The Squeeze - Gryffin: Take that Leap

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

This is a super exciting episode for your hosts! Taylor, in particular, is a huge fan of Dan Griffith, aka Gryffin. They dive into the life of a DJ, from the schedule to the environment that many people get caught up in. First, they go back to the beginning and learn where his love of music came from and how he actually went to school for engineering. Dan talks about the moment he took a leap and decided to pursue music, and learning the importance of delegation and having boundaries. He shares the role his wife plays in his life and career, and the importance of prioritizing his relationship. Lastly, he shares what the next year is going to look like, teases new music, and tackles a few Lemon 11 questions.  Be sure to follow Gryffin on Instagram and TikTok, @gryffin  Thanks to our awesome sponsors for supporting this episode:  Blissy — Get better sleep now with Blissy and use THESQUEEZE to get an additional 30% off at blissy.com/THESQUEEZE  OUAI — Go to theouai.com for 15% off sitewide when you enter promo code THESQUEEZE  To email us your questions or share your story, you can reach out to [e-mail]. Be sure to rate, review, and follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode! Plus, follow us on Instagram, @thesqueeze and personally @taylautner and @taylorlautner + on TikTok @thesqueezepodcast  To learn more from The Lemons Foundation, follow @lemonsbytay on Instagram and visit lemonsbytay.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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but who zorgloose an auto-hurt says, Uno-dos, no stress. No, no-verwaxed costs, always full-ledged. So, would auto-huees-on-sonder-sorgue, go to your re-sadviseur

or sunikars. I'm very, very grateful for being able to do this. My passion is music. I absolutely love it's my favorite thing in the world is to be in the studio making music. And the fact that I am able to do what I love to do, I don't take a second of it for granted, like 100%. But it's also a very stressful and difficult life that I pursued. When life gives you lemons, what do you do with them? Over here at the squeeze, we talk about it. Hello and happy Wednesday. You have two Taylor Lautner's. Welcome to The Squeeze.

Thank you for joining us. We are excited and honored you are here today. Yeah. I hope you're having a great week. Week so far. Yeah. If not, we've got another, we got another half to go. So there's still time to turn it around. Make that you turn. But yeah, we are honored to have you and very excited for this episode today. I have selfishly been dying for this one to come out because I have been a personal fan of this individual for quite some time. I started listening to his music years ago when all he did was remix songs. My favorite thing ever to search on Spotify was cool song Griffin Remix. Our guest today is Griffin. Oh, yes.

If you can tell by Taylor saying that. extraordinary DJ. And Griffin. He's great. And human. I mean, it was such a cool interview because I never really, I mean, before sitting down and talking with him, obviously, like, we're friends with him. But I've never, like, you don't, like, have this conversation with people. But I've never thought about, like, the mental health and the life slash lifestyle of a DJ.

And, like, what that entails, the environment, the touring, just like, how hectic that schedule is. and the world hectic that environment is, you know, performing at Vegas or wherever clubs at 2 a.m. The way that he said it best, I'll just give a little teaser. Yeah. But I loved it is he talked about how like, you know, the club in Vegas at 2 a.m. whatever is most people's like, you know, once, once a year, once, you know. Yeah.

That's like a special thing. That's like, ooh, okay. Do we want to go out? and should we go to Vegas for the weekend? Yeah. And go hard for two nights and have a good time. Yeah. That's his every night.

Yeah. That's his every night and that's his work space. So he was joking about how when like he does have time off and one of his friends, he'll be like, should we go to the club? And he's like, no. Yeah, I want to be as far away from a club. As far away from the club as possible. Yeah.

Let me sit in my living room and eat. Silence. Panda Express and watch a movie. Yeah. I don't know why I chose Manda Express. I haven't had that in years. I know. It sounds great.

I know. Orange chicken? A little chalmane. I don't know. Oh, brick. That sounds good. But it's a great interview. And I feel like it just really brings a unique outlook to a profession that not gets overlooked, but I think kind of does get overlooked in the sense of, you know, talk about artists like touring, like, you know, musician like singers.

But, you know, they have a, their shows are done at 11. Yeah. Yeah, it's a fascinating conversation, but it's also relatable because we talk a lot about, you know, sometimes how difficult it is to put your well-being and your family, your relationships, whatever it is before your work. Yeah. And it's so easy to get caught up into this like spiral of work, work, work, focus, focus, focus, like go, go. Yeah. But as, you know, he is Dan Griffin. Dan Griffith is his name. Griffin is his DJ name.

But, you know, we're tight. So we call him Dan. But Dan, yeah, he has a hard time. He's a hard time saying, put the work on hold. Yeah. Especially when you're in, like, a building. And, like, your career is, you know, rising and you feel it building and building and building. You feel the people coming from behind you on your heels.

Yeah. And that can be anywhere. That can be in the office, whatever world. Yeah, whatever that is. So it's hard to. We should talk about how that's hard to set that boundary in prioritizing, you know, well-being overwork. We also talked about, you know, what role his wife plays with all of that, which is awesome. Yeah.

Yeah. We're super excited to share with you guys. Yeah. It's a fun conversation. Thank you. Dan. Yes. Griffin.

and I hope you guys enjoy the conversation. We will see you on the other side. Dan, or for those that don't know, Griffin, thank you for being with us on The Squeeze today. We're very glad to have you. I'm very excited to be here. Oh my gosh, this is so exciting. Okay, what? Go ahead.

