Photo by: Refuse Society
Gryffin aka Dan Griffith has been growing up around music his entire life. His melodic and progressive house has captivated fans around the world and solidified him as a premiere electronic artist in the industry. With several tracks passing millions of plays on Soundcloud, it’s no wonder Gryffin has been featured at festivals all around the world. Gryffin has no specific genre to describe his sound, making him all that more unique among a sea of artists often producing mass saturation. His seemingly melodic sound is the perfect chill out music to forget about life and just let the music take over your body. He’s one of the most underrated artists you’ll come across and anyone that has listened to his music knows he’s worthy of headlining festivals. With live sets that capture an array of emotions, Gryffin is an artist you need to know about.
His “cloud house” is some of the most relaxing and amazing music you’ll come across and he delivers with astounding proficiency in every release. Although he hasn’t been producing electronic music for too long, he’s been rising through the scene faster than ever. RaverRafting had the opportunity to sit down with Gryffin at Camp Bisco to discuss his musical beginnings, rise through the industry, and future plans for music. Be sure to check out our exclusive interview below
How did this all start for you?
Gryffin: I’ve been playing music my whole life, I picked up piano when I was seven. I picked up the guitar a few years after that, so I’ve always been super into music and playing instruments, but I really got into production and producing electronic music when I was in college, there was a lot of cool music coming out and it really resonated with me. So I downloaded ableton and just started messing around with the program and seeing what I could come up with, so that’s sort of how it all started.
Your sound is a very unique one, how would you describe it?
Gryffin: Well, a lot of people keep saying it’s melodic house which I’m ok with. I definitely try and make music that is moving on an emotional level, but also still has elements of house and dance music. I use a lot of electronic drum sounds and synth sounds with the live instrumentation and the piano guitar.
I see you’ve got a saxophone right here, will that be making an appearance during your set tonight?
Gryffin: Yeah! Eric here came down from New York and he’s going to bust it out during one of my tracks tonight. Then Camile over there is going to sing on a track tonight too.
Do you have any opinion on sticking to one specific genre with your productions?
Gryffin: Not really, as long as it is dance oriented but also emotional I’m really not tied to a specific genre. Even with my EP that I’m working on and other records in the future I’m looking to branch out and experiment with different ideas and genres for inspiration.
What can you tell us about your newest EP?
Gryffin: I can’t say too much, but it will hopefully be coming out by the end of the summer. I’m done with about half of it and I’m just doing the final mix downs on the other ones. I’m very excited about it, there are some really cool collaborations on it. Some of the tracks are similar sounding, but a lot of them are quite different so I’m excited to see how people react to it.
Do you enjoy using live instruments more than the plugins you’ll find in ableton or different softwares like that?
Gryffin: Well, in terms of the performance aspect I definitely like to use as much organic sounds as possible with the piano and the guitar. Even in production too, but I’m all about experimenting with software and coming up with synths and stuff. It’s trying to find a balance between the two, the electronic element with the live element.
What do you think about the EDM “bubble” that is often referred to as something that will burst or has already bursted?
Gryffin: Yeah, I hear that a lot actually. I think there are signs of it sort of like maybe not being at the height of what it used to be. I think it’s just maturing at this point, even when hip-hop was breaking through and going mainstream, it’s still around and it’s still relevant. I think that is what is going to happen with dance music and EDM, it’s just going to evolve and change. And you even hear it at festivals now, you hear so many different genres under the electronic genre. It’s just evolving, I don’t think a bubble can describe it, it may not be as crazy as it was during the hay day, but it will definitely still be very healthy.
Do you think electronic music goes through phases with different genres of music?
Gryffin: There definitely are trends that will always come and go. I think as it continues to mature, you will see different genres and sub genres fuse into dance and it will be healthy for a longtime.
Should producers adapt to the genres that are currently hot?
Gryffin: I think it’s good to be aware of what is happening to understand modern production techniques and what people are currently vibing to. However, I don’t think you should go far to compromise the integrity of your music to just chase the trend. Figure out an identity and sound and belief of what your music is about and just be aware of what is going on and maybe you can incorporate some elements of it, but you don’t want to compromise the integrity of what you’re about.
Should producers try and pioneer their own type of sound?
Gryffin: Yeah, I think that’s super healthy for the community too for people to stay true to what they’re about and what they want to come out with. To keep it fresh, because you don’t want everything to sound the same because then people will get bored of it.
Do you ever feel pressured to produce what fans want or do you generally produce whatever it is that sounds good to you?
Gryffin: I think it’s a balance, there’s a reason sometimes why trend music gets popular because it inherently has something cool and special about it so sometimes I’ll get inspired by a trend and I’ll think about trying an aspect of it, but at the end of the day I think as long as the core beliefs of my music matches an aligns and I’m happy about the final production, then I’ll put it out.
Connect with Gryffin:
http://www.facebook.com/gryffinofficial
http://www.twitter.com/gryffinofficial
https://www.instagram.com/gryffinofficial
http://www.soundcloud.com/gryffinofficial
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