There is a particular kind of honesty that doesn’t ask for absolution. It doesn’t tidy itself up or soften its edges for the sake of palatability. It simply exists, breathing in its own contradictions. That’s the emotional register Gabi Gamberg, also known as Daffo, seems most at home in. A place where shame, fixation, and self-criticism are not dramatized, but honestly examined.

When asked how they decide when to sit inside those feelings versus easing them through music, Gamberg pauses. “That’s tough,” they say in an interview with Culture Cabinet. “I think whenever I can write a song, I will. Sometimes I’m experiencing those things and they’re just so intense that I couldn’t possibly pick up a guitar. Sometimes they’re so intense that I have to pick up the guitar. It’s a strange thing. But, anytime I do end up writing a song in those moments, it offers me an immense amount of relief.”

That sense of release comes up again and again as Gamberg describes their creative process. Writing is not something that follows clarity, but rather, it produces it. “Oh, I definitely make sense of things through writing,” they say of their songwriting process. “It’s very rare that I’ll, have an idea of what a song is going to be about or what I want to write about when I sit down to write.”

The uncertainty can be frustrating, as they mention moments where they, like any writer, find themselves struck with writer’s block. But when they’re in the thick of writing, they find that the personal discovery lives in the songs. “Sometimes I discover how I’m feeling or I’m able to articulate it in a way that I wouldn’t be able to in my mind or with regular words,” they say.

Music, for Gamberg, acts as a translator, pulling emotion outward rather than letting it fester. “When I write a song, it’s this pure feeling of release” they explain. “I kind of get a second to kind of step back from everything that I’m feeling or thinking and look at it, or listen to it rather. It pulls it out of me rather than brewing inside of me.”

Lyrics, too, are allowed to hold contradiction. “I think lyrics have multiple meanings and they hold more emotion than if you were to just say exactly how you were feeling.” Instead of direct explanation, Gamberg gravitates toward immersion. “It’s easier to describe how you’re feeling by just putting yourself in that feeling better than saying what it is.”

That philosophy extends into the studio. When asked what working with collaborators, such as veteran producer Rob Schnapf, taught them, Gamberg doesn’t hesitate. “I definitely learned to trust my instincts. He [Schnapf] supports the song and creates space for me to express myself in a way that is just easy.”

The emphasis is always on what the song asks for. “I think I definitely let the song guide the production and I kind of, um, take it as I go.” Sometimes there’s a shape already in place; sometimes there isn’t. “Really, it just whatever the song calls for.”

As their audience has grown, that instinct-driven approach hasn’t disappeared, even if the context around it has shifted. “There’s a little bit of a loss of intimacy when you get to a bigger show,” Gamberg admits. “A lot of those small shows were friends and other musicians and it felt more like a community.”

Still, something new emerges in its place. They’re currently on their headlining tour, with a stop slated for this Saturday (February 7th) at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere: Zone One. “It’s also a really beautiful thing, to really see the people that connects to my music.” As beautiful as it may be, they also don’t shy away from the other side of the coin, where being seen carries weight. “I feel like I have maybe a little bit more, responsibility to my listeners,” they say of their growing fan base. That responsibility is taken seriously. “There are a lot of people that feel really deep connections to the songs that I’ve written, and that comes with a lot of weight.”

When listeners share how the songs have helped them, it reframes the pain that created them. “Ultimately, it just makes me feel like I’m doing something with my pain,” Gamberg says. “It doesn’t feel like it’s for nothing.” There’s healing in that exchange. “I feel like I’m developing something that feels so awful into something that can touch people and dissipate it in a way that’s very beautiful.”

The title of their new album, Where the Earth Bends, arrived late in the process, but once it did, it anchored everything. “I felt like it was a good metaphor for this uncertainty and what you can’t see and what you can’t describe, but also change and growth.” Not every song tells the same story, but they all share a running theme. “That feeling is in all of the songs, I think,” they say. 

When asked what they hope listeners take away, Gamberg returns to the same word they’ve been circling all along. “I just really hope that [the album] offers the same relief that it offers me. I just hope that it helps people sit with their own feelings.”

As for what comes next, there’s no grand plan, only patience, and a steadfast dedication to the process they’ve always followed. “I kind of have to live my life and see where I’m at, just to write songs, and go song by song and not really think bigger picture.” Because for Gamberg, that’s the point. “I think it’s good to be present, right? Not to be too caught up in the big idea that much.”

It’s a simultaneously a good and bad thing, they admit. But it’s honest. And honesty, handled this carefully, has a way of bending the ground beneath it, just enough to let something new grow.

You can get tickets to Daffo on tour here.