I feel like you want to say something. No, I just had a funny story. So the first time, it was the first time you guys met was at Taylor's. I mean, it wasn't a Bachelor weekend, but it was like the Miami Boys trip. And he was like, yeah, we're going to go to a Griffin's job. show. And I was like, oh my gosh, how fun. The next day, like morning we wake up. He calls me. And he was like, yeah, we had like so much fun yesterday. I was like, how was the Griffin show?

And he goes, it's Dan actually. I was like, oh, okay. We're on a first. We're on that level. I love it. That was fun. It was. It was. It was pretty cool to be there right behind you and see it from your point of view. You know what's crazy. That was my third show in like 14 hours or something like that. Really? I had done, yeah. I like forgot that I was even doing live that night. Ooh.

The night before I had, it was Hangout Music Festival. Or sorry, no, it was Vegas the night before. Wow. And then I took a 4 a.m. I got finished at 3.3.30. And I had a 4 a.m. flight over to Gulf Shores, Alabama. And then I did Hangout Music Festival that evening. And then I flew down to my.

and then I saw you at dinner that night and then we did the live show that night. And I like, I forgot even though I was doing it. Like you did an earlier evening show in Alabama. And then that show was whatever you probably went on at like one or something. I think I was on at 1.30 there. Wow. Yeah.

That is so crazy. I know. We were going to dive into all of them because this lifestyle fascinates me. But before we start, we start each episode with a little segment called Citrus Got Real. And in this glass jar, we have a bunch of random questions, very random. If you could just pull one. All right. If you could be any type of shoe, what one would it be?

Who writes this? I mean, I feel like I want to say like a nice crock because it's just so comfort. I knew I liked you. You just have that immediate comfort level with it, you know? Yeah. I'll go with that. Wow, I love that. Yeah, I'm good.

Crocs. Nobody's eating the Shrek crog? Oh yeah. You have? It has like the ears going on the sides. Really? I don't think I've seen that one. It has like brown fuzz in it, right?

And it has like ears on the, like, red. Why don't we have this? I know. Crocs. All right, I got you guys for Christmas. Okay. The holidays. Easy peasy.

What would your shoe be? Well, other than my favorite shoe brand, P448. Yeah. I think that would be your shoe. I mean, it definitely would because it's pretty much all I wear. But, yeah. I do love a crock. I love the specialty that we're, you know, getting into some rainy season.

I love like a fuzzy at-home slipper. But, yeah, I'll go with my P4-4-8s. Okay, fine. I like it. You can maybe be invited into the crock club. Okay. That's fine. Okay, so we have like a million questions.

I really don't want to scare you. We're just so curious about, you know, your life from, You know, everything you're doing now. But I think we'd love to start just, you know, from your childhood. Like, where did your love, like, for music originate from? Because we just, like, found out the other day that you're classically trained in piano. Yeah. Amy and Wade were telling us all that.

Yeah. They're like your big fan club. Yeah. I love them. Yeah. So I grew up playing classical piano since I was – I started when I was at seven years old. I did weekly piano lessons of classical, and then I would do like 30 minutes of performance with my piano teacher. And then when I was done, I would sit down and do 30 minutes of musical theory and like learning the craft and stuff.

Wow. Yeah. And my parents were like, they wanted me to just have some sort of structure, I guess, maybe, when I was younger. Yeah. But then I just ended up, you know, really actually liking it. I mean, well, I had a love-hate relationship with the classical side. of it, I guess. It was kind of like... That's hard as a kid.

Yeah. And like I was, I was into sports when I was younger. And so it was always like, oh, I got like, I got to do my piano practicing for the week. And my friends were like, oh, come on. We're like playing football outside. And I'm like, I got 30 more minutes here. I go on the piano. And then we can go play. So it's always like, kind of a love, hate with it. But as I continue to get better and then I started making or I started like learning how to play like pop music and different types of music outside of classical with piano. And that sort of segueed also me into learning the guitar when I was in middle school. So I started exploring like different music outside of classical.

But that's where it began. And yeah, and I did it from seven years old all the way through high school. So until I was 18. Did your parents like are they like musically inclined at all? They're actually not. Yeah. I mean my mom would like, you know, occasionally like sing to me when I was, you know, kid and like he would sing around the house a little bit but not and she could hold like a key but

wasn't any like musical background and my dad is not musical at all but he has not got nothing of that of that in him right so something as you guys know that has been a huge part of my mental health journey Taylor's mental health journey journeys as individuals and as a couple has been therapy Amen. And that is why I am so excited to share our next sponsor with you guys, which is cerebral. Cerebral is here to help you achieve your mental wellness goals with professional therapy and medication management support 100% online. You'll experience the all new cerebral way, an innovative approach to mental wellness designed around you. You'll get a personalized treatment plan from a therapist, prescriber, or both in a safe and judgment-free space.

I love that cerebral is 100% online because that means you have no excuse. You have to go. Like there's no, oh, I don't have time to go drive. It's too long of a drive. No, you can do it on your lunch break. You can do it before work, after work. And it's honestly just it's convenient. Yeah.

