Promising an eclectic array of fearlessly honesty, heartfelt contemporary tracks, Getaway Stanger has built up an impressive following on streaming platforms, and continues to explore the depths of the human experience with his original music. We caught an interview with the graphic designer come songwriter, to find out more about that journey. Here’s the conversation in full.
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Hi Calvin – great to connect, thanks for the interview! To introduce things, where are you based, and what first inspired your passion for making music?
Thank you for the interview! It’s rare I get to reflect and think about my musical journey under Getaway Stranger which has been the main project of mine for almost two years now. I’m based around the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania, I live like 25 minutes outside of the city in this decently-sized town called Cranberry Township. I’ve lived here all my life and don’t see that changing any time soon.
I feel like my passion for music has been there all my life. I remember being five years old and dancing around like the hyper kid I was to Lady Gaga while being completely enamoured by her performances in her music videos, (which I was definitely too young to be watching).
As far as creating it, in my early teen years I got the demo version of FL Studio just to make joke songs that I would upload to SoundCloud and share with friends to make them laugh just using YouTube type beats. Looking back though, this kind of was my introduction to vocal mixing even though I didn’t realize it. This was probably around 2017.
This also happened to be the time I would begin to get heavily invested in discovering new music, I was in a Discord server for one of my favorite bands at the time, The Neighbourhood, and the people in that server would always put me on to some of the coolest music I hadn’t heard before. This later inspired me to create the Discord server for one of my at the time favorite bands, Chase Atlantic in early 2019. Even though that Discord server is still the main one used for the band and its fanbase, most people don’t know that I actually created that server when I was fifteen.
That same year, I made it a goal to get into music production and take it seriously. It had become my main passion after the Twitter account for my graphic design project got banned after being hacked. I started in ambient because I was always fascinated by the atmosphere that can be created in music. I feel like that’s still stuck with me all the way up until today.
Getaway Stranger began as a graphic design project – what was your original ambition as a visual artist?
Graphic design actually used to be my dream career. I got into graphic design when I was around eleven or twelve because I wanted to make thumbnails for the YouTube videos I was creating. This later turned into an obsession. Year after year I would slowly improve and eventually managed to get involved in helping creators like Ricky Berwick create graphics for their content and eventually got critical acclaim from one of my favorite graphic design YouTubers, Seso at the young age of fifteen.
My old portfolio is still out there to this day, I believe it pops up if you search, “Calvin Squire Behance” into Google or something. With Getaway Stranger, it just started off with me posting cool dark edits and visuals to Instagram until I felt confident enough with my music to put it out there.
Tell me about the single Limelight – how did you craft this, and what does the song represent for you?
Limelight came together pretty easily as it is simply a refined version of my song, ‘I’ that I originally posted to my old music project, Evening Hallucinations. The song is about lust and the continuous feeling of having to prove yourself. It was probably the first song I dropped under Getaway Stranger that wouldn’t potentially send the listener into a crippling depression. Before that song, my discography was looking sad as hell so I knew I needed to release something to contrast the sadness. Still love the synths and samples in that one.
Your music is clearly contemporary but refreshingly heartfelt and revealing. Do you ever worry about sharing too much, or is personal realism the way to genuinely connect with a modern audience?
After doing music and releasing stuff that I know is going to be seen by strangers since I was about eleven, I honestly just stopped caring what people thought. I’ve had people I look up to say I’m never going to do anything good in my life, had videos get thousands of views only to be hate bombed with some super mean comments that should not be directed at a young kid simply trying to pursue a music career, let alone just having fun.
I believe humans have a wide range of emotions and we have many thoughts that we would rather not speak aloud.
“When we’re angry, we’ll say the most brutal insults in our head but never say them; when we are interested in someone, we can create this whole fantasy about our potential future with them before even saying a single word to that person. It’s in our heads but it’s still real.”
I want Getaway Stranger to be a project that displays that raw emotional duality to its fullest. On one hand, some of the brutally raw lyrics can push listeners away due to them feeling uncomfortable, on the other, it can serve as comfort to those who are going through those disturbing thoughts and emotions. I want to comfort the disturbed.
What’s your favourite lyric of yours so far, and why?
There’s definitely a couple but if I had to choose one that’ll probably always be my favorite, it would be, “With the lights out in Paso, nobody is sad” from my song, PROJECT_3.
I wrote PROJECT_3 when I was at the darkest point of my entire life back in 2023. This lyric to me just represents a glimmer of hope, like this fantasy place where all my pain is no longer. It was definitely inspired by the fact that around that time I wanted to move to El Paso, Texas like crazy. I just got good vibes over there for some reason.
