Getting To Know: Gurry Wurry

Meet Gurry Wurry, the solo project of Scottish indie-psych-pop creator Dave King, who’s already caught the ears of BBC 6 Music, Triple R, and Apple Music’s New In Alternative. His debut album made it into Vic Galloway’s 2023 Albums of the Year, and now, the buzz is building for the hotly-anticipated follow-up, Happy For Now, out on September 20th.

Recorded with indie legend Rod Jones (Idlewild, Hamish Hawk, Redolent), Happy For Now is an ode to caring less — or at least trying to. It’s a reflection on finding peace with life’s fragility, even as that peace feels delicate and fleeting. It’s an upbeat album that dances with sadness, touching on themes from car crashes to fly-tipping, ageing to infidelity. With its dissonant harmonies, wonky rhythms, and a voice that's both delicate and determined, the album teeters on the edge of falling apart, but somehow, keeps cruising on.

Imagine a half-dreamt world where a California breeze blows through the streets of Leith. A place where Randy Newman digs The Beta Band, and Steely Dan goes lo-fi; where Kraftwerk shares a writer’s room with John Martyn and Thelonious Monk. It’s eclectic, warm, and woozy — a kind of anaesthetic pop for troubled times.

Happy For Now will be available on limited edition cassette, download, and all streaming platforms. Catch Gurry Wurry live as they support platinum-certified bedroom pop pioneer Dent May on October 9th at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh.

1. Happy For Now has been described as an ode to caring less and finding contentment in fragility. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind this theme and how it influenced the overall sound and lyrics of the album?

Yeah, it’s funny, I’d made the first album in a bit of a Covid haze and there were a lot of negative emotions on there. But just making the album and promoting it and starting to play live again got me pretty upbeat about everything. I found myself enjoying life more than I had for ages, so I wanted to make a really carefree album. A bit of a celebration of being in your 30s and shrugging off all the worries that bog down your 20s. 

As it happens my imagination is a pretty melancholy place so I was constantly wrestling to keep the songs positive. And then it sort of struck me – that was the whole point. You can never stay happy or stay sad. It’s a sort of constant see-saw. So I just leaned into that and found myself using a lot of contrast and dissonance in the music. If something was sounding too sweet, I’d throw in a really gnarly note on the guitar and bring it crashing back to earth. If a subject was getting too heavy, I’d throw in a wee bit of wordplay to lift it up. Sometimes the juxtaposition became the whole core of the song – like ‘Singin (When The Truck Hit)’. 

The album concept arrived pretty organically but once it was in my head it started to influence everything.

2. Your music has been praised for its eclectic mix, with influences ranging from Steely Dan to Kraftwerk. How do you blend such diverse sounds to create the unique, "anaesthetic pop" vibe that Gurry Wurry is known for?

It’s really just a sort of instinctive, natural impulse for me now – I don’t have much control over it. I’ve been obsessed with music for about 25 years. I’ve gone to hundreds of gigs. Heard thousands of records. And I just always find myself chasing that new sound – something I haven’t heard before. For me there’s no point in making music that sounds like a band that already exists. I know music is familiarity and nostalgia for a lot of people, and that’s cool. But I get my kicks from the surprises. I like trying to make different styles and sounds fit together and I guess the binding agent is the fact that it’s all filtered through me – through my tastes and my playing and my singing ability. Or lack of. So if I love those crunchy, dissonant Thelonious Monk chords, and I also love those sweet little Brian Wilson melodies, and that greasy JJ Cale groove – who’s to stop me trying to put it all in the same tune? Of course it never works. My process is really messy and I probably produce 4 hours worth of music for every 3 minutes that makes it out. But I honestly enjoy doing it more than anything else in the entire world. 

3. Working with indie legend Rod Jones on Happy For Now must have been an exciting experience. What was it like collaborating with him, and how did his influence shape the final product of the album?

Yeah it was super cool. I was pretty nervous going in but I think that actually helped. I didn’t want to fall apart in the studio so I spent weeks and weeks singing the tunes every single night. The pressure kind of forced me to find some form and confidence. 

Then when we got into the studio it turned out I was worried about nothing. Rod’s super chill and dead easy to get on with. He has a really natural way of working – we did all the vocals in full takes with very few drop-in overdubs. It gave it all a much more organic quality than the first album. 

He really changed the way I thought about my voice too. I was a bit self conscious about it. You’ve heard my tunes, it’s not a powerhouse voice, you know. But he talked about the fragility of my voice as if it was a strength. As if it was a quality to embrace and show off. So instead of double tracking the vocals and burying them deep in the mix, he took a single vocal performance and put it right up front. Where you could hear every crackle. You could sense it was never far from breaking and maybe you lean in a little closer to hear if it will. That sort of cemented the whole Happy For Now album concept – this idea of being content in the fragility. 

He also has an absolutely superhuman ear for harmony. I’ve never seen anyone as pin-sharp and precise with pitch. He’s got such a crisp, clean musical ear and I think that was a great foil for my messy, wonky vibe. He found clarity in it and (hopefully) made it listenable to normal people rather than just cloth-eared folk like me.

4. The album covers a wide range of topics, from car crashes to ageing. How do you approach writing about such varied and often heavy subjects while maintaining the album’s upbeat yet melancholic tone?

I love exploring the darker side of life. I don’t know why but no matter how hard I try to write something happy, my brain just keeps dragging me down. So I’ve never really felt like any subject was too heavy, like it was too much to write about. I’m in my element down here in the darkness. I just dig in and try to find the feeling in it. 

Similar to my approach to music, I do like to try and find a wee bit of surprise when I’m working on lyrics. It’s silly but I sort of challenge myself to make things work when they shouldn’t. Like I was so pleased to get the words ‘rawl plug’ into a heartfelt song on the first album. Finding heavy feelings in mundane things is a bit of a constant thrill for me.

5. Your upcoming support slot for Dent May at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh is generating a lot of buzz. What can fans expect from your live performance, and how do you plan to bring the laid-back, eclectic energy of Happy For Now to the stage?

Aw, I can’t wait for that. Dent is a legend so it’s gonna be a lot of fun.

But yeah, my live show’s pretty different to the records. It’s quite stripped down. For a start I play solo and don’t use any backing tracks. I made the decision early on that I wasn’t going to play with them as they kind of kill the spontaneity. And that spontaneity’s what I really love about gigs. The fact things can and do change, and the song is there to be shaped in the moment and then it’s gone. 

But equally I didn’t want to just be another predictably sad singer-songwriter on stage, so I’ve adopted a bit of a mad little set up. I have a layered-up synth/keyboard so I can play bass and piano at the same time, then I control a super basic 90s drum machine with a foot pedal. And sing over the top. It’s all a bit children’s entertainer but I think it’s got a vibe. Overall my live show leans in to the fragility that’s on the record. It’s very intimate, and I leave spaces to improvise on the piano too. Just so there’s always plenty jeopardy. You need to have something that could go wrong at any minute, otherwise why bother?