Interview - Gabriel Garzón-Montano
Last week when we covered Lollapalooza, we had the opportunity to catch up with rising star Gabriel Garzón-Montano. The Brooklyn native sat down with us as we talked about his signature sound, festivals, and the infamous Jungle sample. Read below and learn a bit more about this genre bending musician.
CSDC: Let's get right into this: how did the Drake sample happen?
GGM: My friend Zoe showed Aubrey the track when they were chilling one night, and as soon as he heard it he ran it back a bunch of times listening to it. She sent me some screenshots of him being like “Yo, this song is haunting my dreams, I gotta work on this!” And then later, more tents come “I did a really good song with it!” Finally, his camp sent me Jungle. And I approved it, then we moved forward. CSDC: How long did that process take? Because I know the whole album was kept under wraps for a while. GGM: From him receiving the song and his camp reaching out, about a week.
CSDC: Is this your first tour? How's it going for you? GGM: No, my first tour was opening for Lenny Kravitz in Europe. This tour is going great, it’s my first US tour! Still doing club dates, doing some festivals. This is like my first round of festivals.
CSDC: Are you liking the festivals? How are the crowds treating you? GGM: The crowd was live! It started out with a decent amount of people and people kept coming, walking over. Some people were singing, it’s starting to happen at every show! Like on this tour with Glass Animals, I’d ask if people can raise their hands if they know, and like 10 or 20 people would raise their hand. CSDC: What’s your favorite festival that you’ve done so far? GGM: This one! CSDC: Even topping Bonarroo? GGM: Bonarroo was dope, but this was a bigger stage! Bonarroo was cool though. All these kids were lined up, I’m like “Do you even know who you’re here to see?” and they’re like “YOU!” And I’m like “No shit, really?” and that JUST started happening.
CSDC: What were you doing before before you started doing shows? What was life like before 6 8 took off? GGM: I actually wrote 6 8 in 2011, it came out in 2012. I’ve just been grinding. I’ve been coming up with this sound for a long time. I used to be a singer songwriter then I made a funk band and studied my favorites; Prince, Earth, Wind, and Fire. I wrote out full scores for the music because I really wanted to be a student of it. I felt too white, basically. Then I tried to make a fusion of the weird white shit, the funky black shit, the weird black shit. CSDC: And it sounds perfect! GGM: It shows in the crowd too, it’s super diverse. Young people, old people.
CSDC: What's next for you? A headlining tour, new music? GGM: In September I’m doing a Europe headlining tour, just announced it after this set! My full length is written, and I’ve been recording it. I put in two weeks in the studio before going on this tour and I’m about to go back in for a month before I go to Europe. We still have to shoot videos for the single, find a label to release it on. CSDC: Can we expect the album by next spring? GGM: Oh, definitely!
We’d like to thank Gabriel for taking the time out of his day to talk to us. Check out his song 6 8 on Soundcloud, and look out for him in your city with Glass Animals!
https://soundcloud.com/gabriel-garzonmontano/a