Kevin Bronson on October 7th, 2019

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Gus Seyffert has spent years (and years) shepherding other artists’ work, either as a side man (Roger Waters, Beck, Norah Jones, the Black Keys, Sia) or as a producer (Michael Kiwanuka, Jenny Lewis, Dr. Dog, Bedouine, James Supercave).

The native Midwesterner, who moved to L.A. as a teenager to study jazz, has always placed his solo work on the back burner. “For the past decade or so I’ve been trying to do my own thing, make my own records,” he says. “But when you get offers from folks like the Black Keys and Beck and Roger Waters, I mean, You don’t say no.”

But with Friday’s release of the single “Hold On,” Seyffert is back to playing the moody, mellow folk-pop artist he was a decade ago when he released music under the name Willoughby (there’s a 2007 full-length and a couple of now-hard-to-find singles from 2011). “The lack of distance that comes with using my name as the project name makes me a little uncomfortable and very precious,” he says. “That extra pressure is really motivating — even if my music’s not for everyone, I want it to be well-crafted enough to be respected.”

His songcraft has never been in doubt. “Hold On” is a low conversation by candlelight, both his gentle croon and guitar work so precise as to maximize their impact and leave nothing in doubt. “You just know what I am / And you accept the boy inside the man,” Seyffert sings, his voice like a sweat bead running down the spine, tingling with the hope things stay that way.

Self-produced and mixed at his Sargent Recorders in Filipinotown, it’s the first of two singles Seyffert will release before the end of the year. “Make It Out” will be out Nov. 8.

||| Stream: “Hold On”