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Friday, May 28, 2021
Fearing imminent death, Gregory Ackerman began work on cathartic “Think Straight,” which now opens his upcoming new album “Still Waiting Still.”
Nearly succumbing to debilitating depression, thinking
he needed to leave a legacy, Ackerman is better now. Stunning second full-length
out Sept. 17th. +++
Gregory Ackerman as photographed by Nell
T Sherman +++ PLAY, POST & SHARE Gregory Ackerman | “Think Straight”
“I honestly don’t
remember writing this song at all, which is funny because it’s called “Think
Straight,” says Gregory Ackerman of the opening cut on his upcoming
new album StillWaiting Still. “It was an exercise to
clear my head at the time.”
Ackerman was going through some of the worst moments of his
life. “I didn’t like my job,
I felt lost in love, my good friend Robert (the Still Waiting Still song
“For Rob” is dedicated to him) had committed suicide a few weeks prior,
and I was extremely ill (a week later I’d be hospitalized with a serious gut
infection.) I had a lot of anxious thoughts, and Istarted playing this
circular guitar-pickin’ pattern that echoed the unending flow of worriedthoughts
in my mind. “The song’s lyric,
‘It’s a tall tree that we must climb every day’ refers to waking up everymorning
feeling like I had to climb my way out of despair, feeling like every day was a
losingbattle with the depression I was fighting at the time. I felt
like I wanted to disappear from theworld. “Not only was Robert
gone, but earlier that year, our friend Tim had also unexpectedly died.Rob,
Tim, and I had all lived in a house together in college, and at the time, I
honestly rememberfeeling like I was next. I felt like something was after
me, and I had convinced myself that deathcomes in threes. I felt
haunted at the time with guilt, misery, anger, and confusion.” Fearing death would
find him soon, Ackerman felt like he had to start recording songsimmediately. “I had to leave a legacy
when I left, so the album became a sort of retrospective, combiningsongs
from college (the days of Tim and Rob) with my newest material. “Think
Straight” wasthe first song we started recording in the studio
because it was my most recently written song. Ithought to myself, ‘If I
die, at least I will have recorded my most recent song, and at least peoplewill
be able to hear the songs I was working on.’ “The breakdown of the
song is imagining myself in a better mental space, taking on a newmindset
against worry and fear. I thought that if I could at least imagine a different
mindset, thatmaybe one day I could get back to a better one. “I was honestly scared
about the dark place my mind had fallen into. The notion of ‘got to thinkstraight’
was a plea to myself to get it together, to start digging myself out of the
darkness I wasin, and it ended up helping me slowly dig back out. “Well, now that I
think about it, I guess I do remember writing this song,” Ackerman concludes. +++ Gregory Ackerman Still
Waiting Still Sept. 17th, 2021 (S/R)
Track Listing: 01. Intro 02. Think Straight (STREAM) 03. Full Grown 04. Peace of Mind 05. Good Song 06. Seasonal Living 07. Happy Phase 08. 2023 09. Mr. Moon 10. For Rob 11. Right Again 12. My Heart Goeth 13. All This Thinking
+++ Gregory
Ackerman | In The Press
“Bathed in Californian moonlight.” — PopMatters “I’ve had this song going around my head since I first
heard it.” — Folk Radio UK “Oscillates between giving hope to those who are
lovestruck and those who just need a breath of fresh air.” — Atwood Magazine “That unmistakable laid-back vibe of Southern
California.” — For Folk’s Sake “Hard to resist.” — Adobe and Teardrops +++ Gregory Ackerman | About
“I used to feel like I
was the only one that should have a say in my process,” says Los Angeles-based
multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Gregory Ackerman of his music.
“I’ve since discovered that both life and music get better the more people you
share them with.” The latest work that Ackerman
is sharing with the world is Still Waiting Still (out Sept.
17th, 2021), the follow-up to 2019’s “Stresslove EP”
(V2/Munich Records), and Ackerman’s first full-length since his
debut album And Friends in 2018. Still Waiting
Still was produced by Pierre
de Reeder of Rilo Kiley who adds touches of hypnotic mysticism on
top of the California summer sunset melodies, which beautifully combine with Ackerman’s
plainspoken philosophical lyrics and twisty, dexterous guitar to create what is
now Ackerman’s signature sound. The title of Still
Waiting Still’s first single seems to reference the evolution in Ackerman’s
thinking. “Full Grown,” originally a spare song written when he was only
20-years-old (Ackerman is
now 28), is given a full production makeover for inclusion on Still
Waiting Still. “For the rendition of ‘Full
Grown’ on Still Waiting Still, I had violinist Gabriel
Wheaton update it with a beautiful string arrangement. His contribution
resulted in an amazingly thematicversion of what I now consider to be
an ‘old classic’ from my catalog.” In addition to Wheaton,
new friends that Ackerman has invited to participate in creating Still
Waiting Still include other Los Angeles-area talents such as Grant
Milliken, Eva B. Ross,Shelby Gogreve, and Theo and
Mark Federonic. “These are all great
musicians that I met playing shows in Los Angeles,” Ackerman says. “This
new personnel, combined with my trusty foundation (Ackerman’s brother Eric,
close friend Keenan McDaniel, and friend and producer, de Reeder), helped Still
Waiting Still become a lively collection of brand-new material mixed
with songs that I’d written years ago.” Ackerman guesses that half of Still Waiting Still’s
13 songs were written while he was in college, shortly after he had begun to
write and record in earnest. His posts of the results on Soundcloud revealed
that listeners liked what they heard, and Ackerman was later signed on
an unsolicited demo to V2 –affiliated singer-songwriter offshoot, Munich
Records. “For this album I
wanted my past self and current self to align again as one fluid artist. All of
the songs on Still Waiting Still have an inherent grit or humor
to them, and were written with a youthful ironic moodiness which I relate to
once again as a 28-year-old.” “I wanted to bring
back the states of mind that I used to feel,” Ackerman continues, going
on to reference the album’s second upcoming single, the aptly titled, “Good
Song,” in which he sings about “dredging up feelings from the past,” while
trying to write a song about writing songs. “‘Good Song’ came
out of my frustration in feeling the pressure to make ‘likeable’ music,” Ackerman
confesses. “I was constantly feeling mostly self- imposed pressure to write
a ‘hit song,’ and I remember being able to finally take a step back from that
mindset and look at it humorously. Why not write a song about trying to write a
good song?” Still Waiting
Still contains 13 of ‘em
actually, and Ackerman is proud. “It’s not perfect,
just as nothing with a heartbeat ever is, but I hope that it represents some
part of me that perhaps I could not express any other way.” Still Waiting
Still, the second album by Gregory
Ackerman, arrives on Sept. 17th, 2021 preceded by the singles “Full
Grown” (June 18th), “Good Song” (July 23rd), and “Mr. Moon” (Aug
20th).
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