All summer long you’ve been singing “Cause you’re the next Drew Barry and I want more,” the genius behind that song is Bryce Vine. He auditioned for The Glee Project, one year later he signed with record label Kiva House and released his EP titled Lazy Fair, which had the hit “Sour Pitch Kids” which has over 4.3 million views. Two years after that EP, he released another EP titled Night Circus. Last year he came back to the music industry stronger than ever with his smash hit “Drew Barrymore” which currently has over 23 million views. Vine is currently on tour opening for MAX on the House of Divine Tour. CelebMix had the chance to chat with Vine backstage before his set in Boston, MA.
How did you come up with the name Bryce Vine?
I’m surprised how many people don’t ask that. When I was at Berklee (college of music in Boston), I was working with another rap group and I sang one of their songs. I didn’t have an artist name, my last name is Ross-Johnson, and for years; banks, airplanes, trains, the DMV, nobody could understand that I had a hyphen between my last name. So, I just wanted to simplify my name and one of my friends pointed out how I sing jazz so he suggested Vinyl. Then I just said how about I make it Vine for now.
Why did you make a song called “Drew Barrymore?”
I was just working on the beat, I went into this song just trying to write a song that didn’t focus on the girls looks, a love song that doesn’t talk about how beautiful she is physically, which was more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I found this voice note from Julia Michaels from three years ago with that “you’re the next Drew Barry” but it was over a different beat that didn’t really work at the time. Once I had written all my parts and made the beat for this Drew Barrymore song it just fit in really nicely and it kind of worked with what I was trying to say. I’m talking about a specific kind of girl, she’s kind of cute, she’s kind of a bad ass, she’s sweet, so Drew Barrymore was kind of a good example of that.
Did you ever think it would be this successful?
I don’t think you can, you can definitely guess something is a hit. I knew it was good but I try to write good songs so I like all my songs when I finish them. I think we all knew that was something special and I’m glad we were right because the next time we’ll probably be right too.
Do you know if Drew Barrymore has listened to the song?
I have no idea, she must have… maybe she didn’t like it?
How has touring with MAX been?
MAX is great, he’s a great person. We hit it off a year ago when we were writing together, so it’s been great. I’m just frequently exhausted, we haven’t really taken breaks all summer, even before I came to do this tour, we were in Europe and then we were home for two days and then went on tour, so I don’t even know what timezone I should be in. It’s a lot, but the shows have been great, they have all been sold out since, the parts that I’ve been on and I got to go to Toronto and Montreal.
What has been your favorite memory on tour?
One of them just happened on this tour. My manager has a very big personality, I love him to death but sometimes it’s too big. MAX has been worried about his voice a lot because he has a node or something like that and at one point we were in the backstage of this big room with the opener EZI and her whole team, MAX’s whole team and my whole team are back there, except for MAX. MAX comes in, ending the set early because he was worried about his voice and he’s not speaking when he’s not singing so he was kind of throwing everything, panicking and the whole room was dead silent, you could hear a pin drop for five minutes, we were all staring at MAX, shocked, we didn’t know if it was going to be ok and even wondered if it was going to be the end of the tour and my manager walks in and having no idea what is going on, the most tense moment of the tour and he goes “looks like a f*cking bomb went off in here.” I’ve never had such a switch of emotions in my whole life, to go from that much fear seeing in somebody to just my manager immediately ruining the moment for everybody. It was not funny at the moment honestly and he still had no idea, so when we were trying to let him know it’s a serious thing and that not right now is the time while trying not to laugh, he’s like “what? what’s going on?”
Another time there was a woman, always at hotels, we’re checking in and some woman comes down to the lobby stark naked, drunk and angry. One time this guy was sitting in the lobby of the hotel having just pooped his pants and the cops didn’t know what to do, I’ve never seen police struggle with what to do like what the protocol is.
You have a new album, Carnival coming out in 2019, what can we expect from that?
Definitely songs. There’s a bunch of different things. I wrote one song in particular “I Can Be a Love Song For Anyone,” like mother to son, daughter to father, brother to sister, I think it will be played at weddings.
Why did you name it Carnival?
The first EP was Lazy Fair, the second EP was Night Circus, and now this is kind of a combination of all of that, it’s a lot of colors, a lot going on, just what’s in my brain, a lot of different subject matter too.
You were diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia, how do you cope with that and making music?
It definitely makes it hard to memorize lyrics that I didn’t write. For songs that I did I can memorize melody and lyrics and exactly what song is playing and who it’s by and remember all that if I heard it one time but for what’s in front of me in the moment, I can’t do it. I get the words mixed up, it’s very difficult to remember phone numbers. It’s actually probably why my songs are so easy to digest for people because I need them to be simple, even if there are a lot of lyrics, like I’m telling a story that I recall and remember and it makes it easier for me. I’m not very good at taking on outside songs from other artists or writers and stuff, it’s very difficult to connect with.
You started off in a punk band and then went to hip-hop and rap, how did you go from one genre to the next?
Just naturally, I just kept trying different things, you know I wanted to see where my voice fit well. I just wanted to keep trying new things and see where my voice sat and if I liked something or heard something new, I wanted to figure out how to make it my own a little bit.
What’s your goal before 2018 is over?
I’ve already surpassed the goals that I had. I was unsigned at the beginning of this year. I went from being unsigned to a song like she (the publicist in the room) went to the top of the charts. It’s very difficult to make a goal without being a little too selfish but that’s good for me, I’m just working on personal life a little bit too, I have a girlfriend for the first time in a while, which is definitely a challenge when you’re on the road, but a good challenge. I guess I have to keep figuring out new ways to grow so that I can write about it.
Make sure you catch Bryce Vine opening for MAX on the House of Divine Tour by purchasing tickets here!