Benjamin Laub, aka rapper Grieves, likes to talk about music. Our 15-minute interview could easily have gone on much longer because the guy knows his stuff – and his passion for what he does comes through.
Grieves will be playing the Animas City Theatre on Monday night, but before that, we talked about his newest album, “Running Wild,” and the importance of an album as a whole piece, not just separate singles.
Q: Tell me about “Running Wild” – I know you’ve gone in another direction with this compared with your other work. How is it different?
A: First and foremost, I think when people hear “different,” they think of two things: It’s either, “Uh oh, here we go” or “(BS), that’s just an excuse he’s using for making bad music” or whatever.
I think the difference, and what I mean when I say that, is that I’ve been so set in my ways as an artist and as a musician and as a creator that I never really stopped to think about other processes.
And after 10 years of, you know, lifting my head up from it, I realized that I’m kind of limited toward my own style, and I was tired of it, I guess. I’m not saying I abandoned it, because I didn’t, but what I did do with this record is I stepped away from it occasionally. And I learned so much from that process.
I wouldn’t have been able to do it if the circumstances didn’t come up the way they did, like I wrote the whole record in Stockholm; I was on flights pretty much most of 2016 to and from, in a city where I don’t speak the language, and I was left alone with me and the music and this mad scientist of a producer.
And I’m listening to the music that he’s making – he’s producing like radio hits in Stockholm and then he’s also in this reggae band. I’d come in every morning and he’s drinking coffee and listening to weird Swedish jazz, and I’m like, “What?! How can you appreciate all these things all at once?” And he’s like, “Man, it’s all music.” And I’m like, “What?” And so, although I’ve always drawn from other places, I’ve always felt I have to do my one thing. Not this time.
Q: Is it liberating?
A: It is extremely liberating. And with all things like that, it’s also kind of scary, you know? I’m in uncharted waters at this point. I know I can swim, and I know I’m a damn good swimmer, I just don’t know how far I’m going to have to swim at this point.
Q: I read something that I really liked about “Running Wild,” – that you intend this to be experienced as a full album as opposed to (a bunch of ) separate songs. Why do you think that’s important?
A: Because people don’t make records anymore; people make singles. Or, they just make a bunch of singles and then they throw them together as an album after they’ve already been released, and they’re like, “There’s my album. Here’s my tour.” I get it. It works.
That’s cool, but I was never inspired by anything like that. When I was growing up, or even when I was record-digging back in my super-hip-hop days when I’m chopping up records, I was never inspired by just somebody’s single; it was me sitting down and listening to like, some weird Brazilian record – I’m taking in the whole record and I’m captivated by the music and the experience that that artist had … I feel like they did this for a reason, right? So they put these songs in this order, together, for a reason. And that to me is important.
Q: Are you happy with “Running Wild”?
A: I am. I’m extremely happy with “Running Wild” because for once I made the record that I wanted to do, authentically and 100 percent ... I’m going to have a blast touring it; I had a blast making it. I wrote a happy love song on this record; I’ve never done that in my whole career.
Q: You released your first album 10 years ago. How do you think music’s changed since then?
A: If we’re talking the music business in general, it’s an artist’s market now. It used to be you had to get the deal so you could get the bank so you could make the record and then have the (distribution) deal and get all the resources. But with the internet now, it’s an artist’s market.
katie@durangoherald.com
If you go
What: Grieves “Running Wild Tour” with Reason The Citizen
When: 8:30 p.m. (doors), 9 p.m. (show) Monday
Where: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive
Tickets: $20 advance/$25 day of show
More information: This is an 18-and-older show. Visit http://bit.ly/2w44OtA.
