New Release: The Feelings Cure from Setting Sun (Young Love Records)

Gary Levitt has been around the block, especially during the past decade. Since Setting Sun‘s debut holed up 20 years ago, Levitt has done it all: become a father, done stand-up, created a podcast, and made more music. Part wandering spirit, part creative artist, Levitt is living a multi-purposeful life.

The Feelings Cure launches with a rising-sun-sorta feeler “Cool.” Levitt sings, “I live to love when I love to live / When you make it ok, make it that way / What I would give to love my day” in this uplifting tune. Many of the songs on Cure showcase the smooth silkiness of Levitt’s voice. The new album was recorded and produced by Levitt on Young Love Records.

“Good die Young” seems to summon demons from Levitt’s ego. In it, he sings, “They say the good die young but you’re old and you’re bad and you’ll never even finish this song.” Not only was the song finished, it’s a true toe-tapper. The album is filled with wonderful melodies, including “Up and Away” and “Symphony” among others. While Levitt handles vocals, guitar and bass, songs flow with beautiful harmonies, violin, dobro, synth, and drums. “Feelings Cure” jumps out of the gate with a driving beat. “My love is all imagined / I found the feelings cure / I want a life less tragic / I know what to ignore,” sounding like a man settled into his situation, family and all.

Levitt recently took time out of his schedule to speak with No Earplugs:

NE: This is your first studio album since 2013’s Be Here When You Get There, correct? Levitt: Yep! I released all the instrumental tracks in 2016 to say to music supervisors, “Hey! License these!”

What’s transpired since then? I’ve heard fatherhood, stand-up, podcasting… Yep, all of that. I got burnt out on touring and releasing music, so I started dabbling in stand-up comedy and ended up falling in love with it. I was living in Brooklyn and there’s this thriving scene there and NYC where you can get onstage and work out bits eight times a day if you wanted to. It’s the thing I miss most about not living in the city anymore. When Covid hit that all stopped and I moved an hour and a half north of the city. The move is tied into becoming a father. It was so hard living in a small apartment with my wife and a toddler. Everything about it is easier now that I’m in a house in the Hudson Valley.

Young Love Records is you? Yeah, all the artists are still there, but in between albums. It was always run as a kind of collective where all the artists contributed when they could.

Was there a theme or inspiration making The Feelings Cure? Yes, very much so. The pandemic flipped over my life without my choice, it was hard. At the time I was doing stand-up almost every night, sometimes several shows a night and then everything drastically stopped. Standup was such an outlet for me. I immediately turned back to music and started writing and recording again. The Feelings Cure for me is creativity. If I’m not being creative. My feelings get the best of me and it’s not good.

On “Same Face,” what’s your relation to Abby? Abby Hollander-Levitt (my wife) has an amazing backup vocal on “Same Face.” It’s the highlight of that song for sure. “Same Face” is about moving back upstate. I’ve lived here before a few times in different chapters of my life. It’s about returning to a meaningful place after significant time passes. It explores the various changes to a place and person that occur over time. Some things had changed, and some seemed paused in time. Those that were paused in time were still different because I had changed. “Same Face” captures that feeling for me. I picture myself walking around looking at the same people in a familiar town though everything’s different because I had changed. “Symphony” is a love song I wrote for Abby. It’s written in the first person directly to her. I thought about leaving it off the record because it’s so personal and vulnerable, but I love the bridge, harmonies, and strings so much that I wanted to share it!

Do you feel your music has evolved or matured in anyway with the decade break from recording? Good question. So much! This is the first record I didn’t double most of my vocals. Most of the vocals on this record are single tracked and therefore more raw. I think I felt more confident and mature recording this record. Being a father changed my perspective so much. It made me care less about so many things. I remember when my daughter was born my stand-up comedy sets got immediately better because I cared way less what the audience thought. Nothing would ever compare to the importance of raising and caring for my baby. It helped me relax on stage. Friends and fellow comedians totally noticed. It was very liberating. I think that same perspective greatly affected this record. I’m putting myself out there in a raw and honest way.

Who are some of your musical heroes? Anyone who is obsessed with creativity. It’s such a force in my life. It keeps me striving. Musically speaking, I respect Paul McCartney so much. Besides being an amazing songwriter and singer, the guy kept putting out records knowing he probably wasn’t going to top what he had already done with The Beatles, but he kept doing it because he loves writing and recording. I have so much respect for that. He’s got some amazing songs in his solo discography that are overlooked because of this past. I on the other hand feel I’m getting better and better and have yet to do my best work.

Check out the Setting Sun website for more information or the Bandcamp page to buy some music!

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