“You're a friend I used to know, but you still lean against my walls”

Lamplight, 2013

"What did you eat for breakfast?"

"You've gotta test the mic like they do on NPR," Holden Jaffe, founder of the New York City band, Del Water Gap, joked as I began recording our conversation in an empty Dunkin' Donuts on Locust Street. It was the perfect setting for our laid-back interview, one that I've been waiting so long to write about. The five of us — Holden, drummer Charlie Schlinkert, bassist Will Evans, Dylan and I — laughed quietly at our amateur recording setup and the unexpected events from the weekend that brought us together tonight.

"This is our first time actually playing Philadelphia," Holden told us, and Dylan and I were more than happy to have welcomed them to the City of Brotherly Love.

Del Water Gap set up a show on January 29th with a rising franchise, Sofar Sounds, who make it a goal to host small shows in unconventional locations. Tonight, we found ourselves jamming in &Pizza, a Snap-esque restaurant with a sweet atmosphere and mellow crowd. But before the show Sunday, the band played some house shows after reaching out to Dylan on Instagram and asking where the best spot to put on a gig would be.

"We played PiLam on Friday," Holden said, talking about the most non-frat frat house in University City that is also a known underground venue. "It was a good night. The crowd was really into it, there were a few people who knew us and were singing along, so that's always rewarding. It was good energy. It's cool playing places where there's a scene, the audience is very attentive. It's nice to get a change of scenery from New York."

That's one thing we love about Philly music too. From the smallest basement shows to the biggest arenas, the fans here are the most enthusiastic and welcoming we've ever seen.

"I am so in love with her, but I am so unhappy"

Vanessa, 2017

So we jumped right into who Del Water Gap is. Who are these people we were sitting with? By the end of the night, I wanted to know them, both as individuals and as a band.

Charlie started us off:

"I grew up playing jazz drums, and my brothers had this band called Whiskey Tree and they'd let me practice on their drum set. In third grade my parents finally bought me a kit of my own, and later on I started taking lessons. My teacher had this super old-fashioned CD copier, and he'd make copies of classic albums for me — like anything from Miles Davis to Marvin Gaye — "

"Sugar Ray," Holden cut in, laughing quietly.

"Well, clearly not all classic albums. But he'd transcribe drum charts for me and we'd record them together and I loved it. So from there I figured I'd go to college for jazz drums, but when I got to NYU I didn't really feel at home in the program. I actually like what Holden was studying better, music recording at Tisch since I'd already had kind of a background in it.”

At this, Holden looked up and smirked, “But tell them what happened when you showed up to our first practice.”

Charlie gave a quick self-deprecating laugh and continued, “I’m eighteen years old and hungover for probably the first time in my life, and there’s this box of donuts on the table, so I grab one and somehow smear it all over my cymbal case. I don’t even know. You guys probably thought I was a mess.”

“I’ll never forget that,” Holden said, and I could so easily picture this group of guys, young and messy and unsure of what exactly they were about to get themselves into, but so completely sure that they’d love every second of it.

“So what about you, Will?”

Quietly sitting on the end, attentively listening and laughing, Will then sat up a little straighter when Dylan turned the focus onto him. “I grew up in Kansas, and started playing music probably around fourteen. My choir teacher gave me private voice lessons for a few years; he sang at The Met in New York. So we studied operatic singing, mostly the classical styles. When he went to teach at NYU, he asked if I’d come with him. So that’s when I met Holden freshman year, pretty early on. I remember it was during a hurricane and we were trapped in the dorm.”

The circumstances that brought the three of them together were both so uniquely strange that, hearing their stories, it only seemed right to me that of course they had to be friends. I love watching bands interact with each other, because they have this bond that almost surpasses friendship and reaches this point of soulful understanding. Everyone has to be in sync with each other, and these guys omit exactly that vibe. As quiet as they were, just sitting there and talking with us and so similar in their mannerisms, I could feel this deep relationship between the three of them.

Del Water Gap are joined by a new member, incredibly enthusiastic and warm Kit Conway, who met Holden in 2014 when he was a freshman at NYU.

“Holden and I got to know each other in a musicianship class called Classic Tracks of the 60’s and 70’s, where we pretty much spent a semester playing oldies together. He asked me to join the guys on a weekend tour around the northeast and I jumped at the opportunity. It was my first experience riding around in a smelly old car with a band and I loved every second of it... we've been playing together since. Well, almost — last winter I was living in Tokyo for a few months and had to voice my support from across the pacific but I think they survived ok without me.”

Kit is the youngest of the group, but he’s experienced in the music industry well beyond his years, and with a little help from the other guys in Del Water Gap, he’s learned what it means to be a musician, not just a player.

“Playing in Del Water Gap has been tremendously educational for me. Working with Holden was like DIY Band Bootcamp, especially for the first year. How do you book a night in NYC? What's the best way to promote a show? Stuff like that. But then with Charlie and Will I learned how to be a player, musically. I grew up playing guitar as accompaniment to my singing, but working with this rhythm section helped me understand how to use your instrument as part of a song's greater framework. Not simply strumming on top of the band but locking in with the pulse of the song. It's completely different headspace. And I'm totally indebted to those two, I might've known how to play a guitar but they really taught me how to be a guitarist.”

Kit, like most musicians, has a side project that he told me about as well, and I was sure to look up his other band because I had a feeling they’d be great.

