Indie pop musician Del Water Gap — born Samuel Holden Jaffe — took on his first Newport Folk Festival, joining the iconic music weekend as a last-minute addition. He joined GBH News to talk about his new music and his feelings ahead of his Friday performance. Excerpts from the interview are below.
Haley Lerner: How are you feeling, being at Newport Folk Festival for the first time?
Del Water Gap: I feel great. I mean, it's such a bucket list festival. I grew up reading books and watching documentaries about Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. That’s sort of the lineage that I grew up on. Hearing about the lore and finally getting the call to be a part of it is a huge honor.
This festival feels particularly homegrown and sort of lacking in the very corporate feeling of some of the other festivals. It feels like a breath of fresh air. It feels small. I feel very humbled to be part of something that feels special and a part of music history in this way. I just love playing music, so I’m ready to do that.
Lerner: I saw that you’ve released two new singles leading up to your new album. Can you tell me a little about them?
Del Water Gap: Yeah, I spent the last three years touring. I came out of the pandemic into a really substantial touring schedule, which has been a blessing and also overwhelming at times. One of the big challenges has been finding time to write and make music amongst all that.
So this album was very much made in between trips all around the world. The album is very much about transience and the life that happens between life. It's definitely my favorite album I’ve made.
Lerner: With the songwriting process happening between shows, does your writing now cater toward making songs meant to be played in front of a crowd?
Del Water Gap: I think touring taught me a lot about what kind of album I wanted to make, seeing what reacts live and how I feel paying a song live. Touring has taught me that that [a] live show is so much about the conversation between the artist and the audience. It's really like a transfer of energy between the two. So going into the studio with that very much in the forefront of my mind definitely changed the way I made my album.
Lerner: How would you describe the mood of your upcoming album?
Del Water Gap: Existential, anthemic, shoegaze. I was listening to a lot of Bono when I made this album. I tend to sing very low in my range and keep it colloquial. And on this album, I really tried to try to use my voice, use my muscle. So for me, that started the throughline of it.
Lerner: What are you looking forward to with your upcoming headlining tour?
Del Water Gap: We're building out the whole thing. I toured very lean for three years. You know, we were a really tight group. It was like four of us on the road, and a lot of that was practical and financial.
I've been really fortunate over the last year to have things grow quite a bit, which to me means I can give people a better show, which I’m very excited about. So we're adding some players and, you know, adding some production and just going to be able to fill the rooms a bit more.
Lerner: Playing a festival, do you feel a different energy here than at your own shows?
Del Water Gap: I love playing festivals. Headliners are great because they're very intimate. Festivals have new people that might have heard of you and might not necessarily buy a ticket to see you, but they're going to wander over and be curious. It’s really a lovely thing for me to know that I have the opportunity to win people over.
Just being able to mix with the artists is such a special part of festivals and especially coming out of COVID. So much of the music world was online, and I was meeting all these artists on the internet who I'd never met in person and being able to come out of the pandemic and go to festivals and like to have lunch next to someone I really admire, it's an absolute gift. And I know that's a big part of the spirit of Newport too, sharing stages.
Lerner: At Newport, there have been some really famous performances here. Have any of those influenced you and what you have planned for in your set?
Del Water Gap: Of course, like Dylan's performances, and more recently, seeing Joni Mitchell make her reintroduction to playing live music at Newport. I've toured with Maggie Rogers a bit. She's a good friend of mine and seeing what she's done here over the years, playing with Phoebe [Bridgers], with Mavis Staples. This is such a platform for artists to share space with each other.
