Happy Ears: Typical by Liam Grae
After moving to Los Angeles in the summer of 2017, I was introduced by a mutual friend to Andrew Furze & Todd Bergman, a world-class production duo, who were eager to break an emerging artist. As I sat with them in the dimly-lit Paramount studios, it became clear that we would build my artist project, Liam Grae, from the ground-up.
I grew up in Dallas, Texas, listening to the buttery-smooth vocals of the Rat Pack, and becoming heavily influenced by the fashion & musical sounds of the 1950s. I started singing at the age of 3 in church, and began to develop a love for gospel&soul music, as well. I embraced an old-soul…and fell in love w/ the nostalgic sounds of the past.
Fast forward to September of 2017. I was deep in a grungy studio waiting for a writing session to begin, when Andrew (my producer) told me the writer coming to the session (Tommy Parker), had just landed Janet Jackson’s newest single. Nervous couldn’t even begin to describe my emotional state….
As Tommy settled into the studio, we began to talk about life…and he wanted to know everything about me. As he began listening to my flustered ramblings about the meaning of life and love, we both landed on a mutual topic: how shitty dating is in a modern world. He stopped me mid-sentence as I was describing “how typical hook-up culture had become,” and we began to write the song based off of one word: typical.
As I have lived with my song Typical, I am constantly reminded how complex the lyrics are…and how much the song has evolved with me since moving to Los Angeles. The vast majority of the song is embracing the simplicity of casualness in dating…but the complexity comes from the question:
“am I wrong this time…between you and I?”
The song is an ode for simplicity in a hook-up culture—embracing the beauty of human connection…but, as is normal in life, nothing is ever that simple. Feelings get involved, emotions get heightened, and connections get complicated.
Typical is an old-school view on modern dating.
-LG