Building Loops and Musical Communities with Ave Grave

Welcome everyone! This week, we are joined in conversation with a close member of the Program Change family, Sean Galloway—better known as Ave Grave. Sean has nearly two decades of experience in the music industry as a songwriter, vocalist, tv and film composer. He is notable for his work as co-lead-vocalist of the band TV Heads, and for scoring the film Strange Negotiations, a documentary about musician David Bazan.

Seans solo work—released under the name Ave Grave—explores the quieter side of composition by crafting intimate recordings influenced by the musical languages of acoustic folk and ambient tape loops.

We caught up with Sean via video chat from his apartment in Berlin—his home since September of 2020. Sean spoke with us about his approach to composition and performance of ambient music, what it’s been like for him livestreaming every week for the past year, and the role close listening plays in his songwriting process.

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Track in Intro: "Behold A Pale Horce (In C Major)" by Ave Grave