Bowtie Error, Fewer Reads in File Specified With -1 Than in File Specified With -2

Dynamic artist Grant went from Newgrounds novice to Monstercat mainstay

To say that Grant Boutin began his career early on would be a major understatement. Before he had even striking his teens, the immature EDM artist was already well on his way to becoming the fun-loving and creative musician he is today. Cheers to a picayune help from his friends, he discovered electronic music when he was 8 and started producing when he was 11. Songwriting nether the allonym of Grant Bowtie, he was only 16 years onetime when he made his Monstercat debut with "Reach."Flash frontwards five years and Grant'due south collegiate music studies have come to a shut. Transitioning into new and unexplored territory, this is an exciting time in his life that will see all of his hard work over the last few years coming to fruition. Both of Grant's latest tracks, "Wishes (feat. McCall)" and "Color (feat. Juneau)", have received praise and support from the Monstercat fanbase; both as well take quite the origin story. If it weren't for Grant meeting the right people at the right time through college, neither of these songs would always have been possible.

Grant took a trip down retentivity lane with Monstercat Blog writer, Curtis Joe for an exclusive interview. Check it out!

Congratulations on finishing up your last twenty-four hour period of college! How does it experience?

It just feels astonishing and also a little scary at the aforementioned time because I've just been a student my entire life and, now, I'm somehow but going off into the world and having to back up myself and also continue pursuing music. I think it'south pretty empowering at the aforementioned time considering there's no program B. I guess my plan B, if naught worked out, would exist like go to grad schoolhouse or something—only I do not want to do that. I recall information technology's a little scary and I remember it is for everybody. Everybody I talk to that I live with—I live with all musicians, everybody who'south trying to be in the music industry or exist an artist—literally anybody's just like talking every single 24-hour interval nigh how they don't know how they're going to survive, and we all have niggling plans and things just it's a crazy transition. I think it's something you lot don't feel 'til you've finished college.

You began releasing music with us when y'all were 16 and had already been producing for a few years prior. Tell us a bit about the area where you grew up and what life was similar before y'all started making music!

I started producing when I was 11, and that was considering, basically, when I was actually young—like maybe eight or something—I had this next-door neighbor, who'southward now killin' it, and I would always go over to his house and he would be making cool stuff on FL Studio, and I would be like so interested and sometimes I'd try to get him to teach me how it works. I was honestly too young to figure information technology out, but this person made an album of music for me with a bunch of electronic music similar Pendulum and Junkie Forty. It helped me develop a gustation for electronic music. I think when I was 11, I just wanted to try information technology out for fun and I really had no thought what I was doing. I honestly feel like, for the showtime five years of living at abode, working on music and middle school and whatnot, I had no idea what I was doing at all. I was posting music on this website called Newgrounds trying to get feedback from people. I didn't really care to learn likewise much almost production. To me, it was just a super fun extracurricular hobby. I mean, my parents were always super supportive of information technology, which I call up is really important for anybody trying to exist creative. I played pianoforte for similar eight years, also. That really helps with my compositions now, even though I'm much worse than I used to exist.

What factors attributed to your development as an artist—particularly early on on?

Early on, I call back I was trying to make some weird clash between hip-hop beats and really fruity melodic stuff. I think that when I first ever heard—I gauge it depends on how early y'all're asking—but, if we're talking right before I ever signed a song on Monstercat when I was xvi-ish, I start heard Wave Racer, which was probably the first ever Time to come Bass-y thing. I was similar 'wow, somebody combined hip-hoppy, not four out of four rhythms with something melodic and tricky and sparkly and happy.' Then that was a reference point for what I've been trying to do for so long. I also think that other inspirations were whatever was being posted on the internet at that time, similar going on Newgrounds. In retrospect, a lot of the music on there is pretty bad, pretty beginner-level, simply I still recollect that trying to continue up with everybody on that website as a immature kid… that was very of import to me. Information technology was really funny. On that website, you get ranked on a scale of ane to 5, like you can charge per unit a vocal five stars to zero. People would zero bomb your music, and and so my mom would be on there every single twenty-four hours five-starring my music simply to get it to the elevation of the lists. That was honestly an era of my life. Pretty crazy. Those were my truly formative years before I ever started on Monstercat.

Do you think some of your success has stemmed from starting out super early on, or practise you think y'all could take found your way if yous picked up music further down the road?

