Kina Grannis, photo provided by Stunt Company

Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig isn’t exactly the kind of place you’d expect a Californian singer-songwriter wielding an acoustic guitar to play on her first big North American tour. With an abundance of PBR bottles available for consumption and staff with looks and demeanors that wouldn’t be out of place in a motorcycle gang, the Pig appears to be more of a dive bar than a launching pad for up-and-coming singer-songwriters. That’s why the Blind Pig is surprisingly deceptive.

Although there’s a dive bar downstairs (see: 8 Ball Saloon), the venue hosts a variety of artists from fledgling local bands to more established national acts. And every once in a while you’ll get a band play the Pig and then explode onto the national scene a couple years later (my friend Nick likes to remind people that he saw MGMT and inadvertantly flirted with Of Montreal’s keyboardist at the Blind Pig several years before either of them were famous).

So, really, it makes absolute sense for Kina Grannis to stop by the Blind Pig on her first national tour. And that’s exactly what she did on Wednesday night, filling the venue with one of the most diverse crowds I’ve seen there. To my right stood the loudest fifty-something year old woman I have ever encountered, behind me were a couple of high school kids, and in front of me was a couple who kept on making out (but then they moved to my left and were no longer in my direct line of vision). One thing that all these colorful characters had in common was their obvious love for Kina. Practically everybody was singing along, and there were quite a few people with homemade “Kina’s Biggest Fan” shirts. I haven’t seen shirts like that since I saw *NSYNC in 7^th grade. And after a couple of songs, it was clear why her fans love her so much: girl can sing. And play.

Yeah, that’s kind of expected from a singer-songwriter, but Kina’s actually pretty damn good, and she’s one of those artists who is way better live than on a CD. Whether it’s due to overproduction or the limitations of recorded sound, recordings rarely capture the subtle vibrations and honesty of a voice the way a live performance can. Even if I wasn’t able to see Kina’s face as she sung “Message From Your Heart” – the song that won her the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl competition – I would have had no doubt that she was smiling as she played.

The best part of the show by far was Kina’s cover of Coolio’s seminal, “Gangster Paradise.” It was completely unexpected but totally awesome, and somehow she made the song fit her – which is saying something because Kina and Coolio could not be described as two peas in a pod. With a cover choice like that, and consistently great renditions of her own music, it’s no surprise that the crowd begged for an encore.

Before Kina played, SHEI got the chance to sit down and chat with her. Read the exclusive interview below!

SHEI: You achieved your fame through YouTube – do you think it’s easier for artists to break through now that there are websites like YouTube and MySpace, or is it harder because there’s more competition?

Kina: I definitely think it’s helped having sites like YouTube. You know, ten years ago you were eitehr making it huge or you were kind of busking on the streets. And nowadays all these internet things have kind of allowed there to be a middle class of musicians, so that while we’re not all over MTV or the radio, we’re doing it full-time. There’s a lot more competition, but at the same time it’s easier for people.

SHEI: On your blog you mentioned that several YouTube artists who post covers had their accounts suspended, and recently David Choi, who you often collaborate with, suffered the same fate. Are you worried about this?

Kina: I think it’s something we’re all kind of worried about. I understand where some publishing companies are coming from not wanting covers up there but everyone in the world is putting covers up and it’s just kind of what we do. So I’m definitely going to be more cautious moving forward and making sure that songs are safe to do but I don’t think I can stop necessarily doing them, you know. But it is scary.

SHEI: You occasionally collaborate with your sisters on songs. Do you plan on doing similar collaborations or have a particular cover lined up?

Kina: I don’t have any in mind, the thing we usually do is I don’t get to see them that often ’cause they live up north in California, but wheenver we have a few days together it’s like “Let’s do something!” so we figure out a song and learn it. I wish I could work with them more.

SHEI: You have a pretty wide variety of covers – k’s choice, Justin Bieber – artists who are kind of at opposite sides of the spectrum. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

Kina: Actually, k’s choice was the first band that I ever, they’re kind of what made me realize how powerful music could be. Found them in like 7^th grade and I would just sit in my closet and listen to them in the dark and I was like, “Woah, Okay. Music. Music is very cool.” So I listened to them for a long time, they still, still influence me a lot. Since then I’ve diversified a bit and nowadays I’m really into Imogen Heap and Sigur Rós and Bon Iver and stuff like that.

SHEI: I noticed you have some French on your blog, do you speak French at all?

Kina: I took it during high school actually. So I did like four years of it and then I studied Japanese in college and the Japanese kind of pushed out all of my French. So my French speaking is not so great anymore. But I wish!

SHEI: So you had a song played at the Super Bowl, recently released an album, are playing Lilith Fair and of course you’re headlining a tour – what are your next big plans?

Kina: That’s kind of been the big exciting thing lately. In the Fall I’ve got another tour on the West Coast and then I’m not sure what the next plan is. I’m kind of just… every step I go, I look ahead and try to assess where I go to take this to the next level so I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m always just trying to write more and improve and reach more people and stuff like that.

SHEI: Yeah, I think your efforts to involve fans with your latest YouTube video – inviting them to write a song with you – are really cool.

Kina: That’s been so incredible. I just spent the whole first day just reading thorugh hundres of entries and it’s so cool because you don’t often have an opportunity to read this much [holds up her fingers to show a tiny amount] of of someone’s thoughts. Like a lot of people’s thoughts. So that was just really cool for me to just hear what they had to say and what they’re going through.

SHEI: How do you find the time to update your blog and reach out to fans with writing music? How do you balance it all?

Kina: It’s definitely been interesting. There’s periods of time where I get caught up in the business of it and I forget to write then get to the writing and business not so much. I think the good thing is that in everything I’m doing, it’s all so fun and kind of gratifying – it makes it really easy to do. Of course I want to be playing music, and I want to be connected to my fans and I want to be expanding things on the internet, so it is a struggle, but it’s kind of fun to balance it.