Grace
Grace have just released their debut EP Stealing Kisses, which introduces us to the versatile nature of the new band.
I caught up with Sam and Finn to discuss Stealing Kisses, plans for the summer as well as a debut album.
- You are about to release you debut EP Stealing Kisses so what can we expect from the record?
Sam: Basically our idea was to give an idea all the different sides to our music - we have more songs than just those six but we wanted to give an idea of what people can expect when they come to our shows.
There are more rock songs on there and then there is the pop title track and the acoustic track on the end.
- You have touched on my next question really there is some rock, some pop rock with some really as well as some great harmonies so how would you describe the sound of the EP?
Finn: I think the sound draws from most of our influences; we are all influenced by rock and roll in general from the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties.
Then I think we put our own spin on it in a modern day sound as well as drawing from our influences from the bands that we listen to and love.
- As you say there are not just these six tracks so can we expect a full album any time soon?
Sam: Well our plans over the summer are to do as many gigs as we can. We have written a lot of new songs and we want to do something with them at the end of the summer and hopefully record eleven or twelve songs that fit really well together as a group of songs rather than just throwing in anything that we want.
We want all the songs to fit well with each other to make a really good sound.
- Have you been playing these EP songs live and if so how have fans been reacting to them?
Sam: Three of us in the band use to play in a band last year that had more of a seventies rock with a lot of lead guitar solos and we were basically told that we needed to scale it down a bit.
Since we have been playing out new set all the people that we know from back home have really enjoyed it and they keep saying that isn’t one of the best sets that they have seen us do, so we are going with that.
- As a new band what does this collection of tracks say about you as musicians and artist?
Sam: We have developed out song-writing much better than we were last year.
I see it as a challenge when people tell you you need to be fit more into how people want you to be; I don’t see it as selling out but as a challenge to achieve that.
- And I was reading that you have been working with Chris Hughes.
Sam: Yeah he came down and helped us with the arrangements one or two of the new songs that we will be putting on the new album we record at the end of the summer.
- How did that collaboration come about?
Finn: We all come from Bath and Chris is also from Bath and he had heard us play a few times and really liked the songs.
Then the new songs came around and they were more to everyone’s taste where people can get up and dance and sing-a long - he asked if he could come along to rehearsal.
Songs where we thought ’well this is how it would go’ he would take an intro that was fifteen seconds long and make us really look at it and that was really helpful and it made us realise what it would be like to work with proper people.
- He has worked with the likes of Bon Jovi and Paul McCartney so how did you find working with him?
Sam: It was a little bit nerve-wracking when he came into the rehearsal room because we have never done anything like that before as it has always just been us four.
But we just listened and took on board what he had to say and just took that from it really and we hope that he would want to work with us again in the future.
- Yourself, Finn and Jamie were previously members of Dirty Kiss so how has your time in that band prepared you for Grace?
Sam: The time in Dirty Kiss was a lot of fun but it was the first time that we had all been in a band were we were gigging regularly, everyone thinks that when you start are band ’in a year we will be signed’ but a year later we weren’t signed (laughs).
But we have got a more professional view on it now and we have realised that it is step by step and that it takes a long time to get where you want to be.
- Sam was brought in on the drums when Grace was formed so what did he bring in terms of sound to the band?
Sam: The Dirty Kiss drummer was more of a rock drummer where Sam has had lots of experience in punk bands and he gives it some on the tongues and on the snare and stuff - that gave us a bouncier feel to the songs.
Finn: Some of the stuff that he has done on the new tracks, especially on the title track Stealing Kisses, what he has done on the main guitar rifts and technically it is great. When we first started learning it we were like ‘yeah’.
Sam: He will work on a beat for a long time until he gets it exactly right for the song and that is great.
- So how does the song-writing process work within the band is there one main writer or is it very much a collaborative process?
Sam: I would say that the music is very collaborative as someone will bring in a rift and then we will work around that and build a song from the rift.
Lyrically it is usually me who writes the lyrics, James has written a few lyrics as well though.
- Some reviews of the new EP have called the band Lenny Kravitz meets Status Quo meet Led Zeppelin so what is your reaction to statements like that?
Sam: That’s the sort of music that we love so it’s great when people tell us that we sound like that.
Finn: We have got one track that when people first heard it compared it to a Lenny Kravitz song because it’s got that good familiar feel and people think that they already know it. So it’s great to when we hear comments like that.
- So what are you influences when it comes to the sound your music and the way that you write?
Finn: We like punk and Skar and Jamie is massively into Kings of Leon and then we all like Nirvana and the Rolling Stones then there are artists like Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Lenny Kravitz.
- You have mentioned that you want to be performing live all summer so where are we going to be able to see you gig? And what can we expect from a live show?
Sam: In terms of where you can see us we have got a gig tonight in Camden at the Wheelbarrow and we have another on the 19th May, the Happy Mondays aftershow party, so that is going to be really good. In terms of what you can expect I would say…
Finn: Loud
Sam: Yeah it is. Some of the songs are quite fast and then we have got some elements of funk in some of our songs, it’s good for people to dance to.
We have been playing for so long and I think that that reflects on stage on that we are having so much fun together.
Finn: I think we try and do everything that we would want to see and hear from and gig and hopefully other people want to see and hear that too.
- Finally what’s coming up for you and the rest of the band after the release of the EP?
Sam: We are hoping to release another couple of digital tracks online and we are going to try and get some more demos down ahead of recording the album at the end of summer.
And we just want to play as many places as we can over the summer - we want to do a little tour but we haven’t discussed how we would like to do that yet.
Grace - Stealing Kisses EP is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw