Daffo on their debut album, ‘Where the Earth Bends’

No one can predict if or when a song is going to go viral, but when Daffo’s track “Poor Madeline” started racking up tons of views and streams online, they were ready.

“I was, like, playing shows every weekend in New York, and I was just, like, ‘Okay, how do I take this a step further?’,” they say.

Daffo, who goes by Gabi Gamberg off stage, took that step by heading into the studio with legendary producer Rob Schnapf. He produced artists like Elliott Smith, whose music changed Gabi’s entire outlook when they first heard them.

Gabi remembers being introduced to artists like Smith, Sparklehorse and Frankie Cosmos and having their musical world open up.

“There’s a whole other world of music,” they say. “You don’t have to be a pop star. You can be an indie musician. You can make rock. You can make whatever you want.”

In this session, Gamberg talks about working with Schnapf on Daffo’s debut album, Where the Earth Bends, plus Daffo performs live in the studio.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.