Adam Gnade


Adam Gnade is a San Diego, California-born American musician and author currently living on a farm in rural Kansas. In his bio he defines his music as "talking-songs", which he describes as mixing the spoken vocals of talking blues songs with country music, Appalachian folk, noise, psychedelic folk and drone music influences. His work is issued as a series of records and books, which continue the stories of each other's characters and further develop plot-lines. Considered a regionalist writer, he writes mostly about San Diego, a bordertown city in Southern California, namely the area around the US/Mexico border, though many of his stories take place to the south of San Diego in the city of Tijuana, Mexico. Gnade also writes stories that take places across the continental US but according to interviews he's done these stories always reflect the Californian's experience on the road.

Biography

Originally from San Diego, California, and while living there, Gnade was an editor of the alt-weekly Fahrenheit San Diego. After leaving San Diego in 2005, he lived in Portland, Oregon where he was the music editor for The Portland Mercury while his former partner, Jesse Duke, worked for Microcosm Publishing.

Career

Musician

In late 2005, Gnade signed to the California-based Loud + Clear Records, toured the US, and issued Run Hide Retreat Surrender, his first official full-length record after a series of self-released, extremely limited edition CDs and cassettes.
In 2006, he issued a set of limited run experimental albums expanding on his "talking songs" idea before signing a UK label deal with Drowned in Sound. Drowned in Sound released Gnade's EP Shout the Rafters Down! in November 2006, after which he toured Europe in support of the record, alongside Oxford, England's Youthmovies and Brighton's Blood Red Shoes.
Gnade also recorded a "talking song"-style track with Faux-Hoax in mid-2006, a side project band featuring Dave Allen, the bass guitar player of the 1970s British post-punk band Gang of Four, John Askew from Oregon indie rock group Tracker, and Danny Seim of Menomena and Lackthereof. The track, "Your Friends Will Carry You Home," was released on a 7" of the same name by Polyvinyl Record Co. in May 2009. The 7" also features members of Portland, Oregon's Modest Mouse and 31 Knots.
As of 2007, recent U.S., European, Mexican, Canadian, and United Kingdom radio singles included "Hymn California," "Honey Slides," "Dance to the War," "The Winter/Their Apartment," "Room for Three and the Bayou Summer," "Palaces," "Lanterns, Rakes, and Shovels," "We're Unknowing in the Crosshairs," "The Old Lover," "Snake Lore," "It's Five O'Clock in America," "We Must Come Home Again," and "We Live Nowhere and Know No One."
2007 saw a two-month US tour, a five-week tour of England and Scotland, and the release of Honey Slides, a collaborative EP with Youthmovies on the Try Harder Records label. There was also a tour-only novella, entitled Seasons Loving Nothing, that was available on the UK dates.
His next full-length, Trailerparks, was released by Try Harder Records as a limited-edition, tour-only pressing in late 2008 in time for a three-week tour of Europe with Youthmovies.
In November 2008, the experimental label Blast First released a Youthmovies EP entitled Polyp which features Gnade contributing lead vocals to two tracks, "Sad Trash" and "Become an Island" which also features contributions from Joe Shrewsbury from 65DaysofStatic and Hugo Manuel of Jonquil. The resulting tour in November 2008 featuring both acts was called the Polyp Tour.
On February 22, 2009, Gnade announced the release of a new EP. Island's Islands will be released on cassette and limited to just 100 copies. On his website Gnade revealed that each copy of the EP would be recorded separately and each would be completely different. Gnade's next record The Wild Homesick was released in May 2009 on the Punch Drunk Press label.
In July and August 2009 Gnade joined the Van's Warped Tour for a book tour. His tour diaries were published on the Asthmatic Kitty Records website and by the Willamette Week newspaper.
In August 2009, Punch Drunk Press, released a three-way split CD album featuring his songs and the songs of Ohioan and COASTS. It is called Hello America!
In January 2010, a new cassette EP, Surrenderland, was released by Punch Drunk Press.
On January 31, 2010 he announced the release of a collection of rare tracks, From Farmhouses to Tour Vans.
In August 2011, it was announced via the Lungs, Dirt, and Dreams website as well as via assorted media outlets that Gnade would be touring alongside Atlanta experimental country band Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters. On Gnade's website he announced there would be a special tour-only cassette featuring both acts as well as a split cassette featuring folksinger Megan Michelle.
In June 2012, Gnade and folksinger Megan Michelle released a split album of acoustic songs via Punch Drunk Press.
In May 2013, Gnade's recently recorded record, entitled AMERICANS, was released by the UK label Blessing Force.
In September 2013, Punch Drunk Press released Gnade's latest EP, Greater Mythology Blues, recorded in Atlanta, Georgia with the help of his backing band, The Hot Earth All-Stars, featuring members of Brunch, Under White Pines, and Sydney Eloise and Palms. The record was released the following August.
Two EPs, AMERICANS and Greater Mythology Blues and a single, the Locust House Excerpt featuring Three One G band Planet B, were released later in the summer.
In March 2017, the Three One G label released Gnade's EP Life is the Meatgrinder that Sucks in All Things. His backing band was Gabe Serbian and Justin Pearson of The Locust and Head Wound City with Luke Henshaw of Sonido de la Frontera.
There were several announcements in January 2018. It also announced that Gnade would be releasing his next record, Voicemails from the Great Satan, via Justin Pearson's Three One G label and would be supporting the record with a short UK tour with the reunited Youthmovies.
In August 2019, Gnade released a collection of acoustic demos entitled ''The Goddamn Marching Tide" and toured behind the songs with the writer Nathaniel Kennon Perkins.

