We speak to Greyson Chance about how Youtube changed his life
By Nicole-Marie Ng
In 2010, Greyson Chance’s life changed in a way that he could never expect. He became an overnight sensation after a video of him performing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” went viral on Youtube.
To date, the video has 56 million views and he has since gone on to release three albums, with the latest being “Somewhere Over My Head”, which was released this year.
During his interview with Weekender, Greyson shares, “I wish I could tell you I posted [the video] to become famous, but I think I just wanted to show my friends that I had some chops and that I can sing… And something amazing happened.”
When he was first thrown into the spotlight, Greyson was only a young 13-year-old. But after getting a sense of the industry, he says that the fame has started to feel normal to him.
Even though he’s been Los Angeles making music for awhile now, he still hangs on to home, “I still feel like that geeky kid from Oklahoma trying to make it through, in all honesty”.
Life on the road
Even as a young teenager, Greyson spent a lot of time on the road promoting his music. In 2011, he was touring for about 8 or 9 months with very few breaks in between. Yet he considers performing at shows the best experience he has gained from his music.
“I love doing shows, it’s always been one of my favourite things and it has been since I’ve been in music . I love writing music but when you actually go on the road and perform it, you get to see people sing along it’s really amazing.”
“Anytime I play live, I get really nervous before I get on stage no matter now polished the set is. But once I get on stage, it becomes a familiar place and every show feels special.”
When asked about the craziest fans he’s encountered, Greyson recalled the time where a girl bit him in the Philippines. “I hope it was accidental because it was a little too crazy for me. I started bleeding and it was bad. But, hey, I’m pretty sure she bought a CD so I was happy”.
Somewhere over his head
Greyson’s third album, “Somewhere Over My Head” will be released May 13. This album, in particular, means the most to Greyson and he considers it his most important body of work yet.
“I’ve been away from the scene for a long time and I had to go through some business struggles when I was dropped by my label in 2012. I went back home to Oklahoma after that to find a direction and some purpose.”
“I did some growing up and now I’m back with new music. I think people will find that it’s an older and more mature version of me.”
Aside from singing, Greyson also wrote every song on the EP. “I spent a lot of time going through ideas, writing melodies and finally picking the best five songs to show the world. The songs are mainly a reflection of my life experiences and interesting stories of my friends’ lives”.
We asked him to pick his favourite song from the EP and even though he said he wasn’t supposed to, picking a favourite was easy for him. “The last song is a track called “More Than Me”. It’s a very piano based song and I wrote it during a particularly dark time. The chorus phrasings are very gospel, which I go inspiration from having been raised by going to church. It’s a heartfelt lyric and it’s really sad, but it’s a song that is very special to to me and I’m very excited for the world to hear it”.
Greyson Chance new EP “Somewhere Over My Head” will be released May 13.
Greyson will be performing live in Singapore at A Rooftop Affair, Myvillage Rooftop at Serangoon Garden on Jun 18. Spend $90 at myVillage to redeem one invite or spend $160 at myVillage to redeem two invites. Redemption will be at myVillage, Level 2 at Concierge Counter Only on Tuesday to Sunday, from 12pm to 8pm. More details here.
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