The third LP by Grandson, aka alt/rap/rock musician and activist Jordan Benjamin, is titled Inertia, but his career has been anything but inert. He has always crusaded for social justice, via his music and his XX Resistance Fund, and this album —  his first release on his own XX Records label —  is his loudest, literally and figurative, at a time when voices like his are needed more than ever.

For instance, Inertia’s thunderous lead single is the gauntlet-throwing, guitar-squawling “Brainrot,” which features unsubtle and unminced lyrics about “the hell we’re living in” like “watch the world fall of its axis, watch the bombs go off paid for by your taxes” and “watch it all through your new smartphone, with a battery mined by a child in a warzone.” And then there’s “Autonomous Delivery Robot,” which blasts the invasion of the self-driving, AI-powered Uber Eats couriers that rendering thousands of working-class jobs obsolete; “Little White Lies,” which shines a spotlight on the hypocrisy and hatred of so-called “Christians” (key line: “Jesus was a 5-foot-4 brown-skinned socialist”); and “Who’s the Enemy,” featuring controversial U.K. hip-hop duo Bob Vylan. Other tracks are “Self-Immolation,” “God Is an Animal,” “Bells of War,” “Pull the Trigger,” and “You Made Me This Way.”

Obviously, there is a lot to unpack here. But when Grandson recently signed vinyl copies of Inertia for his loyal fans at Studio City’s Licorice Pizza Records, he took the time to sit down with LPTV to discuss the album. In the video above and Q&A below, he discusses his unique perspective as someone who was born in the United States and raised in Canada; why it’s so important for him (and his peers) to speak out; the importance of empathy, intersectionality, and community; and if he’d ever run for office. Grandson for President!

LPTV: I’m just going to cut right to the chase, because I have lots of questions for you. Your debut album was called Death of an Optimist. Then there was I Love You, I’m Trying. Now, Inertia. Is there a theme running through your discography? There seems to be, with those titles.

GRANDSON: Interesting. Yeah, I think I explore themes of inevitability a lot. I engage with the state of the world quite literally and directly, in inheriting the environment that we grow up in. It feels like there are these immovable forces, that a lot of people that come to this kind of music feel quite cynical or pessimistic about — as I do. And so, I do think we explore themes throughout the record. Even on my second record, which dealt a lot less about the state of the world and was a little more about my mental health and stuff, there was still a throughline of this feeling of inevitability that I, on good days, feel like we can do something about… and on bad days feel absolutely crushed by.

There’s the slogan, “It’s Never Enough Rest, Tomorrow’s Approaching.” Tell me the meaning behind that.

Well, I was on mushrooms and looking for an anagram or an acrostic poem.

Oh. It spells out “Inertia.” I’m slow, I guess. [laughs]

Ha, that’s all good. You just gotta take more mushrooms! But yeah, that approaching, that feeling of something is coming — whether it looks like an awakening, a consciousness pushing back against the way that America has become this shell corporation, whether it’s in response to the pillaging of Gaza, any of these issues that our generation is watching unfold. There is this feeling that something’s going to happen inevitably, that this thing cannot sustain forever, this never-ending consumption and greed — whether that looks like a positive change, or just the system collapsing, a snake eating its own tail and suffocating on it. Certainly, these are themes that I explore in my music. And I think a lot of rock ‘n’ roll historically has been about reflecting the times or some themes of rebellion, whether that’s teenage angst and rebellion, or  whether that’s in adulthood rebelling against conformity. And for me, it is inescapable, that feeling. It’s important for me to write about this stuff.

Grandson, aka Jordan Benjamin (photo: XX Records)

This album just came out in September 2025. Were you writing it before last year’s presidential election, during the election, or after Donald Trump won?

It came up actually during the presidential campaign.

Did you think Trump was going to win a second term?

I had no fucking idea, dude. I really felt like whatever was going to happen, these themes would be relevant. And for me, this album was about kind of deepening that understanding and arming myself with the sort of knowledge that this country is the way it is. Regardless of how power exchanges hands every four to eight years, many of the policies and the foundations of how we got to this place, whether that’s the issue of mass incarceration, drone warfare, a lot of those themes, were coming up through Clinton and Obama and Biden. And obviously what’s been going on in Palestine with so many young, progressive, motivated people begging for change, making this a singular issue that they could point to as proof of the systemic ineptitude that led people to being so disillusioned. And in the face of that, while on this campaign trail, they were saying that this is the most important election of our lifetime — now we have to do something, or it’ll be the end of the world. Still, these weapons sales were going on, this global imperial conquest was going on. I was watching all this unfold.

