Gavin Castleton { HOME } An Album Designed To Heal Heartbreak

Free Music For You - A Sampling of Hit Songs

The Great White Whale DSurfNA 3rd Time 2038 You Should Sleep Hymn 2: Women's Care in E Flat Major Dkembe Boombwembwe The Wedding Pon Pon The American Trilogy pt.3: Joe Returns from the Front 90 East Builder The Heart Transplant You Can Afford

Window 23 7" (Stateless/Gavin Castleton)
Worlds (by Gavin's adventure rock trio Ebu Gogo)
Of Love and Ambition (by Gavin's band One Drop) (2008)
A Bullet, A Lever, A Key (2007)
For the Love of Pete (2007)
Hospital Hymns EP (2007)
Chase Scenes 1-14 (by Ebu Gogo)
Grace Land (2006)
FortNightShift EP (2005)
Maximum Unicorn (by Gavin's band Gruvis Malt) (2005)
Dark Age (2004)
Hypotenuse (2004)
Simon (by Gruvis Malt) (2003)

For HOME specific videos you can stay here, but you have to go explore the album.

For live performances, covers and b-sides check out the following:

Gavin Castleton Nothing Compares 2 U cover
Gavin Castleton footage on Youtube
Gavin Castleton footage on Vimeo
Gavin Castleton footage on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic

The Great Consolidation - 5 Recent Posts from Gavin Castleton's Blog

For Civilians:

For Industry Folk:

Press Quotes

Promotional Photos

"Home" one sheet (PDF)

"Home is a bizarrely intriguing prog-pop album that only works because of Castleton's spectacular voice. If you want to be challenged while still enjoying pop songs, this disc's the way to go."
- Alternative Press

"Coffeelocks is a uber cute exchange that will more than likely be shared over dozens of cups of coffee throughout the years."
- Filtermagazine.com

"Castleton has a tremendous gift for fashioning grand cinematic songs that swell with ambitious prose"
- Portland Mercury

"If anybody’s making records like this anymore, they’re not making them as good as Gavin Castleton."
- Amplifeir Magazine

"His answers only provoke more questions. Some of them leave you wondering if he’s telling the truth and drip with sarcasm; others are thoughtful and stimulating that you want him to keep ranting - mining for truth in the artistic tunnels of his mind. I should have known Gavin Castleton would be this affecting to converse with. His own discs involve themes and concepts most artists couldn’t even reach for - the most recent of which, A Bullet, A Lever, A Key involves telling his life story backwards from death in 2054 to present day."
- Stereosubversion.com

“Cyrus Leddy and Gavin Castleton's Grace Land shocks and amuses listeners by giving a blue-collar eccentric not only a podium but an entire orchestra to punctuate his rolling narrative...”
– NPR.com

"Genius is tricky-reward it and it bloats; starve it and it thrives. Thankfully, Rhode Island's hardest working composer/singer/writer/producer Gavin Castleton is ravenous, even after 12 years of masterminding Providence's inimitable Grüvis Malt."
- Filter Magazine

"Wow. Lotsa talent here. Gavin Castleton is one of the more interesting artists we've come across in a while.”
– Talent Filter

“An artist who is earnest and serious with their work, confident, yet humble in approach and presentation to the public, and offers true substance, is an exhilarating find. Such is the case of Gavin Castleton.”
– Tiny Mix Tapes

“Castleton’s ability to write for all tastes, in all styles, is what makes him so broadly digestible”
- Providence Phoenix

"In a year that has seen some standout albums from well known artists, Home manages to rise above the others as the-little-album-that-could, to what is without question the best musical output of the year thus far."
- Sputnik Music

Promotional photos taken for the album HOME.

