Luke Graner
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Luke Graner

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Singin' Like He Sees It"

Singin' like he sees it
By VIRGINIAGRANTIER
Bismarck Tribune



Luke Graner, 27, of Bismarck, in T-shirt and brown pants, walked onto the stage recently at the VFW Club. The furnace inside of him started to build soon enough and came out in his voice. It roared over his guitar, as he sang the words "God is not American."

That's also the title of Graner's original tune - a song that sort of started writing itself, words that just seemed to tumble out, in the months leading to the war in Iraq. His lament:

"In their world everything is black and white
*

In their world everything they think is right

In my world there are many shades of grey

In my world I will always be able to say that

God is not American

God is not American ..."

A musician friend of his, David Martel, a guitarist for Gypsyfoot - a local band that was also scheduled to perform there that night - was at the VFW when Graner started that song. He said it was so like Graner to sing that song in that place. "We have a whole band to stand behind with our message, and here he is up there by himself in the VFWsinging 'God is not American,'"Martel said. "... It either takes great courage or he is able to shut off that part of you that says, 'oh, my God, people aren't going to accept this.'"

Graner will be performing tonight at Bismarck State College's Rock the Lawn festival.

Martel said Graner reminds him of some of the greatest musicians he has seen in concert, the same elements of dedication, as they "step up and be fearless. ...They can come on stage and say, 'OK, I'm putting myself out there.'" Acommitment to not allow anything to break their integrity.

He said Graner is a guy who has a "special glow" about him, and who isn't on a self-righteous mission, is receptive to other people's ideas, but just feels so passionately in what he believes and is there to share it. Martel said the way Graner comes across is that, although he believes strongly, he isn't there to push it on anyone else.

"In some strange way he's kind of naive to it, that (some) people here aren't open-minded. ... He's able to look past his ego, forget about that and say what he has to say almost as if he's naive to the fact that some people aren't going to like the message that he has to give,"Martel said.

Martel thinks Graner's music has a lot of messages, but the main one is, "He's really telling people to think for themselves."

"I just want to be truthful with myself. ... I want people to take a look (at their beliefs)," Graner said recently. He has written other message songs, as well as biographical tunes and love songs for his wife. He also has been known to, during performances, change lyrics, or create lyrics as he goes, to reflect his feelings at the time.

"To me, it's just stating the obvious,"Graner said about the lyrics in "God is Not American."

Graner - father of two with another one on the way, and who works as a graphic artist for a Bismarck firm - said he wonders about the mindset of those who seem to believe in an American Jesus, and that Americans are the chosen people and that "Iraq is OK because God is (always) on our side."

His wife, Jacey Graner, 26, said she thinks it's a great song, but finds herself scoping the crowd to see how they're reacting.

"People have very strong feelings about America, have very strong feelings about their religion. I think it's a little scary to use 'God is not American,'" she said.

Luke Graner said he has friends who weren't taken with the song, but knows soldiers who are.

He said the VFWperformance is the way he wants the song sung, with great intensity, made that way in part by a unique approach to music-making.

He's kind of a one-man band because of a piece of electronic equipment at his feet. It's a looping machine that records - as he sings, or plays acoustic guitar, African drum or his didgeridoo, an aboriginal instrument - and then automatically can play it back.

With it, he creates music as he goes, putting down layer upon layer of music. And then while the looping machine plays back those layers of music, he continues to play live and sing harmony to his recorded vocals.

"Very cool. I'd never actually seen someone do something like that," Martel said about the first time he saw Graner use the machine.

Graner plunged into looping a couple of years ago after seeing Irish musician Damien Rice and Australian musician Xavier Rudd using them.

Music started early for him, growing up in what he says was an active family in Minot. His dad, an English teacher, wrote music and musicals, like the one the family performed for the Wilton Centennial. When they weren't involved in music, there were touch football and other games in the yard. They weren't a sedentary TV family.

"If you wanted to have fun, call the Graners," he said, and laughed.

He was an all-state football player in high school and drummer in a rock band. He starting writing his own - Bismarck Tribune


Discography

Homemade Music - a collection of live recordings and demos that I recorded, engineered and produced. I screenprinted all the packaging and the discs were hand labeled.

I've also released live recordings for about six different performances over the last two years.

I've had college radio play in Fargo-Moorhead and been featured on a few indie music podcasts.

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

People love melodies that they can sing and I sing a positive, fearless, and honest message that is as memorable as any of my melodies.

My musical story date back to a child singing in church and school choir until in ‘94 when I sat down behind the drum kit in the Minot, ND rock band AfroDavis. In 1999, I formed Curious Yello with friends and after three successful years of gigging, we made Makoche Studios in Bismarck our home for a week and recorded our debut album, Wish, with Grammy-nominated producer Dave Swenson at the controls.

Curious Yello called it quits after five great years and I began to wander a new path as a songwriter leaving bar chords and the electric guitar behind for finger-picking and an acoustic. The hard-charging alt-rock of Curious Yello evolved into heartfelt reflections on life and inner struggle while I began experimenting with looping and slowly became a One Man Band of sorts. Nowadays I perform mostly solo "one man band" shows but often play sets with a selection of incredible musicians.

INFLUENCES: The words and music of Bob Marley, Ben Harper, Radiohead and Xavier Rudd are very inspiring to me. I love the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Phish, Weezer, Travis, the Shins and many many current singer/songwriters like Amos Lee, Damien Rice, ect.