San Jose native plays huge homecoming show at Outside Lands festival

Dan Griffith’s first encounter with Outside Lands was just as a fan, joining with the tens of thousands of other festivalgoers to enjoy a variety of musical sights and sounds at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

This year, however, he’s one of the festival headliners.

Griffith will be closing out the massive Twin Peaks stage on Day 1 — Friday, Aug. 9 — of the three-day affair that also features such top acts as Post Malone, Sabrina Carpenter, Slowdive, Daniel Caesar and Sturgill Simpson

Yet, he won’t be doing it under his given name, but rather with the one that has become well known among electronic dance music fans around the globe:

Gryffin.

It’s a huge showcase for the San Jose native, who returns to the Bay Area as nothing less than a conquering hero in the EDM world.

“It’s an honor and I’ll try and do the Bay Area proud,” says Griffith, who also performed at the festival in 2018.

He’ll be supporting the buzzed-about new album “Pulse,” which is Gryffin’s third full-length studio outing to date and his first since 2022’s “Alive.” The album features contributions from such talents as John Newman, Rita Ora, MAX, Elderbrook, Calle Lehmann and the legendary DJ-producer Armin Van Buuren.

I recently had the opportunity to chat on Zoom with the DJ-producer-musician, who attended Saint Francis High School in Mountain View and now calls Los Angeles home, and it sounds like he’s counting down the days until his Outside Lands gig. For more information, visit sfoutsidelands.com.

Q: Hey, Dan, it’s great to get the chance to talk with another San Jose guy. I’m not sure if they told you or not, but this interview is set to run in the Bay Area Newspaper Group — which includes your hometown San Jose Mercury News.

A: Oh, yeah. When management hit me up about (an interview with the) San Jose Mercury News, I was like, “Done.” They’re like, “Are you familiar with that publication?” I was like, “Oh, yeah, that was like the news source growing up — so very familiar.”

Q: Being a South Bay person, you’re also very familiar with Outside Lands. What are your thoughts on the festival?

A:  I love it. It’s just an incredible place. I don’t live (in the Bay Area) anymore, but it always feels like home when I go or whenever I play shows there. I love the energy there. The fans are always amazing out there.

So, it’s always been one of the festivals I always look forward to being at — and now playing at twice. It’s really (Outside Lands) and like Coachella for me. I’m very excited about it.

Q: But you started going to Outside Lands well before you actually started playing it. What are some of your memories from attending the festival as a fan?

A: I remember seeing Ellie Goulding and kind of like “discovering her” at Outside Lands. Actually, that’s like a really vivid memory. I saw her on the Sutro stage and I just remember thinking like, ‘Who is this singer? She’s so talented.” Then she really like blew up after that.

I remember seeing deadmau5 close the Twin Peaks stage one time and was like freaked out with that one.

Yeah, I guess those are my two most vivid memories.

Q: Will your family turn out for the Outside Lands gig? It probably would be nice to look out from the Twin Peaks stage and see some familiar faces — like your mom and dad.

A: Actually spoke to them last night. They live in the South Bay — closer to like San Jose. So, yeah, they’re coming up. I got some cousins coming up. My sister is unfortunately not going to make it. She’s pregnant with her second child and probably (the festival) might be a little too much for her.

But, yeah, family is coming. My wife’s coming up. Dogs gonna come up. So, it’ll be a big event for sure. I’m very much looking forward to it. I’ll hopefully have them in front of house or maybe side stage or something like that, watching the show, but it’ll be really cool.

Q: How has growing up in the Bay Area impacted the music you make?

A: I think I was just exposed to a lot of like different cultures and diversity growing up. Like I had friends that had all different sorts of ethnic backgrounds and cultural differences and I feel like that kind of helped to expand my mind maybe creatively and be open to a lot of different stuff. Because of that, I like to fuse different genres of music and styles — even within my dance music.

Growing up playing the piano and guitar and just having that musical background with my friends in the Bay — you know playing music in our garage and stuff like that — it really helped hone the musicianship side of my music. I play a lot of piano and guitar in the music and in the productions now — which really stems from my childhood and growing up playing instruments.

I definitely think my roots in the Bay Area had a big influence on (“Pulse”) and where it where it ended up going.

Q: Yeah, because you were a pianist and guitar player long before you got into the EDM side.

A: I grew up playing the piano — I started doing classical music when I was 7. And I played all the way through high school. Then guitar, I wouldn’t really have like formal lessons or training, but I picked that up in middle school just because I got super into rock and punk and that kind of music. So, I would mess around with my friends in the garage or in my bedroom just making music, writing songs and stuff like that. I’m kind of self-taught on the guitar.

Q: How does that diversity and musicality play out on the new album?

A: It’s definitely more up-tempo and almost like — for lack of a better word — “dancier” than my other two albums. As a creative, I’m always trying to push myself as an artist and see what I can do, how far I can get out of my comfort zone and make music that’s just kind of trying to push my creative envelope. On this album, I was experimenting with more up-tempo stuff and some subgenres like drum and bass – which is a pretty distinct type of subgenre that’s featured on the album – and some trance elements and techno stuff. I hadn’t really done that before.

Q: The end result is music that feels very vibrant and exciting.

A: It was really fun to get out of my comfort zone and get almost like a little bit more experimental with this album. It was just very fulfilling as a creative because I feel like when I am in the studio and start making kind of the same thing, or when I feel like I’m making kind of just an iteration off of a song I’d made before, it’s just not that fun and fulfilling as an artist. I like to just do new stuff — trying new stuff all the time. So, “Pulse” is definitely a venture into a newer side of my music, but it was a blast to make and I’m really proud of the results.

Q: You collaborated with some mighty talents on this album – including the great Armin Van Buuren.

A: He’s somebody I’ve looked up to my whole career. When I got into dance music, you know, he was — and still is — one of the biggest names (in EDM). He was just one that I really looked up to and being in the studio with him was super surreal.

Q: The song you cut with Van Buuren — “What Took You So Long” — is really good. But my favorite track on the new album, as least thus far, is “Lonely” featuring Callie Lehman.

A: Oh, nice. Yeah. I love that song too. Callie Lehman is super talented. I’ve been working with him for a long time — since 2018. He’s the one that I did “All You Need to Know” with — which was a pretty big success. I got that record through my publisher originally and I just remember loving the guy’s songwriting and voice. Through COVID, we were like Zooming all the time, working on records together, and we just have a really close relationship.

He actually sent me a voice note idea of that song originally for “Lonely.” Immediately, I was like, “Dude, this is amazing.” I got to work on this and started lacing some chords down and sent them back to him. It was actually a very remote (recording process).

Q: I like to think that the remoteness played out in the song’s favor. That “Lonely” wouldn’t have been quite as good — or true to its vibe — if you guys had actually been recording it in the same room. The distance between the two of you translates to the music.

A: Yeah, that’s actually true. I mean it was very like intimate when he first sent the voice note. You could tell he was in his thoughts and by himself when he wrote, you know, like the bare bones part of the hook. Yeah, I think that’s actually a good point. I think there is something about us being isolated working on the record remotely that may have contributed to the feeling and the intimacy of it.