Created to Create
ABOUT
Born from an egg on a mountaintop.
Creating new styles and he never stop.
OK the full story is...
BIO.
AKA More than you ever wanted to know about the art of Steven Griffin!
As a little kid I drew a lot of comic strips cuz I thought my jokes were better than what was in the paper.
I sent off submissions to newspaper syndicates, eventually receiving rejection letters, but didn't give up my goal to be a professional cartoonist!
Then when I was 14 I picked up Jim Lee's X-Men #1 in a newsagent, immediately realising that comics were a far more challenging artform to master then anything else I'd discovered (hence greater chance for showing off!) and became obsessed with comic book art and making it my career.
All my teenage money went into the cash registers of Perth comic book stores.
I worked long hours for years to be good enough to be published.
Before that happened,
in 1995,
I made use of my comic strip skills by creating the first ever internet game with graphics,
BIG HEAD'S AMAZING COMIC STRIP ADVENTURE GAME!
(Though the lead character is female, Big Head is inspired by my own huge cranium.)
I grew up enjoying choose-your-own adventure books
and Sierra and Lucasarts adventure games
(and had already programmed my first adventure game in Basic when I was 8)
so wanted to make use of the interactivity of the internet to make something
as entertaining online.
The biggest problem was that the internet crawled back then, so there's no way I could program a traditional, animated adventure game and have it run at a playable speed on dial-up.
So I came up with the solution of using B&W comic strips
that I got down to a size of only around 8KB each to portray the action,
so it ran as fast as an offline game, with short wait times (excluding the wait time for me to create more of the game! Which angered a lot of passionate fans, whoops!)
But rock n' roll is bumpy business.
With hundreds of thousands of players,
Big Head was extremely popular for a 1996-sized internet population.
But as it was designed for Netscape circa 1995, it's sadly now long gone from the internet!
In 1998, I already had the fanciest, funnest Flash websites on the internet, and a failed online video game store
(cuz I didn't think to first invent Paypal and lost all my money to credit card fraud.)
So I moved on to a new challenge and created the first ever Flash game, a virtual pet/tamagotchi parody called Virtual Staph, where you raise a pet
Staphylococcus bacteria!
Creating a game aimed purely at microbiologists
seemed funny to me at the time.
It was written in the then-barely functioning Flash Actionscript language.
It was such a pain in the butt (a bigger challenge than even Assembler!) that I didn't make another game after that.
I then did some Flash animation cartooning, just because I hadn't done animation before, then turned my focus back to breaking into the comic book industry.
In 2003 my first comic book HAWAIIAN DICK was released through Image Comics
to universal praise,
but due to long, long hours of daily work and severe injuries I'd accumulated since childhood,
I couldn't keep up with the fan demand for new issues and eventually had to move onto focusing purely on my health and healing,
work I'd never had the chance to dedicate time and energy to before.
Since I was little my focus had always been primarily on lifting the mood of others with my artistic entertainment. It's still a big motivator, but I now give far more thought to my own health than I used to, having learnt to be at least a bit selfish (which in the long run will help others, once I'm healthy enough to be of better use than when I'm overworked, sick and injured.)
These days I eat like I'm an injured athlete on steroids,
and it's working quite well for me.
This is the most serious thing I've ever written.
Which is why I've never written a bio before.
ALBUMS
Songs For Lonely Good Girls AKA Steven's Favourite Ever Art Project
LINER NOTES
As with my visual art, I create my songs straight out of my head and accidentally made 12 albums out of the 3000 or so songs I freestyled between 2016-2019.
They're in the order they were recorded.
Everything is freestyled.
No rehearsals,
no warming up.
I just push record and see what comes out, like a real conversation.
I'm singing over music that I'm simultaneously composing and playing in my head.
I'm mostly singing the orchestra.
I'd always dance when singing, cuz it made my voice dance like it does on the recordings.
All tracks are date and timestamped from when they were recorded in YYMMDD-24HourMinuteSecond format, which is neat.
No edits, no cuts, no filters. Just my voice, raw off the mic.
I don't even clear my throat.
I just push record and capture the moment as authentically as possible.
Then I push stop and it's done.
No cuts, no edits (not even volume adjustment !), but I usually sang loud if you need a hint at the correct volume.
The way this project came about is...
When I was young I had a great voice and could sing anything, but didn't have the confidence to write my own songs.
Then in my 20's, due to health problems I lost my singing voice.
Then a few years back, after switching to a high protein, high fat, low carb diet, my health improved and I regained the ability to sing a bit.
