Ethan Griggs

As the sun illuminates through the vibe-stained alleyways of Denver, Colorado, Ethan Griggs looks out at the city from his quarters and gazes upon the colors of the sunset in fall. Pink and blue collide and conceive a beautiful glow of light that shines on the buildings, creating more color in the sky, which reflect off his mind and create a gigantic Droste effect of aesthetic. It feels like he's living in a rainbow. This is perhaps a good way to describe his music at this point...

A multi-instrumentalist of many years, one could say that Griggs's main vehicle of expression, or the one he's most in control of, is his voice; Griggs has been singing since the age of 3. At his Denver Alma matter Denver School of the Arts, he studied in the Theatre major, earning many leading roles in the department's musical theatrical productions.

Now 22, Ethan further pursued a career in music throughout his teen years. At the age of 15 he formed his first band, Youth In Conflict, and frequently played around the Denver area for a total of approximately 30 shows in the band's year-long life span (on top of homework, of course.) The group gained acclaim in the Denver music scene by entering in annual Battle of the Bands competitions and playing venues such as the Ogden, Oriental, and Marquis theaters. In one of the annual battles judged by Grammy Award-winner Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, he called Griggs's sense of song structure, melody, and lyrics "instinctive." He gave the group second place in the competition.

Ethan later was involved with creating the Denver folk-collective ClusterFolk. The group also gained moderate notoriety around the Denver scene, having the opportunities of playing at the prestigious Bluebird and Gothic Theaters. In the same BOB competition, the year after Youth In Conflict won, Isaac Slade of the Grammy Award-nominated band The Fray gave the group third place, stating that band "sound drunk, but in the best way possible." Using prize money from the event, the collective recorded their debut EP Brighter & Brighter at Maxwell Studios in Highlands Ranch, with Griggs contributing two of the four songs and arranging all of them. The EP was released independently in February of 2012.

Now that he's getting closer to closing the door on his college career at University of Colorado Denver, Ethan is excited to further bud out as a writer and artist in the Denver music scene. In April of 2015, he was a finalist in the CU Denver Songwriting contest, judged by the one and only Todd Rundgren, whom Ethan got to open for when he played a concert at the school the next night. The song in question, "Mind Gardening Girl", was released on Griggs's first EP, Transient, which is available on all major streaming services.