THE UNSEEN IN BETWEEN | STEVE GUNN

A really great record my friend John Smallman turned me on to. It has an original sound with echos of The Smiths, Donovan, War on Drugs and The Sadies. Gunn’s unique soothing vox really goes well with these indie twang and acoustic numbers.

Simon Vozick-Levinson at Rolling Stone writes: Gunn recorded The Unseen In Between at Brooklyn’s Strange Weather studio, working with a core crew of multi-instrumentalist James Elkington (who also produced the record), jazz drummer T.J. Mainani and Garnier on bass, after an intensive demoing period to ensure the songs were ready to go. “In the past, I was unsure of myself,” he says. “I wanted to be able to walk in there and play and sing, with a solid band behind me to push the music through.”

A serious Dylan fan, Gunn could hardly believe his luck when he met Garnier through the studio’s owner. “He said, ‘Maybe we’ll just try a day or two,'” Gunn recalls. “Then he ended up doing the whole record with us. He brought in these two basses — an upright and a Hofner. He picks up the upright and shows us that it says Charles Mingus on the side in script: ‘Yeah, this was Mingus’ bass.’ . . .