Grentperez Talks That Surprise NewJeans Cover, Tour Life, and Reveals the Meaning of His Stage Name

TV: What does your songwriting process look like?

GP: It’s a mix of things. Typically, it’s a chord progression that I think feels really nice, a melody that kind of complements that, and then moving into lyrics. I don’t really come into my writing with a predetermined topic, I kind of just let the music dictate what I want to write about. But as I’m coming along, writing an album and whatnot, I want to play around with a few things. Maybe coming into the studio with a topic in mind.

TV: Were there any key influences and experiences that contributed to the development of your distinct music style?

GP: I think it’s a mix of things. Definitely, being Filipino helped me develop my style. Filipino music is all smooth and it’s all about love. And that’s partly what I want to try and aim to create. So I think that kind of helped me along the way. I wound up bringing mixes of music, listening to soft rock, The Eagles, Bread, as well as R&B like Usher or Musiq Soulchild.

TV: Your family seems to have been an integral part of your career, as you started off doing covers with your siblings. What inspired you to start posting your covers on YouTube at age 12?

GP: My siblings always encouraged me to sing covers with them, and a lot of the music that I covered as a kid [weren’t] really songs that were typically for my age, so I grew up singing a lot of older music, a lot of classic stuff. With karaoke, too. I was always singing songs [from] my parents’ generation.

There’s actually videos of me when I was younger on YouTube — somewhere hidden on YouTube, you can find that if you’d like to — but I just thought it was fun. I wanted to show a portion of the world what I can do, that I can sing, and it’s just fun. I love singing, so I wanted to show people that I enjoy that.

TV: Did you always know that you wanted to be a singer and songwriter?

GP: To be honest, no, not really. I was studying art design in university before I took up music. I didn’t really think that I could make it as a musician or make it anywhere as an artist, so I turned to visual art.