Greg Freeman is a Vermont-based singer-songwriter who grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. He launched his debut album, I Seemed Out, in 2022 through the Bud Tapes label, and it was reissued in 2024 by Canvasback Music, a subsidiary of Transgressive Data. The next 12 months, Freeman broke by with a riffy and poetically incisive assortment known as Burnover. Barely a 12 months later, he’s again with a brand new file, All Set the Bone, which took form in New Mexico, Vermont, Los Angeles, and numerous tour stops earlier than being tracked with producer John Congleton. Wrestling with a world that appears to bleaken alongside waves of private turmoil, All Set the Bone is a doc of compounding anxiousness that overrides its introverted tendencies with tirelessly bold, advanced, and anthemic songs. “The reminiscence of final 12 months’s loss/ Will get pulled distant from us/ Like-waves-sucked-out-to-the-sea-and-thrust/ Into the right tsunami,” he sings on the breathless ‘Hail Mary’, not considering taming the tides a lot as feeling them.
We caught up with Greg Freeman for this version of our Artist Highlight interview sequence to speak concerning the making of All Set the Bone, pursuing music full-time, recording with John Congleton, and extra.
I learn that Burnover was barely completed whenever you began writing All Set the Bone. How would you describe the bleed-through the 2 data when it comes to timeline?
I had type of been completed with that final file for some time earlier than it got here out. There was this lengthy, drawn-out mixing course of that I went by with that album. I used to be completed with it by the point it was nearly able to be launched, and we have been re-releasing my first album, so I needed to do a bunch of labor for that. It felt like I used to be doing lots of work on stuff that didn’t connect with in the identical means, lots of previous stuff all on the similar time. I actually felt like I wanted to jot down some new songs to really feel good once more about taking part in music. I didn’t actually put any expectation on what these new songs can be, however possibly half the file got here to me at that time limit. I feel I wrote all of it fairly rapidly – it was written and recorded inside one 12 months, which is type of loopy. It was gonna be an hour and quarter-hour, however we minimize two songs.
Once you say half of it, do you imply half the songs, or a lot of the songs midway completed? When did the remainder come collectively writing-wise?
I imply half of the songs. I used to be residing in New Mexico on the time, and I wrote possibly six songs there, and the opposite half I wrote in Vermont, largely. I did a bunch of touring within the spring of 2025, after which I moved to this new home that was in the course of nowhere, in northern Vermont, close to the Canadian border. It’s this large previous farmhouse, and I used to be type of alone there for more often than not, as a result of my roommate was at work. So I had lots of time to jot down there, and I wrote lots of songs in only a couple weeks there.
I’m curious if the solitude in that particular place affected the way you wrote. I’m pondering of that line in ‘Loser’s Prize’, “Once I’m alone, I could be anybody, however after I’m with you I’m me,” within the sense of how that aloneness would possibly afford you the liberty to jot down from totally different views.
For a very long time, I used to be beneath the impression that I wrote slowly and step by step, and I feel lots of people are beneath that impression due to how little time they should work on their artwork. However then I lastly obtained the chance to not have anything to do besides write songs, and simply go fuck off to the center of nowhere, and I had this realization that I really might be extra productive if I don’t should work a fucking job on a regular basis that wasn’t music. In order that was one a part of it, however I can see how it could relate to that line. It’s humorous, that’s a line that simply popped into my head, I feel I used to be serious about some relationship. However I feel that very same precept possibly does apply to the artistic world. For those who’ve been in a small city too lengthy, everybody simply is aware of you as you. It may be laborious to reinvent your self or take into consideration your self in every other means. Clearly it’s a two-sided expression, it may be good or unhealthy. However I feel for me, having the ability to go away the Northeast and go work on music someplace so distant was a great factor for me. It allowed me to interrupt out of no matter psychological traps I used to be in.
Does that come up as a necessity within the second – the place it’s worthwhile to write – or is it largely now as you’re speaking about it that you just’re making these connections?
No, I give it some thought rather a lot. I really feel like my final file was all me attempting to determine how the place I lived affected me, and simply my normal experiences there. This file feels extra transient in nature, when it comes to the place it’s rooted, which I suppose displays my life on the time. However I feel it’s necessary to contextualize your self in songs. Whether or not or not you say it within the tune is one other factor, however a minimum of have some understanding of your individual perspective because the singer, so I normally try to apply that to my songs ultimately, I feel subconsciously.
Between engaged on lots of older materials and dealing on this new batch of songs, was there ever some extent the place you felt such as you wanted a break? Or was all of it spilling out at a tempo that was past your management?
