Grant Kwiecinski, better known by his stage name, Griz, has taken the electronic music world by storm in just a short amount time. Producing for a number of years known under monikers such as GK, it wasn’t until Griz’s album release Mad Liberation hit the grid last year that Kwiecinski found popular success. Since then, Griz has become a household name of sorts in the EDM realm. He just released the album Rebel Era to much critical acclaim, forging a leap in Griz’s level of knowledge and production, both in a musical and humanistic sense. In the midst of his first nationally headlining tour supporting the ‘Rebel Era’ release, WRR had the time to sit down with Griz for an interview during his stop in Boone, North Carolina to speak on the evolution of what Griz has become.
How has your first ever nationally headlining tour gone so far?
It’s been great man. I’m learning a lot- learning a lot about myself, my capacities to get work done and play shows, and learning a lot about other people as well and how well you can live together. It’s like your this crazy family, and you sleep closer than we’re sitting next to each other right now. The shows have been fantastic, crowds have been super stoked on what we’ve been doing, and I’m learning so much as we play shows back to back.
Is tour what you expected? How would you compare it to past, smaller tours you’ve been on?
Some of it I did expect, but a lot of it I didn’t. I thought that it would be shorter, like I thought it would feel shorter. Every day is filled with so much, it’s like a time warp. It feels like this infinite thing.
What would you say is the best and worst thing about touring?
The best thing is that it feels like you’re on a pirate ship. (laughs) The worst thing is…I don’t know man. If you’re cool with inconsistency, this is totally conducive to your lifestyle. If you have to have a consistent lifestyle, this might not be your jam.
From Mad Liberation to Rebel Era, what would you say is the biggest difference in both of those records?
It’s just a vibe state really. Mad Liberation wasn’t made so much with the show in mind, where as Rebel Era was made a lot more with the show in mind. Other than that, it’s a lot of the same vibes as the last one, but a little more drawn out so that you can mix between things a little better.
You recently started Liberated Music, what inspired you to take that direction and start your own label?
It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. Since I understood what the idea of what a record label was, I just really wanted to curate a group of super talented people who inspired me to become a better me. I wanted to just get a group of people together that want to share awesome music with the world. There’s so many artists out there that people don’t know about, and I’m learning musical depth from them, and want to share that. That’s just how I feel towards it.
Is there any particular reason you went with The Floozies and Manic Focus as your first two?
Not really man. As the first people, no, but the reason I wanted to sign these guys was because I really dug their music. I listen to ‘Tell Your Mother’ by The Floozies all the time man. It’s such an amazing record. These kids deserve to have more publicity so if I can be of service to that then, why not?
How did you decide on support for the Rebel Era tour?
It was usually dependent on who was available, which was one of the biggest things. So first you usually see who’s available and who’s not booked for anything yet. So that limits it. You can’t just be like, “I want Elton John to open for me.” (laughs) It’s like, whoever is available that can do it, and beyond on that, how I could build a really cool musical lineup, and/or introduce your fans to some really cool stuff. All those things being said, I think we chose a really solid lineup every single night for all the markets that we’re playing. Also, we chose with the idea that these people would be good to hangout with on the road, and to share ideas with and expand your horizons musically and collaborate with.
Being with all those artists on tour, has that affected your outlook on Liberated Music? Any plans to add more to the label?
It’s always in the back of my head, or exactly what I’m thinking about in the moment. Liberated Music to me is something that I have really big plans for, but these types of things take a long time. I’m not saying it’ll take 20 years, but in order to execute it the right way, it had to be started. But as far as the final, end place of it, I think it’s functioning really how I want it to and it’s just going to take some time, and I got to find some space and make some more money to get it going even further.
Obviously when you and Dennis (Gramatik) get together as Grizmatik, the fans go nuts. Do you have any plans for future releases, such as an EP or something?
I would love to. I love making music with Dennis, he’s super talented and his taste for music is fantastic. Right now he’s a little busy doing stuff, and that seems to be the general theme, so when things start to work out better, we’ll get more done. It was originally just something we were doing for fun, but interest in the project began to exceed our own capacities. So now, we have all these outward demands to write songs and get stuff done and I have a lot of stuff I want done too. It’s a lot, but it’s never too much. We’re right in the thick of it, every single day.
How did you and Dennis get hooked up to begin with?
We had the same booking agent, and Dennis had a tour in the spring of 2012. I wrote some little blurb on Facebook, and Hunter (the agent) pushed me and he read the blurb, and it was something about the release of Mad Liberation. He basically said, “I want this guy on the road.” So I was out there, working on a song and Dennis- who was and still is one of my idols, I mean he’s a musical genius at producing- saw this tune I was working on, said “we should finish this together.” I was blown away, and it’s all downhill from there.
Both cover arts for Mad Liberation and Rebel Era are incredible art by Kilian Eng. Did you have a lot of say in the direction of the art, and if so what were your ideas for both of those covers?
His artistic vision is so unique, and that’s why I asked him in the first place. It’s like sci-fi, dark, beautiful, mysterious, anime-looking, super fantasy…it just looks very magical. For the first one (Mad Liberation) I had this vision of a place, but I didn’t really know what it looked like. I had this idea of what it might look like, so he made one draft, and based on that draft, I gave him a lot more direction for the second draft, and then more direction, and then on the third one I was like “you got it” so we knocked that out. It was a collaborative direction thing. When you tell someone to do something, they are going to take it and but their own spin on it, and I think that’s the beauty of good art, with that kind of collaboration. Same thing goes for the second record- It was like, guy in a Cadillac, may or may not be me, driving past this distant city, right at dusk, mescaline, Jack Daniels, Jameson, stars…”what does that look like?” So he took that, and it turned out to be super cool. Then the name came after the artwork, and I wanted to see the artwork so badly. I had only completed half the album at the time. Last time it took me a really long time to find the artwork, and so this time I made sure I could get the artwork in a timely fashion.
You said you came up with the title after ‘Rebel Era’ after the artwork. Do you think the title was influenced by the artwork?
I don’t know man. I don’t think so. It just kind of makes sense if you want it to make sense.
The Griz Family began to really spring up after Mad Liberation came up, and now is a big force. What do you think it is about your music, or just the culture of Griz that made a “family” come about?
It’s really the culture of the scene in general, and then it just happened to be my fans. Maybe it is more-so the kids that are into this headier, soulful side of music that drives them into a “family”… I think kids just really want to feel included, and a sense of togetherness and that this all really matters. They want to share their love for this kind of thing. They hang out so much at shows that it just makes sense, and they want to find other kids who love this thing. They want to get involved, they really do, and I love that about them. It gives them a chance to talk, and for me to listen.
It must be an amazing honor, to say there is a “Griz Family”.
To me man, this whole “Griz” thing isn’t even me anymore. It’s turned into this other world; I can totally separate myself from that. Sometimes it’s hard to, but I think that they love the idea of this whole thing. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but there’s no other kids it would be that are my fans, and that’s what’s incredible about it.
You’ve started the Liberators. What are your plans for that, and do you eventually want them to have a role similar to Ambassadors or Illuminators?
It’s something so much deeper than that. I want Liberators to be based around the lifestyle and the culture. You’ll see, it’s going to get really cool. It’s going to start at a level and keep getting bigger…at some point I don’t even want it to be apart of the music. It’ll be about taking the Liberators away from Griz and that being it’s own thing, like an artist collective, you know?
WRR would like to thank Grant for taking the time to sit down and speak with us for this interview. You can download all of Griz’s music for free via his website, and stream his album ‘Rebel Era’ below.
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