Steve Gunn

Steve Gunn works as a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer from his base in Brooklyn, New York. Early notice came through his role in GHQ and his reliability as a session player, yet his broader discography also encompasses pairings with British veteran Mike Cooper on the 2014 duo release Cantos de Lisboa as well as with Jack Rose. His stylistic range stretches from American Primitive guitar techniques to the loud, Neil Young & Crazy Horse-inflected psychedelic roots rock that surfaces in later projects. Additional alliances link him to Meg Baird, the Magik Markers, and Kurt Vile, while his solo catalog features the albums Way Out Weather (2014), The Unseen In Between (2018), and Other You (2021).

He first picked up the guitar before entering high school, an interest sparked by mixtapes passed along by his older sister. Punk rock and rap formed his initial passions, leading to a hardcore cover band that managed regional tours between his freshman and sophomore years. Over time his listening expanded across psych, folk, country, and funk, eventually incorporating Indian classical music, the compositions of La Monte Young, and Gnawa traditions that later surfaced in his own recordings. During college he connected with Philadelphia musicians such as Bardo Pond and Rose, then joined GHQ alongside Pete Nolan (Magik Markers, Vanishing Voice) and Marcia Bassett (Un, Double Leopards, Zaimph, Hototogisu). The trio relocated to Brooklyn, which remained Gunn’s primary residence. His tenure in GHQ ran from 2005 to 2007 and yielded nine full-length releases. Concurrently he produced three highly limited Moongang recordings built from tape manipulation, field recordings, and occasional guitar work.

His first solo album appeared in 2007 on Onomato, followed closely by a self-released CD-R under his own name. Sundowner arrived the next year via the Digitalis label in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2009 Three-Lobed—also GHQ’s imprint—issued Boerum Palace and the Too Early for the Hammer EP; the limited LP sold out rapidly. Later that year Abandon Ship Records put out the split End of the City with Shawn McMillen. Camel Throat followed as a cassette-only release on Germany’s Meudiademorte imprint. Beginning in 2010, Gunn and drummer John Truscinski performed as the Gunn-Truscinski duo; their debut Sand City came out on Three-Lobed that year, succeeded by a 2011 live CD-R and Ocean Parkway in 2012.

Gunn continued issuing solo material, including the 2011 split Not the Spaces You Know, But Between Them with Sun City Girls. In 2012 he toured worldwide with Kurt Vile & the Violators before returning to record the trio album Time Off—featuring Truscinski and bassist Justin Tripp—for Paradise of Bachelors in late spring 2013. The year 2014 proved especially active: Melodies for a Savage Fix, his collaboration with Pelt guitarist Mike Gangloff, surfaced in March, followed in June by Cantos de Lisboa, the duet with Mike Cooper in RVNG Intl.’s Frkwys series. Way Out Weather, his second singer-songwriter effort for Paradise of Bachelors, appeared in early October. During a brief touring pause he joined the Black Twig Pickers for a live-in-studio session that produced Seasonal Hire, containing four originals and one traditional piece with vocal and songwriting contributions from Gunn, Mike Gangloff, and Sally Anne Morgan; Thrill Jockey released the set in early 2015. By year’s end he contributed one side to the Three Lobed Records box set Parallelogram, sharing the LP with Kurt Vile. The following summer brought his Matador Records debut, the road-themed Eyes on the Lines, alongside the live set with Angel Olsen titled Live at Pickathon. Continued touring yielded the self-released six-track collection Dusted, drawn from performances in Chicago, New York, and Toronto. Singer-songwriter priorities shaped 2018’s The Unseen In Between, nine intimate and often autobiographical songs that draw from Anglo-Celtic folk, Indian raga, guitar pop, and Americana; Meg Baird duets on “Vagabond,” while “Stonehurst Cowboy” honors Gunn’s late father and the Philadelphia neighborhood of his youth. His sixth solo album, Other You, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rob Schnapf and featuring guests including harpist Mary Lattimore, singer Juliana Barwick, and British folk figure Bridget St. John, appeared in August 2021.