Hey Greg McGarvey. Congrats on your latest album, "Crickets Surround". For those who may not be familiar with you, tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into making music.

There is a photograph of me at three years old in Dunellen, New Jersey. I'm sneaking behind a cabinet to touch my grandpa's guitar without anyone seeing me. It didn't work. I like this picture, though, because it reminds me that the music found me very early; before teen angst, before the desire to attract girls.

Music for me is like a river that I jump in every day. No matter how great - or how terrible - life on land feels that day, that river will invariably take me somewhere a little more beautiful.

Anyway, gradually, I got my own guitars and slowly taught myself how to play. I would play along with my favorite records (and live bootleg CDs.... shhhh), learning all the songs by ear and then rewriting all the guitar parts, making sure they felt as strong and soulful as the original parts. This is what I did for fun, but in retrospect, I can see that I was training myself to be a songwriter. And I'm happy to say that, when I turned eighteen, I was given my grandpa's guitar! I've written many songs on it.

You have studied different artists such as The Everly Brothers, R.E.M., and Neil Young. Upon listening to your music, I can definitely hear those influences throughout every track. What other artists have you listened to that influenced the music you create?

Nirvana's influence on me was big. The first songs that I felt determined to learn correctly were "Heart-Shaped Box" and R.E.M.'s "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" I was also very inspired by the experimentation of Sonic Youth, in particular their series of improvised recordings pressed to colored vinyl in their SYR series. I liked the idea of music that felt as if it was channeled, not calculated for commercial purposes. Closer to the source.

I kept my music to myself for a long time, though, not thinking that the outside world would be interested. Something changed in me when I discovered Robyn Hitchcock in my mid-twenties. I was very drawn to the atmospheres his songs created. He has called them "paintings you can listen to." I wanted to write songs like that, too.

Your new album is absolutely well crafted. It also features musicians other than yourself. Could tell us more about how you all met and how you got to work together on this brilliant album?

Thanks! I've met so many musicians over my twenty years of public performing. Many of them were great, but not all were great collaborators. I have found that it's an exceedingly rare quality in a musician. Frankly, I think many musicians are not especially creative at all. I have found that my visual artist and writer friends, by and large, are living much more creative lives than most musicians I meet.

However, you come across rare gems now and again. They're the types who perform in a way that serves the song. They don't show you everything they do. And they're not only listening to themselves; they're listening to the whole room and trying to elevate the ensemble.

I grew up watching The Everly Brothers sing on stage, watching Neil Young play with Crazy Horse, watching Patti Smith play in New York City with Lenny Kaye and their band. So I've witnessed a lot of musical moments that make your hair stand on end. I try to play with people who I think have this same deep devotion to the transcendent possibilities of music.

This record actually only has three collaborators.

Steve Guarino is on drums. I believe I met him on a farm in Bucks County. Having grown up playing great spots like City Gardens, he's got decades of experience. We don't leave rehearsal until he is comfortable with all the twists and turns that the songs will take. He has great attention to detail and a great, steady feel.

I met the fiddler (and multi-instrumentalist) Frank Burk an hour before performing a very intimate acoustic concert at which I was debuting an album I wrote in honor of my girlfriend who had died of cancer a few years earlier. We rehearsed in the green room just a little bit. Near the end of the gig, I introduced the crowd to Frank and told them we'd met that evening. His playing was so uncannily perfect that most of the crowd started laughing. To this day, I think many of those folks think we were kidding. But this guy is just very, very good.

Caroline Feinman walked into a rehearsal space in Hamilton, New Jersey and, within a few minutes, we were singing a version of "(All I Have To Do Is) Dream" that made me feel like I was high. Totally perfect. We were in various bands back in our twenties, and when we reconnected in our thirties, we found that the blend of voices continued to be really special. She's been singing all her life and is also a great keyboardist.

I feel really fortunate to work with these folks.

The imagery of "Mrs. Tyler" sets the mood as the album begins. For those who aren't familiar, could you tell us the story behind Mrs. Tyler?

I was attending classes at the college that used to be the estate of George and Stella Tyler in Newtown, Pennsylvania. As a young working class guy, the grandeur of their home and formal gardens was a culture shock. In those days, I was taking a bus from college to the shoe store, then walking home for about forty-five minutes. I had a lot of trouble understanding how I could ever make something of myself.

But the beauty of Tyler Hall and Formal Gardens really got under my skin. I would sit around daydreaming about how good life could be if I could just get the best of myself into the outside world.

One day, I imagined going back in time to the days when Stella Tyler, a great artist whose sculptures still stand in the gardens, lived on this land, and spending the day with her. Seeing the views from out the windows. Seeing the rooms that were hidden from the public. Having great meals prepared for us. Watching the Neshaminy Creek flow by.

"Put The Needle Down" is a song that is completely different from the rest. To me, it's more psychedelic and has a whole other vibe to it. But I can hear a bit of the influence of Neil Young in this one. As you said on your Bandcamp, this song was inspired by a black-and-white photograph of an artist in their sun-soaked Hollywood Hills living room. The artist was surrounded by their instruments and their records and tape machines. What is it about art, such as the paintings you saw, that inspired the story of the songs?