“Right now I'm a senior at NYU and I'm leading my own band, Stello. I'm in the last stages of an album right now, trying to make something like the ideal soundtrack for a late night stroll through the city. In the past few years I've become more of a nighthawk, maybe because Manhattan has so many more outlets for that type of folk. It's nice making music to fit in that somber, pretty world.”

“Airplanes can take you to Paris or Rome, but you’ll still be my own”

Be My Own, 2014

On their Bandcamp, Del Water Gap have two EP’s, Del Water Gap (2012) and Sleeping (2014). They are currently in the process of releasing a new LP, and the two singles we’ve already heard off of it, “Vanessa” and “High Tops,” left us wanting so much more. While we were listening, we noticed some pretty significant (good) differences from the old songs. “Vanessa” and “High Tops,” sound fuller, more produced, and ultimately more put-together. I’m a huge fan of their relaxed acoustic sound, but it’s very evident that these guys have mastered the recording process.

“The main difference from this time and last time is that we kind of know more of what we're doing. It wasa lot of stabbing in the dark during the first recording,” Holden laughed, because I guess it really was as simple an answer as that.

Dylan and I both agreed, “That’s how you learn.”

Holden continued: “Yeah it was good, I went to this recording school called Clive Davis, where everyone gets to this point where they're good enough to record, and then they're like ‘Well, time to make a record.’ So we did that.”

“We'd also been playing together as a group for the appropriate amount of time to put something out, so that was kind of pushing us as well,” Charlie said.

“I think what could have been different was asking for help. It really is a lot of moving pieces, just engineering. We finished a lot of it at Charlie's house, which was kind of maddening.”

“Probably doesn't hurt to mention that I had just gotten my wisdom teeth out as well,” Charlie reminded them, which elicited both laughs and groans from around the table.

Holden pulled us back in with the remainder of the first album’s recording process: “So we put that out and it was fine, we all liked it, but we got much better the next couple years just from playing more. We played New York a ton, and we were playing a whole new repertoire of songs. I don't even remember how it came about, but we decided to do this new record with a guy called Graham who I knew growing up. He's got this sort of converted carriage house-studio in the town I grew up in. And yeah — from there we bounced around studios in New York and brought in a lot of musician friends to play on it with us.”

One thing that isn’t as noticeable to us as listeners, but is most definitely key to the band is the bond that came out of spending so much time working together, Charlie and Will specifically: “What was noticeably different for me was that my relationship with Will was more developed, both musically and personally while recording. During this one song we actually recorded the drums without the bass first, which is like a Cardinal Sin for us now. Will and I, and the character of the drums and bass together, is very central to our sound. By the second album, Will and I were really tight. Small motivation also came from the fact that we were now paying for studio time. So Will and I would get in there, we'd have three days, and Holden would be practicing scratch guitar in the bathroom so we'd all be ready to just go and get it done.”

Holden smiled, “And it came out fucking great.”

“Just knowing a structure and being well-rehearsed just made everyone feel better,” Will added, and that’s something I can totally attest to as well. Playing with other people can be frustrating, as I’ve learned from my own personal experiences, unless everyone is on the same page and has the same end goal. To see bands that I enjoy be so attuned to each other is really interesting for me to watch, and I appreciate how seriously they take their work.

“And if you ever grow old, I will hold you in my hands and tell you just how beautiful you are”

In The Yard, 2013

One thing that always intrigues me about up-and-coming bands is how they actually get their name out there. Del Water Gap has done a pretty great job of managing their own projects, with Holden taking the wheel most of the time. He reached out to us before coming to Philly to book some small shows, and we were surprised it wasn’t a band manager who spoke with us instead. So how does he do it?

“Management is a constantly changing role. We've had people in the past who have helped us out. There's the two sides of managing a project: the administration, managerial stuff, and there's the industry side of it. Keeping everything running is a lot of work but it's totally doable. I think we've been lucky to be part of a scene with a lot of people who help us out. We've had lots of different people on board at various times. Ultimately, you want to have someone who can help, but it's also good to realize if your workload is manageable, you can get it done.”

So with that in mind, we wanted to know where they think they’ll be in the next few years. Do they feel something big approaching?

“I think we're all pretty happy with where we are right now, we try not to think of ‘The Next Big Thing,’ but we set realistic short-term goals. We’re gracious when opportunities happen and end up working well for us.The more time you spend in music and in a scene where bands constantly become ‘The Next Big Thing,’ you realize how little control you actually have. Your see bands getting in and out of deals, or getting the wrong deal, and it just tires you so quickly. It's comforting to know that it's sort of out of your control, but we're good at doing our part and making things work on our end,” Holden said.

“I used to see you on the sidewalk, standing in you High Tops, ruining your pretty lungs with your cigarette smoke”

High Tops, 2017

After our hangout in Dunkin' Donuts, we headed back to &Pizza for Del Water Gap’s set. I never thought I’d actually get to see these guys live, but this spur of the moment show was one of my favorites I’ve ever seen. Go listen to their recordings, and then go see them live — there is no difference. They might even be better listening to them in person. Even if I was the only one in the whole place singing along, I’m happy if it made them feel welcome in Philadelphia. This interview was one of my favorites to host as well as write, and I hope I’ve gotten across just how genuinely kind and talented people Holden, Charlie, Kit, and Will are. We hope to see them back in Philly this spring.

To keep up with Del Water Gap, you can follow their Instagram, Like them on Facebook, stream them on Spotify, and download tracks from their Bandcamp.

Check out our album from their Sofar Sounds set here.

An Intimate Evening With Del Water Gap