Kina Grannis continues to gain fans and seems to perpetually be on the cusp of blowing up into America’s mainstream conciousness. PopEater seems to agree and has chosen to do a feature interview with her. Of particular note they discuss the importance of her family, her experience with Lilith Fair and her advice to aspiring artists. You can read it in full after the break or by heading over to PopEater.
Who: Kina Grannis
Video: ‘Valentine’
Hail From: Mission Viejo, Calif.
For Fans Of: Sarah McLachlan, Colbie CaillatWhy She’s About to Pop: A sweetheart of Japanese, English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Scottish descent, Grannis taught herself to play guitar at 15 and hasn’t stopped writing songs since. After winning Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” contest and sharing her music with 97 million viewers, Grannis released the ‘Stairways’ LP, written in the stairwells of the University of Southern California.
The album peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Top Internet Albums chart, and you may have heard her tunes on ABC’s ‘General Hospital,’ MTV’s ‘College Life’ and CBS’s ‘The Early Show.’ PopEater recently caught up with Grannis on tour to chat about her musical sisters, YouTube commenters and Lilith Fair. Her music video for ‘Valentine’ has been viewed over 3 million times, but give it another peek after the break.
Eight Questions With Kina Grannis:
When did you start playing music? What was the first song you’ve learned to play on guitar?
Ever since I was very young I’ve always loved singing. I don’t think it was something I really thought about. I was just naturally drawn to music and singing and writing little songs from an early age and I assumed everyone was the same. It wasn’t until I was about 15 that it really hit me how badly I felt the need to sing, and that’s when I discovered an old guitar under our piano and started teaching myself. I was hooked. I spent the next many weeks locked inside my room learning chords, guitar tabs, strumming patterns, etc. I believe the first song I ever learned on guitar was ‘Quiet Little Place’ by one of my favorite bands, K’s Choice.
Who are your musical idols?
James Taylor, K’s Choice, Sarah McLachlan, Imogen Heap, Sigur Ros, to name just a few of many.
How does it feel to have played at Lilith Fair? What’s your most memorable experience from it?
Lilith was amazing. To be surrounded by such talented and legendary artists was incredibly humbling, and the energy of the whole event was so inspiring. It’s all about celebration, love, support and you really feel that being a part of it. The most memorable experience for me was when I got to the press conference and I saw my name tag on the table right next to Sarah Mclachlan’s. It all kind of hit me right then — how far I’d come, what an amazing event I was playing, that I was about to meet one of my biggest and earliest influences. It was a very powerful moment.
How’s the tour going? Have you found a city that you’d like to live in eventually yet?
Tour is great! If anything, being on tour and seeing all these great cities and people just confuses me. I’m realizing that most cities have something unique and great going for them, and I’d kind of like to experience living in a lot of them.
You have a massive and loyal YouTube following. What’s the most memorable video response/comment you can recall?
You know, there really isn’t just one. There have been so many moving, inspiring, awesome comments. For my birthday, one of my fans in Finland sent me this giant document of YouTube comments he found on my videos that were particularly moving. I just sat there in awe reading them. It’s such an honor and a privilege to be connected in this way to strangers all over the world and I am so grateful for it. It means so much to me and it really keeps me going.
What’s your family like? Are you close? Are they all musical?
My family is the best! My sisters are my best friends and my parents are our biggest supporters. My sisters and I grew up singing together all the time — while cleaning our rooms, doing dishes, you name it! — so it was a very natural thing for me to want them to sing with me in some of my videos. One of the things I am most thankful for is that my entire family has been involved and 100 percent supportive of my career from the beginning. It’s like we’re all going on this journey together.
Talk about your ongoing collaborative YouTube songwriting project in progress. Where did the idea for this come from and how is it going so far?
The idea for my “Co-Write With Kina” project came about when I learned about a new YouTube feature called “moderator.” It basically allows your viewers to submit ideas/questions/lyrics and then weigh in on which ones they like the most. I wanted to think of something that allowed my users to be creative and get really involved in something, not just vote up a question they want answered. When the idea of writing a song with them popped into my head, I knew this was what I had to do. Basically, I wrote the melody and I had my subscribers write the lyrics, verse by verse. It was completed a couple weeks ago, and go figure, it turned out amazing!
What would be your advice for young, up-and-coming singer-songwriters?
A few things. 1) Sing/write/play as much as humanly possible! This will help you hone your craft and your voice and help you to really grow into the best artist you can be. Of course, this growth will continue happening until the day you stop making music. 2) Get experience! Play at talent shows, open mics, coffee shops or, you can try one of my fail-proof techniques — singing in front of stuffed animals (I was 4!), in front of your high school Calculus class or in isolated and beautiful-sounding college stairwells. Practicing really does make you better and getting comfortable on stage is a really important part of the job. I’m still working on this. 3) Get your music out there! As scary as it can be to share your music with people, it’s what you have to do. Burn demos and give them to your friends. Make a MySpace page and put your songs up. Start a YouTube account and get some songs there! If people can’t find your music somewhere, well, then they never will. So share it. 4) Do it for the right reason. Do it because you love it, because you couldn’t imagine life otherwise, because it’s part of you. And the hardest part of all, 5) Believe in yourself.
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