The New Indie: A Conversation with Ovven

Design by Diego Gonzalez

By Madison Decina

On February 6th of this year, Nashville based artist Ovven released his debut album, Gnawing At The Cord. The record quickly became one of the most memorable records of the year, blending country twang and rugged Midwest indie rock seamlessly. Recorded at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, and produced by Alex Farrar (who has also worked with modern indie icons MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, and Indigo De Souza), the record is a super fresh take on what he describes as “loud guitar music.” 

Last week, I got the chance to sit down with Ovven and pick his brain about the production of the album, Wilco, the great city of Nashville, and what comes next.

You are currently based in Nashville but originally hail from Chicago. Being that these are both such great music cities, how did each shape your sound?

“Yeah, I’m from Chicago but I’ve been living in Nashville for six years now. Growing up, a lot of the music that was around was that Midwest old country stuff, like Wilco was huge […] I remember the Wilco show. That really kind of blew the doors off it for me and made me super interested in music in that way. I recently found a concert review of that show, and it was like ‘the old dudes in Wilco still got it.’ It was maybe, like, a little beyond its prime when I got into it. But it still loomed large in that area at that time. And there’s also such a bar scene in Chicago of people who play music that’s, like, music suited for bars, but it’s not covers. You know, they write kind of country songs, kind of folk songs, but it’s made for a loud dive bar, so it’s loud guitars and stuff. So that’s a big part of […] my musical pedigree. It’s the stuff that was just in the air where I grew up[…] Then I moved down to Nashville. And I also work in the country, Americana, and kind of like the acoustic music world down here playing guitar, or I do some work playing electric bass as well. You know, down here, it’s just like everyone’s a killer, like, there’s just so much good music happening. I always joke that I’m, like, probably the absolute worst singer in Nashville. Like, anywhere you go you’re just like, ‘oh, there’s going to be live music. And whoever’s singing is going to sound really incredible.’ So yeah, I mean, being here has definitely just given me a little bit more exposure to, like, actual country music, you know, more traditional country music, which was really non-existent when I was growing up. Like, as far as I know, there was no country radio in Chicago in the early 2000s. It was extremely uncool back then. But, yeah, I feel like in the last ten years or so, it’s become, nationally, very cool for the first time […] And then, yeah, the songs on Gnawing At The Cord, I guess the style is kind of a blend of those two things.”

What song on this record did you find most difficult to complete?

“I think probably the title track, “Gnawing At The Cord,” because it’s kind of three songs all smashed into one song, and that was always kind of the goal for it. There’s a few records that I really love where the last track is just, like, emptying the clip, they’re just like, here’s every idea I had that didn’t make it into a full song, and I’m just going to put them all in the song […] The last section of that song where it comes down to, like, just guitar and fiddle, that was a song that I had written and there’s like three verses to it, it probably could have been its own standalone thing. I always really liked that song, but I was like, ‘I’m kind of making a rock record, I don’t know how I’m going to fit this in or I’m going to have to significantly change it.’ Then I just started toying with the idea that it might be an interesting and tender thing to end on. […] One thing I really try to avoid in my albums is that I don’t want you to get to the second to last song and you are so sure that the album’s over. You know what I mean? Like, sometimes albums really have like a few false endings […] So, I really tried to sequence it and avoid that and make “Gnawing At The Cord” […] just do something that felt like it was touching on every energy, every mood on the rest of the record. I wanted it all to appear in the last song, just to be like, this is the end. It’s unmistakably the end. Don’t have to double check, you know?”

“But the challenge of it was that the three different sections are in three tempos, I guess they’re all in the same key, or they’re into two of them are in the same key. One of them’s in a different key. So it’s just like, am I going to do something really clever with the key change? Am I going to try to make these tempos related to each other? But none of those things really fit together that well[…]Yeah, but just figuring out how to treat each section so that you could kind of unceremoniously move to the next thing was the challenge […] I mean I worked on that song for probably a month and demoed it out, made it start to finish, I don’t know, three or four times. And then I went into the studio and made it again from scratch. So, yeah, put a lot into that one.”

So, three different tempos, what’s that like playing live?

“I just figured this out on Saturday. Saturday was the release show, and that was the first time we’ve done that one live. Basically what happens is as we come to the end of the section with the first tempo, I’m just kind of cueing the big down beats so that the band gets a sense of what the new slower tempo is. And luckily, they only have to nail, like, three hits with me at the top of that tempo. And then it’s just me playing guitar for a second, and then the band crashes back in, you know? So yeah, it’s really just some visual cues I look forward to doing. Like, we pulled it off on Saturday, but I’m like, man, if we had to do this five nights in a row. This would be, like, really locked in. So kind of still figuring it out. That’s the short answer, yeah. But that’s the great part about live music. You know, everyone gets to hear it and experience it as one. And that’s great.”

