We caught up with Kina Grannis to talk about touring, some new material, and much more!
How are you going there Kina?
I’m doing really well!
Where about’s an I speaking to you from?
I’m in Dublin right now.
Have you been to Dublin before?
This is the second time actually. I played here last October, and I have my show here tomorrow night, so I’m pretty excited.
I’ve never been to Dublin before, but I can imagine it’s a little cool this time of the year.
It’s a little chilly, yeah. I’m having a little trouble adjusting to it having come from Southern California.
How are the shows going? How is the year treating you so far?
It’s been good so far. It’s been a lot of prep for the beginning of the tour tomorrow. I’ve been here for about a week, and I’ve been really excited. Tomorrow we head off on the road for several months between the Europe tour and the Asia and Australia tour.
You are coming to Australia not too long away now. This is your first trip to Australia, I understand?
Yes it is, I’m so excited.
You’re playing the Sydney Opera House, that’s not a bad way to start.
I’ve seen tonnes of pictures, I’m so excited to play there.
It’s well deserved, you’ve had an amazing couple of months with your viral music video ‘In Your Arms’. Can you tell us a little bit about the making of it?
Sure, it was a very intense process. It took about 22 months and basically, each second is made out of twelve photographs, and each photograph took anywhere between 20 minutes to one hour to make. We’d work to 7pm to 1am, and we’d be working really hard, but in reality it was only half a second of the video. It was a really interesting process, each frame was individually projected onto this table that was filled out with jelly beans and glass laid on top of those, and I laid on top of the glass. Each picture was very tedious, it made us a little crazy but it was definitely worth it.
Well it definitely worked very well for you, that was off your release StairwellS which was a little old, but you just re-released it last year as well
Yeah
In that edition there are a great covers, one of my favourite songs “Sounds of Silence”
Oh, I love that song!
How does it come about that they were the covers you were going to do?
Well, I’ve done a lot of covers over the years on my youtube channel between my originals. Usually I choose songs that I really love, or songs that I want to challenge myself by singing. ‘Sounds of Silence’ was just a song that I loved a lot.
When we look back on how this all started for you, what really stood out was your move to Austin, Texas which is considered the music capitol of the world. How did your move to Austin influence your music career?
Moving to Austin was the first time in my life I really go to feel like I was a real musician. I got to focus all of my attention on music. If you go to Austin, everything is music. All the cafes and bars have musicians playing. It felt amazing to be immersed in a crowd like that.
I’ve only ever been there for South By Southwest, which is obviously a very exaggerated version of Austin I guess. Have you played South By yourself?
Yes I did, last year was actually my first year and I had a really good time, it was so crazy.
It’s just a week of no sleeping and absolute exhaustion, but still a lot of fun.
Exactly!
So what is 2012 going to bring for you this year?
Obviously a lot of touring, and when I get home I’m finally going to get into this next album. I’ve been writing here and there over the past year, I’m excited to start writing again for the next album.
Do you feel any pressure with your music videos to be as good as some of your last videos that were so successful on youtube?
There is that worry. I guess with ‘In Your Arms’ it became so much bigger than we ever expected and a lot of people are thinking “what’s going to be next?” but it would take another two years to make a video like that again. I guess I want to try to do something different.
Well wishing you the best of luck with your tour, and we’ll see you in a short while.
See all of you soon!
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Catch Kina Grannis this March near you!
March 24th 2012 – Opera House – Sydney, NSW
March 27th 2012 – The Arts Centre: The Basement – Gold Coast, QLD
March 28th 2012 – Powerhouse – Brisbane, QLD
March 30th 2012 – Ormond Hall – Melbourne, VIC
