Featured Photo Credit: Broderick Bauman
You may know Greyson Chance from his famous cover of “Paparazzi” a few years back, which landed him as a guest on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Since then, Chance has grown into the talented young musician. He released his album Portraits back in 2019, earning him a loyal fan base. He headlined LA Pride back in 2019 and now he is gearing up for his second album. He just released his new single “Hellboy” and we chatted about his new music and much more!
Your new song, “Hellboy” just came out, is this the beginning of your second album?
Yeah. So, the first single was a song called “Holy Feeling.” That was like my declared first single for the second album. Long story short, you know, I, as everybody in 2020, you know, I had a really good plan going into the year. Then, I don’t know if you heard there was a global pandemic and so it kind of, it kind of ruptured up some things.
And so, 2020 I’ve released, a few different songs while I was kind of writing for an album. At the top of the year in 2021, we have things pretty firmed up. And so “Holy Feeling” was the first single, “Hellboy” is the second single, and I’m excited to announce that, next week, the fans will be getting a lot more information on the body of work. They’ll get a release date, a name and a cover art work next week. So, that is something to look forward to for sure.
What has the creative process been like for your second album compared to your first album?
Yeah, well, you know, back in 2019, that’s when I had my record Portraitscome out and, you know, I call it my debut, but I mean, technically my first album came out when I was 14, when I was still signed to Ellen.
Portraitswas me coming back to music, for the first time in so many years. And what I told myself, with that record was that I had to remain authentic and I had to remain honest. That’s the reason why I think the album came out in the way that it did. With this body of work coming up, it was a struggle to get back into the studio again and remember kind of that rebel kid that came into our record Portraitsbecause now I was signed to a big label. You know, we had a lot of other things going on, at a lot of voices kind of in my head. So, it took me a minute to kind of reclaim my voice and find it, and “Hellboy” was a great example of my favorite version of me when I create, which is kind of off the cuff, I’m inspired by everything. And the song was, I wrote it in Nashville and the morning that we went into the studio that day, I bought like this kick ass pair of red leather, high heel boots that made me like 6’6 or 6’7. I went into the studio and I said, we’re writing a song about sex today and I’m wearing red leather boots, let’s go. And we just had so much fun. And so that, that’s the type of songwriting that I love. That’s kind of off the cuff. That’s real, that’s inspired. Um, and so “Hellboy” is just an embrace of me being 6’7 in high heel boots.
What were your emotions like going into create your second album?
I was incredibly nervous. I was, for a large part of riding it in, really down on myself. I had very low levels of self-confidence. You know, tricky space to be in as an artist, you know, you’re all of a sudden thrown into this arena and, you’re given a deadline. Here’s how much time you have, make it amazing. For me, I’ve never been able to make the best music with pressure on me. so, for this record I was really, really nervous. I was really in my head all the time. It genuinely took me just a long amount of time and patience to be kind to myself and to say, okay, let’s get back to the basics of pen and paper, piano, and voice. What do I want to say? So, what’s cool about this one coming up is that it’s all me telling my story.
You know, what I will continually tell my fans is that if you want to know what happened to me in 2020, play that thing top to bottom and it’s all in there. So, I laid it out on this record.
If you could set up a fan in a setting for them to listen to your music, like somewhere, someplace, what setting would that be?
For me, I, it would be in Oklahoma. It would be on a lot of dirt roads that I grew up on, it would be just windows down in the middle of the summer blasting this music.
That’s my ideal time. I’m a sun junkie, so I love the summer. I’m not a fan of the cold. And, and that’s what I always come to harken back to that. If the song is not good with the windows down, then you have a huge problem. Right, so I live in that space all the time.
So, I think that would be the setting that I’d bring them into. Really good question by the way. That’s cool.
What is one quote that you’ve heard in life that you’d want to ECHO out to your fans?
Yeah, something that I’ve kept so close to my heart was Cyndi Lauper, telling me, she said you can only get struck by lightning if you stand out in the rain. And I’ve been in music for 11 years. And I’ve had a lot of low moments where I did not want to go out and stand in the rain, but I did.
Stream “Hellboy” now!