New Music From Gregory Ackerman

“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.” As such, Ackerman asked Pierre de Reeder of Rilo Kiley to produce Still Waiting Still, his second LP and the follow-up to 2019’s de Reeder-helmed Stresslove EP. The seasoned indie rock veteran, who has produced and engineered records for everyone from M. Ward to Sia, adds touches of hypnotic mysticism on top of Ackerman’s California summer sunset melodies, which beautifully combine with plainspoken philosophical lyrics and twisty, dexterous guitar to create a signature sound.

Still Waiting Still is “not perfect,” according to Ackerman, “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.” Advance single “Good Song,” he confesses, came “out of my frustration in feeling the pressure to make ‘likeable’ music. 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?” The album will also include “Full Grown,” originally a spare song written when the 28-year-old was only 20, which has now been given a full production makeover for inclusion on Still Waiting Still.

“What we admire most… is the artist’s intimate vocal performance, which is genuinely combined with the best possible string arrangement to unleash the most of this indie folk gem. In just over three minutes, Ackerman is more than a dab hand to deliver a phenomenal wave of emotions full of lush harmonies and poignant lyrics.” -Last Day Deaf

RIYL: M. Ward, Jack Symes, The Eels, Damien Jurado, She & Him, Dawn Brothers, Kurt Vile

FCC Clean

Label: self-released