In celebration of his latest album Gravity released a few days back, Dan Griffith (better known as Gryffin) hosted a Reddit AMA the past Monday. From favourite video games to future plans, the 288 comments address it all. Before further ado, here’s 10 things we learnt from Monday!
Here’s a list of his ‘Favourites’.
Artists: The XX, M83, Twenty One Pilots and Rex Orange CountyFavourite Songs: ‘Sublime’ by Santeria, ‘Latch’ by Disclosure, ‘Midnight City’ by M83.
Song to Play: ‘Whole Heart’
Avicii Track: ‘Seek Bromance’
Childhood Cartoon: ‘Batman: The Animated Series’
Hobbies: Playing video games (PUBG and FIFA) and hiking with his pup Gigi
College Basketball Team: USC Trojans
Gryffin’s songs are intended to go beyond just sounding good.
Instead, he tries to inspire. In his own words, “I really try for my music to be uplifting or inspirational. I want people to have that feeling of confidence or for the music to lift them to that place where they want to be better at whatever it is that they’re trying to do in their lives.“
He draws inspiration for his songwriting and production from personal life experiences.
While Gryffin admits that inspiration comes from a wide variety of avenues, “[he draws] a majority of [his] inspiration from traveling and personal life experiences.” Doing so allows ensures that the right emotions are conveyed, something that he considers is very important in song production. It also happens to be the most time-consuming aspect of his music making process.
A lot of thought goes behind each collaboration.
For Gryffin, producing a collaboration isn’t just a marketing scheme. Instead, it’s a complex process that takes a lot of time. From “messaging the artist online or seeing them at a festival” to “passing ideas back and forth and seeing what works,” it really doesn’t sound easy. Above it all, the most important thing is that “each artists style and influence is heard on the record.” When asked who he’d like to work with next, he reveals it’s Kygo. That’d be a pretty awesome collab, don’t you say?
Plans for 2020 and Beyond
“My plan is to come to Europe next year!”
Gryffin’s European tour in 2018 clearly left fans wanting more. When asked about plans to tour across the continent again, Gryffin sure knew how to please. Very enthusiastically, he revealed that he’s working on making exactly that happen!
He won’t be performing at Coachella 2020.
There isn’t much to elaborate, just that it was a very popular question.
We have plenty to look forward to!
While he touched upon the idea that there will be other projects outside of Gryffin, we’re not entirely sure what that entails just yet. In the short term, we do know that he’s currently working on some additional music for a deluxe release. On top of that, he also intends to create ‘Making Of’ videos for his new album. Looking further ahead, he does aim to have “a couple albums under [his] belt and maybe [curate his] own label or festival.“
Keep an eye out for those Galaxy Trim Black Jerseys.
Rumour has it, they’ll be getting restocked soon! If you don’t know what it looks like, here’s the man himself modelling one.
Gryffin’s Top Tips for music production:
– In terms of creating mixes and mashups, Ableton is a good software to use for experimentation. (He also shares a cheeky message that a lot of what he knows comes from YouTube!)
– “Focus on developing a sonic identity and learn how to finish tracks. The process of learning to produce a song from start to finish is invaluable.”
– “First, figure out the message that you want to convey with your music and then experiment with different sounds and melodies that will help you fulfil that message.“
And finally, People LOVED Gravity.
Don’t forget, his GRAVITY II tour is currently in full swing. Check out his upcoming tour dates, and his latest album Gravity below!