But rather than being a boring robot and doing singing lessons or standard vocal training, I decided to record myself whenever I felt like singing, and track myself regaining my abilities the fun way!
So these albums are just hours of me having fun in the most vocally challenging (and show off-ingly) way possible in that moment.
But I'm basically just trying to vocalise the pop orchestra I have playing in my head sometimes. And push my brain to its maximum problem-solving speed.
As well as that, I believe that music activates many regions of the brain at once, so I figured that if I recorded myself singing a song in a good mood, listening to each day would help re-wire my brain more permanently to the state I was in when singing. Which would then make my next song slightly more positive,
and it would have a continued layering effect over each new recording.
And because each album's playlist is in the order the songs were recorded,
you can hear and feel my positive hormones increase track to track, album to album
over time,
realtime.
I also noticed that when my health went backwards, my songs came out with a bit more of a blues/country sound to it. And the healthier I got, the more poppy and upbeat the songs!
Wasted, but with you.
171004-031556 Ushud Uno
171009-040544 It's Kinda Funny Hunny
170810 Steppe Cool
171010-053822 Wait Until The Morning II
171010-053822 Wait Until The Morning III
170922-041446 Entering A Sandy Village Drunk On A Sober Horse
170922-042510 Back On The Trail (Music From A Japanese Western Set In China Near The Indian Border)
170922-042722 Gone To The Limit
171006-065601 Sandstones
171007-233700 Shit Hot
171008-010013 Good At Everything
171010-055520 Singing You Send Me By Sam Cooke
171013-000824 One Quick Step
WA
180105-034010 Sped Up Now (Hoo Hoo IV In Bed)
180116-001524 Fukit II
180116-003516 Fukit III
Marshmallows suck.
171013-034540 Deleriously-Ill Can't-Sleep Sitting-Up Comedy
171013-065349 Deliriously-Ill Can't-Sleep Lay-Down Later-On Comedy
171014-005348 70s Cop Show
171014-012321 PFGLD (Pretty Fucking Good Lying Down)
171014-041345 Ride (PFGLD IV)
171014-041547 Ride A Different Track (PFGLD V)
171014-041829 PFGLD VI
Star.
The night I recorded this set I wasn't in much of a singing mood, and started thinking about what a bad role model some pop stars can be at times,
and Diamonds In The Car is what came out.
The most negative/critical song I've recorded,
so I wasn't thrilled about that.
But some great one-off singing.
180314-233702 Diamonds In The Car II
180314-233732 Diamonds In The Car III
180315-003734 Doin I Want Someone Badly
180315-015920 Another Song About It
180321-201709 Doin Can We Talk by Tevin Campbell and Babyface V
180321-204610 Doin Can We Talk VI
180327-041720 Home Again
180329-045018 Home Again Again
180403-170451 Tryna Learn An Intrument IV
180406-215442 Sun Day (On A Friday)
180406-224325 Sun Day In Bed
180407-050814 Doin Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) by Paul Young
180410-230848 Thrill Ain't Gone (After Hearing Opening Verse Of The Thrill Is Gone by BB King For First Time)
180413-034853 Girls On The Avenue VI Lying Down
Autopilot
The song's called called 'Hearts (Couch Autopilot singing)' cuz I took my freestyling up a notch by managing to turn off the self-editing part of my brain altogether and not think at all about what I was singing, hence autopilot.
Risky, but it came out good.
I always try to sing on instinct/feeling alone, or as close to it as I can get,
but Hearts is as close as I've come to pure braindead singing.
Goal reached!
And curious lyrics considering I had developing heart failure at the time.
But more importantly it has the continuation of my quality WA tourism song.
You're not the only one
who feels this way.
I started this set by singing a song by 90's Perth band Ammonia.
It popped into my head, so as always I just
went with it to see what happened.
She's real smart
and she's uh,
creative too,
I'm pretty sure there's nothing she can't do,
I definitely know she can light up a room.
After freestyling the title song I didn't think I'd done a good job and so barely played it back.
Then a month later I came across it again and was surprised at how good it was.
I stop the song about 30 seconds in and start again cuz I was thinking to myself,
"This kinda sounds like something Snow Patrol would sing."
And if I start sounding like or reminding myself of another artist, I abondon the song or quickly change it up,
cuz I want to be as creative and original as possible.
It got good though.
And it's more of me thinkin bout the kinda girl I'd want relocatin to WA.
When freestyling the 'Glow' set of songs I was thinking of a friend of mine
named Rebekah as well as the creatively brilliant youtuber Goodnight Moon,
and I got so overwhelmed with happy, loving feelings I started crying.
