Hot off the heels of the release of his debut album HOLD ON TIL THE NIGHT, Greyson Chance shows no plans of slowing down. We got the chance to sit down with him a while back before his album dropped, but here’s what the fourteen-year-old star had to say about the album aftermath…
How does it feel to have the album all done and out?
It’s really incredible, you know. The fans in Canada are tweeting at me saying stuff like, “we love the album!” and I didn’t even realize that it was out in Canada! So it’s all incredible to just see that it’s going places that I never it was going to go and I’ve been working on it for a year now, so it just feels really good to have it out there now.
What’s your favourite song on the album?
My personal favourite song, it’s the last song on the record and it’s called “Take a Look at Me Now”, and I wrote the track and, it’s just, the title explains it all. It’s going through your fears and saying “Take a Look at Me Now”. It has a very “look at me” now type thing about it, and that’s why I like it, it’s just a bit more edgy than the rest of the tracks.
Do you think that it almost reflects on your gravitating away from being an internet star and finding your feet as a musician?
I wouldn’t say it’s exactly that, it’s just sometimes I’m an insecure person and I let people get to me sometimes and that song, every time I listen to it, it makes it all go away.
What was one of the biggest things you learned about the whole process?
It’s crazy to think that, it’s just crazy how just 10 minutes of your time can turn into a single or a song. So I think I’ve just learned to take my time with the music and really let it sink in before I make any drastic changes in the moment.
Were there any particular frustrating moments throughout the recording/songwriting process?
Oh yeah, of course! I wrote more than half of the record, but it’s so much fun, I love the producers that I worked with for this album. We’d go into the studio and they’d be like “I think I like this line”, and I’d be like “No! I want my line in there!” and so we’d kind of argue a little bit in the studio, but it all seems to work itself out.
Your song “Little London Girl”, how did the writing for that one come about?
That’s actually one of my favorites from the album, I wrote it as well, and it’s fun because I actually wrote it in London. I was in London and I was working with a producer and the original idea was that they had this chorus, and they had this little idea “she lights my world, my American girl” [sings to the tune of the song]. And I was like “I don’t like American”, and we were in London and I was like “why don’t we go with London”. And you know, London is such an interesting place, it’s very worldly with girls in leather, skin tight jeans, leather jackets and ray bans, Motley Crue t-shirts, the whole story is basically seeing, meeting this girls who’s like total rock and roll, and who’s like “sneak out with me! Let’s go to London, let’s explore London”. So I even say, “I shut the door, you take me to Camden town… Kinks and the Rolling Stones”, so it has a lot of rock and roll references. It’s being a bad kid for a night with a little London girl.
Your tour with Cody Simpson wrapped up a bit ago, but overall how was that experience?
That tour was lots of fun. It was cool because we got along really well. I was particularly nervous when I first met [Cody], like “Oh, I’m going to tour with him, what if I don’t like him? I have to share a bus with him for 6 weeks!” But it was actually an amazing thing, and it was just so much fun. We were playing shows, selling out venues like crazy and we just had lots of fun. It was a great tour and I definitely look back at it and I have great memories.
Were there any particularly memorable moments?
Oh, there were lots. I remember specific shows and just remembering how great everything was going. And it was funny too, because he brought his little sister and his little brother, Alli and Tom, on the tour as well and I would go to the store and get silly string and just blast all of the Simpson’s with silly string! We had lots of fun.
How personally involved was Ellen DeGeneres throughout the album making process?
Ellen was very involved with the whole process, she’s the executive producer on the album and it was just such a pleasure working with her, and we’re still working together now. She’s become such a good friend and I’m so lucky and blessed to have her put me on this platform and she picked out amazing people for me to work with.
Do you feel like you’re shedding Justin Bieber comparisons at all?
You know, I feel like there aren’t as many now as there were in the beginnings. I think people realized that it’s a lot different the music that we put out. But I love Justin, I love his music and I feel like we kind of have the same hair thing going on.
Now that the albums out, what are you working on?
Oh, we’re promoting this album like crazy! I’ve probably gotten around 20 hours of sleep in the last week, so it’s been fun. They have a little cord from me that they just plug into the wall… no I’m kidding! But yeah, this whole year we’re just going to be going around, performing, also I’ll be on tour very soon.