.

Christopher Whitehall Discusses The Griswolds Quick Rise To Fame

08/28/2014
.
(Radio.com) As one would imagine, The Griswolds are both excited and frightened as they approached today, the launch date for Be Impressive, their very first full-length album.

In the midst of what they're calling the "never-ending tour," the Eighties-adoring Australian foursome find themselves with radio spins increasing daily and concert seats selling out faster than they'd ever imagined. It's all fairly remarkable for a band that has only been playing together for two years.

Although the band has a hundred or more blogs to thank for their early buzz, the real fireworks began when Aussie radio station Triple J labeled them their Unearthed Featured Artist, landing them a spot on the 2012 Parklife Festival lineup with Passion Pit and Tame Impala.

Singer Christopher Whitehall phoned Radio.com from the road in North Carolina to talk about the new release, their love of Chevy Chase and an unexpected make-out session that almost ruined a concert.

Radio.com: What were you doing in 2012 before the band formed? Chris Whitehall: At that point we were in other bands and we had day jobs. We spent a lot of time writing songs for the first EP. We were working pretty normal 9-5 jobs.

What type of jobs did everyone have? Lachlan was a landscaper, Dan worked at an agency, Tim was at KPMG, and I was a cabinet-maker.

What was the moment like when you all got in a room and decided you were quitting your jobs? It was probably the moment we first went overseas and realized and we were gonna be there like nine months. At that point we were like, well, there's no way we can sustain working any more so that's it.

Did anyone have cold feet or did everyone jump in? We pretty much all just jumped in with both feet and yeah, it has been difficult. It's been a very hard transition. Now that the band is working harder than ever and we're touring more than ever, we're still growing as a band. There's still a lot of work to be done.

The band has had quite a bit of success on the internet, what has the radio exposure done for you? Ahh, that's been amazing. We're playing shows now, packed with kids that know our songs which is the greatest feeling. I think that's the key thing that we noticed. We noticed on a day-to-day basis because of radio. But with our album coming out, everything's going up. Our social networks are growing, our sales are growing, shows are getting more numbers, it's pretty surreal.

Have you received a review where you wanted to punch the writer? One of our very first gigs that we did we got absolutely massacred. [laughs] Some writer was in the audience and there was only about thirty or forty people at the show� and we put on a terrible show. We were probably drunk and sloppy and talking to our friends who were in the audience from the stage. They called the review, "The Way The Griswolds Broke the Five Golden Rules." I remember reading that. But it was more like a learning curve. We were shocked. But it kind of taught us what not to do at gigs, which is actually a really good thing.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Radio.com is an official news provider for antiMusic.com.
Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

The Griswolds CDs, DVDs and MP3s

The Griswolds T-shirts and Posters

Share this article

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it Share on Reddit email this article


...end