Two decades and eight albums deep into his career, Gavin DeGraw is celebrating the people and places that made him who he is on his new album, Face the River.
Speaking with Q104.3 New York's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke, Gavin fondly recalls his Catskills upbringing, his supportive parents and how he keeps those simpler times close to his heart as a growing artist.
"Our culture spends a lot of time worshipping our celebrities, you know, our ballplayers, our actors and our musicians. Stuff like that's cool. But my heroes were my folks," Gavin says. "I watched them go off to their daily war trying to make a living for the family and never really complained about it. They just saw it as their job to do their best, and they really did. I wanted to acknowledge that. To me, those are the kind of people who need to get celebrated, you know. I'm not trying to sell shoes."
The first tour dates Gavin played in support of Face the River were with that full-circle idea in mind. Gavin and his band booked a number of small venues, some of which are still around from back when his career began.
"The Bitter End was the first venue to ever give me a gig here in New York City," he notes. "So I thought it was important, and my relationship with those guys, they've just been good to me since I was a kid. And I wanted to go back and play the place the gave me an early opportunity."
Watch the full conversation via the player above!
Face the River is available now. Get all of Gavin DeGraw's tour dates here.
Look for him on your favorite social channels here.
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Here's the official video for the song "Face the River":