Dewy Harmonies and Homespun Escapism with Still Woozy

The signature sound that Sven Gamsky creates as Still Woozy is made in effort to drown out the noise of an overwhelming world while making you feel like the music is part of everything around you. Still Woozy’s singles often approached a dynamic feeling of surrealist compositions that “take you out of your body”, as described by Gamsky. His debut album If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is, transpires a similar effect as his homemade sound brings comfort to the listener while the themes that arise throughout the album touch on heavier subject matters. Which is also a very comforting detail; to see an artist talking about mental health awareness and the realities of being human.

The beginnings of Still Woozy originated in the Bay Area surrounded by a family of doctors and nurses, however Sven found an interest in writing music. In middle school, he started writing songs that he notes now as “really cringy”, but even throughout his early days of creating music - his songwriting process is quite similar to now. He stayed in a room alone, plucked out a few chords and used music as a way of understanding the inner-workings of life. Still Woozy has a significant sound to his production style and this is due to Sven’s experimentation with sound after breaking up with his math-rock band.

“I found this pedal, put my guitar through it and I found that when I recorded it in a certain way it would just feel like this blanket sort of thing. I think that was the moment where I hadn’t really heard that before and I wanted to put that out there,” Sven says regarding his unique sound across his discography.

As this is Sven’s debut album after a successful beginning with singles such as “Window” (2019), “Goodie Bag” (2017) and his 2019 EP Lately - he speaks on how his album represents him as an artist now.

“It represents the spectrum of the stuff that I want to pursue more. There’s just so many things that I want to try and there’s just not enough time,” Sven begins. “I don’t want to be put in a box, I just want to keep going and there’s too many influences out in the world for me to be making only one kind of music.”

Co-produced with Lars Stalfors, the album features Sven on guitar, bass, synth, and keys while handling all programming. Usually Sven would be working on production all on his own, however, here he had the helpful hand of his friend Lars for this project.

“My brain is not very organized and it can be hard for me to get stuff done. He just kept me organized, which was really nice and something I didn’t know I needed. We would hang out everyday in an AirBnB that was filled with instruments. We would just talk for hours and just process, it’s so important to process with people especially when you’re alone, you’re just in this fishbowl,” Sven says.

Many of the songs on Still Woozy’s If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is features critical arguments of what it’s like to be stuck in your head while life continues on around you. Each song feels hand spun and arranged to confront those feelings directly. Unpublished had the opportunity to ask Sven about how he discovered this balance in the creative process of the album - discovering his sound of surrealist compositions mixed with heavy thematic lyrical arrangements.

“I think it’s important because it’s kind of like a representation of how I feel in general. There’s always moments where you feel good and there’s moments where you feel like shit. I wanted to have both of those. A lot of the time when I make music, I make it from this place of dealing with my own turbulent emotions,” Sven shares. “It’s this weird dichotomy, having both of those elements be present in creation.”

Listening to an artist like Still Woozy, whose music takes you away from everything around you for a few moments, truly does make you feel like you are not alone. With the dreamy synth sounds matched with the golden haze of Gamsky’s voice, Still Woozy’s project acts as a buffer of warmth for listeners. Still Woozy’s project incorporates many easter eggs of sound bits full of energy and to Sven “easter eggs are like ear candy”.

“If there are people that are struggling, I hope they can find solace in this album,” Sven begins. “The more you take yourself less seriously, the better it is for your mental health.”

What makes the music industry so interesting is that everything is influenced by something else. A small butterfly effect tends to make music even more poetic and beautiful than it already is. While we were in discussion of the track “Drake”, Sven continued to tell us a story of how he was inspired to create a dreamy melody at the forefront of the song.

”It was named for Pete Drake… he has a song called ‘Forever’. It’s this really beautiful, old 50s song and it seemed like 6/8 which had this sort of swing feel. I just wanted to do a song in a different time signature for a long time and he did that, and it was kind of ‘mo-towny’. It’s just super dreamy - such a beautiful song, I just wanted to try to capture that feeling,” Sven continues on his track “Drake”.

Still Woozy is set to share his detailed body of work while touring in North America and Europe beginning this Fall. Since it feels like forever since we’ve been able to see a full stadium of smiling faces and live music shuffling through our ears, Sven touches on his most anticipated feelings regarding heading back on the road.

“I’m looking forward to the songs that have been away from everyone, just to bring them to people and see how everyone reacts to it. I’m curious to see the moments in the songs that people respond to the most. You can write and it will be interpreted in all these other ways - then you see it live; the way people respond to this lyric or this moment”, Sven shares.

The Portland artist has created his own surrealist world, incorporating a collection of lush arrangements that offer a way to quiet the noise of the overwhelming world. When he is actively creating music for himself and for others, Sven wants you to feel like the music is part of everything around you.