I don’t suppose I actually wished a break, as a result of I simply didn’t have every other job on the time; I used to be coasting off this file deal and a few excursions. Each time you write a tune, you get just a little little bit of momentum, after which at a sure level, you are feeling like, “Perhaps this might be a complete file.” I felt lots of momentum writing them, and I wished to maintain that theme per the entire means of recording them, training them, recording them, and releasing them. I felt like that was an power that was, for no matter motive, necessary. Some immediacy was necessary, if just for my very own sake.
With the main target being solely on music and making a residing off it, I’m wondering if that momentum translated as stress, nonetheless self-imposed.
I don’t know. Perhaps my final file, I felt far more stress, as a result of it had been a pair years and I hadn’t put something out. I additionally really feel like I made that album type of not deliberately inaccessible. However on the similar time of there being lots of stress, I kinda obtained sick of all of the stress and folks speaking about me and speaking about it. I felt the necessity to make one thing type of bizarre, one thing that possibly not everybody would really like, or one thing that was totally different from the primary file. This one, I really feel like I had means much less stress. I feel the longer you need to take into consideration issues, the extra stress you placed on your self.
The one stress I felt was possibly writing concerning the world round me. I’d by no means say political, however socially conscious – there’s sure songs which can be coping with what’s occurring on the planet, and I felt like it might probably all the time be bizarre writing a few sure social local weather, as a result of it’s clearly altering day-after-day. You begin imagining placing one thing out at a sure time limit when individuals don’t bear in mind this factor or that factor. Not that I used to be essentially writing about particular occasions, however I suppose there was a sure stress of releasing this album into the identical world during which I wrote it.
With the passage of time, I suppose these anxieties have solely affirmed themselves, simply by the very fact of the world round them not likely altering.
At one level, it might probably look like you’re pissed off about one thing that everybody else doesn’t perceive, after which out of the blue everybody understands and has the identical frustrations. After which one thing may develop into cliche or overstated. However I really feel like I attempted to be nuanced sufficient in a few of these songs; a minimum of from tune to tune, I attempted out lots of other ways of expressing frustration with the world. Hopefully, it’s not two-dimensional.
Was there a particular frustration you felt just like the world hadn’t caught up with ultimately whenever you have been processing it?
Oh, man. Plenty of ICE stuff right here within the States was occurring, and I lived in – Vermont is a border state, technically, there’s Border Patrol in all places. There was lots of that occurring in and round the place I lived, and there have been lots of protests about that. Clearly, genocide in Gaza was simply one thing you’ll see day-after-day in your telephone. At a sure level, it appeared like it could be extra intentional for me to disregard these items which can be occurring on the planet when it comes to their affect on my music, topically. It might take extra power to disregard them than to permit them to return by my music or enable how I felt about them to return by my music. It may be actually laborious to, not even write about these forms of issues, however enable them into your music. It’s like, how do you write about them whereas being productive, or how do you write about your emotions about them with out being corny or tacky?
There’s part of the file that’s formed by being away from Vermont, or typically in much less acquainted locations. May you discuss concerning the few weeks you spent within the California desert rehearsing earlier than going into recording?
I used to be type of skeptical about doing the file in LA, as a result of it was so distant from everybody, however I believed it could be cool to be in a really new location. However we simply obtained an Airbnb for every week outdoors town, and it was cool to only be centered on one factor, you already know? All we needed to do was simply follow day-after-day there, and it was actually enjoyable. It was a extremely enjoyable, good time for all of us. We’d watch motion pictures at night time and rehearse in the course of the day, and it felt like a continuation of – I wrote lots of that file within the desert, within the Southwest, after which we rehearsed it there additionally, which I believed was good. Plenty of my different music is so tied to the place I wrote it and lots of that’s within the chilly of New England, within the snow, and with this file, I wished to think about that totally different atmosphere when within the course of of creating it. You may not essentially hear that on the file, however I’ve a unique relationship to it in that means.
In rehearsing the songs, do you are feeling they modified form on account of that shift in setting?
A little bit bit. Just a few issues modified form. Some individuals come to the rehearsals with half a tune written, and I’m not likely like that. I really feel like I’ve to jot down the entire tune. I type of overcompensate for writing stuff alone by fleshing issues out possibly greater than I have to.
I’m pondering of some moments that possibly sound improvised, or like they could have come up in that context, particularly the area you create across the beginnings and endings of ‘Hail Mary’ and ‘Untitled 10’. However possibly they have been written into the tracks.
I knew that there was lots of heavy subject material on the album, or intense songs, so I wished to steadiness it out with quiet instrumental elements. I knew that I wished a pair on the album. The drummer who performed on it, my buddy Joey [Sullivan] – he’s a jazz man, largely, however he performs rock music rather a lot additionally. I had a way of how the band would play, and I knew that I wished a pair quiet elements, in order that they have been type of factored in, however I let everybody do what they wished to do.
