Story & Lesson Highlights with Daniel Grimsland of Boyle Heights.

We recently had the chance to connect with Daniel Grimsland and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
I am a little bit of a movie nerd. I of course enjoy watching them, but in the last couple years, I’ve really enjoyed learning about how they are made. Mostly through different podcasts. I’ve also tried my hand at some screenwriting. I don’t know that I’m any good at it, but I do really enjoy doing it.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Of course! My name is Daniel Grimsland. I currently live in Los Angeles, I moved here in 2017 to further pursue music production, along with my partner Siobhan, but I was born and raised in New York, in the Hudson Valley. These days, I do a lot of work as a multi-instrumentalist, performing live and recording with a number of artists and bands in the Los Angeles area. I also write my own songs and perform as a solo artist. For the last 5 years or so I have been working in sync licensing, writing songs and composing instrumentals for television, film, and commercials, and I have a small home studio that I work out of, where I also record and produce other artists.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who taught you the most about work?
My father for sure. He is an amazing musician and songwriter in his own right, and he went through all of the ups and downs that working in the music industry can bring you. He was able to provide so much insight on all of that for me in the early days, and still to this day. Not to mention that he is a killer guitar and bass player, and I was able to learn a lot about that from him as well.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I feel like I almost give up all the time! Not really, but kind of. The music industry in particular is very rough. Let’s be honest, the pay mostly sucks. Now let me clarify, I am lucky to work with amazing artists that take care of me for playing in their live bands, but when it comes to selling records or streaming, it’s crazy how bad it really is. Nobody wants to buy music because you can stream it. Hey, I am absolutely guilty of that, but the problem is, streaming pays only fractions of a penny per stream. So you need a seemingly impossible amount of streams to make a living from that. I don’t mean to complain. I am happy to have the worldwide distribution you get from streaming services. But, sometimes it can be hard financially, and you have those days where you think, “what am I doing??” But at the end of the day I do it because I love it. It can be a bummer at times, but to me, it’s the best thing in the world, so I keep doing it.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
Yeah, I think so. I am not super active on social media beyond promoting the music I am working on or shows that I am playing. But let’s be honest again, that’s kind of all I ever do, so I think it’s probably a fair of representation.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
Hopefully, I would stop worrying so much about, ya know, about everything. I would want to stop worrying about everyday life immediately and enjoy the time I have left with the people I love. That’s what I hope I would do anyway. The truth is I would probably spend 10 years worrying about whether or not I say goodbye to everybody, like how I act when leaving a party.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.danielgrimsland.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielgrimsland?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-grimsland-1b2689a1?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danielgrimslandmusic?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Soundcloud: https://on.api-core.soundcloud-stage.com/ORUdsOoKSAPoqKvwcz

Image Credits
Siobhan Schneidman
Nicole Terpenning
Steven Markota
Ken Pappanduros
Sydney Rose