Gavin DeGraw interview: Does ‘Best I Ever Had’ sound like Train’s ‘Drive By’?

Singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw is back in action with one of the most up-tempo tunes of his music career, “Best I Ever Had.” Check out the musician performing the new song during his recent visit to New York radio station 95.5 WPLJ:

Shortly after the track’s debut in June, fans began commenting on the 36-year-old artist’s YouTube channel that it sounded a lot like Train’s 2012 single “Drive By.”

However, it seems like DeGraw isn’t sweating the comparison, but instead is actually flattered by it.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” he recently Yahoo! Canada Music. “I actually really like [‘Drive By’] and I happen to love the band … Those acoustic guitars being strong and prevalent on their song and the way I use it on my song is really just a reflection of the strength of the Americana sound right now.”

He added: “It has a lot of that Americana [style] and a little bit almost of this Mexicali sort of rhythm with the trumpet and what they’re doing there. I throw some of that on my song, too, [and] there’s definitely a similarity there as far as a style for sure, which is a style that I happen to love … It’s a good moment for pop music.”

DeGraw is planning to drop his follow up to 2011’s “Sweeter” in late September, and while “Best I Ever Had” is the new album’s lead single, fans shouldn’t look to it as being indicative of what the new record will sound like as a whole.

“[‘Best I Ever Had’] is a wild river,” he explained. “The record is varied because I’ve written with so many different people for the album. I liked what happened with the album ‘Sweeter’ so much and the variety on it enough to decide that that was really the way I wanted to go.”

Instead of composing a few tunes alone and co-writing the rest, the musician enlisted the help of other songwriters on every single track for his new album. Working with artists like Boys Like Girls’ Martin Johnson and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, DeGraw seems like he is focused on creating something new and fresh.

“My goal is always to try and grow my audience to hear what the next album is going to be,” he said. “You always want to expose more ears to what you’re doing and also leave them with an open mind for what you might do next because you never want to be married to what you use to do.”

Check out DeGraw supporting Train this summer on their “Mermaids of Alcatraz Tour” and watch out for his new album this fall.

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