Electric Heart Alive with Griffin Kelly

What was the first piece of spoken word, poetry or rap you heard? How did it affect you?

The first piece of rap I ever heard that I can remember was "Parents Just Don't Understand" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. It was a time when Hip Hop was new and cool and no one was fronting to be a gangster or hardcore. I instantly wanted to be a hip artist after that. It was as if that song invaded my brain and took over.

Who is your favorite Artist of all time?

That's a tough question, but I would say it is a toss up between The Beastie Boys and Gangtstarr. Tha Beastie Boys had and maybe still have the most unique sound I have ever heard in Hip-Hop. There style and musicality and concepts are on another level entirely. Guru from Gangstarr has the most unique voice and flow of anyone in the game plus he was backed by the legendary DJ Premiere.

What is your method for writing lately? (or What does your process look like?)

My Method of writing os a lot like taking a shit...as in it is a cathartic process. I feel it squirming around in my stomach until I just have to let it out all at once. And then once it is out it usually takes about 15 minutes and I pretty much never edit the piece. What is there is there and what is there is perfect in it's own right.

Where is the most fascinating place you’ve travelled to with your art?

In reality the most fascinating place I have ever travelled with my art is right here in Melbourne. Seeing as I am from Boston Mass. originally it is pretty hard to find another place, at least geographically, that is further away, so in that sense it still makes the music I make out here in Aus. feel fresh and exotic.

What inspires you to keep Working?

I just saw the documentary on Amy Winehouse's life and career the other day and one thing that a coworker said of Amy was that the music was so inbuilt in her character that if she didn't pursue it she would literally die. I don't have all the amazing jazz stylings and level of talent that Amy has but I feel the same way in a sense that if I don't pursue my music and spoken word passion I would wither away.

What does a typical “being an artist” day look like for you?

Being an artist to me is about finding the fantastic in the mundane. It might be spinning a new tale on the food industry by creating a song called "Ball Sack Latte". Or it might be dressing up as an alien practicing for my song "Small World". Being an artist covers the range of the spectrum of expression and experience, but it is not always glitz and glamour, fer sure.

What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned as an Artist?

The quest for balanced life.

Fill in the blanks... Poetry can...

Transform someone forever with a single line.

How did you get started as a performer and when did you first start performing?

I started performing at a young age....you know typical class clown attention seeker type stuff. I was a big fish in a small pond as they say, at my school so it was easy for me to feel the confirmation in my performer. In about 9nth grade I went to a summer program called "Center For Creative Youth" In connecticut at Wesleyan University to study acting. There I met all the creative writers who were performing there poetry at local coffee shops. I was hooked instantly. I remember writing a piece of poetry about my dad and reading it at a coffee shop and the two girls I had a crush on at the time ran up after I was finished and gave me a bug hug....hahaha...I will never be the same again...

Soren Kierkegaard once said: “If you name me, you negate me. By giving me a name, a label, you negate all of the other things I could possibly be.” What are the “other things” you could possibly be?

I'm actually going to bite the answer of MC Monk from the Black Jesus Experience on this one and say, radio announcer. My dad and my mom met each other as they were both working as DJ's and I have my dad's voice, so it seems natural for me to have followed in their footsteps.