But didn't miss a beat, which is the important thing.
I love this album.
TRACKLIST:
171224-060444 It's Just Your Body It Drives Me Crazy
180523-230311 Nobody Does It Better But More Like 90's Radiohead Live Version
190419-041607 It's Just Your Body It Drives Me Crazy Ages Later
190419-041755 It's Just Your Body It Drives Me Crazy Ages Later II
190419-042002 It's Just Your Body It Drives Me Crazy Ages Later III
190501-194710 It's Just Your Body It's Driving Me Crazy Stripped
190501-194710 It's Just Your Body It's Driving Me Crazy
190501-205413 It's Just Your Body Proclamation
190501-205604 Body Heat Beat
190501-205815 It's Just Your Body It Drives Me Crazy
190501-210419 Glow
190501-210603 Glow II
190501-210748 Glow III
190501-210954 Glow IV
190501-211515 that was...what was that
190501-214839 Hello, Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello
190731 003046 Wet It's Just Your Body It Drive Me Crazy
The love inside.
My favourite song (and music video) of 2019 was Bad Boy by Red Velvet.
It boosted my mood many times.
So in this set of songs I tried singing it for the first time.
I also had fun singing a whole run of songs that were ridiculously out of range of my testicle size, and as usual just jumped right in and tried to make it work with the state my voice was in in the moment I came up with the thought to sing it.
During this album I was also doing a lot of bodyweight workouts and gaining strength and muscle.
I was still thinking about my friend Rebekah who I missed a lot, but I'd discovered Red Velvet. so the singing is mostly more upbeat and poppy.
But when doing Lana Del Rey songs,
I was thinking about her.
For 'Lips Together', I was showing the birds in the trees outside who's boss.
Just like how my hair shows any lions I cross paths with who's got the best mane in nature.
190503-013030 Rainbow Connection Wish Tree by Kermit The Frog and Red Velvet
190503-013245 Doin Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer
190503-013532 Doin The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens
190503-013754 Doin My Favorite Things by Rodgers and Hammerstein & Julie Andrews
190503-013913 Doin End Of The Road by Boyz II Men
190503-032645 Doin I'm Not In Love by 10cc
190504-044430 Hornet's Nest
190504-045149 Calling The Night
190504-045853 Doin Hakuna Matata
190506-002921 Two Days Later Glow
190506-050705 Bad Girl (Doin Bad Boy by Red Velvet, reading lyric video)
190506-051008 Bad Girl II
190506-051216 Bad Girl III
190506-051451 Doin Bad Boy IV
190506-051723 Bad Girl V (Doin Bad Boy)
190506-051917 Actually Not Wearing Any (Bad Girl VI)
190506-051917 Bad Girl VI (Doin Bad Boy)
190506-052032 Bad Girl VII (Doin Bad Boy)
190506-061917 Bad Girl X
190506-231432 Next Night Doin While My Guitar Gently Weeps IV
190507-192422 Singing Over Lana Del Rey For 1st Time (Every Man Gets His Wish)
190507-192938 Singing Over Lana Del Rey For 2nd Time (Back To Tha Basics)
190507-195523 Whistling Over Lana Del Rey For 1st Time (Put Your Lips Together)
190507-195906 Whistling Over Lana Del Rey For 2nd Time (Put Your Lips Together)
190507-232234 Lips Together
190507-232411 Lips Together II
190508-014838 I Know It's Over Interlude
190508-204643 Doin I Know It's Over by The Smiths III
190510-154811 Doin I Know It's Overr by The Smiths V Boxes
190515-001855 Doin When The Saints Go Marching In
190515-002002 Doin Billie Jean
190527-063633 Got It Figured Out In Bed II
It never dies.
When I'm doing a Lana Del Rey song,
that's who I'm thinking about.
When recording all my albums odds are I'm thinking about my favourite artists
Lana Del Rey and Goodnight Moon while singing.
'190925-045442 Girl' was also inspired by seeing Davy Jones singing on The Brady Bunch when I was little and singing it a lot in my early school years.
