In House With Andy Grammer

AOL Music brings you In House, our original series where we welcome artists to our office for interviews, live performances, photo shoots and hang sessions with our staff. Our latest In House guest is Andy Grammer, the 'Keep Your Head Up' singer and self-proclaimed "happy guy."

"I don't drink or anything. I do five-hour Energy to stay up with everyone," the 27-year-old singer-songwriter, who dropped his self-titled debut album this past summer, admits with a genuine smile. That kind of focus probably had something to do with Grammer's rise from having his "heart obliterated" on a daily basis as a street performer, to touring with the likes of Josh Kelley, Plain White Ts, Natasha Bedingfield, Colbie Caillat and Taylor Swift.

What is the biggest lesson you've learned so far on tour?

The most valuable lesson that I've learned from being on tour with people like Natasha, Colbie and Taylor is how genuine the love fest is. You know, when any of them come out on stage, they love so much that the fans are freaking out and the fans just love them so much. So I want to, during my career, develop that type of rapport somehow. It's just so much love. It's a circle, like "I know I love you!" "I love you too!" "Oh my god," and it just spins into insanity. I love that.

Watch Highlights From Andy Grammer's In House Interview + Photo Shoot Videography by Elizabeth Bruneau & Kelly Mahan, Production by Elizabeth Bruneau

What's the most memorable show you've ever played?

The Taylor Swift show was really cool. To get on stage with 24,000 people and have them sing back to you some of your own words was pretty amazing. And I came out from the floor, which was a first for me. You can either be popped up really high or come up really slowly, I went slowly but I got to try out being popped up beforehand like *NSYNC style, like "Bam!" So that was pretty unbelievable. There was also a show where Natasha Bedingfield came up on stage and sang with me, which was pretty exciting too.

Your dad [Red Grammer] was a singer-songwriter too. Were you encouraged or influenced by him to get into the business yourself?

It wasn't really encouraged or discouraged; he just kind of let it be. And basically, I think I just saw what it was like to be a real musician. I saw my dad leaving all the time and when he was home, working a lot. I saw him doing it for kid's music and I thought, "I could do that for real people, too."

How did his being gone all the time affect you?

There were positives and negatives. The plus is that when he was home, he was home. There wasn't like leaving at 8:00AM. We would have full, long days together to go do ridiculous things, so it balanced out.

Well if you have a family in the future, how do you see yourself balancing that with your music career?

That's a good question! Do you know the answer to that question? I would love to know. A family tour bus? I think the thing is, because you don't have a normal schedule, a nine-to-five schedule, when you're off, you should just be off.

Besides your father, who are your biggest musical influences?

I remember growing up, my parents used to play Billy Joel and the Beatles, so that was always in the background. When it came to choosing my own music, Lauryn Hill was huge for me. Coldplay I love. John Mayer, Jack Johnson. All of that together. I'm a huge fan of hip-hop, huge fan of guitar, and piano rock.

Who would you pick for your ultimate dream collaboration?

I don't know, there are just too many. I think I would love to do something where I sing the hook and there's a rapper on it. So, I love K'naan, I love Common, Lupe Fiasco, A Tribe Called Quest.



You describe yourself as a very happy person. Is it harder to make compelling happy music than it is to make a sad song?

I think it's harder to write an authentic happy song, because you're so close to the line of cheesy with happy. Even the word happy is a little bit cheesy. If you're sad, there's something real about that. A girl broke your heart, there's something easy about that. To write a song about having a great day is hard to do in a way that isn't just like, "Shut up, dude!" I think happy is like sugar. So if you're making something and you have too much of it and you can taste it, it's bad. So when you're songwriting you have to figure out how close to the line you can take it before it gets too sweet.

What odd jobs did you have before you were signed?

This is my favorite game to play. We've got McDonald's, which was the worst ever. I did McDonald's because I wanted to get a snowboard and I got my snowboard and quit that day. When I moved to California, I was a valet for a long time. I was on a cell-phone tour where I dressed up as a ginormous cell phone. Well, I was the groom landline phone and this girl was the bride cell phone, and we would stand in front of these stores, because they were merging the landline and the cell phone. And the costume was so huge that they had to get a U-Haul to take me on this seven-city tour. I'm sure that there's janitor in there somewhere.

But the best one was street performing. I did that for three years in Santa Monica after I graduated college, and that was how a really developed the skills to hold a live crowd. Whether they like you or not, whether they know who you are or not, you have to be able to hold a live crowd on the street and then convince them to buy your CD. That was like boot camp.

Did you get any super-harsh rejection?

Totally! One of the ones that sticks out in my mind was when I was covering a Michael Jackson song, 'Billie Jean,' and I wasn't even done. It's so brutal! The thing is you're singing on the street and no one is asking you to be there anyway. So then someone comes up to you mid-song and is like "Bro, bro, bro, bro ... No, 'Billie Jean' is not your cover.'" And he was doing it in a way where he wasn't trying to be mean, he was trying to be helpful. That's what's even worse! Trying to be like, "I love you, and you shouldn't do that anymore!" [laughs]. So then mid-song you're like, "OK ..."

So much of art and being a musician and putting yourself out there is just having your heart obliterated. It's very much like going to the gym. If you do a good workout, it hurts like hell. And then you leave and it feels good. So as an artist, or a musician, you just have to be ready to do good workouts and hurt yourself consistently. So, I just went out onto the street and got pummeled as an artist on a daily basis. I got used to hearing people say, "This guy sucks, I'm out of here." And you get comfortable with that level of pain in art. And once you're comfortable with that, you just get use to it, because you know that's how you grow.

What is your favorite song on your album? Pick your favorite child.

There's a song called 'The Pocket,' which was one of my favorite songs to play on the street. That was the first one that I wrote that turned the corner. And people walking by would look back and say, "Oh yeah, you're trying. You keep at it! Here's a quarter." Then I would play that one at the end of my set and they'd be like, "You know what? Here's 10 bucks, I'm buying the album." So, that one's a special one to me. That was the turning point of the audience giving to me by listening, to me giving to them.

Watch Andy Grammer's 'Keep Your Head Up' Video