It's convenient and they have great therapists. Yeah. And it'll just keep you accountable too. So we highly, highly encouraged. that you guys check out cerebral because therapy is just done wonders for us and we know it'll do the same for you. To get started on your path towards better mental health, cerebral is giving our listeners 15% off their first month of online therapy, medication, or both. Get started at cerebral.com slash podcasts and use code the squeeze to make 2024 your best year yet. That's

C-E-R-E-B-R-A-L.com slash podcast and use code the squeeze. Offer is only valid on monthly plans. Other exclusions may apply. C-S-C-S-E-C-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-C-E-C-C-E-C-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-C-E-W-W. Yeah. I mean, in hindsight, I realized that it was a huge, part of my childhood. Yeah.

And that I did love it. But for whatever reason, I just always had it in my head that I was never going to do music. Like, even my, even my high school buddies were like, you were the, you were like the best in the music production class. And my teacher was like trying to get me to go to college to do music. Yeah. But I just never even, I didn't take it as a career path for, for whatever reason. I always, my dad was an electrical engineer.

Okay. And I just didn't know. I wanted to do with my life, but I was like, okay, I guess I'll just go to school for that. Okay. And figure out what I'm going to do for a career. That's why I went to school to actually study electrical engineering. Yeah, we just learned that. We were like, wait, what? I know. I know. So you went, you went to USC thinking you're going to become an engineer. Yeah. Was there a moment where you were like, what was the moment you're like, screw this? This doesn't, you know, this is not what I want to do and I'm just going to go for it.

I feel like it was all was building throughout when I was there at USC because I went to school for it, engineering. I got into my classes and I was doing fine, but I already knew pretty early on that I was, I did pretty well in high school. I got good grades and good SAT score and all that kind of stuff. But then I got into USC with all these other engineers and doing. physics and calculus and like circuit design, analog circuit design, all this like really like brain heavy stuff. And I realized pretty soon, I was like, whoa, I'm no longer like one of the

smarter kids in the class. I'm like at the bottom now. I'm like, wow, I have to work really hard to get good grades now. And it was just kind of a grind. Like I didn't, I was doing it, but I wasn't loving it. And when I was there at school, I got really into dance music. Like, there's all this, there's all this, EDC was happening,

Coachella was happening. Yeah. All these, like, music events at the shrine, which was down the street from USC and downtown. And I would go to these shows and just become, I became obsessed with dance music, honestly.

Like, I just was, like, because I never really heard music like that before. Like, I've been into all different genres of music. I listened to classic rock. I had,

like, a punk, punk pop phase when I was younger. And I like, music in general, grew up with classical music. So I've been exposed a lot of different stuff, but I didn't really hear stuff like Avichy and Scrilix and Dead Mouse at the time. And I was like, it blew my mind that people were making this kind of music. And I kind of became really obsessed with it. And I downloaded, you know, music program on my computer. And I was in my dorm room. And in between engineering classes, I was like learning how to make this music.

And still, even at that point, I was like, this isn't going to be a career, but this is like a hobby that's keeping my mind away from like the grind and my like not being satisfied with this engineering path that I was on. And at a certain point, I started releasing music on SoundCloud and YouTube. And it just started snowballing from there. And timing wise, I was very fortunate because as I was. finishing school, like my senior year of college, I started getting offers to do shows. Really? And whatnot. Yeah.

And it came to a point where as I was graduating still didn't think I was going to do music. I took a job right after school. And I was two weeks into training for my job. And I was about to get assigned on a consulting. It was like an IT consulting gig actually was the job. Okay. And right before I was supposed to roll on the gig, I basically started talking to all my friends and peers and parents and stuff being like, I don't think I want to do this. Like I think I really want to do this music thing.

And I had a lot of really like really tough conversations at the time. But yeah, I bet. Honestly, everybody at the end of the day was kind of like, you got to go for this. This is what you want to do with your life. You already have a path to survive financially. And you should go for it. And I remember talking to my boss that I was about to roll on to the project for. And she's like, well, you have the partners are going to be really pissed.

I'm not going to lie. But I'm really happy for you and you need to go do this for yourself. And once she told me that, I was like, wow. I'm going for it. Props to that lady. I know. That's cool. Vanessa, wherever you are.

Vanessa. Thank you. Way to go, Vanessa. Yeah. I was going to say, what was your like parents? reaction to you telling them that? It was, they were really, really shocked at first. They weren't like mad.

It was almost just, they were just surprised. I think they, like, had a hard time understanding it. And I, I get it. Yeah. They paid me. Like, USC's not, yeah, it's an expensive school. And for me to just totally pivot out of that education path. I bet that it was a little bit of shock for sure.