A black-and-white photograph of John Frusciante inspired this song. When I say "Put The Needle Down," it's about the feeling of getting into an intense musical groove, one in which the music you're creating feels like it's being transmitted from some alien radio station and only you can hear it. Ideas start coming through you and they seem to be beyond what you are capable of. I guess it's called the flow state.

That picture of John brought to mind that feeling of an artist surrounded by all their work tools, ready to capture the ideas as soon as they arrive. In a way, it's about the high that that can give you. Secondarily, it's about the many brilliant people - including some of my friends - who lose some or all of their life force through the use of hard drugs. The search for transcendence.

Once again, the imagery of your writing is present in the song, "The Scenic Route". This song wants to help you drive fast on a road trip. Have you ever gone on a road trip like the one you wrote about in the lyrics? If so, was that the basis for the story?

Like many of the songs on this collection, the singer tries to find peace in the idea that he doesn't know where he's going or when he's getting there, but that he'll find what he needs by following his instincts. I'm traveling down sections of the Lincoln Highway, the 1913 highway that used to connect San Francisco to Times Square. Caroline and I are going west, singing for our supper along the way. On this night, we're laying in front of a broken-down gas station in some town that nobody's ever heard of. We stay up all night watching an unusually beautiful sky, drinking wine, and singing every song we can think of.

The story behind "gettin' closer" is an interesting one. Though you came up with the riff back in 2005, the lyrics weren't finished until 2020. When did you actually finish the entire song from the lyrics to the arrangement? Also, where did you come up with the idea about traveling and searching?

"gettin' closer" is another road trip. It's about the sense of being confined in a small, boring town, and finally getting the car working well enough to take a late night drive around the long, windy roads that the rich people live on. You could be alone, you could be on a date. The windows are down. It's a little bit spooky, but it just makes you feel alive cruising around after everyone else has gone to sleep, breathing in the cool night air.

I mention lost treasures things in a tavern. This is an homage to the centuries old relics that were found in the basement of Bucks County's Continental Tavern when it was rehabbed a few years ago. I would sing there and find myself thinking about people from 200 years ago more than the people who were there that night!

After playing songs like this at my gigs in the years leading up to COVID, I used the lockdown as an opportunity to firm up the lyrics and arrangements.

This was also the period of time immediately following the deaths of both of my parents, so it was a good moment to take stock of my past and thereby allow myself to move into the future more freely.

I made a music video for each of these songs, merging the actual recording sessions with footage of the places that I think about when I sing. This one in particular looks, to me, exactly the same as it sounds.

The beauty and imagery in "crickets surround" is so perfectly crafted. You certainly still have an Everly Brothers influence in the song. But for some reason, I can hear a bit of Simon and Garfunkl in the harmonies. On Bandcamp, you describe the story behind the song, which I think everyone should go check out your Bandcamp and read the story. Since your songs are inspired by life experiences, what is it about them that moves you to tell a story like the one in "crickets surround"?

The title track is a favorite of mine, a little tune about being young and pining for someone who is extremely beautiful and extremely unavailable. In the last verse of the song, I am walking along the eery highway on the edge of town with some of my friends. We don't particularly have any destination in mind. We're just very bored with our small town and we're looking for any type of escape. Or at least a donut.

Another song that is different from the rest is a tune called "Strawberry". This is another track that also has a psychedelic influence to it. I also love the ending which makes the song feel more like you're in a western. What is the subject matter of the lyrics?

Thank you! This song, the first one I ever wrote, also feels psychedelic to me. I honor that feeling by playing it differently every time. Years ago, I first played it with Nick D'Amore from Cathedral Ceilings on drums and, when cutting this version, I decided to take it in a new direction. His arrangement was so damn good that I didn't want to imitate it. So Frank Burk and I played it in my studio, side by side, allowing the song to go in a new direction. It surprised us! But we liked it.

The final song on the album, "If It Helps You Dream...". A very beautiful way to end the album. When you wrote this tune, did the song come to you in a dream or may have it been possibly based on something you read somewhere?

This song is about being near the end of an intense yet doomed relationship, near the end of the year. It starts with an explosion and ends that way, too. But before it does, you have one more perfect night of drinking and singing and taking the long way home. You find peace in the things that worked out, and also the things that didn't. It seems like the end, but as always, something or someone interest is waiting around the corner.

You have quite a few shows coming up in September, October, November, and even some 2025 dates with more shows to be announced. What can people expect to see at these shows and where can they find updates on more upcoming shows?

This autumn and winter, I will focus on recording, but also play a few gigs I've been asked to play. They're all very different from one another - a rock show at John & Peter's, solo acoustic sets at festivals, and a bunch of nights when I will sit with other singers as a lead guitarist. I am so behind on recording that I've got about seven more albums to get out. I'd like to finish most of the work by springtime, and then book some small theaters and some living room concerts.


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Artist Bio:
Greg McGarvey is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and visual artist. Greg used the guitar passed on by his father and grandfather to teach himself music. He has performed his genre-hopping music both solo and with an ever-changing lineup of friends since 2011.

Greg also performs with Joe Shifflett (The Hillwilliams) and Righteous Jolly (The Jolly Tinkers, et al).