I think that I definitely would have establish my mode further down the road, 'cause, similar I said, the first couple years of producing, it was just for fun and I actually, really loved it, but I didn't care to learn how to make everything fine-tuned. I think that, fifty-fifty if I started later, I've e'er been doing music and I've literally never had any other huge interests. I've gone through phases where I like to do random other things, just I literally cannot imagine myself doing annihilation else. Honestly, if I had started four years afterward and I had the intelligence and the drive to figure information technology out, I know that I could've.

What was the first show you lot ever played and what exercise you lot recall nearly that experience?

First show I ever played… real show… I've never DJed until I came to college. I was DJing frat parties 'crusade my friends were like "oh yous're an artist." Showtime prove I ever played, though, was EDC 2017, which was frightening simply I played on the Monstercat Fine art Machine and pretty much nobody was in that location for my set except some of my friends from the label and maybe a couple diehard fans and my friends from schoolhouse. There were probably but, like, 20 people there. It was daylight out, it was over 100 degrees—only, notwithstanding, it was like so scary because I'd played on CDJs, which is like what every DJ uses to perform. I'd played on them for maybe ii weeks. I had been upwardly at the Monstercat office for a couple weeks prior and had to learn pretty much on the spot how to do it, and and then I was really scared how it was gonna work out. I recall there was some weird push that wasn't working that really stressed me out and maybe messed me up once, just information technology'due south honestly crazy how far I've come in terms of being comfortable on-stage and not afraid to leap around and be crazy or say things on the mic.

Would you say your friends are a large reason why y'all are where you are today?

Oh my gosh, yes. I think that the well-nigh prolific year of my music making was freshman year of higher. I came to college and my roommate was a huge fan of electronic music, and he became my best friend for the residue of the next four years. Everybody in my dorm was and so excited about whatever I was doing. I'd exist in my room, in a vacuum, making music all 24-hour interval and I'd exist feeling actually shitty considering that'south how you feel after 10 hours, and and then all my friends would mob into my room and they'd exist like "hey what are y'all working on today?" and I'd play it for them, and they would really inspire me to feel like whatsoever I was doing was worth it. I recall that that is something I honestly wish I had now. I all the same have lots of friends I can bear witness my music to, but information technology's never like somebody down the hall, can come into my room and cheque out what I'm doing. So, yeah. I think my friends have played such a huge role, encouraging me, and a lot of them are also musicians then they can give me their form of feedback even if they're not like huge fans of electronic music or they don't really heed information technology all that much. Information technology's always helpful to become feedback, like even my mom has been critiquing my music for 100 years and that's always been very sensitive because, with your parents information technology's similar are you critiquing me or are you critiquing my music? I have been so lucky to be surrounded past so many people that are believing in me and willing to help me with what I'g doing.

What's the biggest difference betwixt 24-hour interval one Grant and Grant today?

I'm a lot older… I think that, when I started higher, I thought I was the shit, I was really cool and I knew everything, and now I'thou leaving college thinking that I know literally nothing and there'due south so much more to learn and I take so much more progress to make. I think I've finally realized now what information technology takes to be successful in music, and I've also had to grapple a lot with why I even want to practice this. It'southward like a weird combination of selfish reasons and also wanting to only make people'southward' lives better, because I think I practice it for myself initially because I like the process of making music and I call back that's always the best reason to do information technology. It'south just 'crusade you bask the activity, the journey of doing it and non but wanting to be famous. But yeah, I'thou but a piddling intimidated now by how much I don't know. I've been doing it for so long now, to me it feels like I've been going at it slice by piece and still I'm still and so early in my career but I think that just kind of has shown me what it really takes. I recall I've congenital up my work ethic a lot since I was young, 'cause when I started, I was just like "Oh, music's a hobby. I don't really need to practice information technology that much. I'll just practice it whenever I experience like it." Pretty apace, I started making like one song a year and I merely think that at present I accept it a lot more seriously, and I really see it every bit one of the only things that volition requite me real fulfillment.

What is information technology about music, and more than specifically your genre of choice, Time to come Bass, that enables you to express yourself more fully than other artistic forms?

Future bass has been effectually a while at present. It's been around a couple years and I call up a lot of people see it every bit LFO, Supersaws, wubbing, chords… and information technology kind of got burnt upward pretty quick, but the way I see it is like one of the genres with the most potential for multifariousness because literally, to me, any vocal that isn't for the floor and has a cool melody to it could exist a future bass vocal. When I sit and make music I don't think I'm going to brand a future bass song, I just think that I'm gonna write an emotional or catchy tune that also combines well with electronic music. I think that those factors have always kind of influenced me in a way that kind of pushed me into future bass.

How exercise you get yourself rolling on a track? Practice you lot have any unique habits or things you do differently in the studio to help you channel your creativity?