I still in my heart believed that maybe we’d be able to avoid [a second] Trump presidency, and I was worried about that as it related to my queer and trans friends and fans, the aggressive attacks on the environment going on right now. I still hoped that it wouldn’t be the case. But here we are, and every time Trump has been in power, it has been this feeling like, “What is the point of being empathetic? What is the point of caring about one another? Where is our sense of community?” It has completely collapsed under these arrogant, cocky, horrible people. And people turn to music and art in that time, and it’s important to document it, to enshrine our sense of repulsion into music like this and then put it onstage for a thousand people a night. Through the Trump presidency, there was an increase in urgency for me to get the record out and for me to tell these stories. But I don’t think that whether he was elected or not was the difference between me writing this record or not.

Would you say that Inertia is your most overtly political record? You’ve never shied politics, from day one, but I feel this is your most hard-hitting release in that regard.

Yeah, I think that my music has been political from my early twenties, for the last five, six years or whatever. But I think with this one I tried to take a little bit of a backseat. I think a lot of time I would take those political opinions and generally synthesize them through my own reflections, how they affect me and my hope — this idea of optimism versus cynicism. A lot of that is ultimately personal. And I felt on this record, I wanted to get a little more out of the way of the people that are leading the charge as it relates to activism and resistance, and more just kind of try to document and be a little more on the sidelines of the narrative. And let the guitar speak as well.

This is definitely your most rocking record. One review even said it was your “first rock album.” I don’t know if you agree.

That’s cool, that’s cool. I do think it’s a record that people have kind of wanted from me. I think we found a really, really cool pocket where it’s different and it pushes the sound forward, but in a way that people are going, “Finally!” I didn’t take this relationship with my fans [for granted] and expect people to come with me on a journey that was unfamiliar. It’s different, but it’s definitely the energy from my live show mostly. And I do think it was the one we most embraced that new school of political rock music.

You just said that people turn to music during these tough times. I’m not shading other artists because not everything has to be political — you can have escapist pop as well — but I kind of thought in the last five years, we’d be hearing more music like this. I thought there’d be more Grandsons, more Rage Against the Machines. But that hasn’t really happened. And it seems a lot of musicians are afraid to even speak out on social media, about Palestine or about really anything. I think they’re afraid of getting canceled, of getting the “Dixie Chicked,” like having what happened to the Chicks in 2003 happen to them. So, I have a two-part question, or maybe three-part. One, do you agree with my observation, and do you have any theories as to why that is? And also, is that a concern you have? Maybe not you, but are there people in your team that are like, “Whoa, tone it down, you’re going to get canceled”?

People are not talking about these issues, some of whom have opinions and are scared of that backlash, some of whom just fucking don’t care. Ultimately, I’ve learned that whether you can sing well or use social media convincingly, this shit that we do is not a meritocracy. You’re not going to get people who necessarily are any more empathetic just because they have a platform. And so, part of doing this work is letting go of some of the expectation that anyone else is going to follow your lead or that it’s going to change anything. I do it because it feels like it gives me purpose and it feels morally appropriate for the times. But other artists are entitled to do whatever the fuck they want, I guess. And we as a society continue to care more about who somebody’s fucking than the planet burning, and that is what it is.

I also don’t blame people for being in conditions that they need to use art to escape, and they don’t want to sit there and be reminded when their life feels fucked-up enough as is. I also think there’s a ton of intimidation and censorship going on right now. Like, you mentioned the Chicks, but you look at what’s going on with Kneecap. My friends Bob Vylan, who were supposed to open for me across America on tour, just had their visas revoked. British rappers onstage, having opinions about the Middle East, about a foreign country’s military, somehow gets them banned in America. What message does that send to a young band just looking to get their start, or to a developed artist who feels like they have everything to lose? But in my experience, being at this long enough, many of the very institutions that I am being threatened to not have a seat at the table at, didn’t have a seat for me anyways and aren’t fucking worth anything anymore. The Grammys are an absolute sham, especially in rock music. I’ve got to stand there and clap while fucking Pearl Jam gets the Best New Artist: What are we talking about? … What are we even doing, other than letting these oligarchs who control the media companies and who control the record companies jerk each other off ultimately, whether that’s through the Grammys, whether that’s through terrestrial radio? Like, these are the institutions I’m worried about being blacklisted from? They’re not relevant to young people today! They’re not relevant to me. That’s not where I go to consume art. That’s not the artists I look up to.

