Dean Griffin Talks “might be love,” “readysetgo,” and Keeping the Creation Playful
Dean Griffin did not sit down to write “might be love” expecting it to change anything.
He had bought a new synth that day, started messing around with it, and the first song that came out was the one that would eventually bring a much larger audience into his world.
“No, I had no idea,” he tells Everyday Jams. “I was just messing around with a new synth I had bought that day, and that was the first song I made with it.”
There was no grand plan attached to it. No attempt to make the song that would introduce thousands of new listeners to Dean. It was just another day of following whatever sounded interesting.
Only later, once he started teasing the track, did something feel different.
“I could tell when I started promoting it, however, that this one was going to be a little more popular than what I'm used to.”
He was right.
But what makes “might be love” interesting in the context of Dean’s growing catalog is not simply that it connected. It is how naturally it came from the same instinct he has been following from the beginning: make the thing first. Figure out where it belongs later.
Falling for the Wrong Person
Underneath the production, “might be love” comes from a much more familiar place.
“The lyrics touch on what I was feeling and going through last year while I was writing it,” Dean says. “Sometimes, you catch yourself falling for the wrong people that you know aren't the best for you, but you just can't help it.”
That tension fits comfortably inside his music.
Dean’s songs can be moody without becoming heavy. There are jazzy guitar lines, basslines built to move, and production that often makes the emotional mess underneath feel strangely fun to sit inside.
When asked what makes something unmistakably his, he points to those details.
“A lot of my music involves moody, jazzy guitar lines and chords, and there is almost always a groovy bassline happening.”
The rest is allowed to move around.
His listening habits certainly do.
“My headphones could be playing Kaytranada right now, but then in an hour I’ll be listening to Led Zeppelin, and later switch to Depeche Mode, so it’s a big variety.”
For Dean, genre does not seem like something that needs solving.
“I’ve always just made the kind of music I like.”
Let the Song Groove First
There is another part of Dean’s creative language that exists before lyrics, genre, or even a finished production: movement.
His background in dance has shaped the way he hears music, especially rhythm.
“I’ve always tried to keep an emphasis on knowing how a song grooves in my body and what really feels good to me.”
Sometimes that feeling arrives immediately. Other times, he has to play around until he finds it.
“A lot of my favorite grooves in my music came from playing around and riffing until landing on something fun.”
That relationship between movement and sound has become even more important as Dean has expanded the visual side of the project. Songs are not only things he hears anymore. He is thinking about what they could become physically.
“Especially now with how we do the music videos, I like to think of elements that can come to life visually in that way with dance.”
It makes sense, then, that the visual world and the music keep bleeding into each other.
“Every time I hear ‘might be love,’ I think of the video.”
“readysetgo” Looks Back to Move Forward
If “might be love” introduced a new wave of listeners to Dean, “readysetgo” pushed the project somewhere slightly different.
The inspiration goes back to a specific era.
“‘readysetgo’ came from my love for the 2000s sound coming from artists in the Neptunes / Timbaland era.”
It is a period of pop and R&B that Dean has always loved, and hearing that influence reappear in contemporary music gave him room to play with it himself.
“I love how that sound is having a new life right now, and I wanted to play in that world a little bit because I have always had so much love for that time in music.”
He also directed the visual for the song, continuing to blur the line between what a Dean Griffin track sounds like and what it looks like.
The process is not one-directional.
“The subject matter of a song inspires the visuals, but the visuals will also alter how I hear a song.”
Rather than building a completely new identity every time, Dean is interested in finding different rooms inside the same house.
“I'm trying to strive to make something fresh while staying under the same umbrella of projects.”
The Show Is Not Scripted
That looseness carries onto the stage.
Dean recently played the OC Fair and The Troubadour within the same week, two shows that could hardly have felt more different.
“The fair was outside in the heat, while The Troubadour is obviously more of a club setting.”
The band setup changed. The setlist changed. The energy around each show changed with it.
But Dean is not interested in over-choreographing what happens once he is up there.
“At rehearsals, the focus is more on making sure everything sounds right musically. I have vague concepts for how I perform each song, but it's not a scripted show by any means.”
The moments that stay with him tend to be less polished anyway.
After the OC Fair, Dean met two fans who had driven from Victorville, his hometown, specifically to see his set.
“That is a long drive, so it was really cool to meet them.”
It is one of those small markers of growth that probably says more than a number on a screen ever could.
People are not only hearing the songs. They are showing up.
Not Being Afraid to Suck
Dean’s catalog now stretches far enough back that he can hear his own growth in real time.
He does not seem embarrassed by the earlier work.
“I still get proud looking back at all of it.”
Every song taught him something, particularly about production and confidence. But there is one thing from those earliest years he wants to hold onto.
“I feel like I wasn't scared to suck at making music when I first started, I just did it.”
That might be the most important part.
The better you get at something, the easier it can become to understand all the ways it might go wrong. Dean wants to keep making things before that voice gets too loud.
“I always want to be evolving and pushing my comfort zone.”
It is a philosophy that shows up all over his answers. Follow the groove. Try the synth. Let the visual change the song. Let the song change the visual. Do not decide too early what something is supposed to become.
Running the Machine
Of course, staying playful gets harder when the project starts growing.
Dean is independent, which means the creative freedom comes with everything else attached.
“It’s just me running the machine.”
There are songs to make and videos to conceptualize, but there is also promotion, planning, coordination, release strategy, and the constant expectation that the next thing should already be moving.
“It gets draining trying to consistently work on the next thing while obviously being a human experiencing life.”
What makes it sustainable is the community around him.
“I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by a community of very talented, likeminded friends in different fields, and I get to make really cool art with them.”
And right now, being independent feels less like waiting for permission than it once did.
“We’re in a time right now where independent artists are winning big, and it’s inspiring.”
Crying in the Club
So what comes next?
Dean’s answer is appropriately concise.
“We’re gonna be crying in the club.”
A few new singles are already in motion, and beyond those, something larger is starting to take shape.
“Right now, I’ve got a couple of singles that will start rolling out in the near future. I'm going album mode in the studio this next month or so.”
It is the clearest indication yet that the world around “might be love” and “readysetgo” is expanding rather than ending with a couple of singles.
The wider response to “might be love” has also changed something for Dean, though not in the way you might expect. It has not made him more cautious. It has made the goal feel closer.
“It makes me feel that I’m closer to where I want to be than I thought.”
And with that comes more urgency.
It makes him want to keep pushing, keep releasing, and “really just giving this all I've got.”
Keep the Creation Playful
For all the momentum around Dean right now, the most exciting thing may be how little he seems interested in forcing any of it.
“I feel like I wasn't scared to suck at making music when I first started, I just did it.”
That instinct is still there. He follows the groove, trusts the strange idea, and lets the song become what it wants to be.
When we ask what he wants to protect as the project grows, his answer is simple:
“The ability to not put pressure on what I’m creating, and to just create it.”
That openness is part of what makes Dean’s music feel so alive.
“Just let the creation be play.”
With new singles ahead and album mode around the corner, that feels like a pretty good place to be.
Stream “might be love” and “readysetgo” by Dean Griffin, out now.
Photography: Jacob Sutton
