Grentperez wants to “put a smile on your face." This kind of emotional connection to his listeners is not only a quote from his most streamed song, “Cherry Wine,” but also the singer-songwriter's mission.
21-year-old Grant Perez, known by his stage name grentperez, describes his multigenre sound as an “energetic” and “smooth” blend of "indie jazz and pop.” Through his music, grentperez tells Teen Vogue that he aims to “depict the feeling of a certain situation, whether it be a breakup or love.” Raised in Sydney, Australia and of Filipino descent, grentperez introduced his voice to the world through YouTube. Starting at age 12, he accumulated a fanbase by sharing song covers right from his bedroom. The artist’s songwriting journey began with a praise piece he wrote for his youth church group and soon after, an entry in a song competition (which he ultimately lost, though he jokingly insists the contest was “rigged”).
In 2021, the musician released his first EP Demo(s) About Love, and then churned out three more in 2022: Conversations with the Moon, Trail Mix Tape, and When Christmas Comes Again. His latest EP with Cavetown, titled When We Were Younger, arrived this June; and last month, while playing as the opener for the New Zealand and Australian leg of Rex Orange County's tour, Grentperez dropped his new, “lighthearted,” romantic single “Op Shop Lover." The singer kicked off his own headlining North American growing up? tour on October 17th. Two weeks before he set out on the road, Teen Vogue sat down with Grentperez to get to know the rising alt-pop star a little better.
Teen Vogue: When We Were Younger expands beyond romantic love, a topic your earlier songs centered around almost entirely. What inspired this creative shift?
Grentperez: During [the] time when I was writing it, it was very apparent to me that I was growing up. I was losing time for my friends and my family. And the same thing for my friends… they were doing their own stuff. It was really important for me to connect to my roots before moving forward with my life. I thought it was important for me to write an EP about things changing.
TV: What was your creative process like to bring this project to life?
GP: I wrote [WWWY] throughout the last year and a half, [while] I was already on tour. So to be honest, I've just been packed out trying to find as much time as I can and really trying to connect with myself spiritually, trying to connect with my younger self… Everything was written everywhere. There's songs written in the U.K., songs written in America, Australia. It's a mix. It's a mess.
TV: Congratulations on embarking on your upcoming growing up? tour. Can you explain the meaning of the tour's name?
GP: Thank you! It kind of relates back to the When We Were Younger EP. To be honest, it started off as a little joke, the title. But the more I think about it, the more it relates [to] growing up as a question. No one really knows when they're growing up. I'd say a lot of the times, you just find yourself and it's, “Oh, I have to mature, I have to mature now," or, "Oh, [I] have responsibilities now.” So, the realization of growing up often comes after the fact, [after] it happens, so that's the whole reason behind the question mark.
TV: How does this upcoming tour connect with your personal growth as an artist?
GP: I'd say this one is a big one. This is going to be my first big leg in America and obviously, touring in America is always a huge thing. It's going to be around 30 days of tour, so it's pretty gnarly. And that's a lot of personal development, a lot of mental health struggles and, “How do I overcome that?” So that's a big one for me as a person, more so [than] just as an artist.
TV: Can you share more about how you take care of your mental health?
GP: I'd say having a good crew definitely helps. Making sure you have time to yourself is very, very important. Especially when you're around [the] same five people for 30 days of your life, it’s a bit annoying, can get pretty irritating. (Laughs) And staying physically in shape. Going for a run, playing basketball, eating good food. Those are all important.
TV: What are some of your favorite foods?
GP: I love Filo food, I'm a sucker for Filipino food. Sinigang is great. I recently had Boiling Crab. I can't wait to go to L.A. just for that.
TV: Do you have any your pre-concert routines?
GP: Me and my bandmates all have a signature handshake, where we go in a circle and we curl each other's heads, and in the circle, we kiss each other's heads. So I do that, do a little clap, and then we work out a little bit.
TV: What does your songwriting process look like?
GP: It's a mix of things. Typically, it's a chord progression that I think feels really nice, a melody that kind of complements that, and then moving into lyrics. I don’t really come into my writing with a predetermined topic, I kind of just let the music dictate what I want to write about. But as I'm coming along, writing an album and whatnot, I want to play around with a few things. Maybe coming into the studio with a topic in mind.
TV: Were there any key influences and experiences that contributed to the development of your distinct music style?
GP: I think it's a mix of things. Definitely, being Filipino helped me develop my style. Filipino music is all smooth and it's all about love. And that's partly what I want to try and aim to create. So I think that kind of helped me along the way. I wound up bringing mixes of music, listening to soft rock, The Eagles, Bread, as well as R&B like Usher or Musiq Soulchild.
