On the day I meet with this week’s subject, Del Water Gap—who goes by his middle name, Holden—he’s about to play the first of two shows at Madison Square Garden on a North American tour in support of Niall Horan. Like most musicians, Holden started writing songs as a kid. “I was really, really shy and I grew up in a really small town, so there was not much in the way of anything to do but sit in the woods and stare up at the sky,” he says. He gravitated toward journaling and writing poetry. “When I was old enough to start having crushes on girls,” he says with a smirk, “I started writing songs about them and sending them to them on MySpace and hoping that they would get the message.”
As is tradition with this column’s subjects, Holden’s also got really unique personal style, forged in the dichotomy of his offstage relaxation and onstage professionalism. We discussed how he first found a passion for music, laying out outfits as part of his tour preparation, some of his favorite brands, and plenty more.
Fit One
Vintage shirt, jeans, and boots.
How did you first find a passion for music in general?
My grandfather played clarinet, and I have really distinct memories of hearing him playing while I was supposed to be napping, listening to him through the walls, always playing Brahms. When I got a little bit older, my parents started buying me CDs and they bought me a Walkman. One day I was at Walmart and I ended up getting the first Smash Mouth CD, which became one of my favorite albums. I still know pretty much every word to that record, which is crazy. That stuff just doesn’t leave.
What do you do when you’re stuck in a creative rut? Do you have a way of finding inspiration?
I like spending time in nature and I like going to the movies. Spending time alone is always really helpful for me, just tuning the noise out a bit. I’m trying to get better at doing research, really treating my songwriting and the way that I treat my visual world. Finding good references and just trying to see what other people’s lenses look like to try to see if peeking into that will help me at all.
Fit Two
Vintage pullover, jeans, and boots.
And that’s digging through new music, or...?
Yeah, I’m just asking people to send me records, and I’ve been meeting more collaborators recently who have pushed me to not necessarily find musical references but to find ingredients. Rather than saying, “I want to make that dish,” saying, “I want to use this ingredient.” This idea that we are what we eat, creatively. If you’re consuming something, it’ll probably come out in your work in some way, so trying to just consume the right ingredients and hoping that it’ll make its way into my work.
Do you do anything special to prepare for a tour?
I just try to sleep a lot and figure out my clothing. Clothing’s a big part of my show, so I like to have an idea of what the clothing’s going to feel like before I get started. I’ve been wearing Thom Browne on this last tour and I’m going to keep wearing his clothing into the UK shows. It really becomes my armor onstage. The preshow ritual really starts when I put the clothing on. So taking off my street clothes, putting on my suit, warming up, having a tea—it’s all a part of the spiritual swearing in of the show.
Fit Three
Vintage coat, T-shirt, and shorts; shoes by Gucci.
You beat me to my next question. I was going to ask if your style on- and offstage differs, and then why or why not?
Offstage, I really like to wear comfortable clothing with some sort of an accent piece. I’ll wear what I’m wearing right now: a thermal, some jeans, and then some nice boots or some really understated casual clothing with some jewelry or something that just feels comfortable but also feels expressive. I really love very lived-in, comfortable clothing; I love vintage basics, finding the best version of the simplest thing, like a very simple, beautiful white T-shirt. I really like boxy fits. Onstage, I tend to go a little bit more formal. I’ve been really lucky to work with some designers, so I’ve worn a lot of Thom Browne and Saint Laurent onstage. I like the feeling of walking onstage a little bit more done up, and I like the feeling of sweating in beautiful, elegant clothing.
I take pride in the fact that I wear some of these brands a little bit differently than the other people they work with. I think that has less to do with me and more to do with my field of work. My show is very athletic in a way. I move around a lot. I sweat a lot. There’s a real transformation from the beginning to the end of the show clothing-wise. I walk onstage in a beautifully pressed suit, and by the end I’ve sweat through the entire thing. I’ve taken the jacket off, I’ve pulled the tie off, and it’s just a very different outfit by the end—like the end of the workday. I feel like Don Draper after seven martinis. It’s a cool feeling to just see the elegance shift into something a bit more feral over the course of the show.
Fit Four
Pullover by Esprit; shorts by Adidas; shoes by Salomon; hat by Bass Pro Shops.
Do you have any advice for someone in the creative field experiencing adversity from outside sources like bosses, managers, labels?
Well, it’s tough. I’m still figuring this out. Trusting your instincts is always number one. I struggle with it every day, but the more successful you get, the more people are involved, the more voices are in the room, it’s important to come back to what made you successful in the first place. A lot of music- and art-industry people are incredibly well-intentioned but don’t always have the best perspective on culture or on what will connect, nor do artists for that matter. We don’t really know what will connect culturally. One of the most important assets we have as creators is our taste. It’s our job to show people what to like. Knowing what your taste is and doubling down on that is really important—this notion that if you think something is great or meaningful, other people will as well, which is hard. It takes a lot of faith. It’s an act of faith.
What are some of your current favorite brands, and why?
I just got some great clogs from this brand Gardenheir. They’re really beautiful. I just like elegant comfort-wear, and I think that they make some really cool stuff. On that note, I come back to the brand Only, which is a New York–based streetwear brand. Buying their clothing and wearing it makes me feel reattached to New York after being away for a while. They have the best socks. They have this great run of MTA socks and Central Park socks. I really have been loving Wales Bonner. She’s British, and I discovered her clothing a couple of years ago. It’s really special, elegant, understated clothing. Thom Browne, again, I’ve just been wearing their clothing a lot, but it’s just very simple, beautiful, well-made clothing. I have some pieces I can imagine wearing them for decades and them still retaining their shape and their form.
Fit Five
Suit, shirt, tie, and pocket square by Thom Browne; shoes by Gucci.
How’d you get set up with Thom Browne?
Through Chris Black. I’ve been friends with Chris for a while and I had been on his podcast. He ended up introducing me to someone there and very slowly we built a relationship, and I started wearing their clothes.
If you had to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it consist of?
Probably zip-off cargo pants so that I could be modular. On my feet, I’d wear Salomon XT-6’s in white because I think they’re elegant, but you can also sweat in them on a hike. Then a very beautiful white T-shirt.
What’s next for Del Water Gap?
Well, I have a song that just came out. It’s called “Purple Teeth, The Bravery,” and it’s a song about drinking a bunch of wine and being brave for the first time in a while. It’s a song about someone being really honest in a way that’s very shocking, and it’s part of the deluxe release of my last album, I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet. I’m really excited just because I love my last album a lot, and the idea of being able to extend the cycle a bit is really inspiring to me, having a reason to revisit the work and talk about it again. I’m putting out three songs as part of that deluxe. Then I’m off to the UK with Niall again.
