Grentperez

Grentperez sits down with 1883 to chat about his latest track, his upcoming album, what fashion means to him, and more.
Grentperez

Aussie indie-alt artist grentperez crafts a unique blend of ’90s rom-com vibes and indie-pop. At just 23, he’s built an impressive resume, including tours with Laufey. Originally hailing from Sydney, Australia the Filippino-Australian singer-songwriter recently got recognition for his song “Dandelions” featuring Ruel from his debut album, Backflips in a Restaurant, which drops on March 28th. Ruel and Grentperez harmonise beautifully, while the music video encapsulates a serene-like flower field one can only envision while dreaming. “Dandelion” is the third single taken from his debut album and follows tracks “Fuzzy Feeling” and “2DK.”

After he released the track “Cherry Wine” in 2022, it was a song that put Perez on the radar of many tastemakers. Since that point, he’s continued to showcase his knack for mixing elements of R&B, indie-folk, pop-punk, symphonic pop and 70s soft-rock. Perez will be hitting the road for a tour through North America in April. 

For his first-ever 1883 Magazine interview, Grentperez sits down with us to chat about his latest track, his upcoming album, what fashion means to him, and more.

Photography by Babak Khoushnoud

Why don’t we start talking a little about your mood with a song? If you could describe how are you feeling today with a song, which one would it be? 

For some reason, the only song that’s coming to mind right now is “‘m Walking on Sunshine”. I don’t even know if I’m that happy, that song is just stuck in my head.

I cannot imagine the sun shining in London right now though.

That’s why I have to be my own sunshine [laughs].

I think I’ve listened to your music before but I couldn’t recall a song because you’re still upcoming. I did listen to “Dandelion” and I like that one. Could you talk me through the beginnings of your music career? When did you know that you wanted to become a musician?

My music career started on YouTube, in 2018 I started taking YouTube seriously. I started posting myself more, some covers and some originals and it didn’t get too much traction, but one of the videos blew up and people started liking my voice as well as my personality. A lot of people caught on to that, and quickly the channel started growing from 50,000 to 200,000. Now it’s sitting at 700,000. I haven’t been too active on there. I really should. It wasn’t till around the time I was in university, right before COVID, I was in uni for three weeks, and one of my teachers gave me a little review on this assessment. It was a group assessment, and she said that my submission was the weakest link. And I took that to heart. I was offended by that. I was like: “Wow, how could you say that to me?” It was around that time that I was considering just dropping out and doing music, and then COVID hit, and I was like: “I’m not doing an art degree, you know?” I’m not spending $30,000 doing an art degree at home. I’m going to drop out. I’m going to give my parents two years for me to try and do music.

And if I don’t do anything within two years, I’ll just go back to school. But since that point, I was writing music, and then I released a song called “Cherry Wine”. “Cherry Wine” gained traction on TikTok and Instagram and people found the other music that I had out at the time. Since then I’ve been touring and now I’m here. I’ve been touring and doing photo shoots. Let’s try acting next [laughs].

I feel like a lot of musicians have a very creative vision, and then they try out other things that are not necessarily just music. It’s so cool to talk to upcoming musicians and it’s cool to be there from the beginning. I discover so many amazing new artists on TikTok. I think it’s a bit difficult, though, to be able to really stand out, because a lot of people promote their music and do short-term content, and it’s super hard to stick with your audience. I did look at your TikTok previously, and also your Instagram, of course, to do my research, and it seems that you have a good creative vision already, which I think is good. If you could describe your work in three words, what would they be?

I could describe my work in three words… ideally, it would be interesting, funny and lovely. I think that’s a word that kind of gets glossed over. But I think having a very lovely project is sweet.

I would agree on that, because your vibe is very bedroom pop and very lovely, lovely. It has this very sweet and whimsical vibe which is very popular. Talking about your stage name, I tried to kind of imagine what the inspiration behind that would be, but I couldn’t come up with anything. Why don’t you tell me what the inspiration is behind it?

