“As cliche as it sounds, time was the best thing for me. And compulsive shopping for vintage clothes eBay.”
This was the first thing singer/songwriter Wrabel says to me when we spoke on the phone. I discovered Wrabel through a late night search on Spotify when I jumped from one artist to the next. His song, “11 Blocks” captivated me and with the different yet realistic lyrics, I’ve kept it on my workday playlist. Naturally, instead of talking about music first, I came to him for relationship advice.
If you were wondering his single, “11 Blocks” is indeed based on a true relationship. Wrabel laughs a little bit before going into the details. “It actually is about my first boyfriend,” his voice trails off. “I actually drunk dialed him and somehow he agreed to meet me for lunch.”
The story gets better. Wrabel explains, “I asked for his address and for some reason I knew it sounded familiar. I went to Google Maps, and realized he literally lived 11 blocks from my doorstep. The album cover art is exact the route I took! We had a great lunch, and I ended up writing the song in London.”
Since breaking up, he’s immersed himself in touring and songwriting. He’s been on the road with LÉON
who we just adore and it was really amazing to hear him rave about her as much as we have. “First of all, I feel like I’m the biggest fangirl,” laughs Wrabel. “It’s so cool to share the stage with her. I have genuine respect for her as an artist so it’s amazing to do my thing and then go backstage and watch her whole set.”
Each of Wrabel’s songs for me always convey so many feelings. He tells me the emotions are always the first thing that’s written when he sits down. “I write true stories,” he says. “It’s hard for me to write outside any of that. I don’t usually walk in with an idea. I’ll get a burst of inspiration and then I’ll write it down, but then I’ll just look back on it later in the day and think “Wow that was a bad idea.” I just try to go with my gut.”
He tells me after touring he plans on going away for a while to buckle down and work on an album to release later next year. His latest EP, We Could Be Beautiful released this year along with his single, “The Village” in response to inclusivity.
So we know I couldn’t just ask Wrabel for breakup advice and leave it at that. We talked about new love and relationships and his answer was everything. He says, “I try to do this myself – to be open. I tend to not say anything when something hurts, but it’ll turn to resentment. You know, when I can’t fall asleep next to someone because my heart is broken over some little thing.”
When asked about his best piece of relationship advice, he leaves me with this, “The best thing you can do in any relationship is be so honest.”
While we might have to wait on a full-length album, you can listen to his brand new collaboration with Kygo titled “With You” now.
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