Avett Brothers Open Up About Overcoming Insecurity, Discuss Writing ‘The Gleam III’

For Scott Avett, co-founder of the wildly popular Americana band, The Avett Brothers, the unknown is not a scary thing. Looking into the metaphorical dark of the future does not worry him. Indeed, it’s the opposite. Avett finds the unknown beautiful, exciting. This realization, which he came to formally some time ago while playing music, was a life-changing one for the Grammy-nominated and celebrated artist. The lesson opened his eyes to the possibility of not simply technical expertise. Rather, it opened him up to his internal self more and that’s made all the difference for the musician, who, with his brother, Seth, will release the band’s latest album, The Gleam III, on Aug. 28.  

“Plenty of times in my life,” Avett says, “I’ve been quite insecure about my musical abilities and my musical knowledge. But then somewhere along the way it dawned on me that, ‘Hey, this has nothing to do with that at all.’ So, since I don’t know what I’m doing, that’s all the more reason to do it and step into the unknown, which is what really makes art.”