Gavin Elder creates addicting and confounding original music that explores almost every genre, including rock and roll, pop, jazz, country, and film scores. He was introduced to performing at age four with the piano and has since experimented with every musical gadget within reach, typically playing all instruments on his recordings except drums, overdubbing parts atop each other until the sonic collage is complete. He does not give credence to conventional limitations of songwriting and is equally at home with a three-minute, hook-laden rock tune as he is with a ten-plus-minute exploration of dynamics, layers, and structure. His lyrics, sung in his gritty baritone, conjure unexpected scenes and typically untapped emotions, taking listeners to a planet that at once feels familiar and bizarre. He also plays songs written by other people, usually in bars, taverns, restaurants, honky-tonks, and other upscale establishments and dens of iniquity.