My full name is Grant Perez. So that’s my last name, and it’s Grant with an A for my real name. One day I was just talking to one of my friends, because he had recently changed his Instagram name to something funny. I was like “Oh, that’s hilarious. I want to change my name. I’m going to change my name to Grent.” And I changed it to Grent Perez. At the time, Instagram had a lock and you couldn’t change your name. I didn’t know that, so I changed it, and I was like: “Oh, no, you’re stuck with it”.

Anyway, I had it for 30 days, and by that time, I got used to it. I liked the way that it looked, it looked really clean. And in that way, it kind of separated my personal life from my work life, in a way, it’s cool because I never viewed myself as the main character or someone very important. The way that the name is laid out, all lowercase letters, like grentperez, to me that’s like I’m just a thing that exists in the world, like I’m a part of your world in a way. That’s the story of how it became Grent from Grant.

That’s a cool story! You would think there’s a crazy story behind it, but that’s a normal, grounded story. [laughs] Let’s talk about “Dandelion”, the song that came out recently. It’s also part of your upcoming album, Backflips in a Restaurant. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about the process of creating the album?

I would say I’ve been subconsciously working on this album for two or three years. Originally I wanted the album to reflect some of the music that I listened to growing up. I listened to a lot of R&B and a lot of groove. Originally the concept was that, but when I was thinking about it and thinking about what I want to release, I thought that was too far of a departure from my original music which is very lovely. So, I decided to dial it back and just really think about what I want to show the people, show my audience.

I know that I’m capable of a lot of music, so I just tried to experiment from what you can see from my releases within this album, you could probably see that a lot of the songs come from a different genre. So, that’s kind of what I wanted to encompass within Backflips in a Restaurant. A restaurant is the home of many different flavours, or genres of flavour if you will, and that’s exactly what I wanted to do with my music. I wanted to present different flavours and different genres.

Album artwork – Backflips in a Restaurant

I love that!

Essentially, a taste of what’s to come for the future of my projects.

My next question would have been, why did you name the album Backflips in a Restaurant but it does make sense. I think with growing your art and growing your music, it’s so important to blend different genres and different ideas, and not only stick with the same aesthetic or same sound. How do you think you have grown as an artist ever since you first started?

The way that I’ve grown as an artist is similar to the way that I’ve been growing as an adult at the moment. The age that I’m at reflects the age of who I am in my music as well. I’m at the start of my 20s. Being 23, that’s an age of figuring things out, and I think that reflects who I am as an artist as well. I’m figuring things out, I’m experimenting with my music, and I think I’m just growing as a person entirely. I’m trying new things. I’m putting on different clothes. I’m just really trying to explore who I am as a person. I’ve been trying to get more in touch with the business side of things, I’m trying to build myself up to be more confident, and I want that to reflect in my artistry as well.

How was it working with Ruel? What did you learn from him?

Have you ever met him?

No, not yet.

He’s tall!

Oh gosh,  I’m short [laughs].

He’s a very tall lad. But it was nice working with him. It was cool to become friends with him within the past two years. I was shocked to see how much of a chill dude he is, he’s super friendly, and very similar to who I am as a person.

We mesh well together. It’s very easy to work with him. He’s very chill, willing to do whatever and when he came up with the lyrics, it was quick. And his voice is amazing, as usual, so it was fun. He’s a funny guy.

Ruel & Grentperez

He seems cool. And his voice is also amazing. Are there any other artists that you would love to collaborate with in the future?

Yeah, I would love to work with a few artists. I would love to work with Rex Orange County, Daniel Caesar, and even beabadoobee, she’s from the UK as well. That’d be so cool. Just to name a few. But those come to mind straight away. 

That’d be so cool. You’re probably buzzing to work with so many more talented people. And I can’t tell you from your accent, actually, but you’re from Australia, right?

I am, yeah!

Your accent is not very strong. How does living there inspire your work?

I would say living there is very endearing, it’s very lovely, it’s very community-based. The people that I connect with in Australia inspire my work. I’m from Western Sydney, and a lot of us experienced the same things, we have similar memories growing up. And I think that the relatability between me and my friends in that area inspires me.