Author

In September 2008, DutchMoney Books released a novel of Gnade's writing that continues the stories of the albums' characters. It is called Hymn California. A novella of connected material entitled The Darkness to the West was released in December 2008 via Punch Drunk Press.
In 2011, Gnade released three novellas. California was released by Double Suns studio as a hardback book and The Heat and the Hot Earth and Hey Hey Lonesome were released by Punch Drunk Press.
Released in July 2012, Gnade's latest novella was entitled The Growling Mouth, and it was released on the Punch Drunk Press label.
In late 2012, Punch Drunk Press released The Hard Fifty Farm, a split chapbook featuring writing by Gnade and Microcosm Distribution/Pioneers Press owner Jessie Duke. In spring 2013, Pioneers Press released Gnade's first work of nonfiction, The Do It Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin' Sad, which topped Powell's Books small press bestseller list in May 2013. Since its initial release as a zine, The DIY Guide has seen several changes with each new edition. It is now available as a perfect bound book.
In 2013, Gnade released The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad which was the top-selling small-press title at Powell's Books in 2013.
In December 2013, Gnade's second novel, Caveworld was released Pioneers Press via its literary imprint Punch Drunk Press following a UK, including a series of All Tomorrow's Parties festival dates, with the temporarily reunited Youthmovies. In January 2014, it was announced that his Do It Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherf**kin' Sad was Powell's Books No. 1 bestseller in the small press section. 2014 saw the release of three new chapbooks, two new printings of Do It Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherf**kin' Sad, and a month-long book tour.
In early 2015 Powell's Books small press section buyer Kevin Sampsell announced that Gnade's Do It Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherf**kin' Sad was the store's small press bestseller for 2014, an honor it was awarded with in 2013 as well. Winter and spring 2015 a 5th printing of the aforementioned book as well as releases of the chapbook series My Brain Was A Shark Eating Itself volumes 1 to 6 and the chapbook And in My Dreams You're Alive and You're Crying.
In January 2016 it was announced that Gnade's Do It Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin' Sad was once again the small press bestseller at Powell's Books in 2015, this being the third year in a row at the No. 1 spot. A sixth printing of the book happened in mid-January.
In April 2016, Three One G and Pioneers Press issued his latest book, Locust House.
Powell's Books announced Gnade's Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherf**kin' Sad book was its #1 small bestseller in 2017.
In June 2019 it was announced that his next book, This is the End of Something But It's Not the End of You, would be released February 14, 2020 via Pioneers Press and Three One G.

Name pronunciation

According to his website, Gnade's surname is pronounced "guh nah dee."

Influences

Gnade has said in interviews and on his website that his music is influenced by Neutral Milk Hotel, Joanna Newsom, noise recordings, field recordings, and old country music. In interviews he has said that his writing is influenced by William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and Roberto Bolano.

Tour

Gnade tours regularly and generally plays solo or backed by a band. Recent tour-mates have included Youthmovies, Jonquil, Blood Red Shoes, Eugene McGuinness, Blanket, and House of Brothers. He has performed on bills and festivals with Calvin Johnson, Starf*****, Fuck Buttons, Angelo Spencer Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Television, Tortoise, Múm, Les Savy Fav, Pharmakon, Ghost Mice, Ramshackle Glory, Har Mar Superstar, Wolf Eyes, Dinosaur Jr., Scout Niblett, Castanets, Levon Helm, Dark Hills, Damon Moon and the Whispering Drifters, Under White Pines, Sydney Eloise, Alana Amram, Virgin Forest, The Album Leaf, George Pringle, Foals, and many others.

Discography, published works

Full-length albums