So, for me, ultimately I just had to surrender. This is the new media landscape. This is the new relationship that artists have to cultivate with their fans. This is why I went independent for this release. This is about me, and the people that have followed me on this journey, and the people that consume rock music that falls somewhere in between a million genres. Like, come buy a ticket. We’re going to have some cool T-shirts and some vinyl for you to buy. If you fuck with it, it helps keep the lights on and funds the operation that I’m doing. But this is a long-winded way of just saying there’s plenty of reasons why there aren’t more artists speaking up, but there are also a lot more artists now than any other time that I’ve been doing this who have been taking that platform, even if it’s not necessarily in the music. I think there are plenty of people who are using that moment onstage to have opinions. And there is a lot of fear about getting it wrong, to have an opinion about what’s going on in the world. If you’re Olivia Rodrigo using your Instagram story to talk about what’s going on, that means something. That means something to young people. It’s becoming cool to have an opinion, and that wouldn’t be possible without the many artists who in the face of all that intimidation and that censorship are doing so anyways, which is really, really cool. And I fuck with it. I am somebody who writes it into my music, but there are plenty of people that take their microphone at the show or use their social media and are doing something important.

I feel like some artists are intimidated just because even on social media, if they say the most benign thing, like something not even “taking a side” or whatever, like, “My heart goes out to the children of Palestine and Israel and I hope there will one day be peace”…. To me, that’s not even a “political statement.” That’s just saying people shouldn’t get killed. And yet, trolls will attack them for saying that. It’s like there’s no winning. But I guess that’s not something that keeps you up at night.

I mean, if you have an opinion in the world, you will be held to a standard and an expectation that you know what you’re talking about. And unfortunately, some of the good that you might be doing to some people will never be enough. What are any of us doing? It is a very real thing to reflect on and ask yourself, “Could I be doing better? Could I be bringing more diversity of opinion? Where am I getting my information about what’s going on in the world? “Ultimately, I think doing a net positive and bringing light to a situation is valid and important work. And certainly, yeah, you’re not going to get it right all the time, but for a lot of people that being a non-starter, as a reason not to have an opinion at all, keeps us stuck in place in a lot of ways.

Did you choose to go independent so you could be more vocal? This is your first independent release, right?

Totally. It’s my first full project independent. A lot of the time in the past, my music videos, my concepts would get snagged by the legal department… I’m very grateful for the opportunity to tell these stories the way that I pictured telling them, to have a team that rocks with me through those ups and downs. And for me, this model of being independent and telling these stories as I can has been very rewarding — and it’s been working. It’s a more authentic version of myself than having to tiptoe around what these songs are really about or what is it I’m trying to say. So yeah, that definitely was part of the decision to go independent at this time.

You have an organization, the XX Resistance Fund, so obviously there are many issues you’re concerned about. But if you had to name your No. 1 concern for this current generation, for your young fans, for the future, like the most emergency issue, what would it be?

I would say that one theme that I talk a lot about on this record is the intersectionality — the way that if you begin to give a fuck about any one of these issues, it will open your mind to being more empathetic and caring about how that issue intersects with another issue, the ways in which things like making the world a more egalitarian and welcoming place for people of different sexual identities or races will also be good for the environment. Caring about technology and mass surveillance that will seep into everything. And so, I think one of the most important issues that I ultimately try to bring together people around is community. I think bringing together people, getting people less isolated, empowering people to organize with other like-minded people and to not be made to feel alone for caring about the things you care about or believing the things that you believe in, will ultimately help cure some of that insecurity or loneliness that is preyed upon – like when you’re seeing young people radicalized on the internet, especially young men. But this is what makes these technology companies so much money, is keeping your attention because you feel like shit. So, to fix any of the many issues that I feel this album explores, we begin with building coalitions of people. We begin with building community and bringing this show to people, and encouraging people to wear what they want to wear and say what they want to say. And from there, any number of these issues that feel insurmountable, suddenly just become doing work with your friends. Which ultimately is what you want to spend your time doing anyways.