In the past, I was really inspired by audio design. If I could create a really weird, perfect sound that could as well form chords or melody, and so that would always be my starting indicate: what is the sound that I take never used in a different song that also doesn't sound like anything else other people have used? I would accept that sound and I would then attempt to starting time building a song around it. Now? I try to do that all the same, but I'grand as well a little lazier… I don't know. Now I showtime with a song, which is then helpful because there are so many dissimilar means... I like to sit in the studio with somebody and write a song, ideally. Then, once I have that track, I tin commencement kind of interacting with it through the instrumental, like when the vocal stops singing you tin bring in new, artistic elements, but you always have to make sure that that song is like the forefront of what's going on. I like the vocal approach, also, especially with electronic music considering once you've got the whole verse and build and all that stuff, in one case that's all built out, you take something that acts as like kind of a reference point yous need to beat when you become to the driblet. Information technology'southward weird. I feel like I always make the most intense parts of my songs final, considering I always just want to beat whatever I had fabricated earlier. I don't know anybody else that does that, really, but I'chiliad certain people do.

For music artists, a lot of initial ideas get scrapped. Can y'all speak to this and some of the considerations that must be taken when turning a song concept into reality?

I recall that, too, when you're starting with vocalists or writing a vocal with somebody and it's not a very pretty sound at that point, you tin kind of do quality control right at that place and decide if it's a good song or non past its catchiness and its different qualities. I don't almost always stop upwards pouring dozens of hours into a song that I don't remember will ever exist used because I already waste matter so much time on the songs that I will release, I think information technology'southward a good way to prevent myself from having more issues and a waste of fourth dimension downwards the line. That beingness said, I think that only finishing things that you retrieve are going to release is kind of a poisonous mindset considering, once yous become stuck there, you lot might throw out ideas that could be absurd and yous just take no idea. So, I recall that that's something that every artistic person struggles with. It's just like is this thought practiced, or similar having writer'due south block halfway through. You know simply all those mental internal struggles.

Who is Grant in the studio and who is Grant outside the studio?

Grant in the studio is the almost boring person you've ever met. Grant afterwards ten hours in the studio doesn't know how to talk to people anymore… but I don't feel like I really share my personality at all on social media. I actually suck at that and I really desire to get ameliorate at it. I'm just likewise insecure about everything I'm going to say, so I don't say annihilation at all. It's bad. Exterior of the studio, I dear to party, I love to hang out with people, I love to take similar deep conversations with everybody. I merely like to have fun. I'chiliad pretty normal. I'k pretty extroverted, honestly. If I stay in my room too long I literally go crazy. I accept to get outside and get some sunlight. I accept to go talk to people and see how they're doing. I mean, other than that, I love anime, I dear video games, I play Super Blast Bros... for me it's literally like all 24-hour interval long—and aye, that'southward me!

From school to piece of work, scheduling fourth dimension for yourself and friends—and then, for you, shows and getting stuff done in the studio. How practice you balance all of that once things first to pile upwardly?

I arguably don't succeed sometimes, but I am more than responsible now than I was in the past. Like, if I had songs due—which I practice right now—I don't get out and spend hours hanging out with people just because this is now my job and this is also my dream, and then I can't compromise that in any style. I'm just like I've gotten too sometime and also far along… I've just come too far now and I've spent too much time doing what I'chiliad doing to but… socialize. I don't know. That sounds so salty and crusty, but similar whatever. I practise remember you accept to still schedule time for yourself, though, and, if yous don't, it makes life much harder, so I still try to work in petty breaks here and in that location.

What exercise you think are some of the misconceptions around DJs and electronic music that non-listeners seem to fall into thinking? What don't they know that you wish they knew?

I think that DJs get a bad rap. People think that they don't do that much, and from a purely performance perspective, that tin be either truthful or not true depending on how much work the person has to put in. I think DJing is ane of those skills that is easy to learn and very difficult to primary. I'm not the all-time DJ, like I love performing only I'one thousand never going to come in and be the all-time DJ considering it's just not what I spend all my fourth dimension doing. I write music, mostly. I retrieve that there'due south a lot that could be respected about a great DJ set up, because it's really nigh the overall arc of the whole feel and the creativity and the mashups that they use and the song selections… I remember that when you go run across a DJ, you lot're non just at that place to watch some guy upwardly there with headphones, yous're at that place for the entire production. I think that electronic music has some of the coolest production of just like any other genre of music. It's just really cool to encounter certain DJ's visions come to life both in their visuals and in their music. I don't know, I guess some people are mad virtually what a DJ is… but I remember that when a DJ set goes so well it's the coolest affair always. The oversupply doesn't care if the person isn't playing every single note in the song, they merely want to have a existent experience and good arc to the entire 60 minutes, two hours that they're there. DJs accept such a creative performance means, in the sense that they can like take songs from other people—that gets a bad rap. Some people get critiqued sometimes for not playing all their ain stuff, or for playing their own stuff too much. It'southward this double standard… only I call back that it'due south really cool that DJs can grab from literally anywhere and create this weird puzzle of amazing songs that take listeners on a journey.

