Gunnar Gehl is melting our hearts yet again with the release of his new single “Can’t Say No!”
The 19-year-old pop singer co-wrote the the Julian Bunetta and Afterhrs produced track, which offers an infectious collision of guitar-fueled Rock and timeless Pop.
The collaborative effort brought to life a love worth risking it all for, as the chorus swells: I just can’t say no when you look at me that way / I’d jump across this / World to see your face just for one second of one day / And I’m never gonna let you go.
“[‘Can’t Say No’] is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written,” Gehl told Celeb Secrets over IG Live earlier this month. “It has a lot more energy and I think it shows a little bit more of where the music is headed type of thing. ‘For Your Love’ came out and I love that song, and that was the beginning of it. It was my foundation and ‘Can’t Say No’ is like a little bit more on the side of who I am as an artist and getting into the big pop energy songs that are coming.”
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As previously mentioned, “Can’t Say No” follows the California-native’s first single, “For Your Love,” which he tells Celeb Secrets was the perfect way to make his musical debut.
“I put that song out first because I really feel like it showcases my roots and where I started — that singer/songwriter-acoustic, stripped down vibe that’s who I am musically,” he explained. “In the future we have really good pop songs and songs that are definitely more mainstream and I wanted ‘For Your Love’ to be a song for people who discover me later on to go back and be like ‘ok, there’s a solid foundation of a real artist here’.”
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Celeb Secrets can confirm that a ton of new songs are coming from Gunnar this summer, as well as more episodes of his weekly YouTube Live Series, “Sunset Sessions,” where he offers acoustic versions of fan favorites every Sunday at 7PM PT.
“This summer is full of so much music which I’m really excited to say,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming — after that tour it was kind of like, ‘ok this is serious, this is what I really want to go for’ and I just took a couple months — almost a year — of regrouping myself and saying, ‘who is Gunnar Gehl as an artist and how do you make this the biggest and most long career that I possibly can,'” adding, “I spent a lot of time writing and working and figuring that out, so now that we have the music and its all there, what’s coming is definitely a lot of music this summer and soon as we are allowed to get back on the road, I will be the first to do it.”
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Gunnar Gehl is known for showcasing his gift for crafting bright melodies, arena-ready choruses, and lyrics both intensely personal and infinitely relatable. At just 19-years-old, he’s is working around the clock with a collection of hit songwriter-producers including Julian Bunetta and John Ryan as well as The Monsters & Strangerz, among others. Gunnar has certainly come a long way since he formed a garage band at age eight with his buddies.
“I got a guitar for my eight birthday and I’ve been addicted ever since,” he said when we asked about his start in music.
When asked about his inspirations, Gehl says he is motivated by and looks up to a ton of different musicians and public figures from John Mayer and One Direction to even Hannah Montana and the late Kobe Bryant.
“John Mayer was a huge inspiration for me,” he said. “I have twin sisters so I have a mixed genre between pop like Hannah Montana, One Direction, my parents who were listening to rock music and I was obviously listening to a lot of John Mayer so I feel like there’s this pop/rock element that I’m sitting in because of the influence I had and it felt really natural.”
“Kobe [Bryant] is also a huge inspiration of mine and what meant to me was probably the same with so many other people,” he continued. “His work ethic, his drive and his commitment to what he was doing was more than anyone I have ever seen in my life so I was influenced by that and by his devotion to what he wanted to do, his career, his success and becoming the best that he possibly could at what he was doing.”
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Just over a year ago, he hit the stage for his official live debut, blowing the doors off Seattle’s 1,000-capacity Neptune Theatre opening for PRETTYMUCH. As he prepares to introduce his music to the world, Gunnar holds one major hope for his debut project: to expand and deepen that already-close connection with his fans.
For more on Gunnar’s music, watch our full Q&A from our IG Live chat below. You can connect with Gunnar on Instagram at @gunnargehl.
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Make sure to follow us on Instagram at @celebsecrets for weekly takeovers and livestreams.
