One of the youngest, budding independent duos, Gus and Phin Johnson, better known as Low Gap, are back with a brand new single, Other End of a Heartbreak. After being propelled by the success of Mockingbird back in 2022, the teenage duo released their second single of 2023.
The pair announced the song’s release back on October 27.
Written by Gus, the track shares some similarities to Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce’s Grammy-winning song, Never Wanted to Be That Girl. In fact, Gus noted that the song served as some inspiration for their new track; “I heard it and I was like, ‘There’s a little bit missing from the plotline of that song.’ I was like, ‘I could make this a little bit more of a story. I can make it about a guy instead of a girl.”
Gus noted how he really enjoyed Never Wanted to Be That Girls‘ perspective, “I liked what Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde did with it, kind of from a girl’s point of view, and I felt like I could do that with a guy.”
His main goal while writing was to focus on an alternative perspective on a breakup. While country has its fair share of iconic cheating songs throughout the decades, there aren’t too many that take the perspective present on Other End of a Heartbreak, that being the person who unknowingly enabled the cheating:
“I wanted to focus less on the action [of cheating] and more on the other person without doing it from that person’s point of view. So it really is, at its core, ‘I screwed up, and now I feel really bad for this other person.'”
Empathy was a theme that weighed heavy on Gus’ mind while writing the track, “I really wanted to lean into that empathy and make it less about me and more about the person who actually got cheated on.”
Unlike Low Gap’s self-titled debut album, there are some noticeable inclusions of fiddle throughout the production. The fiddle is provided by none other than Joe Spivey who has recorded with legends such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr., among others.
The inclusion of a fiddle on the track was a major focus for both Gus and Phin with Gus saying, “We felt like that was the next step in our music: adding a fiddle, adding a harmonica. We don’t want to get boxed into a corner with our sound.”
The track was produced by Ryan Youmans, best known for producing for the fast-rising duo Muscadine Bloodline and Tyler Halverson.
Gus noted how he originally envisioned Other Side of a Heartbreak as an acoustic track, but Youmans had some other ideas, “I told him, ‘Look, man, we’re thinking about doing this acoustically. What would you do to pitch this song to me?’ He said, ‘I hear fiddle on this. I hear harmonica on this.'”
This results in a light albeit full production that adds a melancholic tone to this thoughtful, empathetic track.
Listen to it here: