Graztopia, the singular sonic sensation of New York City’s music realm, introduces his new video for “Nocturnal Lullaby,” out today. With a multifaceted persona mirroring the intricacies of his music, Graztopia is a fusion of cleverness, intellect, and an air of enigma. Picture a lovechild between a ’60s beatnik and a ’90s grunge icon, now rocking the stage at Lollapalooza – that’s Graztopia in a nutshell. The video is perfectly crafted with intricate footage that helps to set the tone of the song itself.

An enduring musician and a virtuoso of various instruments, Graztopia’s compositions are a symphony of sound and storytelling. His style defies conventional genres, weaving rock, folk, and jazz blues into a truly authentic auditory adventure. When he steps onto the stage, each performance embarks on a unique odyssey of impromptu jams, soulful solos, and seamless transitions, all powered by his “Mothership Pedalboard” and his trusty loop pedal.

When it comes to musical settings, Graztopia’s tunes resonate with a diverse array of enthusiasts. His melodies find favor in the realms of cannabis and craft beer, lending a psychedelic ambiance to pro-cannabis gatherings and brewery gigs. His acoustic finesse makes him a perfect match for coffeehouses, evoking that quintessential beatnik vibe reminiscent of Greenwich Village.

His most recent opus, Beatnik Serenade at The Cup Coffeehouse, released in September 2023, stands as a testament to his versatility. Graztopia takes the spotlight, masterfully playing every instrument, while being joined by guest musicians Dom Barranco on percussion and Jess DeBellis on accordion. The album is a sumptuous feast for the senses, seamlessly merging acoustic and synthesized elements into an ambient, genre-blending masterpiece.

We had the chance to check in with Graztopia regarding the new video for “Nocturnal Lullaby,” which you can find below.

Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?

The song is meant to be interpreted by the listener in their own special way. That way hopefully the song takes on a life of its own with every listener. Insofar as the story of the song goes, it was written on a very rainy winter night after finding out the sad news that a friend had just passed away. I was lying in bed playing a simple chord pattern/riff on one of my guitars and then out of nowhere a song was magically there. Some of the lyrics reflect real time things that were actually happening to me or feeling as the song was being written while processing the loss of a friend. Though some artistic or poetic liberties might have been exercised as well. And most of the visuals going on in the video are meant to visually represent the lyrics to a degree. 

What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

There wasn’t really an inspiration for the video per se, but we didn’t just make a video for the sake of making the video either. Not to be to cliche but in the simplest terms the video and the visuals in it were meant to visually represent the lyrics in a way, whether it was in a literal sense or in a poetic sense or both at once. The visuals were going to be the main focal point of the video rather than just lip-synced performances. However, there are those types of performances that happen within the video mainly because that’s a necessary evil in all music videos that have some type of singing or playing of instruments as a part of the concept of a particular video. And for syncing purposes, it makes things in post-production go smoother. By taking the concept of reflecting the lyrics through the visuals, the storyline of the video came together fairly quickly. Being that I’m a huge fan of stop-motion I knew ahead of time I wanted to have that incorporated into the video.  The idea struck me to have myself lying in bed as different blankets change over me in various different ways using stop-motion and blending that with other visuals that are surrounding the bed. The real magic is making a video on a “shoe string budget” that looks a close to a million dollars as it can. That’s something that every single independent artist has to deal with. So, the real credit of bringing the video or story of the video to life goes to my friend and videographer extraordinaire Bruce Faulkner of Bruce Videography Services. Maybe one day we’ll have some serious cash to finance videos with better sets, to be able hire professional actors for the videos, create cooler visuals etc…lolol Because that would be cool to go to Bruce with a massive brontosaurus sized video budget to make videos that spare no expense. The video is kind of arthouse in a way but the end result is definitely something that we’re very proud of. 

What was the process of making this video?

The process for making the video was very straightforward. It begins after I submit my music video treatment to Bruce and then he tells me what’s possible to do and what’s not. Or ways of making what I want to make happen possible in some other way. After that we work out a final draft of the video script, then shooting begins. The video was shot in about 4 hours actually. There were technically only two sets or settings for the video so there wasn’t that much that needed to be filmed because we were going to rely on the other visuals and footage. The first scenes that were shot were all of the performance shots of the video, insofar as the ones of me playing guitar and the others as I’m singing into the microphone which happen during the chorus parts. After that I got to kick back and relax in a bed that was surrounded by green screens while Bruce took a plethora of pictures for all of the different stop-motion shots of the various ways the blankets would cover me and go on and off. That part was by far the easiest of the video shoot for me, but Bruce may beg to differ on that insofar as it being the easiest part of the shoot. Once we were done shooting Bruce worked his magic to put together a first draft of the video which was basically a finished product other than changing some of the visuals and altering others. So major kudos to Bruce on that. We spent a few nights editing, making slight alterations and before we knew it, we had a finished music video.