Daybreak is distinctly heavy and atmospheric – how did you design this one, and where do you imagine is the best setting to escape into it?
Daybreak is another revised version of an old Evening Hallucinations song titled Falling, so for the remake I just used the same blueprint and refined some stuff while giving it a better mix. Daybreak I feel like is definitely made for a long flight where you can look out the window dramatically and think about your crush / partner.
The latest single is I’ve Been Thinking About You – a little brighter than usual. What does this song stand for in terms of your journey?
Throughout 2024 I was honestly mostly either really angry or really sad because of a two-year long relationship that had ended the previous year so most of that reflected in the music. Don’t get me wrong, I still love those songs, but they were mainly created because music was the only place I could turn to when it came to getting those emotions off my chest. It wasn’t really a fun process, I was often really anxious or upset while creating a lot of those songs.
I’ve Been Thinking About You is more down the lane of the kind of music I’ve always loved to create and was the first time in a while I actually enjoyed creating a song through and through. Lyrically, it comes from a more calm and reflective place which contrasts some of the very heated and raw energy of many of my previous tracks. It also interpolates quite a few lyrics from one of my favorite artists, iamjakehill; someone who’s music has been a big rock for me throughout 2024, so in a sense it’s kind of an ode to what he’s done for me with his music.
How much has your perspective or creative angle changed since the launch of your debut EP, and what’s your biggest ambition with this growing repertoire of music?
One big one is definitely knowing now that people will hear my music when I put it out. Early on, I knew I had no listeners so you can kind of play around more as far as throwing random ideas at a wall and seeing what sticks because if it doesn’t stick, no one will see it.
Nowadays if I drop something that doesn’t live up to the potential of what I can do, that is on display for everyone to see. It’s pressure but I honestly don’t mind it. Lyrically, I think I’ve become a lot more reflective as I’ve been trying to balance a lot of the raw emotional intensity that has almost become the foundation for Getaway Stranger with the more reflective writing I find myself turning to nowadays.
My biggest ambition with my music would probably be the same as it’s been since day one which is comforting and connecting with those who deal with emotions as intensily as I do. There are people out there who feel invisible and aren’t heard even when they’re screaming at the top of their lungs for help. I’ve felt that way many times in my life and because of this, want to be there for those who feel the same. It is those exact people I do this for.
Aside from design and songwriting, does your creativity manifest itself in any other ways?
Honestly, I’ve become so consumed by music nowadays that I don’t have as much time for other creative hobbies as I used to. However, I do enjoy editing a ton as well as videography and photography. I actually edit and color correct all of my music videos. I also like posting content to YouTube when I can on my personal channel, it’s something that keeps the juices flowing whenever I’m not working on music.
What’s something about you that would surprise fans of your music?
That I’ve been doing this for a long time now. Even though I started Getaway Stranger in 2023, this was after multiple projects of mine failed. I feel like some people also may hear songs like TREAD or Limelight and think I’m either always super heated, confident, or sad but in real life I’m insanely shy and reserved.
I’m terrible at small talk but can slay a quality deep conversation for hours. I also pretty much produce, mix, and master all my own music as well as designing the artwork when needed. Only time I really outsource any of that nowadays is when I do a feature but even then, I’m still pretty hands on. Oh, I’m also an only child.
You’ve grown an impressive audience in the thousands. Will you keep making and releasing music regardless of audience size, or is this process dependent on hitting certain numbers and ideals?
Yeah I mean that is how everything started after all, I started Getaway Stranger when I had like no friends so it was kind of just working on music until people came around. I’m thankful for the people my music has brought in and never want to take that for granted.
I love it too damn much to just be doing it for numbers, if I cared about numbers I’d be more strict with my release schedule and chill out on the instrumental tracks, but the soul reason has always been because I love it so much. Music was there for me when nothing else was, I owe it to music to keep creating.
What’s next for you, and is live performance on the cards at all?
Yeah, I mean I hope to one day (hopefully soon) do a Getaway Stranger live performance that isn’t just in my basement but I feel like I have to build more of an audience before that time comes. Right now the objective is just to keep creating and improving with every project and connect with more people along the way. I’ve met so many cool people because of my music and I think that’s been the funnest part about it.
Is there anything else we should know?
I’m just thankful that anyone takes the time out of their day to listen to my music. It really is everything to me as all of my lyrics come from a very honest and real place so whenever I hear that people are connecting with it, it warms my heart in a way that is difficult to put into words. I just want to say thank you.
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Find Getaway Stranger on Apple, YouTube, Instagram & X.