You were born in the U.S., but grew up in Canada. That’s an interesting perspective, because everyone’s joking these days about moving to Canada. You have a perspective of someone who’s lived outside of America and seen what the rest of the world thinks about America. How does having spent time in both countries affect your worldview and your art?

Growing up in a place that had even just the most basic level of healthcare, some sort of social support system — which in and of itself is vulnerable and flawed; any country that is a settler colonial country has a past to reconcile with and is susceptible to the same toxicity that America is just a terminal, fast-forwarded example of — but certainly growing up in that kind of environment made me come here and be disgusted by how fucked the average working American person is, how little support there is in childcare here when you become a young family, and how fucked you are when you get older. It’s so disgusting. And maybe by growing up in a place where that wasn’t necessarily the case, that we were paying taxes and we believed in naively that the money you were giving the government was going towards making the country a little bit of a better place, I certainly brought that ethos with me. And I used that disgust to become the source anger for my work.

“Are there any people that say to you, like “Hey, Canadian, go back to Canada!” — that sort of thing?

Absolutely. I’m like a PSYOP. Like, I am “invented by the liberals,” dude. A hundred percent. It’s a blessing.

Wait, people think you’re AI or some sort of created character?

Yeah, I’m flattered. I was born in a lab. … I’m part of “Big Canada’s” conspiracy to let people survive. It’s horrible, I know. It’s terrible! [laughs]

Oh my God, that’s hilarious. That’d be a pretty cool origin story, if true. I want to do a lightning round of some specific Inertia songs, ones that lyrically stood out to me. I’ll start with “Self-Emulation,” because that one is very specific.

We wrote that around the time that Aaron Bushnell, the American soldier who tragically gave his life bringing awareness to the American complicity and funding of the genocide and Palestine. I love that song.

What about “Little White Lies”?

[That is about] the whitewashing of American Christianity, the ways that people’s faith has been co-opted to ultimately support a conservative agenda somewhere along the way. Believing in a god that loves you, whoever you are, has become justification for the NRA and military. It’s like, what the fuck is going on? Even just fundamentally going, “OK, so you have this man that supposedly lived 2,000 years ago in this place. Why is he ripped? Why does Jesus have a six-pack? … Why does he look like an NFL tight end?” The more that we begin to ask these kind of questions, you’ll find very unexpected places that that kind of curiosity might take you.

The last track I’ll ask about is “Autonomous Delivery Robot,” because that obviously addresses how we’re all worried about AI and tech advances like that.

Not only are we worried about AI, but it is the delivery robots. I was working in Culver City at the time, and they were fucking everywhere, these little Uber Eats robots…

I mean, they’re kind of cute, almost, because…

NO!!! That’s the problem! That’s the problem. We anthropomorphize them and give them little blinking eyes and have them say, “Hi, I am Gregory.” Like, no, you’re not.

I’m sorry I bought into it.

It’s OK, it’s OK. I understand. It’s not your fault. But it’s like, they fucking impede the sidewalk for people with disabilities. Their data that they’re scraping is then used to advance and proliferate this normalization of these robots, which will inevitably be used for policing for military purposes. The onslaught of just getting used to a computer being in your way. … In what ways does this impact us? We can’t even foresee the consequences of just being like, “Yeah, we just decided that the entire delivery industry is going to be completely gone in the next 15 years.” What does that do for the hundreds of thousands of people that have these jobs? It’s fucking disgusting. And I was like, “Why isn’t there a thrash metal song about this yet?” These songs have been existing and people have been mad about this shit for a long time. It exists in hardcore music. It exists in punk rock music. I’m not the only person talking this kind of shit. I just wanted to do it in a catchy rock sort of way.

And you succeeded. Congratulations. So, last question: Would you ever run for office?

Fuck no, dude. Absolutely not. They’d tear me to shreds.

Well, you’re making change in other ways, so thank you for your service.