Yeah. So they didn't. And it's not that they didn't take it while they were just like, oh, so okay, that's what you want to do. Like, they kind of started like talking through it more. And I think what did help me again with like the fortunate timing was that I was able to finish and get my degree. So there was like a bit of comfort there where my parents like, if this doesn't work out, you at least have that to kind of fall back on. But the gist of it was if this is really what you want to do. And they were like, they saw me doing all this music in my childhood.

too and I was the top student of my classical music program and whatnot as a kid. So I think they like saw that there was, it wasn't, they were, they saw there was a potential to do well there and that I was already having opportunities to make money even in music as I was finishing school. And they're like, all right, well, if this is what you want to do, like go for it and then pursue it and just do the best you can. That's just like so crazy that you like never even like thought of that music before. of like dance music and then you're like oh wow this is cool and then like did it and we're just like i mean clearly you're very gifted at it obviously but i just like that's so cool that you're like

let me try this and it like worked yeah yeah no it's true i mean i remember listening to i do remember listening to daf punk like some of their some of their earlier records like when i was really young but yeah i didn't like it didn't really click with me in terms of i'm obsessed with this and I want to make it until I got to university and was a little bit later. But I think in a weird way, my background of music, musical theory and performance and piano and guitar really did help me make the electronic music because I'm very, a lot of the music that I do is very melodic and I write a lot of it on the piano and guitar. And so I think without that background, I would have, the music would have, would not have sounded the same for sure. Yeah. Because if I hear something in my head,

I can immediately play it and get it out, like get out the ideas and form a lot. composition. I think that's from the earlier days. Yeah. Do many, I just, I don't know the answer to this question. Do many DJs specifically at your level have a background like that? You know? Honestly, not really. Because I didn't think so. Yeah, they, they don't. But, and I feel like people, people, I have had some conversations about this with people where they're like, Wasn't that a huge advantage for you and whatnot? And I do, yes, it is because I can do a lot of melodic stuff that they might have a little bit hard time because they're drawing in the notes on the computer or they're having to do a little bit of that.

But at the same time, I also think that it pushes them to be better at other things within music production. So some people might not have a great of a musical theory and melodic sense, but they're very good at like sound design. like making really interesting sounds or like beats and rhythms. So they have like different skill sets, I would just say. Yeah, that makes sense. It's not that it's better or worse. It's just different the way they approach and look at the music composition. Yeah.

Yeah. So when you were like, okay, screw it, I'm going to go for it. Had you already, you know, had some stuff like out on SoundCloud that probably was getting some hype. But like, what did that journey look like over the next few years? Like, was it, you know, did you hit immediately? And you're like, how long ago was like, did you graduate? Like, how long ago? Like, how long have you been doing this, I guess?

Yeah, I've been doing the Griffin project since, like, 2014, 2015 was when it kind of really hit. And it, I feel like it's funny because it's always been a, it's always been kind of like a slow build, this project. Not that it wasn't, I mean, it did well out of the gate in terms of like spot. SoundCloud YouTube stuff. And it was interesting because I started remixing music. So I would grab, I would go to like Acapellas for You.com. And I would rip like an Ellie Golding. Yes.

Hopline. Like for it's just the acapella and I would reproduce a whole world around it. And then I would put it out on SoundCloud for free and just let people consume it. And then it started going from there to then record labels. We're like, hey, we have this new Maroon 5 song. Will you remix it for $1,500? Something like that. I was like, oh, dang.

Like, oh, there's actually money in this? That's how it began. And then I would do a few more remixes and do that. And then all of a sudden, like, fraternity would be like, hey, we want to book you for a gig to play at Stanford this weekend. We'll pay $2,000. And it started like that. Wow.

I was like, whoa, I can fly it. It's like 200 bucks. I can go up there. I'll crash at a friend's couch and like I'll come home with, you know, $1,500 or something like that. And that's how it just started to like slowly work its way. And then record labels started being like, hey, we really like your remix is what about your own music?

What does your own music sound like? And that was when I was like, oh, whoa. So I got to like make, you have your own music at that point? I didn't at the time. I was like, oh, yeah, I got some stuff. I'm like, I have no idea what to do here. Wow. Yeah.

And then so I would start reaching out to other artists and you're like, do you have you guys, do you have any like written songs or anything you can send me and see? And so I was talking with some other A&Rs that worked at labels at the time too. And like, hey, we have a couple of these open songs. Maybe you can try and we can put something together. And that's how my relationship actually with Interscope started. They started sending me some like demos, what they call it, which is like, you know, it's a different artist that maybe

that wrote an idea and then it just kind of gets stuck. Like they don't finish the record, but it just kind of like sits there. And then I went in like reproduced it and messed around with stuff. And that was how like I had some early successes with Interscope and that was how my partnership with them actually began.

Okay. And then it just yeah, so it just continued to evolve and then had like some music festivals. My first headline show was at the Snow Glow music festival in Lake Tahoe in 2015. And that was like my first non-fraternity type show.

Not that those are bad at all, but it was like my first festival, like performance. Yeah. And then I had like a headline show in L.A. and New York that year. Yeah. And it just kind of continued to build and then it would be a little bit bigger music venues. And then I would then do a little bit of international shows here and there. got to support like Kygo on a big Europe tour like the next year Coachella. And it just like, it just slowly kept building and building.

Yeah. Year over year. It's never really built like this huge upward thing, but it's always been steady and growing. Yeah. It's so funny that you, I'm glad you reminded me because I've been a fan of your music for a while. but I forgot that before I was a fan of your, you know, your music, I used to type in, like I had heard like two, three songs that you had remixed. I was like, these are freaking better than the original. So what I started doing is whenever I found a song that I liked, I would type into Spotify, Griffin remix.

