The Avett Brothers Discuss Gap Commercial Appearance

The Avett Brothers caught some flak for appearing in a Gap commercial, but Scott and Seth Avett told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview that they don’t pay attention to the criticism.

The new song ‘Live and Die’ appeared in the ad for the clothing retailer, leading some fans to question whether the brothers had sold out. Scott told the magazine that at this point, he ignores all the chatter, including the message board on his own website.

“I just kind of put myself in a bubble, and I found myself able to operate much better and be natural and be who I am without letting that dictate things,” he said. “I think, a lot of times, when people think what an artist is doing is alienating or different or strange, it’s probably impossible for them to have all the facts or know why. You just have to accept that. And you have to trust us.”

The guys also talked about their new album ‘The Carpenter,’ which opened at No. 4 last month with 98,000 units sold. They confirmed a lyrical focus on mortality in general and cancer in particular, which is probably not unrelated to the fact that their bassist, Bob Crawford, has a young daughter currently battling brain cancer.

“It does come up in our songs because we want to be people that are resolved to it and can handle the finality of that,” Seth said, addressing the subject of death directly. “Either way, you’re going to have to be okay with it, and we like the idea of being okay with it sooner rather than later. I didn’t even realize that was a theme until I started doing interviews for [this album]. I think it’s just on our minds because we’re facing it more and more.”