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Mar 16, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

Grimson is the new musical multi-media project from singer/songwriter and animator Aiden Berglund. Berglund got his start writing and performing melancholic indie folk in New York, then moved to Berlin mid-pandemic and began expanding his creative horizons with his new project, Grimson. Berglund’s inspirations as of late instead incorporate expansive art rock arrangements, krautrock rhythms, electronic flourishes, and a stirring melodic core, as seen on his latest singles, “How Come No One Told Me” and “Good Dreams.”

Today, Grimson is back with his new single, “Household,” along with an accompanying animated video, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Household” takes inspiration from isolation, with the song’s protagonist dreaming of the freedom held outside the walls of their home: “When I get out of this house / I will be my own / I will hold my leash / I will walk myself home / But as of right now I’m stuck in the shackles / I’m too weak to put up with the battle.” Berglund finds his protagonist fighting against the control of their captors, tracing a fantasia of dreamy pop melody as he imagines the freedom that awaits.

Swelling string arrangements and playful piano melodies add an almost storybook charm to the track, recalling Laurel Canyon pop greats like Harry Nilsson, even as the tight vocal harmonies call back to The Beatles’ kaleidoscopic psychedelic period. Yet, within the track’s colorful chamber pop bliss, there’s an indelible sense of melancholy. Berglund outlines his protagonist’s dream in fantastical imagery, only for the song to return to dreary reality, ending the track with the song’s protagonist once again stuck in their room, unable to gather the courage to leave.

Meanwhile, the accompanying video, created by Berglund and animator T. Marsh, follows along with the song’s tragedy, exploring the protagonist’s imagined escape and swashbuckling adventure. Check out the song and video below, along with our accompanying Q&A with Grimson.

What are the biggest creative inspirations you draw from with Grimson? Have these inspirations changed over time?

In the living room of my childhood home are these Haitian masks that my parents brought back to New York. I grew up staring at these lifesize wooden sculptures, and I always felt that they were creepy, mischievous but also comforting. The mascot that I have for Grimson, this bird-like character named “Father,” was definitely lifted from those African masks, but also No Face, from Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away,” Moomins and Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are.” He is a character that started as a doodle in my high school notebooks, and has now come to represent basically everything I do.

Musically, my go-to is and will always be Elliott Smith. He was somebody my mom listened to, and who I rediscovered as a teenager. I think I’m a bit of an outlier though, because his last record, “From a Basement on the Hill,” is my number one album. I love music that is rough around the edges, melodic, dark, and features drums by Steven Drozd. Harmonically and melodically, I’ve always been drawn to Bossanova - specifically anything Jobim or Elis Regina has touched. I’m into dense chords and chromatic melodies, anything that is simultaneously bitter and sweet. For a long time in my bands in New York I was emulating the artists I loved: Tame Impala, Deerhoof, Broadcast, but now I feel like I’m entering musical territory that feels more my own. The further I get from my teenage influences and what I thought a “band” was supposed to sound like, the more I enjoy myself, so I’m hoping to continue down that road.

Has the move from New York to Berlin introduced new influences or ideas to your music?

I first moved to Berlin during a semester abroad when I was 20, and suddenly I wasn’t around any of the friends and musicians that I grew up with in New York. I think both emotionally and musically I allowed myself to try out identities - grabbing things off the shelf that were new to me. Berlin was my first introduction to techno and the entire idea of clubs, where music wasn’t something that you analyzed and nodded your head to, but experienced as an environment you inhabit for a period of time. It sounds cliche, but I definitely started incorporating more electronic sounds into my recordings (which have yet to see the light of day). I also started allowing sections of songs to lose shape, to become purely ambience without melodic ideas, until they resolved to something more coherent. Because I was living with my dad who I didn’t grow up with, and was isolated from the world I was raised in, my lyrics became more personal and vulnerable, telling real stories instead of describing imagery. I wrote a song called Will He Ride (My Bike), which was so direct and specific that I couldn’t even play it in front of my dad.

You describe Grimson as both an animation and a music project. What drew you to combine these two mediums?

