When Gavin DeGraw [ tickets ] hit music-industry gold with the song "I Don't Want to Be," it was the first time many listeners heard from the pianist/songwriter/singer. But the cap-topped performer has worked on building up a grassroots following since long before he inked a deal with J Records.

"I was playing clubs for, boy, maybe 10 years before I had a record deal," DeGraw said during an interview with LiveDaily. "I was playing in bars since I was a kid."

He admitted playing to half-empty clubs was frustrating at times, but he forged ahead because he enjoyed performing so much in front of people.

"I was still going to do that regardless getting rejected by record companies or not," said DeGraw, who will appear in an upcoming episode of Ovation TV's "Bonefish Grill's Notes from the Road." "I still wanted to go play those shows and have a good time. That really was where the enjoyment was for me--just playing in front of people."

Calling from a recent tour stop at the Cincinnati, OH, club Bogart's, DeGraw talked to LiveDaily about his new self-titled album, his love of playing live and working with rock producer Howard Benson.

How's the tour going so far?

The tour's going really well. Everything's been great. Everything's been going smoothly. I've got a great crew and a great band, and all the personalities click well. That's 90 percent of it.

Is your touring band the same band you used on your album "Gavin DeGraw"?

No. We used session musicians. We had a collection of studio guys for the record. But I have a different group of guys that I hired when I hit the road. These guys are great.

You've toured so much in the last couple years. How do you manage to keep the momentum up?

Um, [laughs] I don't know. I don't know if I’m succeeding or not. I'm just kind of having a good time and playing for people who want to hear it, and just kind of enjoying that element of it. It's great. It's killer.

Judging from your success, I'm sure fans are enjoying it as well.

I hope so. I'm still building [my fanbase] and so I'm hoping it will continue to build. Hopefully, I will continue to share rewards as far as meeting new people and at the same time maintaining the audience you built early on. You're hoping that while you're building new fans, you're keeping the ones that initially supported you from the beginning. I think that's probably the most important aspect of it.

Speaking of your fanbase, you've toured relentlessly and, in the early days, you worked on building a grassroots following.

I think the goal was to make it happen any way possible without sacrificing every single element of your integrity. I just wanted to win. I wanted to make sure that I could make a living being out touring and playing live. Ultimately, I felt that my career would be able to sustain itself or fail depending upon the success of touring, and I wanted to make sure that I put the time in that I needed to tour to develop a strong enough following to support that lifestyle.

How long have you been playing piano?

Probably like a year. [Laughs] I think about 20 years.

What drew you to the piano?

There was an old piano sitting at our house, and my parents always sang and they sang and played guitar around the house. My mom played just a very little bit. My dad could play just a very little bit--by ear. Then my brother and sister decided to take lessons. We didn't really have the money for lessons. So when my sister quit, I took her spot. I think I was inspired to play really just out of competition because someone else was doing it.

Why did you decide to go with a self-titled album?

I wasn't sure if any one particular song on my album captured the feeling of the entire album. I wasn't sure if one song was really indicative of the work as a whole. So I just went with my name. The other thing was there was so much pressure put on the second album. You succeed or plummet according to your sophomore record, according to so many people, at least, that I decided I may as well put my name all over it so everybody knows who won or lost.

The new album is much more rock oriented. Was that a conscious decision, or was it more of an organic change?

I think yes and yes. I think, initially, I wanted it to sound a little bit tougher than the last album; also at the same time it really did suit the songs. The songs could have used a little bit tougher treatment than the first album would have treated them. I think the first album--even though I feel good about the first album--I feel like the vocals in general, the recording of it, was a bit compressed, and the vocals felt a little smaller. So did the guitar work. Maybe a little bit too crunched. This album feels like it has room to breathe. It just feels bigger and more relaxed. The vocals sound more realistic, and I think this recording has a lot of the energy of the live shows. It's a little more vibrant. It really does feel more close to the live performance type of energy. It does have a little bit more sense of something more primal.

What was it like to work with producer Howard Benson? He's more of a rock guy.

It was good. It was very easy. He didn't spend too much time hovering over me while I worked with the band. He'd watch me work with the band while we were putting the songs together. He let me arrange the band, which was good. He didn't interfere a lot. A lot of people will kind of interfere, I feel they do. I'm not a little kid who's never played with a band before. A lot of producers will take the reigns from the musician, from the artist and say, "Do this. Do this. Do this." He let me work with the band because it was going well, which was nice. It was nice that he gave me that freedom. He really spent time with the vocals. That's where I think his expertise showed up--in capturing the vocals. For some reason, I think it's hard for producers to capture a vocal of an artist that actually sounds like the artist. They all seem to do things to the voice that makes the artist not sound like the person they are. It happens a lot. You can recognize the voice but it doesn't sound very true to what their singing is like. I think he did a really good job at that. He also was very good at weeding out the extraneous little bits and pieces of the arrangements. If I sit in the studio too long, I'll start coming up with all these other countermelodies and so many other different parts. I'll overthink it. After I put all these parts together with the musicians, he'd come in and sift through it say, "Oh yeah. That's really catchy. Let's focus on that part right there. Let's get rid of these other little parts. These are some good other small hooks throughout the songs. We'll keep those and get rid of the other ones." He was really good at minimizing.

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