With his usual quirkiness, Sven Gamsky bounces on a bounding horse while singing in the music video for his new song “BS.” In the song, released Sept. 10, his soft sounds are expected, but his unique beats and sounds are all new.
In a virtual press conference, ever-authentic Gamsky leaned on a pillow with a bare wall behind him. Dressed in a purple sweatshirt, he said he wants to try something different in every song.
“I always try to make something that keeps my interest,” he said.
True to Still Woozy’s name, “BS” has a woozy and dreamy quality with echoed vocals and snappy rhythms. Gamsky’s fiance Amiya Kahn-Tietz’s album art pictures a red-eyed figure clutching an orange. Similar to the art, a doorway opens above his eyes in the video, possibly symbolic of the third eye.
In many of his music videos, flowers and the color purple are recurring motifs. Gamsky said they don’t go shopping for the videos, so his purple clothes are from his wardrobe. Flowers are gorgeous, he added with a smile.
Recently, Gamsky and Kahn-Tietz spent a day and a half learning the “Savage” dance by Megan Thee Stallion.
“I love dancing,” he said. “I want to do a music video where I'm actually doing full length choreography and I don't look like an idiot."
Apart from his videos, Gamsky said his music is a headphone experience, although a “test drive” determines if he likes the song. Listeners can hear the tiny pops and hums on both sides of the earpieces, he said.
Although some classify Still Woozy as a pop or neo-soul artist, Gamsky said he cannot describe his music and does not want to be confined to one genre.
“I have too many ideas to be stuck in one place, and I don't want people to get used to one thing either,” he said.
Now, Gamsky is signed to the label Interscope Records. While he was independent, he released his songs soon after he finished them by putting them on a distributor. With the label, his songs, including “BS,” takes at least a month to release.
“I have to get it [the song] OK’d and passed down the line of all this stuff I don't really fully understand,” he said.
However, Gamsky still holds control over his music. As an artist who started recording his solo project in a garage, he said producing music allows him to fulfill his vision without objections.
“The beautiful part of self-producing is that you’re just curating all these sounds for people, and maybe, that’s why it feels more like a unified whole is because they’re all, this is like my particular lens, my taste,” Gamsky said.
In “BS” he sings, “I got a million voices in my head.” While he is alone, Gamsky said these voices intensify. Through those times, he said his fiance Kahn-Tietz helps him abandon self-deprecation and remain objective towards his music.
By producing music, Gamsky said he also grapples with his mental health. He said he hopes it can do the same for listeners.
“My goal is to kind of create more of a safe space, just to get a little break from yourself or whatever you need,” he said.
Through current political and cultural movements, Gamsky also aims to support people of historically marginalized communities.
Julia Kolbasiuk, a 21-year-old UF political science senior, said Gamsky’s usage of his platform is partly what drew her to him.
“With the amount of followers an artist or someone who has a lot of popularity has, I think it's important that they use their platform to advocate for others,” she said.
Just as he wishes to sing among an audience without the pedestal of a stage, Gamsky said he wants to let Black voices lead the movement.
“My role is just to try to elevate other stories and stuff — just kind of be more of an ally,” he said.
“BS” can be streamed on all major platforms.
True to Still Woozy’s name, “BS” has a woozy and dreamy quality with echoed vocals and snappy rhythms.
Katie Delk is a sophomore with a journalism major and an anthropology minor. For the Avenue, she writes about music, culture and the environment. When she is not writing, she is outside with the trees, reading a fantasy book or listening to Beach House.
