17 January 2015 (released)
17 January 2015
When Gavin DeGraw is put on the phone line from New York, he is sipping a morning coffee and transfixed by the building work going on next door. They are currently preparing the foundations for one of the city's tallest buildings. Music News puts it to him that every man would love to have a go on those big digging machines and do that job. "Yes, for perhaps one day", he honestly replies. Building his career has been the focus instead for DeGraw. And a pretty good one he has had too, so far.
Finest Hour is the first compilation of his career. So why now?
"I was quite reluctant at first. I asked myself if I was qualified to have a Best of. People I admire like Billy Joel, Elton John, they have a right to release collections of their hits because they have so many classics. I also never really understood before why artists released these albums before their career reached an end. You'd see bands with Greatest Hits 1 followed by Greatest Hits 2 - and I would be how can you have more than one. But the record company was looking at a way we could release one or two new songs we had and I basically didn't have enough new tracks for a whole album".
One of those new songs, is the barn storming Fire, which has been listed by Radio 2 and was one of the highlights of DeGraw's autumn tour dates.
"We knew as soon as we had finished Fire we had a potential hit. We were freaking out. It was like 'Holy Shit'. We started hugging and high-fiving. When you have a moment like that, it is amazing. I wanted a way to maximise the song. When you have a nugget like that, you want to get it out there. I wanted people to hear the song before it lost that new car smell, you know what I mean? We then started putting it in the set. The first time we performed it the audience loved it. The band came back stage and were like 'holy shit - did you see how much they loved it?'
Another new track is also included, You Got Me, which was written by Diane Warren and is from the soundtrack to Dolphin Tale 2.
"We wanted to make sure that for the fans there was something extra. We have also included the original version of In Love With A Girl. It was originally produced by Max Martin, but that version was never released. It's another way to give something new to the fans".
It's now 12 years since DeGraw released his debut album Chariot, and he has since released four more consistently good albums, so a Best Of is perhaps fair enough. But how did he choose what tracks to include?
"That was tough. There are perhaps not the ballads that I was known for early on in my career. The songs included are more uptempo, because I have realised that it's harder to make people smile than it is to make them cry. When I released Chariot I had dozens of songs to include and it was really difficult to leave some of them out. This was the same thing. I have skimmed large chunks of my career here but it's away to find new fans perhaps and bookmark where we are".
Finest Hour is released on Sony Music on the 2nd February.
