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.
 
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Gregory Ackerman as photographed by Nell T Sherman
 
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Gregory Ackerman | “Think Straight”

 

 [STREAM] | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_cvXr0J3qI

[STREAM] | https://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/gregory-ackerman-think-straight

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“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 Still Waiting 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 I started playing this circular guitar-pickin’ pattern that echoed the unending flow of worried thoughts in my mind.
 
“The song’s lyric, ‘It’s a tall tree that we must climb every day’ refers to waking up every morning feeling like I had to climb my way out of despair, feeling like every day was a losing battle with the depression I was fighting at the time. I felt like I wanted to disappear from the world.
 
“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 remember feeling like I was next. I felt like something was after me, and I had convinced myself that death comes 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 songs immediately.
 
“I had to leave a legacy when I left, so the album became a sort of retrospective, combining songs from college (the days of Tim and Rob) with my newest material. “Think Straight” was the first song we started recording in the studio because it was my most recently written song. I thought to myself, ‘If I die, at least I will have recorded my most recent song, and at least people will 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 new mindset against worry and fear. I thought that if I could at least imagine a different mindset, that maybe 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 think straight’ was a plea to myself to get it together, to start digging myself out of the darkness I was in, 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.
 
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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

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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
 
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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 thematic version 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).

Gregory Ackerman is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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Gregory Ackerman | Links
 
ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SPOTIFY : APPLE : BANDCAMP
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

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