Photographed by Ryder Sloane.
[Gryffin](https://www.instagram.com/gryffinofficial/), American DJ, producer and musician, has rocked his music on stages all over the world. He gained attention with his remixes of songs by Maroon 5 and Tove Lo. Since then, he’s caught the attention of almost everyone and is currently on tour with his recent album release “Gravity.” We got a chance to catch up with him.
**_“Body Back” was just released! How did the collab come about?_**
That was actually a record that I received a demo for late last year. It was actually written by a D-U-X guy, and they reached out to me.
We started talking about making some music together and she sent over that demo and I immediately fell in love with the record. I thought it was super special and it was so catchy and ended up, basically over the next 6 months, kind of like working on a few different versions.
I originally had this down tempo-based vibe and ultimately I felt like the best way to do that song justice was to make it like a fun, kind of uplifting house-y kind of vibe. I ended up just like really loving it and then DD (Deedee?) unfortunately had a bunch of other commitments for her music and whatnot and she ultimately decided that it maybe wasn’t the best fit for that specific song, but then I was able to get Maya. She’s like an incredible singer/songwriter out of Sweden.
She actually did a lot of cool stuff that wasn’t on the original track. She kind of elevated it to another level. I’m just so happy with how everything ended up turning out and it was a really fun one to make to see evolve from start to finish.
**_How do you go from an idea to the stage? Is the process different for each song?_**
Every process is so different. Sometimes, like with what I just explained, where it’s written and then it’s about stripping it down all the way to its core, just to acapella, and just reimagining a whole different vibe and production around it. That’s definitely one way songs have been finished and other times I’ll go into a studio with a couple of writers and there is a blank piece of paper and it’s just “hey what do we want to say, what do we want to talk about today, like what do we want the song to be” and it starts totally from scratch like that.
Other times I can send an instrumental beat I really like and send it to another artist that we have like mutual interest in collabing with. I’ll send the beat over to them and then they’ll come up with some top-line ideas and send them back and it’s like this path back and forth over several weeks to several months sometimes in terms of like getting it all down and locked in.
So, yeah. Every single song has a unique process, but I actually love that about it cause kind of keeps everything super fresh for me and it’s really fun to see an evolution of songs cause every path and journey is different for each song. It’s funny how songs can evolve over time, songs can happen super immediate and sometimes they take months and months.
Photographed by Ryder Sloane.
**_Do you ever think, “wow I wish it sounded like the earlier versions?”_**
That’s a good question. I have thought about that sometimes. Sometimes, well I don’t know if you’ve heard of the thing called demo-itis? It’s like when you first listen to a record or a demo, sometimes you fall in love with some of the essences of that and, if you refine and overproduce, if you start tainting it too much, sometimes people lose that original vibe.
But sometimes I listen back but honestly for the most part I’ve been really happy with how all the final masters have turned out. So I just really try and let the songs breathe for a bit before I really decide this is the final version. I sit with the music for a second see how it ages over time. But it is sometimes funny to listen back to older versions and be like “Oh yeah, this is kinda tight.”
**_Have you had moments of doubt in your career? If so, how did you surpass those moments?_**
Yeah, I mean, I think I’ll be lying to you if I said I didn’t. Sometimes you get in your head about your direction and things, but lately, for sure, I feel like I have surrounded myself with a really good team that is really supportive of the vision and where everything is going but its also really tricky to be humble and keep me wanting to achieve to get even better every time. Whether its actual music-making or the live show, or whatever it is I feel like I got a group that is really honest with me and motivated to make things as good as they can possibly be. Right now I’m feeling good about things!
I think being creative you always doubt things, be insecure about things, always self-conscious about stuff. But you just gotta believe in yourself and the art that you are creating and surround yourself with good people.
**_Yeah that’s good advice. And what makes a crowd a good crowd?_**
Another good question. I think what makes a good crowd is they’re engagement and interaction with you. Sometimes people ask me if I prefer bigger or smaller crowds. The big crowds are fun because you are performing in front of so many people, which is a cool experience like with festivals.
But some of the intimate stuff is really some of the best crowds because you can feel the engagement because they are right there in the small room with you and you can feed off their energy, and you can see the people singing back to you to certain songs. And that can be the most rewarding thing when you can see a crowd that is very engaged in the actual performance and what's going on, and they aren’t there for whatever reasons, but they are really focused on the show. Engaging with every member of the band, you can feel that energy. That crowd energy is electric, you can form that connection.
Photographed by Ryder Sloane.
**_Someone that’s not alive who you would love to work with?_**
I was a huge, huge Beatles fan as a kid, my parents always played their records so I would say John Lennon. But I could name lots of names, I would love to be in the room with Jimi Hendrix, a crazy guitar player. I could rattle on and on.
**_I saw your website is very space-esque, so it made me think. If you are floating in space, what song would you be playing?_**
Cliche, I guess, but maybe “Space Oddity”? I guess I could say that.
**_Have you seen 2001?_**
Oh yeah.
**_Beethoven._**
