Singer, songwriter and producer Garvie is the first to admit he’s spent too much time playing games in lockdown, and now he’s (virtually) trapped in one.
The worldwide lockdown caused by Covid-19 inspired a lot of DIY projects, and the fruit of Garvie’s labour is an 8-bit video game world, set to debut his video for Bad Person.
Garvie learned to produce in his bedroom and programmed an entire 8-bit video game world set to debut in his video for Bad Person.
The visual follows Garvie’s life as an indie musician, juggling work, gigging and…going on a GTA-style rampage before evading the police.
He spent years writing for other artists and cutting his teeth on the London live scene, but the lightbulb moment came when the gigs stopped, the Gameboy turned on and he learned to produce.
Garvie was forced to immerse himself in creating a sound of his own. What emerged mixes the signature big guitars and bigger choruses of his past writing projects with the playful synths and 8-bit throwbacks of his new videogame existence.
It’s all complemented by a voice which Frank Turner once commended for its “authenticity and a flat-out refusal to take things too seriously”.
Garvie’s brutally literal lyrics leave no room for misinterpretation on his debut Bad Person – but his tongue somehow remains firmly in cheek.
“I’m not bothered about the notion of being a ‘bad person’ because I think that most people are sometimes,” Garvie explains.