Gretchen Lewis

This Melbourne five-piece isn’t so much all over the shop as hanging in a different mall altogether. Fresh from their debut album release, “Issue 1”, the new single, “A Night In
The Devil’s Bed”, combines a serrated rock riff, sax blasts and a crazy hook-laden chorus that sounds like it’s being sung by a mad clown!“

”A Night In The Devil’s Bed”, in its’ finished format, came together quite quickly”, says Bassist/Vocalist Jason Nehill. “It was a ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ of two or three other songs we wrote, which had some great riffs and hooks, that, as individual songs, weren’t quite up to our usual standard. We took the best bits of those songs and like mad scientists we trimmed and stitched them together; cranked up the power and threw the switch on what is now a song that represents the “Gretchen Lewis”, style and maniacal energy. Like mad professors, we looked at what we had created and in unison proclaimed....”IT’S ALIVE!”.

“The song is about the hero of our story, ”Isabel”, when she meets her fate at the hands of Sandoval’s, henchmen when they make her death look like an overdose. It’s a message with a warning: As you strive to get to the top, double-check your short-cuts, they may lead you down a path you don’t want to follow and while the goal may be so close you can touch it, it may still lead to your demise”

“Gretchen Lewis”, named themselves after “Saturday Night Live”, comedian Phil Hartman’s, first wife when they read a chapter on him in “The Hollywood Book Of Death”. Their music is as much inspired by director Tim Burton’s, plot lines and episodes of “The Sopranos”, as it is by free-form acts like “Faith No More”, which makes “Gretchen Lewis”, a rather quirky band. The group’s first single “Sanchez”, tells the story of a girl who, while working in a bar, begins to steal from her boss. (Although it’s him who gets her hooked on drugs). Their new single “A Night In The Devil’s Bed”, continues the story of how he gets her killed. Appropriately, the video was shot in a cemetery.

”It was definitely a guerrilla run, shooting the video”, guitarist and Vocalist Delsinki chuckles. “We didn’t have permits or anything. We jumped the fence at six in the morning, it was a little scary and bloody freezing but the light was nice”.
“Gretchen Lewis’ ”, theatrical and vibrant music has also found its way on to a few hollywood movies: - “Girl Wasted”, features in the 2010 remake of “Drop Dead Gorgeous”, starring Steven Berkoff (“Beverly Hills Cop” and “Rambo: First Blood Pt II”) and Jeremey London (“Party of Five” and “7th Heaven”). - “Hard Floors and Rivets”, features in the yet to be released action movie “Kerberos”, Written, directed by and starring Kely McClung (“Stickfighter”, “Blood Ties”). Check out the fight scene! Its great to hear a “Gretchen Lewis” song as you watch big men beat the stuffing out of each other !

“Gretchen Lewis” is an audio-visual band. The album comes with a comic book where each song relates to a chapter in it. “We need the listener to see our music, that’s the best way to explain it”, says Delsinki, who happens to also be a filmmaker. “That’s why we came up with the idea of a comic. You get more of a feeling for the characters if you read the comic while listening to the album”.

“The original idea was to release the album with ten short films. People could download the song and also get a film clip and a comic book page”, Delsinki says. “But, we got through three of them then ran out of time and money”. Live though, “Gretchen Lewis”, uses animated clips and shots from Melbourne DJ “Adam Art’s”, graphics in a comic projected behind them to capture the whole Sleepy Hollow feel. The name “Delsinki”, comes from a character in the comic.

As kids, “Gretchen Lewis”, listened to bands like “Metallica”, and “Nirvana”. Later they obsessed over “White Zombies”, “Astro Creep: 2000”, and “The Red Hot Chili Peppers’”, “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”. ”Their music seemed to break all the rules”, they say. “

So, for an eclectic band, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there were strange happenings in “Birdland Studios”, during the making of “Issue 1”. Renowned producer “Lindsay Gravina”, and engineer “Rob Long”, told sax player “Alex Dimitrievski”, to ‘make noises like a whale’ then they cut up the tape of his solo, re-attached it and created something weird-ass. The best example of “Gretchen Lewis’ ”, interesting approach to music making is the recording session when a bunch of their friends, who’d never sung before sung the chorus “Jackals In The Night”.

They were dressed up as pirates of course!