190605 194410 True Love (After Hearing Bad Boy by Lana Del Rey)
190605 221229 After Hearing Bad Boy by Lana Del Rey VII
190607 180436 Hollywood's Done
190607 224216 Steak Set To Be Eaten II
190616 023400 Hollywood's Done (Milk & Whey Edition)
190731 003046 Wet It's Just Your Body It Drive Me Crazy
190731 003256 Wet Over & Over
190731 003522 Wet Christmas Interlude II
190803 041046 Bad Girl Down
190813 012333 Fresh White Sheets V
190816 020703 Proper Pushups III
190819 232528 Brokeheart VII
190820 031511 Doin Lana Del Rey In Bed Before Sleep
190820 224626 Dream Of (Breed On VII)
190820 225042 Over & Over Again
190820 225259 Dream Of II (Doin Heartbeats VIII)
190820 225757 Maple Leaves On Concrete III
190821 035135 Everyone Is Bending (Doin Sky Ferreira In My Bedroom)
190822 000826 RARE! Thick Fingered Man Bashes Skinny Keys
190823 041030 Doin Moonlight In Bed II
190827 173455 Evrethin Right Out Of The Shower
190831 012752 Doin Just The Way You Are by Billy Joel
190831 041653 All I Know (Evrethin VIII)
190831 041840 All I Know (Evrethin IX)
190916 032158 Doin Heartbreaker III
190916 032822 Genius Or Idiot
190917-084550 Singing Dumb Dumb by Red Velvet
. | 190927-003224 Doin I Can Hear Music by the Beach Boys
|
191012-033834 Doin Linger by The Cranberries IV |
. |
191012-055724 Doin Peek-A-Boo by Red Velvet
I need you tonight.
This album is real interesting to me, cuz it's recordings I made only a month before being in emergency almost dead with heart failure, yet I sound strong and cool.
I remember at the time feeling more like a lion than someone dying from heart failure.
191013-013622 Doin Need You Tonight by INXS
191013-014007 xoxox Doin Need You Tonightt by INXS III
191013-051403 Doin Need You Tonight IV
191016-182010 Doin Wicked Game by Chris Isaak
191016-182640 Doin Wicked Game IV
191016-182856 Doin Wicked Game V
191016-183119 Doin Wicked Games VI
191018-015815 Doin Leave A Light on by Belinda Carlisle II
191021-045406 Doin You Were Meant For Me by Jewel
191021-045512 Doin You Were Meant For Me by Jewel II
191023-224613 De-B D Girls
191023-224849 De-B D Girls II
191023-225025 De-B D Girls III
191023-225233 xoxox De-B D Girls IV (Doin Wicked Game X)
191024-014524 I'm In Love With You
191024-014639 I'm In Love With You III
191024-014710 Never Late 3 Years Later
191024-014801 Never Late 3 Years Later II
191024-014801 Never Late 3 Years Later III
191024-015109 Breakheart
191024-214835 Brokeheart
191024-215007 Girl Disaster
191027-222656 That Song But A Year Later
191027-222850 That Song But A Year Later II
191030-054115 Use It Or Lose It
191101-232938 Doin Last Nite by The Strokes III
191101-233110 Doin Last Nite by The Strokes IV
191102-024912 Doin I Can't Go For That by Hall and Oates
191102-025135 Doin I Can't Go For That by Hall and Oates II
I need you tonight.
This album is real interesting to me, cuz it's recordings I made only a month before being in emergency almost dead with heart failure, yet I sound strong and cool.
I remember at the time feeling more like a lion than someone dying from heart failure.
191013-013622 Doin Need You Tonight by INXS
191013-014007 xoxox Doin Need You Tonightt by INXS III
191013-051403 Doin Need You Tonight IV
191016-182010 Doin Wicked Game by Chris Isaak
191016-182640 Doin Wicked Game IV
191016-182856 Doin Wicked Game V
191016-183119 Doin Wicked Games VI
191018-015815 Doin Leave A Light on by Belinda Carlisle II
191021-045406 Doin You Were Meant For Me by Jewel
191021-045512 Doin You Were Meant For Me by Jewel II
191023-224613 De-B D Girls
191023-224849 De-B D Girls II
191023-225025 De-B D Girls III
191023-225233 xoxox De-B D Girls IV (Doin Wicked Game X)
191024-014524 I'm In Love With You
191024-014639 I'm In Love With You III
191024-014710 Never Late 3 Years Later
191024-014801 Never Late 3 Years Later II
191024-014801 Never Late 3 Years Later III
191024-015109 Breakheart
191024-214835 Brokeheart
191024-215007 Girl Disaster
191027-222656 That Song But A Year Later
191027-222850 That Song But A Year Later II
191030-054115 Use It Or Lose It
191101-232938 Doin Last Nite by The Strokes III
191101-233110 Doin Last Nite by The Strokes IV
191102-024912 Doin I Can't Go For That by Hall and Oates
191102-025135 Doin I Can't Go For That by Hall and Oates II
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