Chris Garneau – Out of Love

By starrymag | February 8, 2024

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) Chamber Pop, Baroque Pop, Soul, Indie Folk, Alt Country

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Elliott Smith

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “First Man.”

 

A) This song is really about a person’s first crush and recognition of their queerness. It captures the young moments, the initial sparks of homoerotic desire from the perspective of a man looking back on the macho action stars who made an impression on his adolescence.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) I think the idea of “he didn’t know my name” which, in the instance of this lyric, is very literal as the character is talking about TV and movie stars he watched on the screen — but in a different sense I think it relates to people’s first crushes who might have been someone in school they weren’t able to talk to or who ignored them … these kind of classic feelings of initial lust that we have as young people. The longing, the pining for this person who you don’t even really know…is something I think most people relate to.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) We didn’t make a video for the track but the images we created for the press campaign for the EP (and for this song particularly) were all about painting these archetypes in true light. So we wanted to do these character exercises with styling —the action hero, the cowboy and the crook, the Hollywood star— and the locations: a drive-in movie theatre, a vintage truck, a dilapidated farm, pasture with horses, and so on — they feel like movie stills, and they all have this kind of dusty, country sensibility that captures the sonic energy of the EP as well as the narratives within.

 

Q) Your wonderful boyfriend, Marc Briz, wrote the lyrics for “First Man;” however, what is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics?

 

A) I usually need a lyric before writing music, even if it’s just a line or two. With Marc, he handed me near complete lyrics for the three songs he wrote for the EP. The most edited, collaborative lyric for us was “Crook” — there was a lot of back and forth for months on this one, and I wrote some of the lines. “First Man” and “Millions” were essentially done when handed to me, only minor edits were made to fit a rhythm maybe.

 

Q) How much of a hand do you have in the production of your music?

 

A) I co-produce everything. I play all the keyboard/pianos and synth parts and, in the case of this EP, I performed all the vocals. I am present for most of the mixing and mastering process. I am constantly in the headphones or monitors working on these from day one of making demos to the end when it’s mastered. And the road is always long. By the time I release songs I have gone through hundreds of listens and countless hours of edits. It can be pretty grueling and tedious, but I love it.

 

Q) Your new EP Out of Love is out now. What are some themes you explore on it?

 

A) The four songs on this EP are each a character-driven story about being transformed in some way by love. Marc and I have queered archetypal narratives which veer towards the Americana: the lovesick cowboy, the celebrity actor who pines for the spiritual, the addict who leaves this earth and the person looking back on their first love and recognition of queerness. I think the motif is ultimately positive in nature as it is a reflection on a past life changed by something deeper, something rooted in love and the divine in order to find peace.

 

Q) Which song(s) on the EP hold a special significance for you and what makes them so close to your heart?

 

A) “Out of Love” was the first song I wrote for this EP, and I wrote this one solo before collaborating with Marc. It was inspired by the life of a friend of mine who died a couple years ago after suffering greatly battling addiction. He was a very romantic boy who loved poetry and flowers — he would always bring you a poem or a book he loved, or a bouquet from his own garden, or something he may have picked along his way to you whenever he visited. He was a very gentle and kind soul. His death was accidental, but I made the narrative about wishing to leave this earth, I made it sound purposeful and that the character in the song leaves out of love, rather than out of hate for this place. I hope it’s comforting; it is meant to be peaceful.

 

Q) What track on the album maybe challenged you the most creatively?

 

A) “Crook” was the hardest one for me. We changed the lyric and I re-wrote the song, entirely, about seven times. I couldn’t even explain in here what kind of processes this one went through but it had many different titles and totally different stories from the one that it is today. But once this did click, after a year or so of working on it, it felt really right. And then when Dan Marcellus tracked drums to it, I was freaking out and then it just continued to become more elevated when Kirk Schoenherr recorded guitars and Cat Popper recorded bass — it became this really full, huge piece. So, then that was the impetus for me wanting to record this little movie scene over the end. I was so moved by the story and the music [laughs] that I felt this long outro could be a really great container to push the narrative even further. So, I recorded this scene that Marc wrote the dialogue to and pitch-shifted my voice down a bit and gave a little country swagger. It was a long process with this one, but I love how it came to be.

 

Q) What do you hope lingers with people who explore your music, especially on this EP – whether a message or emotion?

 

A) It sounds kind of trite, but I think that this is ultimately about being the most you that you can be. Finding the divinity within yourself, and abandoning the shallows, maybe finding the spiritual — ultimately letting love guide you.

 

Q) I’m excited for you to begin playing this new music live. What can fans expect from a live Chris Garneau performance?

 

A) I am excited to play these songs live! I think I’ll probably do a pretty standard configuration on stage. Likely it would be me with drums, bass and guitars. Maybe a guest vocalist here and there when possible. This EP production is pretty acoustic; I think it would be fun to do some smaller venues for a more intimate presentation of these tunes.

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) I would love to sing with Weyes Blood someday. She is my favorite lady.

 

Q) What artist/musician are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) I love all of Luke Temple’s work so much — his solo project, Here We Go Magic, but I especially love his newer Art Feynman project. The new Anohni record is pretty groundbreaking and magic. I love the new Mistki, Youth Lagoon…Arthur Russell’s “Love is Overtaking Me” was a big reference point for this EP. Weyes Blood, Aldous Harding, Fiona Apple, Hand Habits, Mary Lattimore, Gia Margaret, Sam Burton…are all on heavy rotation in my house.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) I love you and am so grateful for you every single day! Twenty years in, this still feels like an accident that I am doing all this, that it’s happening, that I release music and people listen to it and share it, that people come to see me perform, and watch my little videos and look at my little pictures on Instagram and stuff — I still am surprised and in awe of everyone’s undying support. I literally could not do it without you, so thank you always.