When we were 20, Gavin was making beats for the first Hives Inquiry Squad project, Open Mind Sessions Vol. 1 and simultaneously creating the soundscape and lyrics for what was supposed to be his first album, Somewhere I'm Not. However, about halfway through the completion of Somewhere I'm Not, his drum machine crashed, and, with only about 6-7 songs recorded, Gavin decided to purchase some new production hardware and to scrap the album. He immediately started to work on his debut album Escaping Stasis, and this project fell to the shadows.

Somewhere in a dusty corner of my atelier, sits Gavin's old computer. I can't bring myself to get rid of it. It will remain here until I no longer do. Every now and then, I revisit the hidden corners of the hard drive, and I always seem to find beats I've never heard or songs I've forgotten. It's as close to time traveling as I'll ever experience, and I spend hours transported back to a sweaty closet with a mic in it at his parent's house in Kenosha or the packed bedroom full of bottles and ash in La Crosse, WI. Each time, I spend an hour in the Somewhere I'm Not folder, and during the last venture into this realm, I decided the world (more importantly, his family and friends) should get a chance to visit here as well.

To be honest, I don't even know if Gavin would have ever released these songs if he were still around. I could see him being on some Howard Roark, "That was practice and full of mistakes, and nobody gets to see my mistakes" type of philosophy. I could also see him being like, "Yoooooooooo, I've been dope for forever," and tossing these tracks out to Al Gore's internet to remind everyone how he's always been ill with it. I'd like to obviously think the latter, and if it's the former, maybe he'll curse me from the cosmos.

If you ever enjoyed Escaping Stasis or Edifice or a Hives Inquiry Squad show or any conversation with Gavin, you'll enjoy this project, as it is Gavin finding himself as a human and an artist. It's him getting to the edge of the cliff and jumping, spreading his wings for the first time on the descent. The philosophies that he molded. The beats that featured his unique electronic yet natural world etherealism. The rhymes that toggled between abstract waxings and simple, concrete truths. It's all ahead of its time, which makes it dumbfounding to think that most of this stuff was made in 2006.

April 10th, 2019 is the 7 year anniversary of Gavin's passing, and we felt the best way to celebrate his life was to share some of his creations with you. Please grab some headphones, drift away, and enjoy Somewhere I'm Not.