on july 2, 2013, grand uploaded a music video for his song "all-american boy" to youtube—producing it himself at a cost of us$7,000. the video almost immediately went viral. just eight days later, "all-american boy" had more than 1 million views. the song, set against a backdrop of country roads, an american flag and friends around a campfire, tells the story of a young man in love with a heterosexual male friend. grand recorded the vocals in his parents’ basement and maxed out his credit card to self-fund the groundbreaking video. the video was directed and edited by chicago filmmaker jason knade.