gnash

About gnash

gnash started making music in his bedroom in Los Angeles around 2015, which is how a lot of people start these days, except he actually figured out how to turn bedroom production into something people cared about. Born Garrett Charles Nash, he went by gnash because apparently that's what happens when you're making music on the internet in the mid-2010s and need something that looks good in lowercase.

His breakthrough came with "i hate u, i love u" featuring Olivia O'Brien in 2016. The song did that thing where it blew up on SoundCloud first, then spilled over into actual mainstream success, hitting the top ten in multiple countries. It captured something specific about being young and unable to decide if you want someone back or want them gone, which turned out to be extremely relatable. The production was sparse enough to feel intimate, like overhearing someone's actual thoughts instead of a polished pop confection.

Before that moment, he'd been releasing music on his own terms, putting out the u EP and other loosies that built him a following. He came up in that SoundCloud era where genre boundaries were more suggestions than rules, blending elements of pop, indie, and hip-hop without committing fully to any of them. His production leaned on acoustic guitar, trap-influenced drums, and that particular kind of vulnerability that defined a lot of internet music in the late 2010s.

After "i hate u, i love u," he released the us EP in 2017 and followed it with his debut album "we" in 2019. The whole "me, u, us, we" trajectory was intentional, mapping out a progression from isolation to connection. The album featured collaborations with artists like Charlie Puth and included tracks like "t-shirt" and "imagine if," continuing his lane of emotionally direct pop songs that didn't try too hard to sound expensive or overproduced.

gnash has been open about mental health struggles and uses his platform to talk about therapy, depression, and anxiety in ways that feel genuine rather than performative. It's part of his brand, but not in a cynical way. More like he figured out early that being honest about feeling bad sometimes was more interesting than pretending everything was fine.

These days he's still releasing music independently, which seems to be the model he prefers. He puts out singles, collaborates with other artists in his orbit, and maintains the direct-to-fan approach that got him attention in the first place. He's not dominating the charts, but he's built something sustainable. His Spotify numbers suggest he has a dedicated audience that keeps showing up, which in 2024 might matter more than having one massive hit and then disappearing.

gnash shows are generally intimate, even when they're at bigger venues. The crowd tends toward people who actually know the words and aren't just there for one song. Shows have a conversational energy, like he's thinking through the songs in real time rather than delivering them. People pay attention.

Known for us, i hate u, i love u, bitter, splash, the sweetest girl

See gnash Live