"Wishes (feat. McCall)" was a massive release for y'all dorsum in March!

What led to y'all working with McCall on this track and why was she a perfect fit?

The reason that McCall's on the song is considering I started information technology off with this girl, Sabrina, who goes by Baum. She was on my vocal "Weapon," and she's really talented. We wrote information technology in my freshman dorm room, simply she stopped going to school after my sophomore year, and she went off to exercise her whole artist project—she's killin' it, you should become cheque her out—but then she decided that she just didn't desire to be a office of the project. She's like off doing her own stuff now, I totally respect that. I was simply in a tough position because the projection files corrupted and I didn't know how I was gonna always get in in that location and go the vocals to switch out… merely I've been working with McCall for a very long time. She has an astonishing voice, she's very talented, she'due south very charismatic and I love working with her, and and then she only gave information technology a shot. I actually tried a couple singers endeavour to sing the song, simply McCall just was able to sing it nearly exactly like the original vocalist, which helped me with having listened to it a certain way for literally three years. Information technology was about super weird to me to hear it any other fashion, but McCall hit that perfect middle basis where information technology kind of sounded similar the former one but it likewise sounded new and improved. I think it turned out really well.

What is it similar working on a song for that long, compared to quicker and more brusque-term projects? (For instance, some artists say they'll bang out songs in anywhere from a 24-hour interval to vi weeks.)

That'south crazy, I wish I could work that apace. Maybe half dozen weeks I can see, but similar… oh homo. A song in a 24-hour interval. That's so crazy. Did that once. Yep, so, I didn't really piece of work on "Wishes" non-terminate for iii years. I worked on information technology a lot for the first six months, and information technology was pretty much done and it'due south like submitting tweaks and so the project file corrupted, but I idea it was washed. I was like 'ah, it's okay…' and it corrupted considering like some plugin was incompatible with my version of FL Studio, for anybody wondering, but and so FL Studio twenty came out and it was open suddenly. I was so happy. Then I really, really, really put in a lot of work at once. McCall was on the song because I had to switch out the entire mix. I mean I had to redo the entire mix, I had to switch out the vocals, and it was interesting also because, listening back to information technology again after all this fourth dimension, I realized like how many issues there were with information technology, only like sonically. Information technology'south been a long journey, only I'm really glad information technology's out!

"Wishes (feat. McCall)" isn't your beginning rodeo when it comes to music videos. You also had "Constellations (feat. Jessi Mason)" final year!

Does the runway typically come outset and then the music video?

Yes, so the track came showtime and I didn't think it was going to accept a music video for a long time, but the guy, Justin Kroma, who's based out of Seattle and he did the Constellations music video and we've been friends for a super long time, he knew about my music back when I was Grant Bowtie. He reached out to me super randomly and said "Hey, I want to practice another video, I want like an creative outlet. Any video content we put together, I won't profit off of that. I'll just do information technology all for free just considering I believe in the music and I honey the songs!" So we put together a budget and we fabricated the best video that we could and I think information technology turned out really well. Information technology'due south pretty unreal that people like Justin out there exist. Shout-out to you Justin Kroma. Check him out on Instagram. He's cool.

What'south the procedure similar from your perspective? Exercise yous become to enact your vision for it, picking the locations and the actors featured in the music videos, or is that more Justin's thing?

I'd say 90% of the video was filmed in Seattle, so he kind of had to take control of which actors and which locations are available to him most readily in Seattle. He did come down to L.A. and film a little bit with McCall and I, then we have a trivial snippet in the video, a little cameo… simply the way that video did come to fruition, initially, was I dug through all my one-time tiny files and I found some like weird notes that I'd taken when I was a freshman and I had first made the song about how I imagined this interstellar-y space voyage that correlated with the song. The send is taking off in the build, so the drib is just… I don't know. I don't even know what I said, simply I found something like that, and my problem was that information technology was difficult for me to become into my headspace that I had when I was a freshman and when I first wrote the vocal. I really wanted to stay truthful to that. And so I just dug through all my sometime files, I pulled up a bunch of moodboard stuff I had constitute on Tumblr and referenced that and wrote up this like 2-folio document saying kind of similar a little story idea that Justin could kind of rip off of, and he did a really good job of adapting that into the story I think.