Growing up as a Filipino as well. We grew up around a lot of love. And this is probably important as well, being away from home is what inspires me so much too, because a lot of my work, I write from other countries. I’m in London or I’m in America. On this album, I worked with Benny Sings in the Netherlands, and much of what I’ve been writing recently encompasses missing home and long distance. So, that inspires me too.

If you have any tips for Australia, let me know! When I go, I’ll be surfing and waking up at 6 am because everyone does that there apparently. [laughs]

Living in Australia makes you want to be active. The weather is nice. It’s so easy to get around. The people don’t care. The people are so nice.

I love the carefree vibe! You’re going on tour in North America, which is exciting. What is your favourite thing about going on tour?

My favourite thing is getting to see the people who support me. I love that I’m able to give back to the people that support me, they can finally hear me live. And I’d say that’s probably the best thing because there’s nothing better than reconnecting with your community. And that’s what I feel whenever I tour.

Do you have anything that comes to mind when thinking about the best feedback you’ve ever gotten from a fan?

I feel like a lot of artists could say this as well, but when they [the fans] do say that this song got them through a point of life that was very hard, or „This song saved me.” In a way, it makes me recontextualise my music. It makes me rethink it. To me, it’s just a song. To me, it’s just words and a guitar, but to them, it’s a part of their life. And so, I’ve been thinking about that a lot with the music that I’ve been writing recently.

Let’s talk a little bit about fashion. Style and music are naturally connected. If someone cares about style in any way or fashion, they will think about what they wear in the morning. What about you? How would you describe your style? And is fashion important to you?

Fashion is very important to me. I can’t go a day without looking at myself in the mirror for 20 or 30 minutes. [laughs] Fashion is truly a form of expression, aside from music. Before getting to know someone, you can already see what they look like and it shows their personality from the get-go.

Who inspires your style? Do you have any style icons?

I’m bad at remembering names. But subconsciously, I am inspired by Tyler, The Creator’s fashion. I hate saying that because his fashion is so cool, but it’s almost too cool and too mainstream for me. It’s so hard to not be a trend follower. It’s difficult to stand out. I always like to think that my style is unique, even though some people might dress similarly, I’m different. Lately, I’ve been really into the preppy style, button-ups with ties and pins. Blue glasses have been a big part of my outfits recently.

I’m glad that you said preppy means actual button-ups and suit and tie, because I was babysitting a girl once, and she was like: „No, preppy is pink and Victoria’s Secret.” It’s just crazy how the younger generation defines words differently. What does a perfect day look like to you? 

A perfect day in my life would be waking up next to my girlfriend at the beach, that’d be great. This is gonna be the craziest day ever. Every time I have free day or, like, I try to do as many things as I can in one day. So, wake up with my girlfriend at the beach. Fish and chips for breakfast, because they’re fresh at the beach. Drive my car to a picnic spot, and then paint, I like painting. After that, go-karting. And after that, go home just to have dinner with my family, because I love my family. And then if my siblings were free, we’d have a jam sesh. All of us would sing, and then some other stuff. And then I’ll go to sleep.

That sounds good! Okay, now I need to go to Australia and have fish and chips at the beach.
There’s nowhere else that I’ve had better fish and chips.

That’s crazy. I thought it was England, but I will try them in Australia. What else can we fans be excited about, other than the new album?

Visually, I’m excited for these music videos to come out. Me and one of my close friend have been working on a few visuals as well as visualizers. Hopefully, a world tour, not just America, but we’ll see about that.

No promises just yet. I want to try and be as active as I can this year. New year, new me [laughs].

I don’t believe in that anymore. I’m just glad I made it through another year. [laughs] 

I also want to try and Twitch stream a lot more this year as well. And be more present within my community.

Lastly, what do you want to leave behind as an artist, but also as a human being? 

I don’t even know what I want to leave behind. My lack of productivity. I want to try and be awake and alert this year. A good word is trying because I don’t know how good I will be. Everybody aims, and everybody wants to be productive, but it’s hard to.

Backflips in a Restaurant is out March 28. Follow @Grentperez.

Interview Maja Bebber