TV: Your family seems to have been an integral part of your career, as you started off doing covers with your siblings. What inspired you to start posting your covers on YouTube at age 12?
GP: My siblings always encouraged me to sing covers with them, and a lot of the music that I covered as a kid [weren't] really songs that were typically for my age, so I grew up singing a lot of older music, a lot of classic stuff. With karaoke, too. I was always singing songs [from] my parents' generation.
There's actually videos of me when I was younger on YouTube — somewhere hidden on YouTube, you can find that if you'd like to — but I just thought it was fun. I wanted to show a portion of the world what I can do, that I can sing, and it's just fun. I love singing, so I wanted to show people that I enjoy that.
TV: Did you always know that you wanted to be a singer and songwriter?
GP: To be honest, no, not really. I was studying art design in university before I took up music. I didn't really think that I could make it as a musician or make it anywhere as an artist, so I turned to visual art.
TV: What would you have wanted to be if you ended up pursuing visual art?
GP: Some sort of designer. Maybe even fashion, who knows? I really do enjoy fashion as well. But if there was a profession that I would choose if it wasn't creative, I would love to just stick my head into engineering full force, but I don't know. Maybe that's out of reach for me.
TV: Could you describe the impact that “Cherry Wine,” your first song to reach worldwide success, has had on your life?
GP: It's kind of gotten me to where I am now. I'm glad that the song that got me big was a song that I love dearly. I think it's great, because apparently, it's helped a lot of people find their partners, or go to prom, or maybe it's helped them through their breakup and whatnot, oddly enough. So I think it's great. It's established my connection to my community.
TV: So in Cherry Wine, you pop out your mouth trumpet. How did you learn how to do that?
GP: When I [learned] it I was 10 to 12. I used to watch a lot of beatboxing tutorials, and I couldn't learn any of the other tutorials. The only thing that I could really learn was the mouth trumpet. And I used to just do it as a joke, trolling my family and whatnot, just being really silly. And when it came to writing a song, I was like, “It'd be sick if there was a trumpet line.” And at the time, the person I was working with was like, “Oh, let's just do that.” And we kept it on.
TV: Last year, you embarked on your first world tour. What was that experience like?
GP: It was gnarly. I didn't really expect to do that so early in my career, but playing Europe was so so fun. So many new memories… Australia was gnarly. Unfortunately, I still haven't gone on a proper Asia tour yet. Hopefully next year. Seeing my community around the world definitely made me feel whole.
TV: What have you learned from those experiences?
GP: As corny as it is and as cheesy as it is, you could have a million people around the world, but music really does speak a universal language for the most part. Same thing with general acts of kindness. Kindness definitely goes around the world and doesn't speak a language.
TV: What was the process behind creating your stage name? Why swap the “a” in your name for an “e”?
GP: It started off as a joke. I was talking to one of my mates on Instagram saying, I want to change my name to “grentperez” because they recently changed their @-name to something funny. So I changed it, and during that time, I didn't know that Instagram has a 30-day name change policy. I was locked out of Grant Perez. I was like,“Oh no, what am I gonna do?” But luckily for me, by the time 30 days came around, I kind of liked the way it looked with straight e’s, no space. So I changed my YouTube name to that, and I'm happy. I think from that little change, it separates my personal life from my work life, as well.
TV: Hanni from NewJeans covered your song “Us Without Me” and you posted your reaction on TikTok. What was your initial reaction like upon learning that she had covered you?
GP: Yo, that was wild. I did not expect that whatsoever, and it's pretty sick coming from a fellow Australian as well. I was just in disbelief. I was like “No way. No way Hanni just sang my song like that.”
TV: Would you ever cover NewJeans?
GP: Hell yeah! I just gotta work on my enunciation. (Laughs)
TV: As a Filipino-Australian artist, what significance does Asian diasporic representation in the music industry hold for you?
GP: I think it's important because it shows the diversity. One thing that became apparent to me was when I was performing — after [one of] my sets I went downstage to talk to some of the people, and someone was like “It's so inspiring to see someone that looks me performing and doing what they want to do.” And I said, “That is really, really cool.”
It didn't really hit me until someone said it to me, especially coming from Australia as well. There's not a lot of Australian-Asian artists or Filipino artists [that] make it out of Australia, so I am doing something really, really great. It's important for me to connect to my roots and not forget who I am. Being Australian [and] being Filipino is very part of my artistry.
TV: What advice would you give to other young people who want to be where you are now?
GP: Try your best to discover your voice. Do things that really suit your voice and something that you enjoy singing. Obviously, keep experimenting. Try new things every now and then. Stay curious. Try and do things on your own for the most part. Don't try and search for a label straight away, because a lot of power is to be creative in today's social media. Explore new things!
