Words: Garrin Faturrahman
Photo: grentperez

The Filipino-Australian singer/songwriter might just be the human incarnation of the popular “With a Little Help from My Friends,” what with his familiar wholesomeness that fans (and maybe you, too) might need in unfamiliar times of turmoil.

Said wholesomeness extends beyond his jazz-tinged music, as grentperez himself actually lets fan into the warm, figurative abode that takes the form of random TikTok videos, hangout sessions during his travels (one of which happened in Blok M as a trivia night with fans), to convos struck in an easy-going mood—the latter which was true for us as we sat down with him on topics around romance to his upcoming album.

Your career started all the way from those early YouTube era—the days where cover artists like Sam Tsui to Megan Nicole reigned the internet. What was the push that gave you the start to writing your own songs?

My siblings always wanted me to write my own music because they grew up writing their own music as well—they actually have so many songs that they just never released, from when they were growing up. We’d always make YouTube covers together. There’s videos of me when I’m like five years old on YouTube.

When I started taking YouTube seriously in 2019, I started getting a little bit of a following, and then I entered this songwriting competition for the youth group that I was in at the time. I just wrote a song for it, and I listened to it after writing it, and I’m like: 

“Wow, this is, this is pretty good. I should write something that’s not like, about youth and whatnot, like, my religion or whatever—I should just write a love song.” 

And then I uploaded one of my first love songs to YouTube. And I guess I just kept trying to write after that. The first song I ever released to streaming services I think it was through CD Baby, yeah, and it was “Wait for You” in 2020, so, yeah, it’s quite a while. That was kind of like the push.

As it is one of your biggest themes sung in your songs, let’s talk romance—the online media Dazed brought up how ‘dating culture is still in a crisis’ with dating apps overtaking ‘meet cutes’ and many finding their way onto situationships. How do you see romance nowadays?

For me, I’m fortunate enough to be in a position where romance is very abundant, like, I have a girlfriend, and I’m pretty happy. I’d say romance to me is about honesty, and, like a lot of the cliche things are what makes romance work, like honesty, communication, being honest if you’re really having a good time, being honest with them about what you think about, like who they are and if they think the same about you, etc. But I think romance nowadays, for the general population, is a bit… confused, maybe? In a way that nobody knows—nobody really knows what’s right, you know? Everybody has their own definition of how they think they want to be loved, and what they think is love.

And when you have your own definition of something, I know it can get really, really messy. It’s just hard. It is hard for people to meet other like-minded people. I just feel like meeting people in real life is just so, so effective compared to trying to force it. I mean, it’s easier said than done, for sure, but this is my view on it.

 

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I think that you find love when you least expect it, in a way, because I know quite a few friends who didn’t think they really wanted anything at the time they met their current partner, and it’s like the happiest relationship they’ve been in. So, I would say, like, it’d be nice to put yourself out there a little bit more in the real world, but I don’t know, it’s hard to say… time to say good luck transcribing this!

Does said honesty play a part in your songs too?

Yeah. I think the honesty, the genuinity, the quirkiness of love is definitely present through my music, for sure. If anything, like in future projects, it could be more honest or like, more somber and heartfelt. But yeah, I think it’s there.

Nowadays, social media plays an even bigger part in granting up-and-coming musicians a ticket to the greater public. However, that also means that it takes probably more than a lifetime to actually listen to every artist on the internet—which is also in line with the information overload that we go through everyday. How do you cope with this overwhelming amount of stuff we’re exposed to

I’m not a new artist anymore, but [for] artists that are trying to make it happen, like this year or like last month, there’s just so much on the internet. There’s so much competition. It’s really cool that social media gives people access to becoming viral or putting themselves out there. But it’s sad because it feels like, sometimes, that’s not enough anymore. Like, before, on old YouTube days, I feel like I was very fortunate, because I was right before the huge, big boom of TikTok. But in the old YouTube days, you could just upload an original song on your guitar, and as long as it was somewhat good, people would find you and be like, “Wow, your voice is amazing. This song means so much to me.”

But now, there’s a big question of, like, what is the value of a song or whatnot as compared to your presence in social media. Like, is the song valuable because the artist is popular, or is the song valuable because you like the song? It’s a weird middle ground, I think, but you can’t deny that it’s not a good thing for people trying to get themselves out there. It just makes it really accessible, for sure, but accessibility leads to a lot of competition.

Do you have any words to say to musicians that are trying to find their way through the endless maze that is the algorithm?

Yeah, I think, honestly, I’m still finding my way through other sides of social media. But to people trying to figure out their way, definitely just explore—explore yourself first, like, explore who you are as a person and what you think you can offer as a person, as an artist, and whatnot.