You spoke a little bit about a tour. Do you have anything planned? 

“There’s a good chance that I’ll have already announced by the time this comes out. But yeah, in mid-June, I’ll be hitting Richmond, New York City, and Boston. That’ll be, like, a week-long run in. And a few other kind of loose irons in the fire for the fall. But yeah, I mean, when the record came out, I thought it would come out, no one would ever know about it, and no one would ever give a fuck. So I didn’t have any plans to tour it. And now, I’m like, oh, shoot, I can probably book some shows.” 

You collaborated with Alex Farrar for this record. How did that collaboration come to be? And what was it like working with him? 

“Yeah, I became aware of him, actually, because of a bunch of records that he mixed where I specifically just loved the drum sound. He has this way of making things sound really loud with a ton of guitars on it, but it never gets fatiguing. Sometimes when stuff feels really loud, it’s fun to listen to and impactful, but by the third song, you’re just like, this is actually pretty tiring now […] He mixed my friend’s record from Wild Pink. I don’t know if you know that band. They’re really great […] He mixed their 2024 album Dulling the Horns, which is one of my favorite records from the last probably ten years […] So yeah, that was, I think, where I first came across Alex’s name, because I was listening to that album and I was like, ‘who mixed this? It sounds so good.’ And then, what’s that album called? Cartwheel? Which is from, I can’t remember what year, maybe 2023? The mix on that album is psycho. It’s unbelievably loud, where I was like, ‘who did this?’ Came across Alex’s name again there, and I was like, okay, what else has this guy done? Then I just started looking through his catalog and saw that he had produced and mixed all kinds of stuff that I already knew about and loved. 

“So then when I was getting ready to figure out who’s going to produce my record […] I was just like, Alex is going to be, like, my pie in the sky. I have no real direct connection to him. I’m just going to kind of cold call the studio and see if I can work it out. And props to them. And I just sent them demos, and they were just like, ‘yeah, we’ll totally do this, this will be great.’ Yeah, that’s how it happened.

“And then working with him was awesome. We did almost no pre-production. We had maybe two phone calls and I sent him demos of everything, which I made pretty thorough demos. But then, yeah, we met on the first day of recording, and we only had five days to do the whole record, But, you know, I’ve made a fair amount of records in my life and obviously Alex has made a bunch of records, so it’s like we know what we’re doing. It’s like I’m doing basically all the guitars, he’s playing drums on about half of it and bass on about half of it. And then he hired out guys he worked with a bunch to do bass and drums on the rest of it, so it was just like we all kind of knew what we were doing […]But yeah, it was kind of a funny way to make a record.”

I’m sure you have some more stuff on the burners, what’s in store for the future?

“Yeah, I mean there’s some exciting stuff on the horizon. I just recorded acoustic versions of a handful of these songs. So […] I’m kind of just in the mixing phase with that, and I’m gonna put it out as soon as they’re ready. So […] in the next few weeks, I’ll start putting those out […] I’m hoping to get on the schedule at Alex’s studio again, hopefully late this year, and just go cut another record.”

Oh, already? 

“Yeah. I mean, they take forever to make. I recorded Gnawing At The Cord in late February of 2025 and I didn’t wait around at all. Basically as soon as I had the music, I started putting it out and […] then put out one single at a time for a while and then dropped the whole record. So, I mean, I recorded it at the end of February and then it wasn’t mixed and mastered, and we also did a little bit of overdubs, like I sent him some more guitar parts that I just recorded here in my kind of home studio. But yeah, we didn’t get that all done until like, September. It’s like, you know, even if I cut another record today, it probably couldn’t even start coming out until maybe even next year, you know? So that’s why it’s like you have to just stay on top of it, like keep working. Always try to keep something in the can, too.”

“I’m definitely working on writing right now. And then, yeah, trying to get on the road would be great. Like I said, it wasn’t really the plan for this album just because this is the first time I’ve released anything that anyone cared about. And then I was like, I guess I should do a release show, did a release show, and we sold it out. So I’m like, I guess it’s time to get on the road […] And then from there you’re kind of off to the races. I’m going to try and be on the road […] Cut another record. See how far I can take this thing.”