Gavin DeGraw

Gavin Degraw could have been just another pop artist, delivering catchy melodies and catchy choruses, delivering songs that are calibrated for radio and MTV. The hit that propelled him to the top of the charts, I Don't Want to Be, almost fits that description. Almost, because years later, it doesn't seem to have aged a bit. And for good reason, the artist has never had an affinity for music that is consumed and then forgotten. What he wants to do is create timeless, universal tracks that you never tire of listening to again and again. And clearly, this is a challenge he has met with flying colours.

Certainly, his choruses are catchy and his music invites you to dance with a smile on your face. But if you listen a little more closely to the songs of this piano prodigy, who studied at the Berklee College of Music, you quickly realise that underneath the shiny varnish are some real nuggets. Texts that speak of reality, positive or sad, with finesse and without fuss. Because this son of a prison guard and a nurse who grew up in the Catskills of New York State knows what he is talking about. Life, the real thing, the one that is as rough as it is cheerful, as unexpected as it is fiery, is something he has been around since he was a child.

Perhaps that's why his songs speak to everyone, why they connect people from so many different worlds around a pop that is underlined by a touch of soul, folk or country. "I want them to enjoy the therapy of music. I want them to feel good," is how the artist talks about his audience. And even if his lyrics sometimes describe serious subjects, his melodies are comforting.  A positive energy that can be felt 1000 times over when he takes to the stage. Behind his piano or on the guitar, you don't need to be a mentalist to understand that he is happy to be there to give his audience raw emotions and an unstoppable joie de vivre.