Tara FinleyWith over 5-and-a-half million Spotify listeners and counting, Sven Gamsky aka Still Woozy has found his musical talents awakened like never before.
Like many of us, COVID affected Still Woozy’s 2020 plans. He had an entire tour mapped out and was excited to get some face time with his fans. Unfortunately, like most things nowadays, it had to be canceled.
“Honestly, COVID canceling that tour was the best thing to ever happen to the album actually coming into existence,” he admits, “because that allowed me to really double down on it and figure it out – I didn’t even know at that time that I wanted to make an album, before COVID. It was because I had all that time to reflect and had all that time to work on music that [the album] really came to be in the first place.”
Titled If This Isn’t Nice, I Don’t Know What Is, Still Woozy was able to celebrate his release recently, which is where he and the Rockstar Experience podcast host Ryan Leutz first met face to face.
“The album is very nice, very easy on the ears,” praises Ryan on this week’s episode of the podcast. But we wonder, where did the title come from?
Still Woozy (Photo by Vince Aung)
“It’s a Kurt Vonnegut quote,” answers Still Woozy. “I love reading and he’s one of my favorite authors. He’s got a really dry sense of humor and his general philosophy on life is something I resonate with.”
According to Woozy, Kurt Vonnegut wrote the phrase, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is,” as a suggestion to acknowledge the moments that are good in your life. “Which is something that I kind of struggle with,” explains Still Woozy.
“Sometimes you just have to acknowledge these little moments in life that are good, then [as Vonnegut suggests] you are supposed to say this to yourself – if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is – as a way of slowing down and acknowledging yourself and acknowledging those good moments,” he continues. “You know the way we are, we are always looking inward and are self-critical, too deep in our own anxiety to realize that sometimes there is good shit that’s happening.”
Possibly one of the most down-to-earth and relatable messages we’ve heard an artist emote, it’s an especially poignant instruction after the past year and a half.
When creating the album, it was important to Still Woozy to capture a certain warmth – finding a sound that has a certain energy and ubiquitous threshold for the artist’s cultivated vibe.
With a unique and genre-bending sound (that some have called “psychedelic bedroom pop”), his musical inspirations are wide and varied. “There’s too many,” Still Woozy laughs. “There is a thread between them all and it’s a similar kind of energy.”
Growing up, he started recording music as a preteen, and just never stopped. While his family wasn’t particularly musical, he got bit by the musical bug at an early age simply from listening and discovering the endless possibilities of sound.
“When you have no context for understanding how something is made it really feels like magic,” he says. “And I wanted to possess that magic.”
Get swept up in the magic yourself and check out Still Woozy’s new track titled “Get Down” out this Friday. Check out Still Woozy’s episode with the Rockstar Experience podcast now, on all platforms.
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