by kaylee pickens
Marc Griffin, professionally known as Marc E. Bassy, is the lover boy everyone dreams about. From his soulful melodies to heartfelt lyrics, Griffin is not your typical musical heartthrob. The release of his album Little Men has taken the music industry for a ride through the ups and downs of love and relationships. You can follow Griffin along in his heart’s fleeting journey with the 15-track project that’s out now! Unclear had the pleasure of speaking with the 34-year-old California-native, where he discussed his latest release, shooting in a haunted mansion, and things he’s learned from colleagues and friends alone the way. Interested in what Marc E. Bassy is up to? You can find him on Instagram and Twitter (@marcebassy), along with tour updates, and more!
Hey Marc, thanks so much for joining us! To jump right in, I was on Instagram looking at what you've been doing and what you've been up to. I noticed that you've been posting some great pictures from collaborating with G-Eazy recently — what has performing and working with G-Eazy on various projects been like? How how have those projects or how has your relationship evolved since your first release together?
Marc: “Well, me and G have been through a lot in the past. I met him when he was kind of on the uptick turning into G-Eazy, you know, before he had a mega smash, I guess. He met me when I wasn't anybody. I didn't even have any type of solo career whatsoever. So we've kind of seen each other develop our careers and the glory and the pitfalls that come with that, and I took a lot like — the way that my team and I operate on tour, the way we work, I kind of got that from him. He was my role model in this business. I've been around some really good people. Him, Ty Dolla Sign, people that were ahead of me — above me — I was able to learn from. But with G, just the way that he moves has always been my ideal of how I want to move through the industry. You know, even though I’m probably like a year older or something, he was always kind of like a big brother in a way. He’s really worked harder than everyone and has this positive mental attitude that leads him to success. And I admire that a lot because I can get caught up in my head.”
Yeah, you’re human. It’s very admirable to hear about you talk about your relationship like that. I know you'd mentioned that you guys had met when you were just kind of coming up and getting your name out there. But you made a post, or a TikTok repost, where you said you can’t stand when people say that you're underrated. So I'm just curious, was that a joke? Does it does it bother you? What does “underrated” mean to you?
M: “I mean, I'm still trying to understand what's going on, in my own mind. Not really sure most of the time, but it does not bother me for some reason like that. I think it's good to have a chip on your shoulder to an extent. And I would say that I have that. Me being underrated is frustrating only because I want more from me and my team, you know, and I want bigger shows all day. So it's frustrating in that sense, but it doesn't make me feel like I'm less or something.”
So, let’s flip to your latest work. Jumping into that, I know you had posted that the video for “Trouble” was shot in a haunted mansion. What was the preparation and planning for that? And, did the haunted mansion have any effect on the video? I don't know if you guys had to do anything differently because of its age and value.
Marc: “The best story from the haunted mansion is that a supernatural force locked me in my room. I was getting ready. It was in this old, 100 year plus, old mansion right outside of L.A. But it was like, I walked in and the door just locked and I couldn't get out. I was just locked inside for like 20 minutes and it was inexplicable, no one knew what to do. And then some guy came up and was like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is normal.’ He figured it out, but it was weird. It was like, during the day, it wasn't bad. But while we were on set, I knew I wouldn't be able to be there [at night], I would cry.”
Did you guys wrap up before the night came?
Marc: “I mean, not right as night came. You know, we were a few hours into it before we finished.”
Moving on from “Trouble” and more into Little Men. Is there anything that kind of reoccurs or repopulates with your visuals? Or even, within any of the songs off of LM?
Marc: “Yeah, a lot of the the songs are relationship songs, you know, most of the time, and they're about trying to figure out who you are in a relationship. And through a relationship. And in the beginning, there's a quote that I put it by Nikki Giovanni, and she's talking about all that works as a relationship. And it's true, like this whole human experience, all the information you get out of it, most of it, especially when it comes to love, emotional information you get through other people through relationships. So I think the common theme, for me, is learning about myself, you know, through the relationships that I've been in. Sometimes it's like a romantic relationship, it doesn't have to be, there's also camaraderie, and, you know, other family relationships too. And I think the reason [the album is] called Little Men was talking about kind of trying to grow up and get out of out of your own way, get out of your ego, get out of your little mind and into a bigger mind. And the way that I process that and try to do that is always, for better or worse, through relationships that I have, and learning about myself, and it was very easy to kind of get kind of swept up in.”
I really appreciate your honesty on that. To keep it going, let’s talk about the album artwork. What was the story behind the cover photo?
