We Chatted With grentperez On Music & Other Niceties

Pretty cool dude

For these past few months, we’ve been donating our ears, hopeless romanticism, and curiosity to Aussie artist grentperez. As the youngest of three kids in a Filipino family, Grant grew up listening to a steady dose of The Eagles, The Beatles, Queen, and more. Soon, he started uploading YouTube covers of his favorite tracks, which he named ‘sing u to sleep’ series. The videos went viral and so did his original music. since releasing his debut single less than a year ago, he has already built over 2.8 million monthly listeners and accumulated more than 35 million streams. 

We had the opportunity to catch up with grentperez and pick his brain on everything music and maybe a little more. So grab some popcorn and start reading. 

1. Why did you choose the name grentperez? If that wasn’t available, what are some alternative names you would’ve chosen?

The name “grentperez” really started as a joke between me and a close friend! I would say that he dared me to change it, but in reality i dared myself haha. So i changed it, but it grew on me, I liked the way it looked so i kept it!

3. Describe your sound in 3 words

Soft, Melodic, Fun

5. For someone who is new to your music, what three songs would you recommend them to get them hooked?

(Only) About Love, Cherry Wine, Clementine

7. How did you come up with the idea of ‘sing u to sleep’ series? 

I was inspired by the works of Alaina Castillo, where I first saw the ‘sing you to sleep’ title which I was a huge fan of! However, I was curious to see how it would be like to include the guitar with the vocals and thus birthed my version of SYTS. I wanted to feel like sleeping to a phone call.

9. What was your favorite ‘sing you to sleep’ song and why?

The Rex and Daniel caesar SYTS’s are hands down my favourite videos, but if i were to narrow it to my favourite song, it would probably be Happiness by Rex Orange County. Just because of how vulnerable and soft you can sing the song, it fits so well to have such a gentle sound with those emotional lyrics.

11. What was the influence behind your debut EP ‘Conversations With The Moon’? 

Before the idea of an EP, the concept of Conversations With The Moon had only been to be a single song that I made to swoon my girlfriend when I asked her out! Eventually as I got more into terms with my writing I came about the other 5 songs and saw that a narrative could be made about ‘love’ in all of it’s stages from meeting to breakups to falling in love again.

13. Which song almost didn’t make it to the EP and why?

After that ‘narrative’ had been made, I feel as though every song had its full intentions to be in the EP. So in turn I think every song had a strong value in the collection!

15. What’s your personal favorite song of the EP and why?

Clementine has got to be one of my favourites. First off it’s based on one of my favourite moves, ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ and carries so much depth within its lyrics, speaking about a love that’s so strong you can’t quite seem to let go, no matter how hard you try, the feeling always seems to come back.

17. World ends tomorrow and you decide to throw a massive apocalyptic party. Which song would you choose as the opener? And which one as the closing one before we all die in flames?

HAHA! awesome question, in all honesty the first song would probably be ‘fruit salad – the wiggles’, and to end off with ‘Make It With You – Bread’ there’s something bout it.