Gravitone

Gravitone is:
Adam-Vocals
Craig-Drums
John-Bass
Kyle-Synth
Chris-Guitar
Danny-Guitar
KB: Are you guys originally from Knoxville?

Yeah, well, yeah, most of us are from West Knoxville. Craig is from Detroit originally, moved here about 7 years ago, been living in east Knoxville ever since. I'm originally from Houston, the band formed in Knoxville though

KB: Where did your name come from?

Danny? (laughter) It came from multiple lists of words that we chose our favorites from..We compared our favorites and picked from that ..Gravitone was the only one that was on everybody's list I think originally the concept was it was suppose to be like gravity and tone and kind of like a sound that pulls you to it and we all struggled with liking the name and whatnot but it suits everybody This is the hardest part about being in a band is finding the name. I still like Gravytone better...laughter

KB: What is the one album/artist that you guys just cannot get tired of?

The one band that we all listen to is.... there are a few... Tool, A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails pretty much are the ones that are universal with the band Metallica They didn't influence me much when I was younger but now they do since I've heard them so much. They are not on my top ten list of what I can't get enough of.

KB: Do you guys share the same musical influences for the most part?

No No No No not really all six of us are unique

KB: Do you find that ever promotes a problem when you are writing songs?

Yeah that's the biggest one. Oh yeah we have a very limited number of songs and that's for a reason. They take a lot of time. Some of us like death metal.some of us like the more pop rock genre.some of us like hard rock, electronica, industrial and weird things like that. We all pretty much like to stick close to the hard rock genre but everybody gets into the ambient rock and like that's where a kind of spacey sound comes into our music too I think each person in the band brings something different to the table though I can pick each person out of the band and say ok...this is what he brings. I bring punk, Kyle brings electronica, Craig brings extreme hard core metal, Adam brings sort of the old grunge field, Danny brings.i dunno.brings weird guitar stuff, Chris brings your traditional. I mean there is nothing against mainstream. Its just mainstream and Chris brings a lot of that and that's not a bad thing. Some of the catchier parts in our songs are signature series Chris...(laughter). Popalious Chris.

KB: Do you find that your songs, mainly speaking of the vocals of course, mostly inspired by real life experiences or do you keep it mostly fictional?

Whatever comes out. I dunno I guess it's pretty much real life experience but in kind of a surreal look at it I dunno the surreal aspects of reality I guess. That's over all a really hard question for us though cause Adam is relatively new to the band still and We were without a vocalist for a while so a lot of the stuff he is starting to do for our songs we are not even really familiar with. I mean we are getting to that point but it is still fresh.so alot of it is open to interpreation for us ourselves I mean when he writes it.you know we dont? know exactly what he's feeling when he is.

KB: How often do you guys practice?

It depends on what time of year it is...this time of the year when it's summer...we had one week where we practiced every day. And last summer we practiced almost every day. And while school is going on Chris goes to the Citidel so he would be out of town and we wouldn't practice for months..well some of us would get together but we wouldn't have a real full band practice unless it's like spring break or christmas break so. We practice alot when we are all together but. Sometimes it's just difficult with all our schedules. We try to keep it to tuesday and fridays...every tuesday and friday we practice. Between six people its just hard to do.

KB: What is the most bizarre thing to ever happen at one of your shows?

John's brother threw up after he got out of the mosh pit! It was our first or second show with our vocalist and the guy had the system up so loud you couldn't even hear him. She had the video camera going, she was sitting not 5 feet away from these kids. To our music, to his lyrics, they were screaming and roaring over our music. Just screaming along with it. Making up their own lyrics and then they gave us the finger and left. It was quite bizaare. What was even more bizaare is that they stayed after, before we played they asked me and Craig what we thought of Slipknot. He got pissed off at me because I said I didn't like Slipknot. And he was like 'Well, then I don't like you.' He said something like 'Don't talk to me.' I think they were looking to pick a fight. It was Prince's Deli, go figure. But they stayed and watched us for a while and decided to sing along. Sing along and then flip us off and leave. Oh well.

KB: So they had never heard your song before, were they making up their own lyrics?

Yeah, exactly. I don't know that it can be classified as lyrics. It was just screaming. We've got it on tape if you want to check it out. It's better than getting lit cigarette butts thrown at you or beer cans and stuff.

KB: After a show do you guys party, go to Krystal?

Party and go to Krystal. Two birds with one stone. There's usually always an after-party. But not all of us can always be there. Because alot of us have to work in the morning. It's usually at their house, their apartment, or my house. Sometimes there's two parties going on. Everybody's usually feeling pretty good, and we get together and hang out for a couple of hours. Sometimes it's crazier than others most of the time it's just hanging out.

KB: What's your favorite Knoxville resturant?

El Charro, as far as a place you can go about anytime with the money in your pocket, El Charro.

KB: About when did you all decide you wanted to be musicians?

From age two. I would say three or four. Well, I've had it shoved down my throat all my life, I've been around it all my life. But I had no plans of being a musician until about 16 when all my friends started picking it up. And then I was like 'This is kind of cool.' And then I just never stopped. That's about when I started playing music or getting interested in writing music when I was about 14 or 15. About the start of high school, for me and Kyle at least.

