Credit: Ashley OsbornEarlier this year, grandson‘s breakout hit “Blood//Water” became the artist’s first-ever RIAA-certified Platinum single. Speaking to ABC Audio, grandson credits social media platforms for keeping the song going for over three years after its initial 2017 release.
“In the midst of this pandemic, my song ‘Blood//Water’ was getting played more around the world than ever before,” he says. “A lot of that had to do with TikTok and these social media platforms that are not even as old as the song. I think that that is really exciting.”
Grandson shares that being a platinum-certified artist feels “surreal,” and receiving the news was a “great moment” to share with his label and creative team amid a not-so-great year. Still, he wonders what the success of such a dark song like “Blood//Water” means in the context of his ongoing activist message.
“The work is clearly far from being done when a song that is that angry and disillusioned remains so relevant three years later,” he says.
In that sense, “Blood//Water” is an interesting mirror to grandson’s latest single, “Dirty,” which are both centered around a metaphor of making something clean unclean. While “Blood//Water” uses that metaphor in a negative light, “Dirty” is much more upbeat and positive as it encourages listeners to “get your hands dirty.”
“I hadn’t necessarily made that connection of purity versus impurity,” grandson says. “I guess now that we’ve strained the blood from the water, it’s like, ‘OK, now we gotta dive back in!’, ’cause clearly we didn’t learn our lesson the first time or something.”
By Josh Johnson
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