Western Sydney singer grentperez on pranks, karaoke and his new single with Lime Cordiale (2024)

There was an elephant in the room at all Grant Perez's family gatherings growing up.

"It's always lingering. Even if no one touches it, no one talks about it —if someone picks it up, you know it's going down."

He's talking, of course, about karaoke.

The 21-year-old, better known as grentperez, subscribes to the hypothesis that "80 per cent of Filipino families" have their own karaoke machine at home, with his family's karaoke nights featuring lots of encouragement, a few singalongsand definitely "some belt-y moments".

And the practise has paid off for the Western Sydney singer-songwriter.

After starting out on YouTube, by the end of this year he'll have toured the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, opened for Rex Orange County, and placed in a Hottest 100. He's even managed to release an album full of dreamy love songs about his high-school sweetheart, Christina.

To mark the release of Op Shop Lover, his new single with Lime Cordiale, we sat down with Grant for a bit of a chit chat.

Welcome to Chit Chat, where we ask your favourite celebs and internet-famous creatives a bunch of the same silly questions for fun, and a handful of prying ones to reveal who they are beyond their curated online presence.

What would your drag name be?

When I'm not Grant or Grent, I'm groin. So maybe Groin Perez?

The vibes would be very green and earthy tones. And I'd be super flamboyant, very very free with my dancing.

What's your hangover or sick day movie?

My comfort movie would probably be Cars.

It's everything. You've got the friendships —this dude came into town not knowing anything, and he learned the culture. There's a full character arc, where he went from this hotshot dude to this very humble fellow.

And you know, I love cars. So the movie just naturally makes sense.

And one of the songs that plays —Our Town —is so, so beautiful. I don't cry watching it normally, but I probably would if I watched it on a plane. For some reason, I get super emotional on a plane.

I cried watching La La Land on the way back from America, but at the dumbest scene. It was in the intro scene, where everybody's dancing in traffic. I was like: "They're having so much fun!"

What's the last photo you took?

I hope it wasn't like my butt or something. For the fellas.

Oh, it was me and my girlfriend having Kickin'Inn for lunch, up in Penrith. It's like a boil thing where they have seafood and they just dump it onto the table, and you have gloves.

What does being in love feel like to you?

I'm all for it with love. I love the lovey-dovey stuff. I love the arguments. I think it just feels good.

Everything feels, for the most part, figured out.

You can have an argument with this person, but you know that argument is just because you want the best out of each other.

I also think pranks should be a love language. It should be quality time, physical touch and pranking someone out of love.

I always try to scare my girlfriend. In the shops, when we're walking and she slightly turns away from me, I run off and look for somewhere to hide.

I think she's starting to get annoyed with me. Sometimes she tries to look for me, sometimes she's like, "Screw it. He'll come back."

I think my energy is like a little dog.

What's the most romantic place in your area?

Rooty Hill Hill. That's a great spot. Very picturesque. On the walk up, all you see is hill and sky. Then you get to the top and you have this view.

Because especially Sydney skies and Australian skies, they're always nuts. So the sunset is great.

The album art for [my album] When We Were Younger is that hill.

Do you believe in ghosts?

Hell yeah, I definitely believe in ghosts.

My dreams are sometimes super messed up. Like, I had this nap last year, and as soon as I went to sleep I felt someone push into my head.

It was like [they were] pushing my head into the pillow, giving me paralysis. But I could open my eyes a bit and see my room.

I could hear someone whispering from the inside of my pillow and it just kept getting louder and louder, getting further into my head.

Eventually I forced myself to wake up, and there was this very distinct smell of roses in my room.

I'm religious, I was born Catholic —and, apparently, the smell of roses after something like that is the presence of Mary.

So maybe the home girl saved me! Maybe [Mary] was like: "Wake up! Give me a snack."Could be something there.

What was your worst hair phase?

Probably during year 8 to year 11, when I thought a comb-over would look good.

It didn't conform to the shape of my head at all. There wasn't even a fade, it was just a one all around and a comb-over at the top.

My hair now is pretty wild. After year 11 I just went,"screw this. I'm cutting it myself."

[My] mullet came purely out of ease. It's so easy to cut this [at the front], but it's hard to cut the back.

What was #1 on your Spotify wrapped last year?

I think it was Toro y Moi. His recent album Mahal came out, and I had no skips throughout that album. It was my anthem for last year.

And during that time I was really analysing my music, so I was probably up there, too.

For my actual number one, it was probably Here Comes the Sun, because that's my alarm every morning.

Can you handle silence in a lift?

Hell yeah! I think I'm a very good mix of introverted and extroverted.

I'm introverted in the fact that I do love being by myself, sitting in silence. And I'm extroverted around the right people.

I think in the past two years, I've made the conscious decision to not give out my energy to everybody, [but to save it for] people that I really enjoy being with.