KB: Are there any particular musicians that made you decide to be a musician?

Metallica. In my opinion when I first started it wasn't anybody big, it was just my friends and they were just starting and they inspired me to try and I didn't even write stuff for years. And then they were like 'Why don't you try writing stuff?' And I was like 'This is where it's at.' I was just playing the stuff that they would write. And then I started writing and was like 'This is fun.' As far as big artists go, for me it's like Cliff Burton or Les Claypool, they're awesome, but my friends inspire me more. Kirk Hammet and Kurt Cobain, people like that. The early '90s guitarists that made names for themselves.

KB: Was the first concert you guys attended?

Tool. Mine was The Wallflowers. It was supposed to be Aerosmith. As far back as I can remember my first concert was The Greatful Dead in the late '80s. What's really strange is my mother drove to a Melissa Etheridge concert. I'd have to say, it was around '92, when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant came out with No Quarter disc and went out on tour. That's not fair. Summer Sanitarian was actually my first show, the first year they did it in Atlanta. That was the first big concert I'd been to see. I get Melissa Etheridge, you get Page and Plant, how the #### does that work?

KB: What's the first album you bought or the first album that was bought for you?

"Crow" soundtrack was the first CD that I owned. I don't know if that counts as the first album. The first album I owned was Garth Brooks. Boys II Men, "Motownphilly." I think "Thriller" was actually the first album I owned. The first album I ever owned and could count as mine was Megadeath's "Countdown to Extinction." My cousin made me a copy of it on a casette tape. I think mine was Greatful Dead, "Built to Last." That's one I can remember in particular, it's pretty cool. Mine was a tape, "Ride the Lighting." I always listen to The Cars, "Heatbeat City" and U2, "War." I had the "Batman Forever" soundtrack. I had the "Star Wars" soundtrack. Symphony music? I was thinking of all those 7" records I used to get as a kid, that you read along with the book, but that's not an album, per se.

KB: Are there any musicians that have passed on that you would have really liked to have seen perform live?

Cobain. Cliff Burton. Cash. Joey Ramone, I would have loved to have seen The Ramones.

KB: You know you can now say Rick James, so don't be afraid to say Rick James.<

Rick James! Ray Charles. Rick James is dead?

KB: He died today.

Oh, man, I didn't know that. Cocaine's a helluva drug. I would have liked to have seen Acid Bath before they passed away. I would have really liked to have seen Stevie Ray Vaughn. I would say Lynn from Snot. John Boham. Keith Moon. I had an offer to see Acid Bath when they came to Knoxville at the Mercury Theatre, but I didn't have the money, and all my friends went. And I thought, 'Oh, that's ok, I'll see them next time.' Jim Morrison. Kurt Cobain's another one, but I think everyone saw that one coming.

KB: Do you perform any cover songs, and which ones if you do?

We're still in debate. I don't think we'll ever play cover songs, and that's ok with me. We'd played an Acid Bath cover twice. We do a mean "Simple Man" cover. That was before we heard Shinedown. We don't do that cover anymore. Generally we try to stay away from covers, unless we get asked to. We want to do one, it's just we want to do it right. We can't agree on a Pink Floyd song.

KB: If you want to make the crowd go wild, all you got to do is "Freebird."

Danny's not a real guitar player, he doesn't know how to play "Freebird." We were told one time be somebody that he didn't know how to play gutar because he didn't know how to play the solo from "Freebird." It was actually one of my girlfriends that told him that and you should have seen the look on his face, when she was like 'You don't know how to play 'Freebird?' Then you just don't know how to play lead guitar.' You just have to be there, you have to know Danny.

KB: What's in your CD player right now?

In Flames, "Colony." Lamb of God. Tool tribute CD. Aenima is in my CD player right now. Golrod "It's Mutilated in Minutes" I don't have a CD player right now.

KB: Is there a certain CD that you own that your fans or your friends wouldn't expect you to own, like Yanni?

I've got a Seal CD. Tears for Fears, "Songs From The Big Chill." I own some Nelly and some Ludacris. Most of my friends know I like ICP, but Nelly and Ludacris, I got stuff like that too. I own a couple of Johnny Cash collections. I actually own Merideth Brooks' first album. I like Garbage alot. I think half of my CD collection our fans will look at and not expect me to have. Alot of the people wouldn't expect me to have the punk rock that I do if they didn't know me.

KB: So what's next for you guys?

Flordia. Parties. What's important is the studio, that's defintley next.

KB: You're recording with Kevin Pittman?

Yeah, with Kevin. We're recording at the Underground with Matt Lincoln. Kevin is an awesome sound guy. The guys from Aseraphymn have become real good friends to us, they practice right next to us, and Kevin and JR from Aseraphymn are going to help engeneer this EP or whatever you want to call it that we're getting ready to record. We're pretty excited about it. And after that we got a couple of shows in Gainsville area lined up next month. That's basically our next milestone is playing out of state. We're trying to get people to go to the Ballroom on Fridays now. The Ballroom's going to start playing weekend shows again.



Sounds good to us! Check out the Electric Ballroom show on the 17th and ask the guys for a Knoxbands.com sticker. They have a ton of them we hear.
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