Gawain and the Green Knight are a Brooklyn-based folk duo, though, as noted by American Pancake, “a more accurate description would be storytellers or maybe conjurers or musical alchemists.”
Made up of the soon-to-be-wed Alexia Antoniou (Gawain) and Mike O’Malley (the Green Knight), the pair have been barding around New York City together since January 2018.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with this dynamic duo about their newest music, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We’re a Brooklyn band, making whatever the musical equivalent of shadow puppetry is. Other genres we’ve tried on include “valentines to your historical crushes,” (flirty but inaccurate), “folk music, but lovingly arranged,” (too salty) and “neo-bardic,” (pretentious.) Excited to see how we answer this next time!
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
What else is a twelve year old supposed to do with all that wet dumb unrequited love? Songwriting was the only gratification (well…) I could give all those daydreams- and since there was so little to write about re: the actual romantic interactions I was having in my young life, I started to Make Things Up. Which is still what I’m doing, musically- on our first EP, Ghosties, I clearly state “I’m King Louis and I love to dance- I’m King Louis, I’m the King of France- I’m King Louis and I love to dance- but I love to gossip more,” and, friends, so, so little of that is true. And in our newest release, “Doctor,” if you listen closely in verse two, you can hear me say “I am a doctor- that is to say, I am a priest. I’m praying to my body, begging it please, begging it please to stop choosing how to feel for me.” LIES! But, in another sense, truth? And I guess all this is to say that music allowed me to make things up in a way that felt necessary to me as a kid with a lot of emotions to process and it still lets me make things up in a way that feels necessary as an adult with a lot of emotions to process.
How is the release of “Doctor” different from previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Well. We’ve never released music during a pandemic before. So, you can imagine, everything about this experience is wildly different from our previous experiences. For context, we wrote “Doctor” two years ago, recorded it one year ago, filmed the music video a few months back- but the world we’re sharing it with is just an entirely different world. So, yeah, I’d say the biggest difference is I never seriously doubted if I should release a song before. It was hard not to feel frivolous at best or attention-seeking at worst- like someone cracking a confetti popper at a funeral? But after talking it over, we felt that even in the best of times, folks need catharsis. It’s honestly hard to focus on “professional goals” right now- so, speaking candidly, we’ve had to let a lot of our hopes for this song go. So what are we still trying to accomplish? Resonation. We hope it resonates, with whoever.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Probably all the challenges you could guess if you’ve ever spent twenty minutes scrolling through all the shows and movies and documentaries you know you’re supposed to be watching but you get so exhausted by all the choices that you retreat into the comfort of the Great British Bake Off for the hundredth time. But also, technology has been very good to us, clearly! I love technology! Here’s a very current example: live-streaming while sheltering in place at home. I feel incredibly privileged (on many fronts) to be able to play music for our friends right now- it’s one of the few things making me feel like myself, and I am so grateful for that.
What was the last song you listened to?
Speaking as honestly as is literally and spiritually possible right now, the answer to this question is “I Will Always Love You,” by Dolly Parton, and before that “Backwoods Barbie,” also by Dolly Parton, which was proceeded be, you fucking guessed it, good ol’ Dolly fucking Parton covering the song “Rocky Top.”
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Big fan of live music. Especially when you go to a friend of a friend’s apartment for a concert and it’s just someone with a cello and there’s string lights on the ground and people share their wine with you and you drink it out of a mug and forget how many mugfuls you’ve had and then the concert subtly transitions into more of a sing-along, which, I know a lot of people really really hate, including friends of mine who might read this, but I gotta say, I’m a sucker for it, I really am.
What upcoming show are you most excited about?
We’re holding what are essentially musical office hours every Friday at 3pm over on our band’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/GawainandtheGreenKnightBand.) It’s not only the show we’re most excited about, friends, it’s our only show for the foreseeable future! If you want to forget about your own life for a moment and pretend to be a medieval nun/feverish Roman emperor/sea-sprayed cartographer with us instead, stop on by.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Our website (https://www.gawainandthegreenknightband.com) is definitely the easiest way to find all the links to all our other nests on the internet (we’re on Spotify, Bandcamp, Twitter, SoundCloud, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) Please reach out, we’re eager and friendly.
Anything else before we sign off?
Thanks a bunch for having us here and giving us the time and space for contemplating. Love to contemplate (which is to say talk about ourselves.) Stay well!
