Graber Gryass's Michael Graber Answers Essential 8 Questions
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What was the “a-ha” moment when you knew the song was completed and perfect?
The song Devil’s Got Your Name is a perfect honky-tank soap opera, but with a twist of country surrealism. I knew when all the characters gathered in one place, the situational drama was complete and completely overwhelming, heartbreaking; so, going out of the last bridge and repeating the chorus twice just fit, like a wounded person seeking solace in another broken and wounded person, but not finding the healing balm. What’s the story behind your album’s title? I waited until I was 50 to cut an album under my own name, after recording in several bands (Bluff City Backsliders, Professor Elixir’s Southern Troubadours) and as a Studio musician (Foy Vance, The Grifters, among others). Some fruit takes time to ripen and I’m blooming late creatively, thank the mystery of creativity and the muses. |
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Where do you draw inspiration from when writing?
It’s every possible thing, every bit of stimuli. I have an MFA in Creative Writing in Poetry and have always read every person, place, thing, and sound as a writer does, like a hunting instinct or feeding frenzy. It’s all relevant—every part of life, the light, the shadows, the marriages, divorces, sick kids, love, hate, injustice, the longing for transcendence and experience—all of it.
What’s the best advice you have ever gotten from another musician?
Music is the space in between the notes.
What do you love most about being on the road?
Trying different Indian restaurants.
What has been your biggest struggle so far?
Introducing people to original music on a DIY label. It’s hard to cut through all the noise of popular culture.
What’s your dream venue and why?
Red Rocks. Outdoors. Jaw-dropping splendor. Dancing hippies.
Is drinking at gigs a positive or a negative?
A negative for me. My father died of true alcoholism, and I haven’t had a drink in 21 years. Now, let’s talk about plant medicine; the time has come.
It’s every possible thing, every bit of stimuli. I have an MFA in Creative Writing in Poetry and have always read every person, place, thing, and sound as a writer does, like a hunting instinct or feeding frenzy. It’s all relevant—every part of life, the light, the shadows, the marriages, divorces, sick kids, love, hate, injustice, the longing for transcendence and experience—all of it.
What’s the best advice you have ever gotten from another musician?
Music is the space in between the notes.
What do you love most about being on the road?
Trying different Indian restaurants.
What has been your biggest struggle so far?
Introducing people to original music on a DIY label. It’s hard to cut through all the noise of popular culture.
What’s your dream venue and why?
Red Rocks. Outdoors. Jaw-dropping splendor. Dancing hippies.
Is drinking at gigs a positive or a negative?
A negative for me. My father died of true alcoholism, and I haven’t had a drink in 21 years. Now, let’s talk about plant medicine; the time has come.
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As frontman of Memphis, TN bluegrass collective Graber Gryass, Michael Graber fashions a vast and eclectic background into an immersive journey into an original expansive, exploratory song catalogue. The first record of two, Late Bloom (due out 30th October) reads with straight-arrow storytelling, but carries a remarkable importance about the human experience. It exudes some of the most exemplary songwriting and musicianship you’ll hear all year.
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