Today, we’re thrilled to interview Brooklyn-based artist Graham Price Gift Shop who has recently released their album, Love is Whys. It’s a luminous and deeply human ten-track collection that knits together nostalgia, humour and sincerity. Recorded at Marcata Studios with producer Kevin McMahon, the record blends vintage pop warmth with earthy indie-folk melodies and lofi rock flourishes. The result is a timeless atmosphere that sits somewhere between The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Foxygen and Tele Novella. Moreover, that unadorned intimacy is enhanced by guest contributions from Steve Tarkington and Alexx Becker. Alongside the dreamy sonic textures, Love is Whys explores the many contradictions of love from tender simplicity to surreal realisations to healing power to potential destruction. For On The Record, we sat down with Graham Price Gift Shop to discuss embracing imperfection, finding beauty in the everyday and this profoundly moving new album.
Welcome to Unrecorded! For those who aren’t already familiar with Graham Price Gift Shop, can you introduce yourselves?
Sure; Graham Price Gift Shop is a project I (Graham Price Bishop) started after a few of my first musical projects (the señors of marseille and HolidayHoliday) ended. I write and record in Brooklyn, NY. I love catchy melodies, beautiful harmonies, beats that make you wanna dance, and lyrics that are thoughtful, funny/weird, and have heart. I try to make music that has these qualities, too. Sometimes, I think I succeed… and, other times, I fail miserably! Haha.
Your album title Love Is Whys is playfully philosophical, how does that phrase relate to the album’s themes?
I was watching a documentary about Mr Rogers and thought he was a pretty cool guy. In that documentary, he said something to the effect of, “Love is at the root of everything… Love or the lack of it.” I thought that was so profound and beautiful and sad. Around the same time, I had read James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” and he kept emphasizing how powerful and radical love is… and how it is one of the only ways to respond to humanity’s most vile expressions (racism, bigotry, prejudice).
Shortly after, I was jamming on a song (Cherish Love, on this album) and was singing/repeating, “Love is why.” I then thought, “love is wise” and “love is whys” is pretty hilarious, and cool, and meaningful. So I went with it and tried to make an album around that theme, thinking about how love is so powerful and wonderful, but is also used by some people in positions of power (religious leaders, politicians, etc) to get people to do and think some really unkind, unloving things. And how, in response to those unkind, unloving things, one must find ways to love more… despite that being so hard to do.
What’s the significance of your father’s music in the song ‘Lonely Too’?
My dad, Bart Bishop, was a great songwriter and music maker. As a kid, he’d often sing around the house as he was thinking about and writing songs… Lots of those ideas were just ideas and never ended up being full songs. After he died, one song fragment just kept popping back up in my mind over the years. It was: “Thought you were timeless, never paid the price for love… little heartbreaker, but now you’re all alone. After all the love you’ve taken, maybe now you can be lonely, too.”
I never forgot the melody he sang over it, but also never heard a full version of the song or learned it from him. I just remember it being both happy/silly and sad. So I decided to write a song that filled out his initial idea with other words and parts and tried to make my version of it. I would love to know what he thinks of what I made.
The tragedy of homelessness is at the centre of the track ‘Home’, what are your hoping listeners will learn from this?
I would love for us all to try and relate to each other more: to realize that, whether we have millions or only pennies, we all want the same basic feelings, one of which is to feel home.
For background, I wrote “Home” while I was visiting my mom in California and we drove through an area where many people were living in tents. I began thinking about what it must feel like to miss looking at the stars and how it would feel to instead see “streetlights as stars” and to be “scared in the bed where you sleep at night.” I then began thinking about how it is a universal feeling to want to feel home and how some of us, even though we DO have houses to go to, still don’t feel home. The idea struck me as both powerful and simple. It’s such a relatable idea and if we spent more time relating to people who don’t have homes, maybe we would care more about them and do more to support them.
How did you find that balance between vintage and contemporary sounds, particularly with those classic pop textures and lofi warmth?
That’s a very kind way to characterize the sound of my album. Thanks. 🙂
I think if music sounds nice and has a certain kind of heart, I’ll usually like it. That might mean sugary pop and catchy, dancey tunes or really shitty sounding lo-fi records and demos.
I think that contradiction in the sounds and music that I love automatically comes out in the music I make no matter what I do or how hard I try to stop it. For instance, I tend to want to leave in takes or sounds that others might cut out because they don’t “sound perfect” or sound too lo-fi or sloppy, but then in the next breath or part of the song, I’ll want to make a rich, textured harmony or a catchy hook or use a poppy synth sound. I really don’t know if I found the right balance, but I like what I made and I hope others feel like it’s the right combination of messed up and beautiful.
Did experimentation with synths expand or change your sonic identity compared to your earlier, more folky work?
Definitely! I started playing with synths a lot more during this album. The first demos and ideas were all written on guitar and I kept recording stuff and throwing it away/thinking it sucked. It was that way for almost a year. Once I sat down at the synth and started playing those same songs there, though… that’s really when the sound started to come together and I started to think I could make a nice sounding record.
The album was also mastered on a tape machine, so do you feel that analog warmth affects the final feel of the record?
For sure! Especially now that people can just ask AI to make a pop song in a few seconds, that genuine analog warmth is even more special. I love it.
Also, Kevin McMahon, at Marcata studios, is a true wizard. He has a rare combination of qualities. On the one hand, he is very open to any sonic idea and will work with whatever you give him, whether it is the most perfectly recorded track or a barely audible voice memo. On the other hand, he is an exacting perfectionist and technician with a very critical eye and will argue with you for hours, or even days, about stuff if he thinks you’re wrong about a sonic choice. It’s a cool way of being. (He has actually worked with me on almost every full length album I have put out with every project I’ve released.)
Kevin worked tirelessly to craft a sound with me and, coincidentally, had just driven up to Bob Ludwig’s mastering studio in Maine (I think it was Maine, but I’m not sure!!) to buy some of his tape machines (which, if you don’t know Bob, he mastered so many of the great albums and is a sonic genius!). So I, luckily, got to benefit from Kevin’s wisdom and the legacy of a really cool tape machine.
Do you think the inclusion of other artists, like Steve Tarkington and your fiancée Alexx Becker, also shaped the album?
No doubt. Steve and Alex (credited as Alexx on the album because we thought that sounded pretty sexy and funny) were there with me through the entire recording process. Not only did they sing and play on many songs, but they also were always just talking with me about my demos and dumb ideas and lyrics and the process. I couldn’t have made the record without their contributions and am so thankful for what they brought to the album.
What was the most surprising or transformative moment for you during the creation of Love is Whys?
Actually, I think the most surprising and transformative moment for me was meeting Alex and, over the course of recording the album, falling in love and ultimately getting engaged. I think it brought a lightness to the album. Even though I had written almost all of the songs before we met, I recorded them as we were getting to know each other and falling in love. So, even though many of the songs are serious, there is a silliness and a playfulness that I hear in the recordings… I think that has to do with Alex and her presence in my life.
Following the release of your album, what will be next on the horizon for you?
I am playing shows in Brooklyn with the hope of playing across the US and world, if that is in the cards. My next immediate goals are to make videos for “Lonely Too” and “Home.” I’m also always writing new stuff and am planning on getting back in the studio again in the beginning of November. I have a bunch more song ideas and stuff that I’d love to make soon!
You can also find album track ‘Lonely Too’ in our Folk This Way playlist.
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