The good folks at Project Fresh Magazine recently reached out to me to be a featured artist on their website. Naturally, I obliged…
Pfresh: How was Nukky Grissom born and who are your influences?
Nukky Grissom: I originally started writing lyrics when I was around 12 or 13 but I didn’t start going by “Nukky Grissom” until my early 20′s. I originally went by Sleepy Hollow which really had no significance and didn’t make any sense looking back in retrospect, but hey, I was young! Eventually I just wanted something with a better ring to it and I came up with Nukky Grissom – “Nukky” being a nickname a few friends called me back in the day and “Grissom” for Marquis Grissom, one of my favorite baseball players growing up.
As far as musical influences go, I’m a product of 90′s east coast hip-hop so artists like AZ, Big Pun, Wu-Tang, Nas, etc. were all pillars in my collection growing up. Nowadays I’m all over the map and really just have an appreciation for music as a whole. I’ve actually been going through Bruce Springsteen’s discography one album at a time and have been blown away by the overall skill and depth of the E Street Band’s arrangements. Springsteen has something like 21 Grammy’s so I figured I’d educate myself and now, after listening, I’m really inspired to go out and push the boundaries of what a Hip-Hop record is supposed to sound like.
Pfresh: What’s your favorite part of being involved in music?
Nukky Grissom: Aside from performing – which I absolutely love – the best thing about being involved in music is definitely the creation process. Putting songs out and officially having the final product in hand is great, but I really enjoy the pocket of time that’s spent writing, recording and mixing the record. I’m not really the type to write in the studio and prefer to write at home when I’m on my own so I always have this sense of anticipation of what it’s going to sound like once I get into the studio. I love that feeling.
I’d also have to say that it’s really inspiring when someone connects with your music and is genuinely a fan. A lot of people might listen to a song but not everybody HEARS it, so it’s humbling when somebody truly appreciates your work. That’s one of my favourite things too.
Pfresh: What have you been up to and what’s on the horizon?
Nukky Grissom: The last few months have been pretty good to me as I was nominated for a few awards including a John Lennon Songwriting Award and most recently, an Independent Music Award. Those nominations all stem from my most recent project IAMGRISSY – The EP/IAMGRISSY 2.0 which had pretty solid runs on college radio across Canada and the U.S. last year.
I also put out two videos for tracks off of IAMGRISSY 2.0 and have a couple more videos currently in post-production which will be wrapped up sooner than later. Once those drop and have a little bit of time to marinate, it’ll be on to my next project If At First You Don’t Succeed, Skydiving Is Not For You, which is well on its way as far as recording goes. I also have some video ideas floating around for that but they’re too early in the development stages right now for me to let the cat out of the bag…but you can always subscribe to my YouTube page if you want to stay up to date!
CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT AT PROJECTFRESHMAG.COM!