And just like, that's like how I started being a fan of yours to begin with was from the songs that you were remixing. And every time I was like, it's so much better than the original. That makes me very happy to hear you say that. That's how everything started. So cool. I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah.

Even sometimes now when I'm messing around for like edits for shows and I'm like, we'll loosely remix stuff, even my wife's step, she'll always be like, you're the remix king. You're the remix king? Like, you got to do these again. I'm like, oh, I know. Oh my gosh. I love that. Number one, high woman.

Yeah. She is. It's great. Okay, so diving into the world in life of a DJ, because this is fascinating to me, I feel like we've seen it, try to be depicted in movies, but like, what is it, what does it really look like? Like, what does the day to day look like? And what, you know, kind of toll does that take on your life and what sort of boundaries do you need to set? like really try and bring us in like not the Zach Efron movie you know DJ life but like the actual life yeah that is a loaded so loaded yeah yeah I mean a lot of questions in that one question no it's good I mean I'll try and get it out it's it's so it's so complex and I'm very very grateful for being able to do this like my passion is music

I absolutely love it's my favorite thing in the world is to be in the studio making music. And the fact that I am able to do what I love to do, like I don't take a second of it for granted. Like 100%. But it's also a very stressful and difficult life that I pursued that I don't think a lot of people know actually how difficult it is. It's like, you know, I'm on the road over half the year easily. Like, not even a question. Probably 250 days a year on the road. Living out of a suitcase, you're not having any sort of routine.

There's no structure really in my life. A lot of late nights, terrible sleep. Yeah. And it's stressful. You know, it's a highly competitive industry. You're always looking over your shoulder at, like, who's coming up next. They're always looking up at who you're trying to be. Yeah.

It's just hyper competitive. It's, it's tough. Yeah. It's, it's a lot of, it's tough because a lot of people see, like the movies and on social media,

the highlights. Yeah. Of what it's like to be a DJ. And no one shows low lights of, you know, songs not doing as well, or you're oversleeping, you're stressed out and how taxing,

the toll can be on you. Like I'm exhausted, you know, every day at some point I'm thinking like how exhausted burnout I am. I mean, I hadn't had, I haven't had two weekends in a row off since Memorial Day weekend. Like I've been out of town. Been to Europe three or four times this summer, Asia three or four times. We're going to Asia again two weeks. I've just been on the go all the time.

And the grind pretty much doesn't always. stop. I mean, never stop. Yeah. I just was on the car ride over here. And I was talking about an insane opportunity I have to do an event in two weeks, like right after Thanksgiving, basically. And I was convinced I was going to have that weekend off.

And now I'm just like, oh, guess not. Like, why would I think I have more than two weekends off, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So it's, uh, it's good. I love what I do, but it's just, it's very actually hard. And even my friends, you know, my childhood friends that I'm still very, very close to, they always say to me, like, I have no idea how you do this life.

It's actually insane. Yeah. Like, it's cool that you're doing this. We love being around you and supporting you and stuff. And it's awesome. The career you've been able to build, the career you've been able to build. But they're like, I, is insane what your day to day is really like. Yeah.

and I imagine it you probably have like you probably have to live that way if you want to be doing what you're doing at the level right like it's not like you really have that much of a choice if you're like no I only want to do something you know once a month like right you probably won't be able to right

no it's true I mean you I think every any person that really works in entertainment or is a musical artist I think there's always that like grind period that you just have to do like you have to put in the work you have to like not sleep well you have to do so many shows get in front of so many people always say yes to opportunities always be networking always just working on music like yeah it's just you got to have that period of time where you're just like go go go go go yeah um to truly get to that level yeah i mean even the guys that I look up to that are global,

huge guys, the huge DJs. They all had that too. They had that grinding period and I have no idea how some of them do it for 20, 30 years. They're still going at it, but they're good at delegating work, I guess. Maybe that's one thing I got to work on is taking away some responsibility

because I'm very, like, detail-oriented and I like to be involved in everything. But that's something I got to try and release some... Me and my husband. For sure. Well, it's tough. You feel like you could be your best at it.

And like you don't want to lose control over what you're trying to build. Yeah. But at a certain point, it's like you do need to trust other people to help. Because they're all rooting for you too and all trying to make you successful and you relinquish some of it to focus on other stuff and relax as well. I relate to that a lot because that's tough. when it's your baby. Yeah.

When any of us have our babies that nobody loves more than you do. Exactly. You know, it almost, it doesn't, it doesn't feel like work, but you have to, like, take a step back and protect yourself from burnout. Because then who's going to take care of that baby, you know, when you're. Exactly. That's so true. How was it, if you have a boundary, like, is there boundaries that you've put in place, like, to protect time, or because I would imagine, you know, being in that like yes man mentality, which is totally like understandable.

And you need to do that when you're at like a certain point. Have you been able to like set boundaries a little bit with it? Has that been hard or? Yeah, that's a great question. I think I am better at it now. As I say that this year has been so insane. But I do feel like I'm able to say no to shows now in opportunities. like I don't say no that often, but I do have the ability to do that, where I didn't a few years

ago, I would say. Yeah. And I do make sure to try and give my, I've given myself like hobbies lately. Like I got really into golf, we were talking about golf earlier. That's kind of been really important for me because I'll not look at my phone for three or four hours. And it gets, I'll just be outside. you know, not thinking about music and career.

