15 questions with...Gryffin

With millions of YouTube and Spotify streams, and successful collaborations with Maroon 5, Carly Rae Jepsen and One Republic under his belt, there’s no stopping the meteoric rise of US producer and songwriter Gryffin. Here he describes how going from AC/DC to deadmau5 and classical piano to Ableton Live helped him launch his bid for Spotify superstardom

Dan Griffith, aka Gryffin, is a US DJ, songwriter and record producer who is fast carving himself out a fanbase of millions across Spotify and YouTube. He released his debut (and critically acclaimed) album Gravity in 2019, after making a name with a variety of melodic house tunes, including Heading Home with Josef Salvat (a Number One on the Spotify US charts) and Just For A Moment ft. Iselin (which has hit 51 million views on YouTube and counting). Since then he’s worked with Maroon 5, Carly Rae Jepsen, Aloe Blacc, AlunaGeorge, One Republic, Olivia O’Brien, and MØ among many others. So when he teamed up with Norwegian and Ed Sheeran remixer DJ Kygo late last year, the project was almost destined for success. The resulting single, Woke Up In Love, with Britain’s Got Talent singer Calum Scott was a huge hit, and together with another massive Gryffin tune, Reckless, has helped the US producer amass some 10 million monthly Spotify fans and over a million YouTube subscribers. Gryffin’s production ethos has almost certainly helped him attract this healthy fanbase, and here he dissects these methods and talks us through his (almost) software-only setup.

1. How did you start out in music production in the first place?