Gus Dapperton

Gus Dapperton blends vivid imagery with ethereal, meticulously crafted tracks as a refined indie tunesmith whose work draws from 1990s sources, manifesting in vibrantly storytelling clips and infatuated compositions. Relying chiefly on non-digital gear while handling performance, composition, and capture solo, the musician shared material digitally during his late teenage years before achieving wider notice via the 2017 release “I’m Just Snacking.” Both the track and its rapidly spreading clip gained traction, prompting tour dates and a commission to write for the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. This platform introduced him to vast audiences, prompting the swift arrival of his 2019 debut album Where Polly People Go to Read and its 2020 live, instrument-driven follow-up Orca. Three years afterward came the polished, production-centric Henge, while the EP Tunes for Late Spring surfaced in 2024.

Born Brendan Rice in 1997 in Warwick, New York, Gus Dapperton enrolled at Drexel University in Philadelphia after secondary school to study music technology alongside his personal songwriting. He departed the institution soon after and headed back to New York to cultivate the Gus Dapperton identity. Deploying analog synthesizers, heavily reverberant vocal phrasing, and a polished bedroom-indie aesthetic, he began uploading tracks in 2016, attracting notice through pieces such as “Moodna, Once with Grace” and “Ditch.” Contemporary assessments frequently aligned his approach with the hazy tunefulness of Mac DeMarco and King Krule.

The 2017 single “I’m Just Snacking,” paired with its thematic and visually stylized clip, expanded his visibility and earned features in Vogue. Throughout that period he and a complete ensemble performed extensively across the United States and Europe while issuing the four-track Yellow & Such EP. A second widely circulated video for “Prune, You Talk Funny” appeared late in the year and accumulated millions of streams. He supplied “Of Lacking Spectacle” to 13 Reasons Why, constructing it from an impromptu voice memo and finishing the recording in a hotel room amid tour commitments. The second EP You Think You’re a Comic and the single/video “World Class Cinema” both emerged in 2018.

After two further singles early the next year, he delivered his debut full-length Where Polly People Go to Read in April 2019, containing the successful cut “World Class Cinema.” In December he appeared on New Zealand artist Benee’s “Supalonely.” The song’s motifs of solitude and separation resonated amid worldwide pandemic restrictions that began the following year, propelling it to international prominence. He then previewed fresh material ahead of Orca; lighter on atmospheric keyboards and intimate production, the more rugged-edged album arrived in September 2020, with a deluxe edition adding three new songs issued the year after. In 2022 he collaborated with Anna of the North on the independent single “Meteorite.” Portrayed as an ode to New York City, 2023’s Henge presented a heavily produced collection centered lyrically on affection and anxiety, spotlighting the singles “Wet Cement,” “Horizons,” and the personal “Don’t Let Me Down,” which reunited him with Benee. Tunes for Late Spring arrived in 2024, featuring the Electric Guest collaboration “Lil Tune” together with renditions of well-known songs by Wham!, Bobby Caldwell, and Cher.