Gus Dapperton On Karaoke, New Music & His Journeys Campaign

When he first started making music, Gus Dapperton assumed no one was ever going to hear it. Cut to today: The 28-year-old singer-songwriter has more than a million monthly listeners on Spotify, is featured on one of the seminal viral songs of our time (“Supalonely” by Benee), and has a direct line to his hero, New Radicals lead singer Gregg Alexander. “I never would’ve thought these things were possible when I was growing up,” he tells NYLON. “I feel like everything I’ve ever done in music is waking up and realizing these are things I’d never even imagined in my wildest dreams.”

Dapperton’s friendship with Alexander began about six years ago after the then-up-and-coming artist reached out to the front man as a fan. So when Journeys approached Dapperton to cover the New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” for its new Life On Loud campaign, Dapperton (born Brendan Patrick Rice) felt equipped to rise to the occasion. “I knew what [Alexander] wanted out of my musicianship and my performance,” he says. “I think he thought I could sing it with the same sort of aggression and desperation and urgency.”

To celebrate the campaign and his new EP Shake Your Tailfeather Vol. 1, out Sept. 19, we caught up with Dapperton over Zoom for all his NYC karaoke recs, future live-show plans, and more.

“You Get What You Give” is obviously a very special song to you. What is it about that song, the New Radicals, and Gregg Alexander that you’re so inspired by?

That song is just one of my favorite songs. My parents played it around the house and in the car. And then over time, coming up [as] a musician, the lyrics really speak to me as well because it kind of feels like sort of [an] indie musician’s anthem, just being yourself and protesting the norms of society and going out on your own. So this song’s always been a huge inspiration to me.

And what was it like creating your own version of the song?

It was definitely a nerve-wracking undertaking — as it always is covering a song — because I only want to cover the songs that are my favorites, but also you don’t want to mess it up because you want to keep the integrity of the original. And I’m never aspiring to make something that’s better than the original song, but something that is unique to me and something that does it somewhat justice.

Do you have a favorite memory tied to the song?

When I was younger, whenever I did karaoke, it would be my karaoke song. I don't think I ever did karaoke until I was in college because I was always too nervous when I was a kid, but I remember I did it one time at this karaoke night and it was a big hit, so I continued doing it as my karaoke song.

I would love to see that one day.

Maybe you will. I do karaoke kind of often these days. There are always two spots in the city that are open until extremely late, so we’ll end up just going there later and doing karaoke.

Where are your spots? I need the recs.

One spot’s called Winnie’s in the Lower East Side that’s literally open until like 4 a.m., and there’s another spot not too far from it called Upstairs. Some of my local establishments.

Good to know. The music video you did for Journeys takes place at a mall. Do you have any core memories of hanging out at your local mall growing up?

I grew up in a really small town in Warwick, New York, and there were no big stores, no fast food or anything. The closest place that had that stuff was the Galleria Mall in Middletown, which was almost 40 minutes away from me, but I would always try to persuade my mom to drop me and my friends off there. But that was a really rare occasion, because she always knew we were going to cause some trouble. [But] because I was a skater, I always ended up going [to Journeys] to get new skate shoes and new back-to-school stuff.

You have a new EP on the way. How do you feel?

I’m so hyped. I’m starting a new alias or moniker of sorts, and I just really wanted to start over from scratch and kind of experiment with sounds and voices and rhythms and things I hadn't normally tapped into in the past. Feels like I’m starting fresh.

There’s a sort of expectation that I give myself on what I know my fans have loved in the past. So coming up with a new alias kind of allowed me to rid myself of doing anything I would normally do. I could just kind of really do the opposite of what I’ve always done in a way, which to me is more fun because I’m challenging an audience to like something that is the opposite of what they have liked in the past, and it’s a progression of music and my growth as an artist.

Can you tease the vibe of the new music?

It’s very dance-oriented beats with lots of different affected vocals. You won’t be hearing a lot of my real voice on them. It’s a lot more production and beat-focused, as opposed to songwriter-focused and live instrumentation. It’s a little bit more electronic for sure.

Is there an artist you’ve been really inspired by lately that inspired this shift?

At first I was saying Daft Punk and LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz, and then some house DJs like Danny Krivit, Todd Terry. But then recently I realized me and my girlfriend have been listening to the Black Eyed Peas a lot and was like, “Whoa, I guess this is kind of Black Eyed Peas.”

Is there another late ’90s, early Y2K hit you’d like to cover one day?

I already covered “Believe” by Cher. I was going to say that one, but I already covered that one in a much more emotional, slower fashion a year or two ago. I’ll have to start thinking of what my next cover is going to be after this.

Well, now that you are in your electronic era, maybe you can do more of a straightforward cover of “Believe.”

Exactly. I’m starting to practice our live set for this project, so I have to start thinking of what song we’re going to cover for the live shows as well.

Is there a chance you’ll play “You Get What You Give”?

I’ll have to come up with an arrangement for that. But yeah, I should just do that one.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.