Interview: Dan Duque-Perez From The Griswolds

Sydney alt-rockers The Griswolds have stepped it up over the past two years. After the release of their debut album ‘Be Impressive’, the quartet went on a relentless touring schedule all over the world, and found a large sea of fans in the USA. Now they’re back, and fresh off the back of their most recent single. Out of My Head, they’ve announced their sophmore album, ‘High Times For Low Lives’. We had a chat with the Dan Duque-Perez, one of the band’s many multi-instrumentalists, about the new album, life in the city of Angels and why “alt-rockers” might not be the label for them anymore.

First of all, how’s it going, and where in the world are the Griswold’s now?

Yeah, it’s going good man! Just back in Australia for the first time in forever! Things are good. We just got back five or six days ago, and we were over there [in the USA] for about six months, so it’s good to be back!

How long are you back in town for this time?

Back for a couple of months this time! I think we have to go back to the US for a week or two in the end of November, for promo stuff – I think we have to do TV and radio – then back home for Christmas and New Years! BOOM! I love Christmas at home. After going away for so long, and we’ve been going away for so long over the last three years, but coming home from this last trip just made me realise how much I miss home.

When you head over, what sort of stufff do you take for your six month stint?

Mate, ok! Well, I take two big luggage bags with way more sh*t than I need, just in case I need it. And I make sure an Xbox is mandatory. This trip, Chris [Whitehall, lead vocals] and I had our own two bedroom houses in West Hollywood, and the first thing I did was get a f*cking Xbox up in there, so I could chill out on the couch when I got home from the studio. When I was in album mode, I wasn’t really up for partying. It was a pretty brutal schedule, to be honest with you. ‘Cause I was working on music for other people as well. When you’re in LA, it’s such a good time to get work done with people that you don’t have access to over here.

You guys have had some pretty different sounds from your first EP with the indie rock to ‘Be Impressive’ and the electronic sounds, what can we expect from the new stuff?

The new stuff is really different. When we started writing this album, we really didn’t want to write another rock-inspired album, which makes Out Of My Head the black sheep on the record. Me and Chris wrote this album together, and recorded it with a guy called Andrew Dawson, who’s done all the production and co-writes and mixing for Kanye West since about ‘College Dropout’. He’s done stuff with Lil Wayne, he’s done stuff with Beyonce, he’s done a lot of predominantly urban and hip hop stuff.

That was a really cool touch to the record, because it was starting to lean in that direction. We wanted someone who understood the production of that world, who knew how to strip things back to nothing and really focus on the beats, the grooves, and the vocals. This album has a lot more bare moments, is a lot more honest, and it’s a lot more challenging to the listener.

It’s really confessional and it’s going to be some stuff that our listeners are going to hear and think “f*ck, these aren’t good dudes.”

A lot of albums that we were listening to at the time for inspiration were like a lot of George Clinton, a lot of P-Funk, and a lot of old Motown records. Then things like Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ and ‘Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ by Kanye. We wanted to make a record that brought albums back to music. F*ck singles, f*ck writing what the label wanted us to write, stop thinking about an audience, and stop thinking about radio. Just write something that meant something to us both musically and lyrically.

It’s called ‘High Times For Low Lives’ and it’s a memoir of how as you get more successful, especially being from Australia, you’re taken away from your home so much. The dream that you thought you wanted to have, becomes more and more difficult to achieve, because it takes you further and further away from the life that you wanted to live. It’s really isolating.

For us to be away so much and on tour all the time, you’re never really in a city for more than 24 hours, you don’t really have real friends, except for each other. Your relationships fall apart, and it becomes really difficult to live like that. The record’s really just about that sh*t that happens; the drugs that get introduced and the lifestyle that changes. It’s really confessional and it’s going to be some stuff that our listeners are going to hear and think “f*ck, these aren’t good dudes.”

There’s no rules on this record, it just went wherever it needed to go!

It sounds like its a lot more raw and emotional! You were mentioning people like Kendrick Lamar, who has a very “Los Angeles” sound, do you think that where you were influenced how you wrote?

Maybe, but most of the record was written here in Australia. I think it was really important for us – we didn’t want to copy anyone – to get inspiration from other people. and not just for sounds. We didn’t want to sound current, we wanted to make a statement piece. It’s got interludes and reprises and stories between tracks that lead into the next song, explaining to some extent what it’s about, or setting up the vibe of the track.

I’d say that to a large extent that hip hop was a the biggest influence on the album for sure. We did a lot of sampling on it, and the backbones of most of the tracks is sample use, whether its beats or rhythms, or vocals. It was really interesting to work like that, ‘cause I’d never tried it before, but it’s really fun and a really exciting process.

 A lot of your tracks have little vocal hooks and harmonies, so do you feel like these things grow organically with the song, or do you see a gap that need filling?

I think it’s more like an organic thing. On this record we have a lot of gospel choirs who came in and do a lot, instead of doing gang vocals and chants. We wanted to take the anthem out of the songs and get more grassroots and raw with it. I think it’s more of an organic thing; we don’t really think “oh let’s have some dead space here”. This album’s actually all about the deadspace, there’s a lot of instrumental breaks, or breaks with no music or vocals. There’s no rules on this record, it just went wherever it needed to go!

I have one final question, and I think the answer may have changed over the course of producing this album. If there was a dream collaboration for The Griswolds, no restrictions, who would you want to work with?

[Laughs] Oh sh*t! See for beats, I’d really want to work with Pharrell Williams, but for vocals… geez. I’m really vibing on this girl at the moment called Noname, she’s awesome! Maybe Chance The Rapper!

That sounds like a great collaboration, and I’d want to hear it! Do you think that if I’d had asked you that question at the end of ‘Be Impressive’, you’d have come up with the same answers?

Umm, no. I’m always sort of churning through music, I’m not one of those super long-time fans. Kanye will always be one of my favourites, but I don’t know. Ultimately, Kanye, back then, so I guess it has changed.

‘High Times for Low Lives’ will be hitting your ears on November 11, but before then, check out Out Of My Head below!