Del Water Gap can’t get out of his own head, an existential maze where he gets lost in old memories and trips over threads of what could have been if only a few things had been different. There’s something about the experience of being alive and collecting experiences that keeps knocking him off balance. On his latest single “How to Live,” instead of trying to make a break for it, Del Water Gap goes deeper into his mental labyrinth on a hunt for answers or, at the very least, understanding.
“This song is about regret and spiritual confusion and the quiet work of survival — longing to find a version of adulthood that doesn’t feel like surrender — how to be vulnerable without being self-pitying?” Del Water Gap said in a statement. “I want to be better and I don’t always know how — we live in such an anxious time and I feel anxious a lot of the time too but I also feel hopeful and I hope you do too, at least some of the time.”
“How to Live” doesn’t uncover the meaning of life, but it does find the singer-songwriter and producer dropping his guard and setting an aspirant creative standard for himself as he enters this new chapter. When he sings “I know too much it’s freaking me out,” his exasperated panic communicates a universal exhaustion that transcends wisdom and age.
“I made a little money but it’s never enough/She’ll tell me that she want me but it’s still ain’t enough/My neighbors gettin’ naughty and it’s keeping me up/There’s no God above me and it’s fuckin’ me up,” Del Water Gap rattles off on an anxious chorus, giving in to spiraling out. “She came into the lobby, eyes lookin’ for love/She don’t know that I’ve had another honey for months/And I’m a man with a thimble fighting a flood/Still figuring out how to live.”
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“How to Live” marks the first release from Del Water Gap since August 2024, when he shared the deluxe edition of his second studio album I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet. The record similarly explored sprawling existentialism, repurposing old conversations — both internal and external — and encounters into thunderous, emotional songs. In some ways, he’s always been this way. “I remember turning 10 years old and being absolutely, existentially devastated. The idea that I would never be single digits again, it made me really sad,” Del Water Gap told Rolling Stone in 2023.
“A lot of the album is about struggling to communicate — getting a little bit older and taking more account of the ways in which I communicate,” he added. “When you’re a kid, it’s easier to romanticize some level of aloofness or mystery. Then you get older. In my experience, I have felt more inclined to just really, really, really be clear with people. In turn, that’s allowed for a more honest experience for myself. To your point, I think the two are a bit in conversation. We learn so much in talking and sharing and being vulnerable with other people.”