Falling in Love, Falling Apart

About.

Peter Groenwald makes dynamic, orchestral-pop soundscapes that swell and sigh with human depth and intricacy. As an artist, songwriter, and producer, he’s informed by an intuitive understanding of what makes people cry and what makes them dance. His sound is both edgy and serene. Over the past few years, Groenwald has built a vast and compelling repertoire: His music has been featured in Grey's Anatomy, This is Us, Love Island, New Amsterdam, and Nashville; he’s toured and performed with Jill Andrews, Erin McCarley, Landon Pigg, Ruston Kelly, Mindy Smith, Missy Higgins, and Natalie Hemby; he’s produced for Prateek Kuhad and Joy Oladokun. He’s also co-founded beloved Nashville acts Hush Kids and My Sister, My Brother. Now, after two decades supporting other artists, Groenwald is stepping into the limelight with the release of his stunning full-length solo debut, Falling in Love, Falling Apart. The album ranges from upbeat indie-pop to delicate love songs, revealing Groenwald’s remarkable agility and clarity. “I was happy to stay in the background my whole career,” he says. “That was comfortable. But then I made this record and wanted to share it, for the same reasons I started writing music in the first place: Because I have to. Because it’s time.” 

Raised outside of Chicago, Groenwald has been playing piano since he could climb onto a bench. Growing up, he played every instrument he could grasp—piano, drums, sax, trumpet, cello—singing in choirs along the way. After high school he moved to Nashville to join MCA-signed band Llama as a keys player and vocalist; He went from playing local coffee shops to performing with Llama at the very first Bonnaroo Music Festival. Groenwald joined Landon Pigg as a keys player in 2006, a gig which lasted years and put Groenwald on the map as a touring musician. He appeared with Pigg on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O’Brian, then joined Missy Higgins to play iconic venues like The Ryman, Red Rocks, and Radio City Music Hall.. “I was young and broke and it was the best time. I got to travel and play and make connections, but I had no risk. It was someone else’s name, someone else’s music.” 

In 2011, Groenwald dropped his self-produced solo debut EP, Sweet Science, praised by Last.fm for its “lush arrangements,” “soaring harmony vocals,” and “thoughtful songwriting.” He fell in love with writing and producing, and in 2016 signed with Concord Music Publishing. Groenwald has since produced songs and records for a long list of top-tier artists, including Liz Longley, Prateek Kuhad, Joy Oladokun, Mindy Smith, and Zoe Sky Jordan. His writing credits include songs by Natalie Hemby, Sarah Buxton, Kate York, K.S. Rhoads, Donovan Woods, Trent Dabbs, and Lucie Silvas. When paired with prolific Americana artist Jill Andrews in 2016, what started as a songwriting collaboration became a close friendship and later, a new band. Hush Kids released their debut self-titled album in 2018, produced by Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, Leon Bridges). The album’s captivating harmonies and keen lyrics were praised by Rolling Stone, Billboard, American Songwriter, and Pop Matters. In 2019, Groenwald joined fellow Nashville artists Sean McConnell and Garrison Starr to form My Sister, My Brother, releasing their debut self-titled EP of tender, folk-pop ballads in 2020. 

With the upcoming release of Falling in Love, Falling Apart, Groenwald showcases his characteristic sound, where sweeping emotional dynamics meet raw, narrative lyrics and ethereal vocal lines. The album is driven by elegant piano and vocal melodies and magnified by orchestral strings—at times sparse and mournful, other times expansive and upbeat. Primarily produced by Groenwald at his home studio, Falling in Love, Falling Apart features tracks co-written and co-produced with Courtlan Clement, and several recorded at Smoakstack with Ian Fitchuk, Todd Lombardo (Kacey Musgraves, Lera Lynn), Micah Talks (Hayley Williams, Louis Prince), and Konrad Snyder (Needtobreathe, Kathleen Edwards). Four songs were recorded at Nashville’s iconic Ocean Way studio, accompanied by a condensed version of the Nashville Symphony with K.S. Rhoads, who arranged and conducted the strings. The whole album exudes a sort of vulnerable confidence, haunted by Groenwald’s voice, which shifts from impossibly pure to ghostly-sweet. The slower, cinematic ballads evoke Thom Yorke’s fey falsetto and Rufus Wainwright’s earthy warmth, but there are lighthearted moments reminiscent of Andrew Bird’s quirky violin pop, and buoyant dance-pop anthems in the vein of Phoenix and Kings of Convenience. Rooted in Groenwald’s own, hyper-relatable personal world, the album’s lyrical themes touch on everything from his father’s death to his own self-doubt as an artist. It’s an album full of gentle and overwhelming love, seasoned with a good amount of existential anxiety.

Highlights.

Production and Writing.

Joy Oladokun, Donovan Woods, Caroline Spence, Natalie Hemby, Prateek Kuhad and more.

Sync Placements.

Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us, The Tonight Show, The Today Show, The Sims, Finding Carter, American Idol, and more.

Contact.

Management: Erin Anderson | Olivia Management | erin@oliviamanagement.com

Licensing: Brooke Primont | Concord | brooke.primont@concord.com

Legal: Jeff Colvin | Marcus & Colvin | jeff@mcentlaw.com