By SYLVIA BORGO
DEL MAR — Grizfolk, the Americana band with the Rock N Roll sensibilities, got a big audience and a beautiful day when it played Friday at KAABOO fest in Del Mar. Grizfolk headlined Palate + Play. We were fortunate enough to catch up with them for the California Rocker Q and A.
How was your summer? Have you had a bit of a chance to enjoy some downtime or has it been go-go-go?
It’s been a whirlwind, but the best kind of whirlwind. We released our new album Rarest Of Birds on July 19th and went on tour to celebrate, playing some amazing shows in some of our favorite cities. It was crazy to hear our fans singing along to the new songs just as loud as they did to some of their old school favorite Grizfolk songs. So humbling and gratifying and it just never gets old when you feel like your music is reaching someone besides yourself.
I know you’ve been on the road quite a bit these last few months, but where would you ideally spend your summer?
Touring and spending time with our fans is actually a pretty ideal place to be. But when we’re home, we try to get outside as much as we can..go to the beach, camping, dog parks, etc. However, if we were to take a vacation as a band, I think visiting Alaska in the summertime would be pretty high on our collective wish list..
Your latest album, Rarest of Birds, is fantastic. You worked with Allen Blickle on that album. What was that like? What was he able to bring to the table and how did the group benefit from the collaboration?
Allen was the glue that held it all together. This time around in the recording process, we were drawn to more organic sounds as opposed to the electronic tones that were on our first album…not even intentionally, but this was a natural progression because these were the sounds we all kind of had in our heads and wanted to chase down. The only goal we have when making music is to make something that we all collectively are proud of and just enjoy listening to. And that ‘genre’ changes over time, as it does for anyone, I suppose. Allen made this chase easy, because he has a great studio in Venice where there is this beautiful old upright piano and great-sounding drum set that we used to replace some of the synthesizers and drum machines/loops that inspired us on our first album.
You split your time between Los Angeles and Nashville. Why? Those two cities are giants for the music industry, of course, but I’m curious, how they stack up against each other for you, as a band?
We all met in Los Angeles, but have always had a fondness for Nashville. Bill spends a lot of time there because it’s his fiance’s hometown, and Adam moved there just over a year ago because he liked it so much and could also be closer to his family (in Florida). We wondered how it would work creatively (with half the band living in LA and Adam living in Nashville), but it’s worked out really well. We’ll all fly to Nashville for a week and have a hyper-focused week of writing/recording/whatever needs to be done, and vice versa when Adam flies to LA to work with us. When we’re together, we’re not worried about running errands/taking our dog out/etc, we’re there to work and be creative and make music. There are no distractions.
You’ll be playing KAABOO in Del Mar this year? How do you prepare for a festival as opposed to one of your own headlining shows?
We prepare basically the same way. I’ll say this, we maybe aren’t able to have as many stage props/lighting design elements as we can with our headline show (when we have hours to load in/soundcheck/etc), but the performance as artists is the same- we give it as much energy as we possibly can and play the songs we love to play, which comes naturally, because we genuinely enjoy performing live.
If you had could set-up your own dream 3-Day festival, who would be some bands you would book?
Bon Iver, Ruston Kelly, Kacey Musgraves, Glorietta, Phoebe Bridgers, Lord Huron, The Native Sibling, Mt. Joy, Laura Jean Anderson, Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness, flor, First Aid Kit, Wilderado, KALEO, Muna, Bastille, The Highwomen, Poolside, Knox Hamilton, Max Frost, Lizzo, X Ambassadors. We could keep going for a while on this one….
Did you ever play the “Choose This or That” game as a kid? Let’s try it here. Choose one of the following:
Game of Thrones or Sherlock Holmes?
GOT
Tea or coffee?
Adam might say tea. Otherwise, Coffee.
Soup or Sandwich?
Fred would say soup. The rest of us, sandwich.
Vampires or Zombies?
Werewolves!
Hoodie or Denim Jacket?
We’re big damn denim aficionados.
Grizfolk – Pretty Penny