On a chilly Day Two of Lollapalooza, I had the chance to get to know a little bit more about Gryffin. Gryffin lucked out and got to play the much more beautiful day before at the Pepsi stage. Coincidentally, Gryffin's name is also Dan. A good sign that we were going to get along just fine!
Lollapalooza is such a diverse festival. As someone who brings diversity to his sets for DJing and playing live instruments, does lolla seem like a good fit for you?
Yeah, I love these multi-genre festivals. Doing the all dance-focused ones are really great too. I feel like with live show with live instrumentation, but also keeping it very electronic and feeling very DJ-esque, the crowd is really receptive to that style. It just makes for a really fun atmosphere. The crowd seems to really be vibing to it. Personally, I'm having a lot of fun. Lolla is one of my dream festivals, so to be here is an amazing experience.
Speaking of sets, amazing set yesterday! With all that equipment for you on stage, how do you not get lost?!
At this point, I'm just so used to the way that everything is set up. A few times I'm like, ‘Ok this is the next song I'm going to do', then ‘alright, am I going to do guitar or piano for this section?'. So there is a bit of juggling for a quick second. If my set is brand new and I haven't really rehearsed it sometimes I'll be caught off guard a bit. I pretty much know where everything is now. I think I got it down. Haha!
Also Read: What is Lollapalooza?
Was it intimidating competing against other artists who play the same set time at another stage?
There's always that, when you have a festival of this magnitude that has so many amazing acts. You just gotta hope that you get good weather and that people are ready to have a good time regardless if it's a couple hundred people or ten thousand. You just gotta go with it either way and rock it. I feel like the crowd during my set was pretty great and it was pretty slammed in there, so I was really happy with the turnout!
Your latest track, “Love In Ruins” just dropped, congrats! Tell me a little bit about the track.
It's a track that I've been working on for a while. Like two years in the making. I got this demo from Sinead Harnett, this amazing singer out of London. I've been working with it for a while. I teased it in a couple flight logs just to see if fans were feelin' it, and it got really good reactions. I ended up being like, “Hey Sinead. Let's go finish this record together”. She was so busy and I was busy as well, but we finally got around to it the last month or two. It's a throwback to my older, ‘Housier', sound, but it was kind of fun to do that. The fans that have been with me for a really long time, it was like a homage to them for supporting me. It was really fun. I'm glad the reactions for the record have been great. I'm really looking forward to putting out these other songs that are on the EP coming out really soon.
Sinead Harnett has amazing vocals on “Love In Ruins”. You feature a variety of vocalists on your tracks. What helps you decide on who fits what track? Who reaches out to who?
It really works both ways. It's really about what kind of song we want to write about. If I feel like where their artistry is in line with mine or if our brands fit together, then it works. Sometimes I try to work with other artists and it doesn't quite pan out, but I've been really happy with the artists I've worked with so far and am excited about the upcoming ones. It's always different. It's a matter of if we vibe together, and there's good energy, and we're both feeling the same way about the music.
Speaking of the new EP. You have a nice balance of uplifting and emotional tracks. Can we expect a little of both in the upcoming EP?
Oh yeah! One is like really cool, bouncy. I'm really excited about that one. There's a new one that I've never played out at any shows or teased it. It's a very emotional, uplifting song. It's probably the most emotional song lyrically that I've come out with and it means a lot to me personally. I really really hope my fans like it because I'm very connected to the song, from a songwriting standpoint.
Finally, what does the rest of 2017 look like for you?
The new EP is coming out. I'm finishing that in the next couple weeks. I'm going China for the first time. I'm going to Malaysia for the first time. Really excited about that! I'm doing like a 40 city bus tour this Fall all throughout North America with my boys Autograf. I'm really pumped about that! And I'm already working on a couple singles outside of this EP. There's a lot of new music coming out and a lot of shows. It's all good stuff man!
I'd like to thank Gryffin for the opportunity to chat with him. Can't wait until the Fall tour hits Minneapolis! You can find all the available Castle In The Sky tour dates here.
