there are two of the best bits of music I’ve ever written. They follow on from “The Run” but are completely different in tone, a lot darker and sinister. I really can’t wait to get them recorded properly. I love Morrissey, it can’t be overstated how much his music means to me. I’ll definitely take that compliment.
From me, it is a compliment of the highest order as I worship the man. ‘The Run’ just came out, which I also love. It reminded me of Bob Dylan’s ‘Maggie’s Farm’ or ‘It Takes a Train to Laugh….’ How are you promoting the tune and others, for that matter?
Yeah I’m pretty fucking awful at self promoting. It’s not who I am as a person, I’m naturally quite introverted. The feedback so far has been ace though! I love that people dig it. I’ve also been sending it off to a few certain people. So hopefully something will come back from that.
It’s common in interviews of this nature to ask an artist the old cliché – who are your influences!? Bore off. You’ve already provided a playlist of what inspired The Run. I suppose my twist on that question would be, who do you steal from musically or artistically, or personally?
Bit of wanky answer, but I’m sort of inspired by anything and everything. I read a book on Oleg Gordievsky the other week, and I’ve already been finding that creeping into some of my new lyrics, I think it’s all subconscious nonsense music half the time. Miles Davis said it best, “the early part of your career, you chase your influences, and in the later part of your career, you run from them”. I think that’s true.
Production-wise that song and others are a lot bigger than Draw Orgn – where are you recording and do you have anyone supporting or are you a one-man band?
Well, when I recorded my first tune GAWLD I think I thought I was in fucking Wu Tang Clan or something. I just wanted every single verse and every single instrument in it to be perfect. Whereas now I’m a lot more lax. I recorded my new single with Nick Brine down in Brighton! It was amazing working with someone like Nick, who’s made some of my favorite albums ever. Yeah, GAWLD is just me, I write and record everything by myself. I recently got a band together, though, and we’ve been rehearsing nonstop and arranging a ton of my music so we can get gigging and recording as a unit in the next few months. I was previously in a band called Sister Strange (dreadful name). We only ever had one decent tune, it was called “Let’s Not Meet” which we went on to record. It was probably the first time I’d wrote a song myself where I was like, “I don’t give a fuck if no one gets this, I know it’s fucking mint” and it still sounds pretty decent.
Your voice is distinctive and you have a truly wonderful knack for melody and songwriting. A great combination. Why haven’t I heard of you before? Sorry to blow smoke.
Exposure, I guess! There’s something to be admired about bands who can shamelessly put all of their energy into looking and acting like they’re the bollocks on social media, even though deep down they must know there music is absolutely fucking abysmal. I see it all the time these days. I never got into making music to do anything like that, it just isn’t what I signed up for. Not a particularly good excuse. The truth is, I’m probably just lazy.
I like and despise your quote: “There’s Something to be admired about bands who can shamelessly put all of their energy into looking and acting like they’re the bollocks on social media, even though deep down they must know the music is fucking abysmal.” – To me, that is the most horrifying thing on the planet.
Don’t get me wrong! It did give me the kick up the arse I needed at that moment in time, definitely. More than anything, I found it reassuring. I’ve always thought my tunes meant something, but I sort of thought that feeling was just personal to myself, like I imagine all songwriters do. Having someone like Noel dig it, I was more like, “see, I knew I was right to think that was a good tune, it just took 3 years for anyone to discover it!”. As far as the charlatan types you see everywhere these days, you can only ever get so far on clout. Sooner or later, they all get found out.
What emotion or concept do you find yourself unintentionally returning to in your music?
Escape.
Why is escapism so essential through music as opposed to taking drugs or drinking to excess?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, that is fun as well. But everything always leads back to music. It’s the purest form of art in my eyes, and it’s accessible to everyone; it doesn’t discriminate. Music has the ability to change everything, how you dress, how you feel, how you want to be perceived, even how you see the world. I’ve heard people describing food as art, you don’t get that from eating a fucking sandwich.
You just made me LOL, GWALOL’D if you will. Apologies. If your sound were a physical place, what would it look like?
An estate pub with a flat roof.
What’s the last piece of art (music or otherwise) that made you stop and reassess your own work?
I re-watched There Will Be Blood for the first time in a long time, a few months back. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since then! That feeling undoubtedly bled into my new tune, The Run.
There Will Be Blood is a masterpiece.
What’s your experience in playing live?
Yeah, I love playing live! I’ve been going out by myself a lot recently with just my acoustic, it’s a great way of getting a feel for what songs land and which don’t! I can’t wait to start playing them live with the band soon though, that’s how they are supposed to be heard, how I hear them in my head.
These questions aside, what bores you the most?
The middle class.
And what interests you the most?
Writing songs! I’ll never bore of it. I think it comes naturally to an extent, but it’s like anything, you need to be disciplined and practice. I constantly write, so you might write 10 garbage songs to get to that 1 great one. That’s what I love about songwriting: you never ever know where the next good thing will come from.
What’s happening next for you, what’s coming up work-wise and playing live, that we need to know about?
I’m working with the-band non stop, by the end of this year release my first EP, take GAWLD on the road. In the meantime, I’ll still be popping up doing the occasional solo acoustic renditions of some of my songs out and about.
I’ll be there if I can, but I’ll say Glasgow welcomes you.
Lastly, what made you disillusioned, as you say, with the first approach to making music – what was it that was missing? How did you go about getting what you needed as such, to get the push you needed, the ‘ball rolling’, and how important is confidence?
I think it was more my abilities as a “Producer”. I’m a bit of a Luddite. I look like someone’s Nan when I’m sitting behind a computer, completely out of my depth. I know nothing about production at all. I only know what good music sounds like purely from listening to records, so my way of producing was just turning the knobs till they sort of sounded like all the albums I love. When I hear “Falling Down” or “GAWLD” it amazes me how they came out sounding so good, considering I did them all by myself! But as I started writing much bigger songs, there was no way I could do them justice winging it alone, so I sort of packed it in and started writing a back catalogue with the idea of getting them recorded properly. How important is confidence? I think it’s everything, you have to have self-belief. If you don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else? The first thing I had to learn was that you can’t care about what other people think. You’ll never do anything good if you base it on how you think it will be interpreted. Fuck em.
Adam, GAWLD, thank you so much.
Check out GAWLD online
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P.S
A taste of what the Matt Morgan podcast is like:
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