Gus Dapperton: "I'm forgiving everything that's happened in my past"

Back in 2017, Gus Dapperton (aka Brendan Rice) broke into the charts with 'I'm Just Snacking', with many a fan falling in love with his soppy 60s synth-pop tunes on debut LP 'Where Polly People Go to Read'. Indie kids hopped on his dreamboat going through a landscape of heartbreaks and highs. Quickly this green-haired, sci-fi-meets-Wes Anderson looking, New York singer-songwriter has become a human-size symbol of blurring lines and exceeding limitations for the new generation. Today, his iconic bowl cut went buzzcut and his collab with Benee on 'Supalonely' are TikTok viral, and his new album 'Orca' sees him confronting his old self and locking away his demons.

Gus speaks volumes on the often tuned out another side of 'making it' in music showbiz; the side that sometimes reminds more of a survival camp or a prison than any musician's ultimate fantasy. The image of a caged orca and its yearning for freedom became for Gus a recurring analogy for not understanding the mental state of something. "I'm relating that to humans and how depression makes you feel like you're sort of trapped in your own mind, in your head. It's supposed to be a metaphor for the consequences of trapping everything you're feeling and then finally getting out of your comfort zone," he shares.

"His name is Bren, don't forget," sings Gus in 'First Aid', the first single from the new album. His moniker, Gus Dapperton, rose from Brendan's need to break through his own mental barriers and have an outlet to be his most authentic self, with no compromises. "I'm not really missing my old self, but it's talking about how I was as a kid, how I am now and how I'm merging the two. Maybe I've trapped parts of my youth away in my head," he explains.