Once I take into consideration the file, I usually consider that line, “I need to really feel like a drummer, felt however not proven.” That appears to encapsulate the file’s emotional angle ultimately.
Yeah, true. It’s humorous, there’s an element in ‘Curtain’ on my final album that talks concerning the drummer. At any time when I play these dwell, I’m type of introduced again into myself, as a result of I’m referencing the band. It’s all the time a humorous second.
You talked about being skeptical about recording in LA. Was there a second the place it felt definitely worth the danger to go about it this manner, working with John Congleton?
I undoubtedly had these doubts. I really feel like I am going off my intuition rather a lot, so I’ll decide that I can’t actually justify, after which I doubt it. I doubt it after I make it, however then it’s advantageous.
What’s the road [from ‘Totaled’]? “Life hits faster than doubt”?
Yeah, true! So I talked to John on the telephone, and I knew that I didn’t want anybody to do something loopy to the file, actually, as a result of the songs have been so fleshed out, and the band was so good. John is such a professional and artist-first, so I didn’t actually have any doubts, however I had lots of time to suppose, as a result of I drove from Vermont to LA with all our gear. There have been undoubtedly moments the place I used to be like, “Why are we going so distant?”
How lengthy is that drive?
It’s like a four-day drive. It’s one of many furthest drives you might do within the nation.
What do you bear in mind serious about?
I suppose I believed concerning the album some. Man, I haven’t considered that drive shortly. I’m fairly good at driving alone a great distance, so I used to be simply excited, I feel, and my van ended up breaking down, like, day 2 of the drive. The transmission died, so it was fully a bust, so I needed to get a rental minivan for 3 weeks. I spent all my cash on fixing my van and getting that rental van, which sucked, however I feel it was a great journey. The final two data I made within the consolation of the place the place I lived, and I wished this one to only really feel totally different.
Do you are inclined to take heed to data on lengthy drives? Do you activate the radio?
I type of faucet after some time of music – and of the whole lot, actually. However I listened to a lot MF DOOM. That was essentially the most notable theme of my drive, listening to older hip-hop.
We have been speaking about momentum, and my expertise with the file is that it’s constructed on these high-tension, high-energy songs, a minimum of up till ‘Marooned’. And that’s type of an emotional breaking level, the place you sing concerning the baby in you that’s scared to really feel an excessive amount of. I really feel prefer it carries lots of weight, however I’m curious what that tune unlocked for you concerning the file.
I actually love that tune, I feel it was in all probability the final one which I wrote earlier than we recorded it. I wrote ‘Subsequent to Nothing’ and that one on the identical day, just about. ‘Marooned’ was one which was means much less fleshed out than the opposite ones after we recorded it. We actually had no concept what it could be like, however I actually love the way it turned out. I do suppose it holds a particular place on the album, however I don’t precisely know what that’s. Perhaps it’s simply the lengthy sluggish burn, however it additionally seems like a sophisticated tune. It additionally opens the door to the final couple songs on the album, which, undoubtedly, in the event you evaluate it to the primary facet of the album, could be very totally different.
Have been these previous few songs additionally written in direction of the tip?
Yeah, apart from ‘Untitled 10’, which was really the primary tune I wrote for the album. However the final couple have been all written means in direction of the tip. I already had 13 songs written by the point I used to be writing these, so I simply saved writing songs, they usually felt like bonus songs. I didn’t really feel like I wanted them to be something, so I feel there wasn’t the identical urgency and significance that I placed on ‘Marooned’ or ‘Subsequent to Nothing’. Which allowed them to be just a little weirder structurally, and even lyrically, they really feel type of summary to me.
Was there some extent the place you began changing into not simply aware of the runtime of the file, however intentional about it when it comes to the construction and influence it could have?
As soon as I noticed that it was gonna be a double file it doesn’t matter what, I type of stopped serious about it. We had all 15 songs on the file for some time, after which I lastly got here round to the thought of slicing two, as a result of I’d try to take heed to the entire thing, and it was simply so laborious. It might take up a lot time. I feel possibly the sixth time I listened to the entire file, I used to be like, “Okay, possibly it might be just a little shorter,” however I didn’t need to minimize an excessive amount of extra. I feel I may have possibly minimize one tune, however even then it could be an hour, which continues to be lengthy. I felt just like the album is sprawling thematically, and it doesn’t have any tidy solutions, actually, so I wasn’t actually apprehensive about having it in a neat bundle.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability and size.
Greg Freeman’s All Set the Bone is out now through Transgressive/Canvasback.
