Rising Filipino-Australian artist grentperez drops EP about childhood memories in Philippines
Rising Filipino-Australian music artist grentperez got nostalgic about his childhood that inspired him to put out his newest EP, When We Were Younger.
The EP came on the heels of the success of the Gen Z artist’s debut single, Cherry Wine, which landed at No. 1 in music charts in Australia, Canada and Singapore.
In his own words, the seven-track EP “is a collection of music each relating to figures of the past, whether it be in love, loss, families and friendship.”
A few days before his show last June 16 at the Eastwood Central Plaza, he sat down with The STAR in a one-on-one interview and shared his happy and sad memories during his childhood.
The 21-year-old singer-songwriter was born and raised in Australia to Filipino parents and had been to the Philippines three times — in 2011, 2013 and the latest for his music event.
He was also glad that his parents are “very supportive” of his music career. They are his “No. 1 fans.” He told this paper, “Always. At the start, they didn’t question it. They didn’t ask if I wanted to be a nurse or whatever before I dropped out. But I’m happy that they are very supportive.”
“To be honest, my childhood (as) compared to Filipino childhood, especially it was relatively at home. Playing like games online with my friends online and from school. But I miss my cousins, I remember playing tag with them, (playing) hide and seek. Definitely, all that type of stuff, walking around being curious and dumb. It was definitely a big one for me. A lot of that,” grentperez added.
In the Philippines, he had spent time with his cousins, but wished he had frequented the country more often. “Like making my cousins have like nosebleeds because they… (I) couldn’t speak Tagalog. It was definitely a funny experience, playing basketball with the local kids. I was the only one with shoes, which was fun (laughs). I wish I was here more as a kid.”
The not-so-good memories, according to him, included, “like dogs passing or like friends having to move away, so you can’t speak to them again, failing a test and getting you know hit.”
Still about his early years, grent grew up listening to classics, such as The Carpenters, The Bee Gees and Bread. He said, “The characters of them (are) very smooth and simple. The lyrics are, you know, very strong but they’re simple and the chords are very, very nice. They move quite a bit. I try to incorporate that into my music as well. I think they just really inspired me growing up.”
When it comes to the new generation of music artists, grentperez mentioned Rex Orange County, Daniel Caesar, Paramore and local artist Juan Karlos as his “big (musical) inspirations.” He would like to collaborate with Gary V., Parokya ni Edgar, the surviving members of APO Hiking Society, Zack Tabudlo and of course, Juan Karlos, in the future.
He did Tagalog cover tracks uploaded on his YouTube and would love to pen songs with Tagalog lyrics someday. “Kunti lang,” he said on the extent of Tagalog words he could speak. “Enough to get me by, I’d say. No conversations. In Tagalog, just certain phrases.”
He categorized his music genre as indie jazz and started his career in music on YouTube, uploading covers when grent was a teenager. In 2021, he dropped his debut single, Cherry Wine, which soared high on Spotify viral charts across the globe.
“It’s definitely helped me bring a new audience,” he said of the ditty. “That song is my biggest song and a lot of people still look forward to listening to that song even after two years of the release. I think it changed my life the fact that it just brought people to me.”
His focus track Stuck on You, included in When We Were Younger EP, was written the first time he went away from home for more than a month. “During that time, I was in London. That was the farthest that I’ve ever been from them (family and friends). And I left during the time when things were just getting good. So then, I just felt bad, so I had to write a song about it,” he recalled.
What he looks forward to in his music career is “to see where the music goes.” “I want to see how experimental I can get and where’s my flow. And then, I just wanna see as well how many I can bring into my audience,” he said.
“I’m so super, super excited to see how it (the Manila show) goes. But in terms of the other countries that I’ve been to, every country has (its) own personality, which is really interesting like sometimes other European countries are very reserved. L.A. is very rowdy. Will see how the Philippine (concert) goes,” he continued.
By the looks of it, grentperez had a great time jamming with the Filipino crowd at his recently-concluded music event. He posted on Instagram some snaps of his show, including a reel of him performing My Heart It Beats for You with the audience chanting the Tagalog line, “Para sa ‘yo lang tumitibok ang puso ko.” He captioned the post, “Mahal na mahal kita Philippines (heart emoji). The line that Philippines was waiting for.”
In another post, he uploaded a series of photos of him roaming around Manila with the words, “Thank you for the memories PH (heart emoji and the Philippine flag). I’ll be back soon.”
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