M: “One of the producers that I work with, we we had this idea to get all of my friends, all the little men around me, to go into the woods and dress up like Lost Boys and take a photo. So we did that, we had a horse and a falcon in the budget. Like, it was almost like a Lord of the Flies vibe, but that part we didn't execute. The photo of me and all the boys was great, but it was distracting. So then we were like, ‘maybe we use this horse.’ So I just took some photos on the horse. And then that turned into the actual image that we liked the most. But it was kind of like the idea that really went with Little Men. So this was the thing that we had that just kept calling us and what we ended up going with. It works like that sometimes in music, you know, you have an idea. ‘It's got to be like this.’ And then the thing adjacent to it ends up being the thing.”
Looking at the featured artists on Little Men — what was it like working with artists like Syd and Cory Henry? How they have helped developed your writing or music styles?
M: “Well Cory Henry just reminds me to be grateful for music in general. I don't know if you're familiar with him. But he has such an extraordinary talent. And just watching him play is like, you're witnessing true genius. Like, this human being’s brain is wired different, and it comes from church. So everything he does is for the universe, it's just wild. And I was really intimidated when I first met him. I know this man is an actual genius. So it was cool. To work with someone like him, for me to bring something to the table, it had to be lyrical [for it] to really be saying something. He can play every instrument, he can arrange everything. So like, what am I going to do that is actually worthy of this collaboration? With Cory, it was like making the lyrics really f***ing good; To make a really good song that makes him excited. And we kind of hung out for a week and a half, almost two weeks in LA. With ‘Free Like Me,’ we rented Westlake — the Michael Jackson studio. And he just played. It was like 6:45 in the morning, we’d been up all night and he just played two takes and it was perfect. I’ve never seen someone so good in the studio, it was mind blowing. And Syd, she’s a homie, she's great and amazing too. But with her honestly, I don't really know. We communicated on Instagram and we have a lot of mutual friends. And so, I think her girlfriend liked my music and suggested [a collaboration] to her.
I know you've talked about how you normally don't get intimidated by people. Is there someone out there who would intimidate you in this moment?
M: “I mean, I've met everyone. I met Drake and Kendrick, all the biggest and best people. I'll be intimidated to meet like Michael Jordan. I met Stevie Wonder one time, and I was very intimidated. But that was when I was younger. That was like, ten years ago, actually. And I was so intimidated. I couldn't even shake his hand. I was hanging out with his daughter and she was just laughing at me. I literally couldn't do it. It was his birthday and everyone was doing their thing and singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ So, at the end of the dinner, he sits at the end of the table and people just line up. Even though it's his friends and family, anywhere he goes, someone’s brought someone that he doesn't know or whatever. They’re like, ‘you can go say hi — shake his hand, kiss the ring’ type of thing. And I was literally too scared for some reason. And she was laughing, like ‘you're being so ridiculous.’”
Can you do it now though?
M: “Now, I would 100% do it. But I mean, I can't even imagine how many times a day some tipsy person runs up to him and tried to sing his songs in his ear.”
I saw when I was on your Instagram that you posted a picture of a tattoo that you got back in July that says “Beginners Mind.” What inspired you to get that tattoo? Because it kind of just stands out amongst the other things you have on your Instagram.
M: “Beginner's Mind is, like a principle in Zen Buddhism. It’s been around my whole life where it's in any situation, you want to be fresh and new, you don't want to think that you know about anything. Because the second you do, you're tied to that. And you know, you're attached; you suffer from that. And so, it's kind of about like, for example, I've been in the music industry now for 10 years. And I don't take anything from my past with me. I don't think it would serve me to be like, ‘I know those guys at this label.’ I mean, look at how much the whole s**t has changed. When I started, people had MySpace pages. So, one of the things they say is like, ‘whatever you're doing, burn yourself’ and be so present that whatever you're doing, there's nothing left of that action, because you burned it all up, and it's just ashes now. So it's a reminder to stay fresh and be new, as much as possible.”
So to kind of finalize this last bit, I wanted to know, what's it like preparing for a tour after not being able to perform for so long? Is there anything you're looking forward to anything? Dreading? How do you feel about tour life?
M: “I'm very excited. To be honest, I don't really know yet. We go on tour in February — after I do this, I'm about to go to my first rehearsal. So I don't really know how I feel yet. But I'm definitely very excited. I've been playing shows since I was in high school. This was the longest period of time that I wasn't on stage. And I think that was more profound, you know. I ended tour, went from the tour bus to lockdown. The first six months felt fine, because I go super hard during tour. And by the end of the tour, I'm tired and ready to just chill. But it was crazy. My manager picked me up from the tour bus and he's like, ‘Yo, this COVID thing is f***ing real. Like, we're not even allowed to go outside right now.’ And it was such a mindf***, like it was for everyone. So I’m very excited to do this. And I'm kind of getting back into that mentality already. But yeah, I really don't know how it's gonna feel when we actually begin. But I'm excited to find out.”