Sidney Gish: A True Individual

Photography by Omari Spears

by James Ammirato

Boston-based singer/songwriter Sidney Gish sits at a table in Pavement coffeehouse, locked into her laptop. She wears an oversized jean jacket and black pants. It takes me getting within about 5 feet of the table for her to even notice I’m there, but once she does, she greets me with a smile. Pavement is a hectic environment, but Gish is hardly fazed by the cacophony of students, and David Bowie’s “Heroes” that blares over our heads. Her methodical approach to work shines through when I ask if she’s a regular. “I get out of class at 3 and then I usually just come here and do work for the rest of the afternoon,” she replies. 

Originally from New Jersey, Gish, 22, is currently a fifth-year student at Northeastern University. Her Bandcamp discography goes back to November, 2015, and she’s had a steady output since then, with three Bandcamp exclusives and two studio albums. The latter of which, No Dogs Allowed, served as her breakout album, and was reviewed by such publications as The Fader, Stereogum, Pitchfork, and The Guardian. Since then, she’s appeared at festivals such as South by Southwest and Boston Calling, won album of the year at the 2018 Boston Music Awards, and was listed as one of Stereogum’s best new artists of 2018. She’s also been on multiple headlining tours across the U.S. and Europe, and has opened for such acts as Mitski, Hop Along, and Vundabar.

Though already a fairly established performer in the indie scene, Gish is still able to stick close to her roots. “I listened to Daughtry all summer,” she tells me, “I started watching a lot of the old American Idol episodes on YouTube, and I didn’t realize how much the dramatic music industry narrative in that show has shaped how much I love the music industry and the idea of it, as well as the drama of someone like Daughtry or Daniel Powter.” Though the music she speaks of isn’t very reminiscent of her own, one could see how this “melodramatic” music, as she calls it, has influenced her musical persona.

Despite this, Gish’s approach to music is much more meticulous than it is dramatic. “What inspires me a lot is the idea of somebody who goes into a little cave by themselves and just makes an album by themselves like they’re writing a novel, and it’s just a fun little thing that you wrote… Like Plantasia, one guy made plant music in his little house, that’s a great life… I like that idea, and that’s what everything I’ve made is like.”

Keeping this in mind, it’s easy to see why her entire career has been a true blue solo act, touring the country equipped with nothing but a guitar and a looping pedal. Though an impressive feat, one wonders the possibilities of taking on a band. But Gish has clearly thought this through. “I’m interested in getting a band, but it’s not something I want to hyper-focus on, because I feel like the core of everything has been writing and recording, and I haven’t really done that since No Dogs Allowed.” She says that playing solo was just an idea after the album came out, saying “it became a panic response as time went on.” She remarks on playing full-band songs as one person, saying “Touring and trying to do all the foot pedal stuff to replicate all the stuff I’ve multitracked in my house is like taping a broken pair of glasses together, it’s a solution but it’s kind of stupid.” Though one might think this panic would steer her toward a backing band, Gish has an individual mentality. “I want to deal with this on my own and take the fall for whatever my choices are,” she says, “I’ll just keep on doing it by my damn self and if people don’t like it who gives a fuck?” As cavalier as it sounds, she’s not entirely alone. “I’ve hired a team that I feel is really good, and it took a lot of meetings to get there, and I’m still learning a lot.” 

Talking to Gish, I was let in on the mindset of a person with extensive knowledge of the music industry. Because of her focus while in school, Gish is hyper-aware of how the industry operates, and lacks the naivete of so many young people who might be enraptured with the idea of popularity, instead of skeptical of what might come because of it. “I don’t feel like I’ve made it,” she divulges, “I feel like I’ve made an album I can capitalize off of as long as I’m in the age group that the album allows me to be while I perform it, and that has an end, that’s finite. This could be gone in 5 or so years.” 

Achieving this so-called indie fame isn’t without its drawbacks. “I didn’t anticipate the response that No Dogs Allowed got at all before I put it out… It’s really been a response to a response to something I made. Last year I did poorly in a lot of my classes because I was trying to travel while being in school. I agreed to do too many things and by the time it was falling apart, it was too late… So this year I’m not going to travel all the time and I’m just going to rethink a bunch of stuff.” When asked what’s next for her career, Gish understandably tells me she’s taking things a bit slower now that her foot is in the door. “I’m trying to focus on the near future instead of the distant future, and I’m super glad that No Dogs Allowed was able to do what it did,” she says, “but really I’m just trying to finish school, and hopefully get a handle on recording more.” In the same vein, Gish is interested in the art of engineering, even though her music might suggest that she takes a more relaxed approach to production. When I ask her about her interest in synths, she says, “What I’ve been trying to think about is the art of composition and panning and mixing. Things can be really intensely mixed but not computerized, high level mixing doesn’t have to be like Skrillex just because it’s electronic, it can be like three Beatles guitars that are crisp. Synths can make any noise ever which is why they're so great.” 

This may be some indication of what’s next for Gish’s music, but for now, fans will just have to be content with her current discography. She’s already made a splash, and we can only assume that her future projects will build on her sturdy foundation. “I’m definitely excited to put a lot more thought into whatever comes next,” she tells me, something I found surprising considering that her current work suggests an impressive degree of deliberation. But what she means is a different kind of thought, a patience that can only be attained by the experience that Gish has under her belt. She states simply, “I have a degree of freedom now. I just don’t want to stress about making things perfect anymore.”