Active Child - Melancholy Love Ballads

Laneway Festival will be the first time LA resident Pat Grossi plays in Australia under the electronic moniker Active Child. His last appearance here was as an 11-year-old in the Philharmonic Boys Choir. Now, the classically trained musician combines the harp and synthy pop beats, with soaring results of danceability. He’s been compared to James Blake, opened for M83 and School of Seven Bells, and collaborated with How to Dress Well. Emily Tullock finds out where the name Active Child came from, how gigging and recording compare, and his all-time favourite love ballad.

Pulse: Where in the world are you and what are you up to at the moment? Active Child: I’m at home in Pasadena, California and just rehearsing and getting ready for the tour.

Your music training was quite formal and classical.

It was.

Was that from a young age?

Yeah it was. Basically, I guess it all started when I joined the Philharmonic Boys Choir when I was about nine. I’d been singing in choirs in school growing up. And then when I got to that choir everything got a little more serious; a lot more vocal training and stuff like that. From that point on I just continued to do music and a bunch of other things like playing the harp or the guitar or piano.

What first inspired you to combine classical sounds with more pop sounds?

I don’t know. I think it was a combination of having that initial experience of a lot of classical music with the choir and hearing from a very young age a very different style of music that I hadn’t really been exposed to before. But not only that but practicing it a lot and learning a lot of the compositions and I think that just was burned into my subconscious. Then when I started writing music I had all this other modern, more recent music I’d been looking to, like other electronic artists like Bjork and The Knife and John Maus – just other avant-garde or electronic pop artists. So I think I just naturally combined the two, not really intentionally but it just came together.

Did you encounter any skepticism from other people when you were combining say the harp with synthy , almost r'n'b beats?

I’m sure there are people who disregard the music or see me with a harp and then the songs that come out of it, and might not be into it. But I produced a lot of music just by myself and didn’t really tell anyone I was doing it. Then when I started playing it, I don’t think it was immediately obvious that I played the harp on the tracks. Maybe they thought it was a digital sample or a synth or something like that. I think overall people have been just excited about seeing music approached from a different angle and seeing a different combination of instrumentation.

How would you describe your debut album You Are All I See – because there seems to be a lot of melancholy love ballads?

[Laughs]. Definitely. I think the album was just a reflection of music that I love to listen to. I have always been drawn to melancholy and ballad type love songs about love lost or just beautiful love songs that combine a lot of that kind of avant-garde instrumentation. Peter Gabriel has a lot of stuff like that and Kate Bush experiments in a lot of that same area. So I think I wanted the album to soak in that mood of melancholy and just hopefully take you away to a place and make you think about people in your life or other past relationships or people that you love now that are in your world. I think that was kind of where my head was at.

Do you have any all time favourite love ballads?

I do. I’ve got lots of different ones that creep in and out of my life that sometimes I forget about. And there’s always new ones being made of course. I think a classic one is; actually two artists that I already mentioned, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush did a song together called Don’t Give Up which I think has always hit me in my soft spot as far as music goes. It's very big, emotional, not depressing - it’s more of an optimistic song I think about just feeling alone and they sing to each other reminding each other that there’s always going to be someone there to be your friend or to love you. It’s a really powerful song.

Where does the name Active Child come from?

That actually came from my Mom. I wrote a bunch of music while I was living in Denver a few years ago and I quit my job just because, long story but basically I didn’t have to pay rent on the apartment I was living in [laughs], so I decided that I would quit my job and see if I could focus on making music. That’s what I did and I think my Mom was worried about me so she came out and visited to see what I’d been up to. So I played her a lot of the music that I’d recorded and it led to her just telling me a lot of stories about when I was little and a lot of things that I didn’t remember and she hadn’t told me before about me being obsessed with sound and memorising melodies from a very young age. The name kind of spawned from those stories about me.

You’ve said that you prefer recording to gigging – is that the case?

It is. It’s always a little back and forth for me. Sometimes I play a show and it’s more powerful than any feeling I can get being at home and recording by yourself. But I think right now for me I really enjoy and savour the moments when I’m at home just in my zone and recording new music. I think that’s the time when I enjoy music the most, when I can just really have all my instruments around me and make something new and fresh and sit back and listen to it. Right now I think that’s my favourite place to be but it could all change.

Do you have any strange rituals to deal with pre-gig nerves?

I think I generally feel nervous but before a show I’ll try and disappear for a bit and leave the venue – maybe go for a walk or something and just get away from my other band mates and the other bands that are playing. The hustle bustle that goes on before a show can give me a little bit of anxiety, just thinking about playing, I almost just want to be like, “Can I just go up and play now?”

Will Laneway Festival be your first time playing in Australia?

Kind of. I travelled there with the choir when I was really young, I was 11 and we did a tour of a bunch of cities. We played the Sydney Opera House which was pretty amazing. We did Melbourne and Adelaide. This’ll be the first time playing my own music as Active Child so I’m really excited about that.

Who would be on your ultimate festival line-up?

Oh wow. I would say about the line-up this year, there’s a lot of artists that I listen to that I love. I’ve been wanting to see John Maus play. He’s an electronic artist who I think is just really an intelligent guy who writes really interesting electronic ballads that’ve been a big inspiration for my music. I’d love to see Karin Andersson or The Knife or Fever Ray, or Bjork or Sinead would be cool.

What’s next for you?

I’m gonna be on the road going to Australia then we leave straight from there to do a tour of Europe which should be really fun. Then we come back to the US and do a tour of the US. Doing a lot of gigging basically. After that, hopefully come home and start preparing for the next album.

St. Jeromes Laneway festival 2012 dates:

BRISBANE – SATURDAY 28th JANUARY 2012
Alexandria Street, Bowen Hills QLD 4006

AUCKLAND - MONDAY 30th JANUARY 2012
Silo Park, Beaumont Street. Auckland

MELBOURNE – SATURDAY 4th FEBRUARY 2012
Footscray Community Arts Centre – 45 Moreland Street, Footscray VIC 3011

SYDNEY – SUNDAY 5th FEBRUARY 2012
Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) – Balmain Road, Rozelle NSW 2039

ADELAIDE – FRIDAY 10th FEBRUARY 2012
Fowler's Live and UniSA West Courtyards – 68-70 North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000

PERTH – SATURDAY 11th FEBRUARY 2012
Perth Cultural Centre – Beaufort Street, Perth WA 6000

SINGAPORE - SUNDAY 12th FEBRUARY 2012
Fort Canning, Canning Rise, Singapore

Tickets on sale here: lanewayfestival.com.au. 

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