Grizfolk

By Ky Kasselman

Grizfolk is an alternative rock band based in Los Angeles, California. The band consists of Adam Roth (vocals), Swedish producers and instrumentalists Sebastian Fritze (synthesizer, backing vocals) and Frederik Eriksson (guitar), Brendan James (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Bill Delia (drums). Making a name for themselves by touring with the likes of Bastille and Smallpools, the band released their full-length album, Waking Up The Giants, in January of 2016. Most recently, the band released a single, “In My Arms,” in June of this year. Ky Kasselman got to speak to lead vocalist Adam Roth about the single, new music, and finishing off the year with a Texas run.

Ky: I just want to start by talking about your new single, “In My Arms,” which features Jamie N Commons. How was it collaborating with him?

Adam: It was cool! We met him when we were on tour, and it happened so casually. We invited him over to our place in Venice, California, and we just started working. That’s the song that came out, and of all the songs we wrote, that was the one we decided to push.

Ky: Is this the start of a new album for 2018, possibly?

Adam: That song, I think, is going to live on its own, but we started working on lots of new material. Now we’re just trying to go through everything, do some rewrites, and figure out exactly what it is we want to do.

Ky: So how is the new stuff you’re working on going to be different from your previous album?

Adam: Well, it’s been awhile since we put out an album, but we actually want to go back to our roots. When we first started, it was like I was doing Americana, and the Swedes were doing what they do. So, we want to go back and revisit that sound that we created when we first started. So that’s what we’re trying to wrap our heads around: how do we do that and how do we do that naturally?

Ky: You just finished touring, right?

Adam: Yeah!

Ky: How was that?

Adam: It was fun! It was an east coast run, basically, and it was nice to see a lot of the same faces. It was nice to play some of these new songs that we’ll be releasing and see the reactions to some of the new stuff. It was nice to work some of these new songs out live in front of an audience and then come back to the studio and make the recordings. It was a good tour, overall, and I’m really excited to hit the road again.

Ky: What are you most excited for about coming to Texas?

Adam: Texas is one of our favorite places to play for sure. The shows are always sweaty and full of life and some of our favorite shows ever have been in Texas. We’re definitely really excited to get back down there and finish off the year with a little Texas run. We’re excited to play some new songs there as well!

Ky: What can people who have never seen you before expect from your shows?

Adam: We try to make it exciting! We try to make it a new experience for someone who may have been listening to us for a couple years. We try to add a little bit of new life into some of the older songs. You can expect a high energy show. We’re a rock band. We’re called Grizfolk, but we’re a rock band. We like to put on a show and we like to hear people singing along.

Ky: What do you want people to take away from your music and your live shows?

Adam: I think we want people to feel something. We want them to feel some sort of connection to music, whether it’s lyrically or melodically, or whether it’s just the beat. We’d like people to leave and feel like they gained something from it, whether it’s just a couple smiles or a couple memories, or maybe a couple new friends. We’ve had a lot of fans say that they’ve made a lot of long-lasting friendships at our shows, and that kind of community is what we strongly encourage. We strongly encourage fans to go online and find other fans that are driving from distances to be there, maybe carpool, and make it more about meeting other people and joining the Grizfolk community than just going in alone.

You can catch Grizfolk at Main At South Side in Fort Worth, TX on December 5th, White Oak Music Hall in Houston, TX on December 6th, Paper Tiger in San Antonio, TX on December 7th, and Empire Control Room in Austin, TX on December 8th.