When you’re talking to the camera, be your genuine self. If you’re awkward, accept the awkwardness and just be very honest with it, like, I don’t think people should try and be this extroverted thing on camera, because ultimately, people can find your niche as well.

Explore the things that you know please your soul, in a way, you know? If you want to do long form content, if you want to do artsy types of content, you should do that. But alongside of it, you should do some dumb stuff too. It’s nice to have the occasional quirky, silly trend video, or, like, silly, meaningless, dumb selfie video, you know, just to spice it up—if that’s in your character to do so, you know, I think it’s important to have a mix of content.

Yeah, it’s a balance that I’m definitely trying to figure out right now. We’ll have videos that get quite a bit of attention, a lot of shares, a lot of likes, a lot of views. And there are other videos that we think are gonna blow up—and it doesn’t do it. So it’s a very difficult balancing act, like, I wish I had the power that, like Laufey and like beabadoobee have, where they’ll do like a lip sync video, like a selfie video, and it’s just like, oh my gosh, this is the best video ever. I’m like, ‘What? Let me try this,’ — it doesn’t work! It doesn’t work for everybody. But man, Laufey and Bea are killing it. Also, sad I didn’t get to meet Bea at Laneway. Anyways…

And also, for me, at least, I feel like the algorithm kind of bottlenecks me in a way where I tried to be like a creator of, like, all the stuff—I want it to be like joking, I want to have some music, maybe some art stuff. But it seems that it really likes when I do just the music stuff, like it pushes that out. But who knows? It’s hard to tell.

Going to the topic of your fans, you’re about to hold a trivia night with your fans later today in Blok M, and I also read that you seem to enjoy indulging in wholesome sessions with fans. Is this your way of maintaining human relationships in the age where we’re increasingly individualistic?

Yeah, I would say it is. It’s something that became more important to me, the more I met these people. I’d say I’m super fortunate to have teams like Secret Signals and my management team Fast Friends to, like, set it up for me.

But nonetheless, having that event is really, really important to me. I think these people are like, essentially, the backbone of who I am as grentperez, as an artist, and whatnot, you know? And first of all, it’s nice to give back to my community. But over the years, with what I’ve gained as a person, I think I’ve come to realize that I think my purpose in life is to connect with people and get to know people and, like, really share experiences.

I just feel like, yeah, we are very separate nowadays. Or we can be very individual nowadays. It’s just nice to say hello. Like, even a simple hello is really, really powerful. Asking someone how they are, and, yeah, I guess these fan events are my way of doing that, or our way of doing that.

Jakarta!!! lets go on a date <3 https://t.co/ZjheMM2Ij9 pic.twitter.com/bDH6y6dJSO

— grant ☆ (@grentperez) February 8, 2025

I think it’s really, really important. I talked to a lot of people at the cashier, or whatever, you know, I’ll try and compliment something, or just like, ask how they are and whatnot. Because I fully believe in, like, the snowball effect of that, you know? You say hello to someone, they say thank you to someone, or you share something, and then that person will want to do that to someone else. So I just hope that happens.

Still on that topic, I ran through your songs, and felt that you seem to value consistency in songwriting. Would you say that ‘consistency’ is your way of giving comfort to your fans?

Yeah, I would like to say, because I’m a big fan of experimentation as well, with the album that’s coming up on March 28, it varies in genre quite a bit, but I think having the one or two songs that you know anchor it back to my music, how my music was when I first started is important.

It’s kind of just like, I’m gonna go over here, but like, I know you’ll like this. I know you’ll like this for sure. So I’m gonna, you can try this, you know? It’s like trying new food. You’ll have, like, five dishes that are different, but then one dish to just like, make sure you still have something to return to. But, yeah, comfort is a good word for that.

Because, as much as I enjoy change, I can understand that change can be unsettling. It’s very weird, and I’ve seen it happen with other artists as well, even as a fan of some other artists, when they try to do a genre switch and it’s like, ‘Oh, I respect it. That’s cool.’ But then, you know, you can always respect it, but then have your underlying opinion about it, yeah?

You have your upcoming album to be released on the 28th of March. What can your listeners expect from said release?

You can expect quite a lot of songs compared to my previous releases. This album initially will have 13 songs and then a secret extra amount of songs afterwards. I think you can expect a roller coaster of emotions as well. Different vibes.

I think for me, the way I’d like to look at it is a song for every occasion. Because, yeah, it does really go through quite a lot of genres. You know, there’ll be folk, R&B, very indie and, like, some ballad-y stuff. But still centered around that crooner-ey and love aspect that’s in my music.

But ultimately, I think you can just expect an experience for sure. Even with the title itself, Backflips in a Restaurant, it’s very weird, and it’s an experience in itself. It’s very literal. It’s like, what is happening right now? And I think it’s cool. It strikes conversation.