Interviews (218)

• October 17, 2017
• Colleen Johnson
• 1158
• 0

As the leaves start to fall and the temperatures start to drop in Boston, rock and roll is coming through to give us the right way to heat it up. Next one on our schedule are the guys in Grizfolk who will be bringing it to Great Scott tomorrow night on their first tour in over a year and a half. The band kicked it off in Philly Saturday night and with a date in New York tonight, they’ll be on a roll once they hit us in Boston tomorrow night!
The band dropped their debut album last year and most recently put out their single “In Your Arms” featuring Jamie N Commons and took a long needed break from the road. We talked to drummer Bill Delia about the tour as well as what the band has been working on in the studio as of late! Find our chat below and catch the band at Great Scott tomorrow! Doors are at nine with Armors and The Godfreys opening it up with tickets $15 at the door.

Side note, my Lyft driver was named Godfrey last night so it’s pretty much a sign that tomorrow tonight will be incredible, see you there!

You’re right at the start of this tour, I know you’ve played only one show so far, on this run. Maybe how did that first show go and maybe hopes for this run since it has been a minute since Grizfolk has been on the road?
Well yeah, so we’ve been on the road for about a week and a half already and we were doing some radio promo dates, not really so much ticketed events. Then like you said, Philly was the first one and it felt really good. Since it’s been over a year and a half since we’ve done legitimate touring. We’ve done festivals and fly outs and what not but we’ve got our own guys out with us. Our crew, it was really fun. It was sick, considering Philly is my hometown so I had family come out, old friends. Felt really good and really fun playing some of these new songs!

I was going to ask, you say how you’re playing some new songs. How have you been approaching these sets for Grizfolk? The first album was something I know that you guys had been working on for so long.
Yeah, so this next kind of whatever it will be, whether it will be an EP or a collection of singles or maybe a full album. This next batch, we kind of approached with more of a group mentality. We cowrote with a lot of outside people, including Jamie obviously. I think everything is still kind of the Grizfolk sound and it’s just evolved a bit. All these songs are maybe a little more mature and a little more organic but they’ll definitely sound like Grizfolk.
And this is something where you’re playing a handful live, how are you approaching these songs in the set? Is it like half and half? Obviously you guys have been touring for so many years now.
Yeah we’re playing a lot of the old songs still. Like you said, it’s a handful of new songs kind of sprinkled into the set and we’re trying out some different things too. Like in the middle of the set, maybe stripping down a song or two to do an acoustic part. We’re trying to kind of, even though there are songs that a lot of people have heard, sometimes we try to do them in a fresh way that they haven’t heard before. Like maybe rework the tracks.

With this set of songs right now, you talked about how it’s kind of a group mentality. The song, “In Your Arms” with Jamie N Commons is the first single since the record. Maybe how did that collaboration come about? I know from interviewing him last year, that he’s been featured in a lot of songs but hasn’t really put out his first solo album out yet. Maybe how did that writing one out with Jamie N Commons?
We met Jamie when we were both on our own separate tours and we were passing through Portland, Oregon. This was a couple years ago and we had a night off, he had a show date so we went to the show. We hung out afterwards for a while, had a few beers, or more then a few beers probably and we kind of just struck up a friendship. Then when we both had some down time in Los Angeles, I think it was about a year later, we finally got together and invited him over to our little home studio and we just stated writing our song. It came out pretty quickly really. Sebastian had a beat that he was working on and Jamie liked it. Once we kind of got rolling, it came out really quick.

Then you mentioned there how you have that home studio. Is that where you’ve been recording the music lately, has it been kind of that more DIY approach to it? You’ve obviously had your mainstream experience.
Yeah, definitely, it’s kind of always how we’ve done things. A lot of the first album was done when we were on tour for years while that record was being made. So a lot of the time, we had to bring our laptops with us and we were in the van editing or in the hotel room trying to track a new guitar part. Don’t get me wrong, we were also working in these great studios like EastWest and Sunset Sounds in LA. We worked with Billy Bush for a little bit on a few of those songs as well. But yeah, we kind of like being in control and we’re all labtop geeks. We all produce music and it’s fun when we’re all in the van and passing around an idea on a labtop when we’re together and just kind of keep working on it together like that.

Then like I keep saying, the debut record just came out last year. You’ve been touring for so long. You’ve had the highs like touring with Bastille and X Ambassadors. You’ve stayed the same unit since the beginning really. What advice would you give to bands just getting started or maybe to keep at it, even though there may be those highs and lows.
I mean, just keep focusing on the craft of writing and recording. I mean playing live as well but really focusing on the music and don’t get too caught up in, not that it isn’t important, but other things like social media and whatever else. Just focus on the core of it, the music and the songs. Just keep writing all the time, keep trying to get the best sounding recordings you possibly can and hopefully, well you have to, make sure that the songs you’re recording are truthful to your vision. What kind of music you like is your target. So don’t settle.

Then to kind of end it off, you are on this run of dates I believe till the 25th, focusing here on the East Coast and the Southeast but you’ve talked about working on new music. What is the focus for the band over these next months, once you finish this run of dates?
Once we finish this run, we’re going to keep on working on new music in Los Angeles. We don’t have any kind of release date set yet for any material, besides what we’ve already put out. We’re just going to keep on working on new songs and finishing up some songs. We already finished up a couple new ones, we’re just picky. Keep grinding and keep on recording and hopefully we’ll be able to release some new tunes soon!