Yeah. And just being present with who I'm out there with that day. And that has really helped me kind of be able to step outside of like the Griffin world. Yeah. And whatnot and just be, you know, a person golfing with some friends and not thinking about it. And even like I play video games sometimes in the afternoon. Like after I'm like on a big studio burn. And I'll be like, all right, let me play with some friends online.

and just kind of disassociate and get my mind off it a little bit. I just thought as this, as you were talking, is there like, because there is someone who, I forgot who we were just talking about that does this, but like, oh, it's Chris Martin does this. He, when he goes, like, every show that he plays, he, like, has, like, his outfit that he wears, like the same outfit he wears for all the shows.

When he puts the outfit on, he's Chris Martin of Coldplay. And when he takes it off, he mentally just becomes, like, Chris. Is that something that you ever think about when you switch on to like your Griffin mode or switch into your Dan mode? Is there like a separation there? 100%.

My wife's staff always jokes with her friends. She's like, that's not Dan up there. That is someone else. That is not Dan that I know. Because it kind of is. Like once I put the jersey on, it's like I got to be like the showman person.

It's not like I'm faking it or anything. thing up there. Like I am having a great time performing, but it's like, there is some element to like putting on the cape kind of in being out there and performing and being that showman. And then once I'm off stage, I can kind of relax and put it away for a second. Because I am pretty chill, actually, like off stage. Like I enjoy like, you know, off stage. Like, I enjoy, like, you know, hanging out with being like pretty low key and mellow but when I'm on stage I'm like super energetic ripping it 110% yeah but yeah there is an element of like okay now I'm now I'm in Griffin performance mode and now I'm in Dan that's that's so I mean that's so important for

like everyone I feel like in entertainment but I feel like especially for like someone that's in your position like just because of like the lifestyle is so different to like I feel like mentally that is just like it is needed. Yeah. I want to know what like role your wife like plays into this. Like what kind of like support structure has she been for you? She's like the Swiss Army knife. She does everything, a little bit of everything.

It's actually insane. She's been extremely, extremely important to the success of the project. She was, I mean, we were dating before I'd even put really a, before this project even was anything. Yeah. She was so early on being so supportive of it. And it's really been great to have her by my side supporting it the entire time. Because I know it's nothing, it's all super authentic. And she was there from the beginning, you know, and seeing everything grow.

And she's, you know, she is really, really smart. And she got an accounting master's in accounting degree. She does so much of the business management for the project. That's great. She does so much of the merchandise and the designing and operations of that. She's involved in a lot of the management discussions too and whatnot. She's also fully renovating our house that we were discussing earlier, which is also a full-time job. She just, yeah, and it's actually insane.

She really has her hand a little bit of her hand in a little bit of everything and is exceptionally good at multitasking. It's crazy. Like, I'm a terrible multitasker. I can't, like, if I'm working on music and someone calls me, like, I don't know what to do. Right. Oh, yeah. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, exactly. Where she's like, I feel like she's got like 16 phones all like doing other stuff.

It's crazy. But, yeah, having her has been, the project wouldn't be anywhere where it is without her involvement and support 100%. There's no doubt about it. Well, I was going to ask, how has your career? Because I could only imagine if it's ever difficult, you know, living the lifestyle you do, but making your relationship a priority. Like, you know, your career, especially the one you live on a daily basis impacting your marriage. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, it's hard sometimes.

Yeah. Like, it's because there's sometimes not like a separation because we have our relationship, but then, you know, a business thing comes up or, you know, it's hard to not. it's hard to not talk to her about when it's just like Griffin related stuff because it's consumed so much of our day to day. Yeah. And that's something we still work at, honestly. I mean, we try and go out to dinner and, like, not talk about Griffin stuff. And talk about family and the dog and friends and whatnot and try and go on like some mini vacations every once in a while and really just not not talk about work.

that helps for sure. But it's tough. It's a weird industry, weird career to also be partnered with your wife and trying to have, you know, that healthy relationship, but also have a healthy, like, work relationship. I actually think we do a pretty good job, but it's, there are days when it's tough. And sometimes I'll be like, you know, in the car, be like, hey, what do you think this new song? I just made. Just like, stop.

Yeah. Let's talk about something else. Yeah. And I'll be like, all, yeah, you're right. Like, we've been focusing way too much on this. Yeah. Yeah. How often does she travel with you?

She travels a decent amount. I would say, I would say, like, maybe 20 to 30% of the stuff. Okay. So if we're doing, like, a run in Europe or a run in Asia or music festival run or something like that, or a bus tour, like, she'll come on those. But if it's more one-off stuff, like, if I have a weekend and, like, I'm trying to think of an example. like a mini run in like New York,

Philly, Boston or something like that and I come back home. That's like a Thursday to Monday trip. And she'll probably not go to that. Okay. But then it just depends, honestly,

on her schedule and when not. And she likes to, she'll want to go to stuff where her friends are around too. She's got like friends or family that are like, hey, I want to come out to Red Rocks

and go see those shows. Like she'll be there for that supporting. Yeah. So, yeah, I'd say like 20 to 30 percent. Okay. That's cool. Yeah, the working together thing is something that we've been navigating, obviously not doing this together.

