Kina (and her husband) perform at Nashville's 3rd & Lindsley in February 2015.
YouTube musician Kina Grannis talks about touring, songwriting, and her latest album, Elements.
How did you first get into music? Did you always want to be a musician and songwriter?
I kind of came into music from a couple different directions, the first one beingthat I always loved singing. When I was a kid I was just singing all the time. Then I discovered piano and started writing little things on there. Then I took violin for a really long time. It wasn’t until about mid-high school that it hit me that I really wanted to do singing. That’s about the time at which I discovered guitar, and started teaching myself. Songwriting just kind of happened really naturally like that. That’s kind of how I found music itself, and from that point on I slowly started gigging throughout college and writing more. It’s an interesting process. I think as far as knowing that I wanted to do music – I do remember a moment in second grade when the teacher was like “what does everyone want to be when they grow up?” and everyone’s saying like “doctor” or “teacher” and all these things.I remember thinking it seemed so obvious to me that I wanted to be a musician that I assumed everyone did, and you’re like not supposed to say it [laughs] so I was like “hmm, I’ll just keep that one to myself.” So I had that thought early on and then probably in high school when I started writing again was when I first started thinking “I need to do this” but I still wasn’t ready to tell people until many, many years later.
Having your video win the Crash the Superbowl challenge kind of kicked off your whole YouTube career. What was that experience like?
It was a really crazy experience. I had just graduated college and I had moved to Austin, TX to pursue music out there and then I entered the contest not really thinking much of it. Then when I found out I’d made top ten and that I needed to get people to vote for two months, I was like “okay, how do I make this not annoying for everyone and make it something fun?” So I was really thinking of YouTube as more of a hosting website and not a community, not a tool. Probably a couple of weeks into that I realized I had stumbled upon something a lot bigger than I had thought. It switched everything. Because of it, when I won it, I got signed to a major label, but also because of it I realized I was gonna leave the major label because I didn’t really need one and there are people that want to support you for what you want to be doing. It really changed the game for me completely.
You’ve done a lot of collaborations on YouTube - one of my favorites being the “Fast Car” cover with Boyce Avenue. Do you have any favorites or any ones that were really fun to make that stand out?
That’s a hard one. I feel like they’re all pretty equal to me. It’s really pretty cool in that I feel like everyone I’ve met through YouTube and collaborated with is just so talented and so humble because I feel like so many of these people were not people that were going out to become a star – they were people sitting in their bedrooms being like “I like singing!” and putting it on the internet. So they’re all just amazing people and in all their own ways have been really fun to work with.
I feel like it’s a pretty unique way to get into music, through YouTube.
Definitely, yeah!
How do you find a balance between doing YouTube covers & videos while also being an artist yourself, doing original music?
So the way that I see it I guess is that first and foremost for me is original music and writing, creating just because that’s what feels important to me – it’s what feels meaningful, when I write a song. I think that’s hugely important to me. At the same time, I think that covers are like a fun challenge. They help you grow as an artist. They help you take something that’s one genre and try to make it your own. On the other side it also helps people discover your music. For me it’s been a great way to just kind of mix it up. If I could just put an original up every week I might do it, but I just don’t have the songs. I’d be writing my whole life. So the way I see it is my heart is in my originals and creating, and then by doing these covers in between it’s kind of like little treats for people. “Oh here’s me doing another thing and it was fun!” So they’re both fun, and I try to keep a balance because you don’t want to get too stuck in just creating. You have to grow and stuff like that, so it balances out.
You released Elements last year. What was the writing process for that album like?
I went on a lot of writing retreats. It’s weird with songwriting for me because I can never just sit and decide to write a song. If I do that I will never write one. So I just kind of need to make the space for it, and take out distractions, so the retreats have been really good for that reason. It just lets me turn of the internet for awhile and find the music again.
That can be pretty distracting with Twitter and everything!
Yes, endless!
You recently released the video for “Oh Father” and when describing it you said it was about your “newfound excitement in trying to live fearlessly.” Can you talk about that & the video?
I’ve been pretty shy my whole life, so it has been and still is in many ways a struggle just being out in the world. Whether it’s being at a party or just walking around – feeling like I couldn’t be myself or worrying too much about what other people are thinking. You get in your head. So I spent a lot of life like that, and I still do, but I feel like once you live through that long enough you start to realize it’s not fun to do that. It’s not fun to not be yourself and feel present. I think in the last few years that’s really struck a chord in me, so I’ve been trying to focus less on what other people are thinking and just do what feels good and not worry so much, not think so much about things.
I can definitely relate to all of that.
Yeah, it’s hard. It’s definitely hard.
What was the video like, making that?
The video was directed by one of my good friends Erica Dasher. She’s this amazing actress and writer and director. So we kind of collaborated to find this artistic vision that matched both of our feelings for the song. For me it kind of just shows that, all the chances you have in life – like in the case of the video, it’s almost like a reset, you get these chances over and over – and you can be afraid and timid, scared to be a part of the world, or you can just embrace it and dive in and have fun. So that’s I feel like in the video what I’m figuring out, that process.
I also like to focus on fashion. I love your personal style and what you wear in casual videos - do you enjoy fashion and being creative that way?
I do. I don’t know a ton about fashion, but I do love it. I like to look at it and appreciate it. I think it is a fun way to express yourself and individualize yourself. So it’s definitely something I have fun with, although not super knowledgeable.
Kina invited some fans to sing with her onstage - and they were surprisingly very talented!
Since you’re currently on tour, what’s your favorite part about being on the road and playing shows?
I think it’s just seeing real humans again because so much of what I’ve always done is online and through a computer. I see the numbers and I see the comments, but it’s hard to visualize that as people. So when I go out on the road I get to see people singing my songs and I get to meet them and hear a bit about their story, so for me it just makes it that much more real. I think one of the first reasons that music was always so powerful to me is that it connects you to people that you wouldn’t otherwise know. So that’s what it is for me, this shy person that couldn’t connect with people to suddenly be like “I can connect with you!” and it’s a really great feeling.