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Gavin Castleton began making music at the age of three as a classically trained pianist

At fourteen he began studying jazz with David Azarian. At fifteen he formed his first band, "Subgenius," and played his first live show (a friend's birthday party). Shortly thereafter he and some friends formed "futurock" band Gruvis Malt, and from 1995 to 2004 they toured the US and released nine recordings (one with Warner subsidiary Lakeshore Records, and the other eight independently). When Gruvis Malt stopped touring in 2004, Gavin embarked on a solo career, releasing four full-length records, three EPs, and touring the US several times in just three years.

Somewhere in there he founded action-adventure rock trio Ebu Gogo with Justin Abene and Brendan Bell (also of Gruvis Malt) and doubled his itinerary with shows to support the two full-length Ebu Gogo albums self-released in 2007 and 2008. He has produced a handful of records by other artists, made numerous guest appearances on records both foreign and domestic (he recently debuted in the UK with his collaboration with IK7 recording artist Stateless, the 7" inch “Window 23/Great White Whale”), and tinkered with various remixes (most recently, Myspace recording artist Meiko).

He's won Best Electronica/DJ Act three years in a row in the Providence Phoenix, where he lived until late 2008 when he relocated to Portland, OR. In February of 2009, LA-based indie label Five One Inc. released Gavin's newest opus, Home. The single "Coffeelocks" enjoyed regular rotation on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, as well as several features web-wide. Gavin is currently on tour to get the word out about his latest EP, Random Anthems.

Gavin Castleton - Home (CD)
Gavin Castleton - Coffeelocks Single (w/ Shell produced by Zach Lipkins) (MP3)
Meiko - Heard It All Before Remix (MP3)
Wallpaper - T-Rex Remix (MP3)
Gavin Castleton - Random Anthems EP (MP3)
Gavin Castleton - Covers (limited edition CDR)

Gavin Castleton - Unparallel Rabbits Single (w/ Since 1968 Overclock Orchestra Remix) (mp3)
Stateless feat. Gavin Castleton - Window 23/The Great White Whale 7" (Vinyl)
Ebu Gogo - Worlds (CD)
One Drop - Of Love and Ambition (CD)

Gavin Castleton - For the Love of Pete (CD)
Gavin Castleton - A Bullet, A Lever, A Key EP (CD)
Meiko - Habit Remix (MP3)
Meiko - Haunt Remix (MP3)
Gavin Castleton - Hospital Hymns EP (CD)

Gavin Castleton & Cyrus Leddy - Grace Land (CD)
Ebu Gogo - Chase Scenes 1-14 (CDR)

Vismal - Volume Zero: Cover Girls (CDR)
Gruvis Malt - Maximum Unicorn (CD)
Ryan McCalmon - Come Home (CD)
Andrew Brown -Communal Abuse remix (MP3)
Sage Francis - Road Tested (CD)
Jonny Classic & The Classic Johns - Your New Favorite Record (CD)
Monty - The Red Shift EP (CD)
Johnny Bass - I Wish You Could Love Me (MP3)
Gavin Castleton / One Drop - FortNightShift EP (CD)
Madjkut - The Flint (CD)

Gavin Castleton - Dark Age (CD)
Gavin Castleton - Hypotenuse (CD)
Gruvis Malt - Simon (CD)

Sage Francis - Dead Poet Live Album (CD)
Vismal - Volume 1: A Correspondence Course in Best Friendship (CDR)

Gruvis Malt - ...With the Spirit of a Traffic Jam (CD)
Gruvis Malt - Promotional Interactive CD #2 (CD)
Gruvis Malt - Promotional Interactive CD #1 (CD)
Brandon Clemmens - The Inconvincible (CD)
Ethan - Principia EP (CD)

Keith Carini - Untitled (NEVER RELEASED)
Grüvis Malt - 3 Radio hits demo (CD)
Locale AM - Sounds of Spring (CD)

Gruvis Malt - Backout Smiling EP (CD)

1999 - Flint - One Degree EP (CD)
Gruvis Malt - Sound Soldiers (CD)

Gruvis Malt - Cromagnetic (CD)

Gruvis Malt - Fetus EP (Cassette tape)