But, yeah, that's something we've been trying to work on is, you know, making sure because this is like this and, you know, like the foundation, this is like our life and that's like what we do all the time. But, you know, making sure we set aside that time to be like, oh, we're not going to talk about this. Talk about that over dinner. Or setting a time limit. Like, Taylor puts, like, a time limit on me.

Like, being on my, because I'm on my laptop doing stuff all day. All day. And I'm, like, at 6.30, you're done. The laptop's going away. Which I've you. And we're going to, like, watch a show. I don't care what it is. Go for a walk.

But laptop's going bye-bye. Yeah. I love that. So do whatever you want until 637. Yeah. I love that. We kind of have that, too. We try and watch, like, a TV show at night.

Or, like, try and get into something. that we're both into. Yeah. And we'll do that. Like, go to dinner this night or like, oh,

we're really into this TV show and we like, we'll binge it, you know, a couple episodes at night for like two weeks or something like that and that's very fun.

But sometimes the creative calls me though sometimes. Like in the middle of a TV show, I'm like, oh, I just got an idea. Give me 10 minutes. And then I'm just eating like two hours.

Oh, I just ruined the night. Creative's calling. I got to take this. I just thought about this, but just going back to like the, you know, the career of, like, DJs and just kind of like the world of it. Is mental health like a thing?

Like, is it ever talked about between like people or like in the industry? Not as much as I feel like it should. Yeah. I mean, you do hear it from time to time. There are some artists that speak up about it. But not that often. I mean, I feel like, yeah. I mean, I personally.

I personally haven't talked about it really that much at all about the challenges and the toll it takes on you mentally. But it's a real thing. I mean, it's extremely hard to stay mentally strong and healthy with this lifestyle. Yeah. I can only imagine. And I wish, yeah, I mean, I wish it was talked about more so people can understand how difficult it is. But at the same time, it's like, it's tough for me because I don't also want to people to lose sight, like, how much. much I enjoy like this as a career. Right. But it's at the same time, it's like, it's pretty dang hard.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I know, like, I think Alice in Wonderland is a DJ that's talked about struggling and how hard it can be at times, monumentally. But yeah, I mean, it's, and there's, yeah, it's just, it's tough. it's a taxing. Yeah.

Because I would imagine just like, you know, the traveling, the time, like all of that stuff, like aside. Like, I mean. And the environment. The environment. Like when I, you know, yeah, when I think of. Like people, like, I imagine, I mean, like, when I used to like, when I would go out to a club, like, you know, that would be like a one-time thing for me as a clubgoer.

Yeah. Living in that environment. Being out till 4 a.m. you know, being around whatever it is, drugs, this, that, the other. Yeah. But that's, you have to live in that, you know. That's like home base. Yeah, that's home base.

That's not like a one weekend, you know, every few months. Right. So I would imagine just living in that environment as much as you guys have to. Right. Yeah, I'm not getting caught up in it. Yeah. Right. And there are artists that do really can get really caught up.

in it. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, yeah, it's, I've seen some artists that have gotten, you know, chewed up and spit out for being immersed in that world. Yeah. And I mean, you know, exactly what you said about like, like Vegas is another example. You know, I'm there. I've got a residency there. So I'm playing there 20, 20 shows a year. Okay. And everybody I see there, it's like, you know, they're having a great time and they're partying until four or four, five in the morning, but then they go home and they don't go back to Vegas for another year. It's like, I'm like, hey, I'm, see you guys in four days. I'll be right back here in Vegas doing the same thing. Yeah. So it's weird to like be immersed in it all the time. And it's also

strange because it's even like, I got a lot of friends that aren't in the industry. And it's, it's bizarre to think about like even a lot of my childhood friends and whatnot. I haven't like hung out with them on just a Friday or Saturday night, like a regular going out night. Right. In like years. Yeah. Because that, my work is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

usually. Yeah. And then when I want to chill, it's like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, in the middle of the day and they're like, dude, I have a job. Like, I'm fully not able to hang out with you right now. And you probably want to do nothing. Your idea, like, Tuesday is like to like just be

at home and do nothing, walk. a show like when they're outside of work they want to go to Vegas they want to go to the club and that is the farthest thing I want to do yeah I want to relax unwind yeah that's so funny to think of what's the next like year looking like what's next for you the next year is it's going to be pretty I mean this year was really busy as is next year might potentially be easier wow yeah because I got I got a new album that I'm finishing right now. Okay. That's going to come out next year.

Okay. But I actually am very excited about. Yeah, it's like my, it might be my favorite body of work that I've ever made. Oh, wow. So, yeah, that's exciting. But that'll come out early next year. And there's going to be a lot of,

a lot of touring with that. Okay. For sure. A lot of international, a lot of big U.S. stuff. So it'll be, it'll be fun, but I'm also, like, mentally gearing up for a big run. Yeah.

