Premiere: Gavin Haley is "Waiting For You" with His Heart on His Sleeve

Pop music has a penchant for giving its listeners easily digestible, intensely passionate songs that both your niece and your grandma will equally enjoy. Pop radio has definitively allowed for this ideal to skyrocket into the stratosphere, with at least one breakup tune (and it’s counterpart, the love ballad) always in regular rotation. More specifically, pop music has given a platform to the men your mom would want you to marry to sing with their hearts on their sleeves (further pushing your mom’s agenda). Popular radio behemoths (and certified mom-faves) Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes have essentially patented this brand of musicianship.

Detroit-based cyclist-turned-singer Gavin Haley is taking a cue from Sheeran and Mendes, and crafting tunes that are accessible, palatable, and still intrinsically interesting. His most recent single, “Waiting For You,” for which Atwood Magazine is proudly premiering the video today, was released at the end of March, and further proves Haley as a purveyor of pop gold.

Watch: “Waiting For You” – Gavin Haley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPAGALX_5o

Born just a few miles outside Detroit, Haley began singing age 12 with a small church choir in Louisville, Kentucky. Following his critically-acclaimed debut single “Fades Away,” which has peaked to over 500,000 streams on Spotify, Haley has subsequently released “Waiting For You,” which he notes is “every style of music [he’s] loved for the last three years put into one song.”

Seeping with infectious instrumentals and emotionally-wrought vocals, Haley’s style is not particularly anything new, but it is nonetheless charming and gratifying. The song itself tells the tale of a foregone relationship, and the narrator’s grappling with the evident brokenness. The accompanying video for the track takes aim at the narrative in a rather tangible way, serving as an obvious supplement to the audio itself.

The music video shows Haley as the supposed protagonist, reminiscing on a woman and daydreaming about being with her once again. The video jumps between Haley, coiled on the floor of a dark room surrounded by scribblings of the song lyrics, to him in an open, grassy field with his old flame. In the darkened room, his outfit is all black, too; in the field, he is dressed in a patterned shirt. It is the type of video you would expect from a song like this — but, again, that’s not really a bad thing.

Gavin Haley has assuaged his listeners to root for him. Haley and “Waiting For You” are just the type of pop magic that you want to be listening to at all times, whether you’re aware of it or not. It is not too sickly sweet; it remains just biting enough to keep you invested throughout. “Waiting For You” has perfectly blended its palatable pop purity with a definitive punchiness. The singer and the song have been given the alchemist’s treatment: taking from homogeneous and otherwise basic inspirations, and turning it into pure gold.

Watch the video for “Waiting For You” below, exclusively on Atwood Magazine!