Gruvis Malt - Breakfast All Day (cassette tape)
West Coast Groove satellite - Funkin' Go Nuts (cassette tape)
West Coast Groove Satellite - self titled (cassette tape)

Gruvis Malt - Emiquis Squerve Demo (cassette tape)
Subgenius - self titled (cassette tape)

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Home is about healing from massive heartbreak

In August of 2006 my relationship of six years was in shambles. My girlfriend had moved out of our house in Lincoln, RI a few months prior. Things had been unraveling for a year, and we finally agreed to try life outside of each other. I was calm when I told her I wanted to write an opera about our relationship and wanted her to write the dialogue for her character. I'd hoped to deliver an accurate and objective depiction of our relationship from beginning to end. In September I left for what would be an emotionally-charged month-long tour with Facing New York. On that tour I recorded snippets and sketches of melodies and rhythms for the first few songs of Home on a digital dictaphone. When I returned to RI, the breakup was blurry. We were together again and not together. I suffered frequent panic attacks. In early 2007 I began arranging the instrumentals for "Bugguts," "Coffeelocks," "Warpaint," and "Stampete." By spring I had begun the arduous task of grafting our jointly-written lyrics to those instrumentals.

Visit the Video section for more moving images.

Remaining friends throughout the breakup process proved impossible. As she drifted away, my behavior grew more and more erratic; I could not weather or share her enthusiasm for this new single life. By the end of summer we weren't talking and lyrical collaboration was out of the question. I spent all my time as a recluse in that house in the woods, meticulously drafting the instrumentals for Home while its narrative grew darker and darker. When I realized she had a new romantic interest, the love story metamorphosed to a horror movie. I wrote lyrics for "Layers," "Unparallel Rabbits," while picking through the litany of mistakes I'd made in our relationship - I was on a mission to improve myself.
I prepared demos for nine of the songs and began rehearsing a rhythm section. I was stabilizing; dating and working steadily. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, I tracked drums, bass, guitar, and organ with Rob Pemberton in Providence. On Christmas Eve my ex showed up unannounced at the house and I destabilized. I left Lumas with Erin J. Muir and flew out to Portland, OR to be with family.

I flew back to the east coast in the summer of 2008 to track African percussion, flute, french horn, bari and tenor sax, violin, viola, cello, and double bass with Rob Pemberton. Being back in that house and headspace was clearly afflicting - I began to hallucinate about the ladybugs that were infesting the house. In June, I threw away most of my belongings and left Rhode Island for good. Our departure was delayed due to a blown head gasket (everything seemed as if it was conspiring to keep us there) - but the minute it was fixed I filled the car with my few remaining belongings (clothes, recording gear, computer) and left.
We drove 39 hours across the country (through a tornado even) to Albany, OR, where I spent 18 days tracking grand piano and editing all the recordings in a remote room below my aunt's house. I lost 15 lbs and spent very little money. In June, I flew back to the east coast for a tour with Ebu Gogo. When the tour was over I stayed at Rob's house for a month, tracking vocals and mixing the album. Lauren Coleman flew out from California for five days to record the female lead parts. Brian Cass also joined us to help share the production work load.

I was still writing lyrics to "Beetlemeet," "The Human Torch," and "Credits" during the final week of mixing. The message - the function of the album had shifted so many times throughout the last two years that I was struggling to clarify it. The end of the album finally revealed itself to me one morning in that last week when I woke up on the studio couch to our duet at the end of Warpaint. I wrote "Credits" that morning. "The Human Torch" was the most stubborn --- I didn't finish the last lyric until the final morning of mixing, and I couldn't get a good take for hours, I was a tearful mess.

We mixed and remixed the album right up until a few hours before the mastering date (which we'd rescheduled several times) at Battery Studios NYC on July 10th. I invited my ex (who I hadn't seen since Christmas) to the studio to listen to the album, and she came. I'd never heard it all the way through. I thought it would be the happiest hour in the whole process for me, but it surely wasn't.

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