Do you think that you will exist doing this more consistently, having music videos for all of your music releases further on?

I think that if a vocal could do good from more visual elements to understand information technology—like I think "Wish" is definitely a song like that—information technology would definitely assistance, merely I think sometimes it's disruptive as to whether music videos help or non. I really like doing them, information technology really feels like I'm beingness function of like a greater whole… simply I also actually like lyric videos. I think I desire to do some more lyric videos in the future but 'cause they're easier to do and I think they really help indoctrinate new listeners into agreement the lyrics and but the general artful behind the song. Sometimes, at least for me, I find when I go on YouTube, music videos seem a little intense for an artist that I haven't actually heard… but yep! Probably more lyric videos, and so, if I have another single that is similar super, super of import to me and I want a skillful video, it'll happen, but we'll run into. I'm sure there will be another!

Fans everywhere are thrilled with your latest release, "Color (feat. Juneau)"!

Talk a chip nigh the track and how information technology has been working on it!

"Color" is some other song that started as a school projection. I wrote it with Jessi Mason, who is a vocalizer who'southward been on a lot of my music. Our consignment was to, basically, write a song in a day, so we went to the studio and we got all these insane session musicians playing on it. The guy who played bass is just absolutely killin' it on the song, and we had some drum tracks in there equally well… and I left that song alone for a really long time. I never that I would ever practice annihilation with it, even though it was tricky. My professors kept telling me "it's a cool song, you lot should do something with it." And then I was only thinking "Ah, I need more than material" a year later, "I need more songs and stuff", and "Colour" was one of the all-time ones I had simply lying around, and I was like "Wow, I should really do something with this." I besides decided that I've been in music schoolhouse for four years and I've never really worked hard to get a bunch of the cool instrumentalists to play on a song, and then there's similar a actually sick sax solo that I went to the studio and recorded and in that location's like some actually cool guitar parts. Then now it's just like, to me, this really cool combination of like as many existent instruments as I could figure out how to incorporate with a lot of electronic EDM elements. I'm actually proud of how that song turned out. I remember it's less of this weird emotional journey that "Wishes" is and it'south but way more of just similar a fun song that I just had so much joy producing and I think incorporated some cool new things as well.

What advice would yous give to aspiring artists?

I recollect, for aspiring artists, I would say that you demand to acquire tools but likewise you don't want to get likewise bogged down with tools. If you lot don't desire to get caught watching YouTube videos besides much, unless y'all are learning something that yous absolutely need to utilise in the almost future. If you lot're getting lost in the swamp of information on the cyberspace and you're not immediately applying it, you're going to feel similar you're making progress merely you're going to actually exist wasting fourth dimension and falling behind when yous should've just been focusing on making music. That's something that I also need to work on, not so much watching tutorials anymore just doing things that make me feel productive when I'm not focusing the correct fashion. I think that how y'all orient yourself, especially when y'all're starting, and how you use your time is very important. I also think that not following trends is of import, which also sounds kind of stereotypical, but I guess what I hateful by that is... information technology's about who y'all look upward to. If yous're a new producer, you're producing because yous like electronic music, and there's probably an creative person who you really look up to and you actually want to be like. I've had enough in the past equally well and they always change… but you need to make sure that whatever your standard for excellence is, in terms of who you're looking up to, you take to make sure that that person is somebody who is actually pushing the boundaries and isn't just doing what everyone else is doing, because I think it's like whoever you lot aspire to be, y'all become a piddling bit similar that in the procedure… and then, somewhen, you break away from that. You'll never go exactly like them because you will e'er have your perspective on things. But I just call back that, yeah, pick somebody to look up to. Find somebody that you actually enjoy listening to their music and make certain that, if you're going to try to borrow from them, that it's something that's really cool and unique!

Grant may be graduating from college, only he's just getting warmed up!

This coming of age story could be reaching its decision quite soon, but new chapters are being written meantime with Grant transitioning into his post-bookish career. As i of the bright immature influencers in today'southward electronic music manufacture, Grant has the opportunity to truly alive out his dream and comprehend who he is every bit an artist, inside and exterior of the studio! The future is taking form in front of our eyes, and Grant is right there at the forefront!

smatherswift1991.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.monstercat.com/article/monstercat-may-feature-grant

Share this post