My mom is an illustrator, and I grew up with drawing being my go-to creative expression. When I got into music, it was with bands like The Hives, The White Stripes, and Radiohead, who all have very specific visual identities and elaborate music videos. I didn’t see a separation between the music and the visuals. When it’s done right, you’re no longer listening to a band or artist - you’re immersed in a world that has its own rules. Until I got a computer to create simple flash animations, I used to make stacks and stacks of post-it flipbooks with stick figures fighting each other. There is a film by Michel Gondry (who directed a lot of the videos for said bands) called “Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?” - and when I saw that, along with Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas,” I knew I wanted to make twisted animated music videos. College was where I got serious about it, and I discovered how truly time-consuming and laborious proper animation is. But the payoff is immense when it all comes together, and you feel like a child again, as if watching your toys come to life.

Do you write music with an idea for animation already in mind? How do you create in one medium to complement the other?

Songs and animations are definitely two sides of the same coin for me. When a song is forming, there are always visual ideas rooted in the story or emotion. Sometimes it’s just a texture that I’m chasing, like “Oh, this song needs to sound like sandpaper - how can I achieve this in the recording? What does that look like?” I’ve had synthesia since I was a child, so I often associate sounds and emotions with colors or characters. It’s easier to know what to draw when a song has lyrics that describe certain imagery, or tell a specific story - but one has to be careful because there’s nothing more boring than a 1:1 visualization of what you’re hearing. With film, it’s a lot easier to leave space for the audience to put the pieces together themselves. With my songs/animations, my goal is to provide a train, some tracks, a ticket, but let whoever is paying attention find their destination on their own.

What experiences did you draw on when writing your new track “Household”? Can you explore the track’s narrative?

The initial idea came in high school. I had a girlfriend whose parents were very controlling and tracked her every move (in hindsight probably for good reason), and I think I selfishly created a narrative where she could escape that. I wrote that first melody line with a bit of guitar accompaniment, but then forgot about it. In college, I was going through my voice memos and discovered that demo, and the song instantly came out. I was listening to a lot of Harry Nilsson, Beatles, and Steve Reich, and the chords and melodies grew out of those sounds. If I remember correctly, the initial full song demo was called dogs, because I had this image of a dog in a doghouse (shoutout to my favorite children’s book “If My Dog Had a Job”), and I liked the idea of this dog escaping ownership and running wild. The lyrics tell a slightly different story, though. It’s all about building up the courage to leave, but never really doing so. In truth, the fear of leaving something behind, and being in control of one’s own fate, is terrifying. It requires a lot of self-discipline and power to break free, and even then it’s easy to relapse and return to bad habits or abusive relationships. Sadly the protagonist in this song remains stuck in that fantasy of liberation, never taking the actual steps to do so.

Can you please explain the animation process and your envisioned narrative for the video?

In college, I got to know this incredible artist T. Marsh. We have quite similar references for animations and styles we like, and for a while were sending back and forth things for each other to check out. I had been thinking of ideas for this animation, which I knew needed to be a literal epic, where the protagonist goes on a journey and fights their enemy, but I could never muster the courage to settle on an idea. I approached T about it and was genuinely surprised when they took immediate interest. My background in animation is a bit more technical than theirs, so we complemented each other nicely. They came up with the story of a little boy who builds up the courage to break free from captivity in his house, then finds glory by slaying a giant and becoming king. Building the narrative was a little hard though because both of us felt like we were a bit more aesthetics-focused than content-focused. But I think we succeeded in telling a story that mirrors the song well. Their costumes, sets, and sculptures are next-level, and they put so much effort into pulling it all off. They filmed themself, then printed out individual frames and cut them - pasting the sequences into real-life models. I animated backgrounds and some trippy line drawings. It was a true collaboration, I am so genuinely pleased with how our pieces came together and complemented each other.

Do you have any plans for a longer project to come this year?

The age of streaming has kind of changed everything, and as much as I would like to put everything on a record and call it a day, I’m trying to play the game and keep things trickling out. Doing singles also gives me an opportunity to treat each song like its own project by creating unique artwork and videos. I’ve got about three albums worth of songs that will hopefully culminate into a major release sometime this year. My current goal is to tour as much as possible because I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never actually done one. I’m so used to playing shows every now and then, and writing and recording songs in isolation, that it would be a welcome experience to stop stressing and just play. I think once I find a label, and can maybe quit working at my hotel, I’ll have a better idea of where I should be putting my energy. I’d also like to mention that I want to animate a short film featuring the same characters that are in my music. One day.