Griffin House
The Sober Truth
Griffin House's The Learner is his most personal album yet

By Jeff Niesel

Since he made his debut in 2003, Ohio-born singer-songwriter Griffin House has steadily made a name for himself as a talented musician. He’s toured with like-minded artists such as Ron Sexsmith, Josh Ritter and John Mellencamp. And he recently participated in a songwriting experiment for Esquire along with Dierks Bentley, Charlie Mars, Bob Schneider and Ben Kweller. Recorded in Nashville, where he now lives, his new album, the folk/rock hybrid The Learner, is his most personal album to date, and many of the songs deal with his struggle to find sobriety. House recently spoke about the album and his aspirations for it.
   
So what’s it been like trying to eke out a living as a singer-songwriter.
I’ve done better every year, and I’m finally living and sustaining a life. I have a house and I’m married and I have a little bit of money in the bank. I’m putting it into hiring a radio team. I’m still doing it. It’s crazy because the easier it’s gotten, the harder it is for me to relax. In the beginning, when I didn’t have any money, I just didn’t care about anything. I didn’t know anything about radio. I was just making records because it felt good. You get a little bit older and you start thinking about what happens when you have kids and how you will feed them. You start to be a little more responsible. The more success, the more you worry

I’ve read some about your background, that you were an athlete before you knew you could sing. What was it like when you realized you had a decent voice?
It was awesome. I felt like I was going to finally get some chicks. I was a nerdy smaller kid. I was really short in the eighth grade and then grew like 10 inches. I played sports and I was inspired by this guy’s theater performance and tried out for a play and the first song they wanted me to sing was “Somewhere over the rainbow.” I had never sung to any accompaniment. I opened my mouth and nothing came out and I walked off the stage. I ended up trying out for a musical and they gave me a singing part and I practiced and by the time, I got to practice, I learned how to do it. That was when I had the “yes” moment.

How difficult was it to learn guitar and then start writing songs?
Very hard. I bought an Oscar Schmidt guitar from a friend of mine for a hundred bucks. It sat in my room collecting dust. I tried to take a couple of lessons but that didn’t work. I’d come home and kick the guitar. I went to college and decided I would learn to play it if it killed me. One day, I held down a G chord and just strummed it until my hand formed the claw. One night I left my dorm room and I would walk around campus and play guitar all night long because I figured if I played until the sun came up, I would inevitably get better. I got tired about 3 a.m. and had to wake up for an early morning class.

You’ve been remarkably prolific, right?
I write too many to be able to record them at the speed that I want. I have these left over ones and not enough cash to record them.

You called this new album The Learner, which is a reference to your nickname, right?
It started because my photographer buddy Rusty would say, “the Learner strikes again” after a particularly hard night of drinking. I had done things I had to learn the hard way. Maybe we looked at a picture from the night before and said, “Oh man. That was a learner.” He’s been a guy who’s been my friend for a long time. He worked at Creative Artists Agency when I first moved to town. He helped me meet people in Nashville. We figured out that it means “disciple” in Hebrew so that was an interesting part of it, too. The album is about having to reel it in again.

Do the songs link conceptually?
I think they’re completely snapshots of where I was at for the last two years. All that is in there. I just write about my life. It ends up in there.

So you’ve said goodbye to your friend booze?
Yeah. I’m completely sober. It’s crazy. It’s been a sobering experience.

There are also lots of love songs, even “She Likes Girls.” Are there as many love songs as introspective pieces on the album?
Yeah, I think so. I’m writing so much right now that there’s a lot of post-Learner stuff happening. I am writing about what’s it like to stop using a substance you’re addicted to and getting sober. The learner is appropriate because I was still learning those lessons. I think “She Likes Girls” has a bit of a rambunctious tongue-in-cheek attitude to it. I think that song had to be written in my wild phase.

I like the simple power-pop tune “Feels so Right.” It’s one of the most positive songs on the album.
That was in the middle of just having fun. I went over to my friend’s house and we were in the studio jamming and I pretty much wrote the whole song in that amount of time. I took it home and reworked the lyrics a bit and we had a song.

You planning to tour behind the album?
Oh yeah. This is the first time that I started paying attention to what was going on and take responsibility to make sure the record got heard. I hired a radio team and we’re getting good radio play. Last year we had a good year and the crowds grew in size. We’re hoping that happens again this year.