Active Child

Grossi was born May 28, 1983, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of Bob Grossi, a sales executive for Priority Records and Donna Grossi, an abstract and figurative painter. His father's music had been a childhood influence through the rhythms of '80s alternative dance bands like New Order and at the age of 9 he started singing with the Philadelphia Boys Choir. Grossi, at a very young age, began touring with the Philly Boys Choir in Europe, South Africa and Australia, performing at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House and singing with a choir in South Africa. As a teenager, he listened to a lot of early 1990s gangster rap and focused on sports and education. During his college days in Colorado, the local arts landscape influenced him to pick up guitar and harp and rediscover his musical talent. He combined elements learned as a child and during his time with Philly Boys Choir, with his falsetto, live harp, and evocative lyrics and debuted in 2010 as Active Child.

2010: Career beginnings

Grossi's first release was Sun Rooms, a cassette put out on January 14, 2010, by Mirror Universe Tapes. That same year, came a 7" vinyl single, She Was A Vision, which was released in February 2010 via Transparent. The record includes the single She Was A Vision and b-side Voice of an Old Friend. His first official EP, Curtis Lane EP was released in June 2010, The Guardian remarked how the sombre young man creates glacial and gloomy music, and how the songs have a sort of spiritual quality. Pitchfork wrote, Grossi seems to have pushed the cosmic, stately side of these tracks to the forefront.

2011-present

Grossi released his debut LP, You Are All I See in August 2011, featuring tracks such as Hanging On and Johnny Belinda. Drowned in Sound remarked, "You Are All I See is all about the shimmer, Grossi's touch is so deft, and the sound so seemingly in tune with the natural world, he somehow is able to play with light." By 2013, he released albums and EPs for labels including Vagrant, Spunk, Plancha and others. Several of his tracks have appeared on compilations and in multiple films including Divergent and The Host.

In August 2011, Active Child appeared on NPR Music Mondays and in 2012, he appeared on a mixtape, I Like Boys Who Cry with Charli XCX. Later in the year, he appeared in a compilation, The Singles with Lana Del Rey, PRAY with Gilbere Forte and Classixx debut album Hanging Gardens. His second single album, Mercy was released in June 2015 by Vagrant and produced by Van Rivers. Spin magazine described the album as "heartbreaking and luxurious " with Pitchfork remarking that his vocals on the record are "astonishing, like a rising updraft". His track "Painted Staircase" was featured in the official trailer of the Apple TV+ series, Defending Jacob (2020).

Tours

Around 2010, Grossi embarked on his first support tour with White Rabbits playing shows throughout the UK and Europe. In 2011 Grossi announced he would be undertaking another American tour in November with M83. He announced tour dates to support the British electronic musician James Blake; in May 2011, the tour included a stop at Chicago's Lincoln Hall and New York's Bowery Ballroom. The Los Angeles Times described his live performance as "one of the most original and ambitious sounds in Los Angeles". In February 2012, he announced a headline spring tour where after jaunting across the UK and Europe in February and March, Grossi landed stateside for a series of shows running from April 27 in Pomona, California, to May 22 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Grossi was supported for the U.S. leg by alt-singer Balam Acab. In May 2015, he again toured United States, at Lighting in a Bottle Festival opening at Bradley, California, the tour was completed in nearly two months at The Cathedral Sanctuary at Immanuel Presbyterian in Los Angeles.

Major festivals

Since 2010, Grossi has been touring consistently in the States as well as overseas, including performances at the Latitude Festival in 2010, Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2011 and Montreux Jazz Festival in 2012. Some of his major live performances at the festivals are

• Latitude 2010
• Mioogfest 2011
• Hove Fest 2012
• Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 2013
• Symbiosis Gathering 2013
• St Jerome Laneway 2012
• Sasquatch Festival 2012
• Metropolis Festival 2012
• Montreux Jazz Fest 2012
• Melbourne Arts Festival 2013
• Lightning in a Bottle 2015

Studio albums

You Are All I See (2011, Vagrant Records)

Mercy (2015, Vagrant Records)

In Another Life (2020, Sony Music)

EPs

• "Curtis Lane" (Merok Records, 2010)

• "Sun Rooms" (2010)

• "Rapor" (2013)

Remix

• Steve Mason, Lost and Found
• Wolf Gang, Back To Back
• Marina and The Diamonds- "OH NO!"
• School of Seven Bells, Heart is Strange
• Hannah Cohen, Crying Game
• Angus and Julia Stone, It's all okay
• Angus and Julia Stone, Heartbreak
• Lana Del Rey, Ride

Compilations

• Molotov Cocktail: A Spunk Sampler, 2010
• LSTN #10, 2010
• Adult Swim Singles Program 2011 (2011, Williams Street Productions) features "Hanging On"
• #99, 2011
• Triple J's Like a Version Eight, 2012
• Un automne, 2012
• Cyclonic Footsteps: Spunk Sampler 2013
• LUXE (2017, Williams Street Productions) features "Cruel World"