I'm going to try and enjoy these next few months of finishing the creative and not being on the road as much because I know it's going to be a pretty whirlwind ride next year. But at the same time, I'm very excited for it too. Because I'm really proud of the music and the direction that everything's going in. I can't wait to hear. I've been a fan of yours from, I don't want to say day one, but early on and I'll take it. I can't wait to see where your journey continues and appreciate you, you know, opening the. up about things that not a lot of people in, I mean, in any industry, but especially in your industry, you know, talk about. So just really appreciate you being here today. Yeah, no,

it's good to be here. And I love hanging out with y'all and love them talking everything with you guys. So I'll get some golf lessons so I can keep up with you because you don't want to, you don't want me out there right now. The game is, my game is getting a little bit better. I've been putting it in the work. So we'll see. We have a segment called Lemon 11. It's 11 questions. Feel free to rapid fire them as they come to mind.

Some of them do require like a couple seconds of thought. So if you can't rapid fire it out, then it's okay. We just want to pick a few. Okay, sure. Okay. We're going to do lemon 11, but we're going to do like, lemon four. The quick hitters? Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Lemon seven. Okay. I'll, I'll start. Okay. How open are you with people in your life when you're struggling? Better than I used to be.

Yeah. Used to be very like contain everything. I think I've had like kind of when we were talking about the boundaries thing. Yeah. Because I would say yes to everything all the time. And so now I'm able to like, tell my management and my team like I'm really burnt out I need some time off or I need to like say no to this gig like I've postponed gigs for the first time of my life this year okay and that was like a big thing about because I was open with them the first time where I was like I like I really need to like relax and my bodies I'm so stressed out like I need to I need some chill time

so it's an improving thing yeah is that I'm more more open it. I love that. Same. I'm asking this question because I'm actually curious. What movie or song title best describes your mental health today? We have a creative mentor. Okay. Movie, it was movie or song title? Yeah.

Or song title best describes your mental health today. Feel good. Feel good. It's a great song. I like, I'm into that. We can do that one. I'm feeling good. It's got like the night. It's very cozy vibes today. You know what the rain out is.

It's like, we'll go feel good. I like it. I'm feeling good today. I love that. One of my all-time favorites. What is your relationship with social media? And do you think it affects your well-being? Wow.

That's like a whole another 45 minutes for you. I, I get it and I think I've been able to benefit from it, like having a social media following and a way to connect with fans is great. But I really think it's unhealthy, to be honest. I really don't think it's that healthy. When I'm on it, I feel like I'm more stressed out. I feel like I'm comparing myself with other artists and other people constantly.

on platform. There are some times when I get a good chuckle and enjoy some content out there. A good meme. Yeah, good, funny little short. Yeah. But I think it's pretty darn harmful, to be honest. I think there needs to be some sort of at some point regulation or moderating of it more than what's happening now. Yeah.

And I fear for young people. that are getting exposed and immersed in it really early on. I don't think it's talked about enough how mentally damaging it can be. I always say, like, I have this theory on social media in that it's like cigarettes back in the day, where it was like the cool thing, everybody was using cigarettes, it was in movies. It was like, if you were cool, you were smoking. Yeah. And then they realized 10, 15, 20 years later, it was like, okay, this is actually really,

bad for your physical health and that we need to have restrictions on it and you can't just do it everywhere in public. I think social media is the mental health equivalent of Spokey. Wow. That's a analogy. I think 10, 20, 30 years from now, people are like, okay, this is terrible for your health. Yeah. You can only... You can do it. Yeah, but it's got to be for this amount of time or you're going to be, you know, destroying your brain, just like you're destroying your whatever. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Last question I have is if you can go back to one moment in your life, what moment would that be? What would you say to yourself?

Ooh, I know that's the one we usually end on when we do this segment. I mean, I like it. Good, bad, anything. I mean, I guess I would go back to the moment when I did decide to pursue this career. And when I had all those cup conversations and I'd probably give myself a great. pat on the back. Yeah. Job well done. Way to take that leap,

leap of faith and go for your passion. That's sort of what I try and tell anybody, too, that's pursuing what they love to do. Yeah. If you're young and you figured it out, like what motivates you and what you're passionate about, you're going to work really hard at it and put your best foot forward and attack it.

So I'm always encouraging people to do that because I took that leap. And I'm so happy that I did. I'm grateful that I did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even when it's so scary.

Yeah. It's terrifying. Yeah. That's so encouraging too. Like, you know, from go to what you were majoring into like what your career. Like. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm so, so grateful that I was able to do it. Yeah. Because it's terrifying before you. Like in, in hindsight. I'm like, why was I even stressing about it? Of course. Yeah. It was, you know, in hindsight, it's easy to say that.

But in the moment when you're trying to like leap and change a career, you have a big change, it's really scary. Yeah. Absolutely. So to be able to have the courage and to risk take is, I think I want everybody to like at some point in their life, if they find a passion or something that they want to try and go for and I would say like take that risk, take that path because you're going to work really hard at it, I think,

and do something that not a lot of other people are trying to do. And the risk takers are the ones that I think are the ones that really become successful, willing to step outside of their comfort zone. Yeah, I love that. What? Great advice to end on. Yeah. Dan, Griffin, thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me. Yes. So fun. Thank you so much. much for squeezing us into your day. Please be sure to rate, review, and follow our pod and check out full episodes on YouTube. You can follow me at Taylor Lautner, my lovely wife, at Taye Lautner. Check out the squeeze on Instagram at the squeeze. And also give a little glance and a follow to Lemons by Tay. That's at Lemonsbytee on Instagram and lemonsbytea.com. And also be sure to email.

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