Hi guys! What was the original spark that encouraged you to start creating music together?
JDP) Hello! John Perinbam, singer and multi-instrumentalist here! Good question. I’ve been writing songs since I was a kid. Rob and I have been creating music together since Rob replaced the guitar player in my band Sudden Thunder around 1992 or so. I think the reason the partnership works so well is that we’ve never believed in stylistic limitations and constantly rejected “you can’t do that” thinking.
In addition to Sudden Thunder, we were also the main writers behind alternative rockers Dr. Squish and the 2000s- era lineup of Canadian metal legends Ivory Knight. With Ivory Knight we released 2 critically-acclaimed CDs – Up From The Ashes (2001) and Unconscience (2004). Ivory Knight appeared in the Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles article “O Canada, Our Home and Metal Land! The List – Great White Metal A-Z;” in issue #92, among greats such as Rush, Saga, Voivod, Annihilator, Exciter, and Anvil!
In 2009 or so, I released a CD called Knightfall, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by Annihilator’s Jeff Waters. Rob co-wrote (with Jeff and myself) a lot of the material and plays most of the guitar solos.
Gravelle-Perinbam started as Rob’s solo project outside of Ivory Knight. Much of the focus was on creating progressive metal covers of classic rock songs. The first song I worked on was a cover of the Cheap Trick classic, Dream Police, on which I sang all the vocals. Sandor de Bretan (ex-Annihilator, ex-Sudden Thunder) handled the bass. Later Rob did a cover of Deep Purple’s scorcher, Highway Star, on which I sang and played bass.
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, with Ivory Knight being unable to meet, Rob and I just kept on working – but in our individual home studios rather than in the band practice space!
I released a solo single, a rock ballad called Picture on the Wall in 2020, and Rob and I released the covers Mouse in a Maze, Private Life, and Suspended Animation.
Gradually as I took a more active role in the overall production, we decided to add my name on the songs on which I’m playing a significant role.
Since releasing Black Veil of Silence, we have released our cover of the Monkees ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’ which has been doing really well!
RG) Hi. Thanks so much for featuring us in Lost In the Nordics!
John and I have been playing together ever since I auditioned for his band back in the early 90s. Since then, we played in several bands together. Then, around 2009, I started recording covers of some of my favorite classic rock songs for fun. It gave me a chance to work with some of the best local musicians. Oddly, I only recorded a couple of songs before I asked John to sing on a cover of Cheap Trick’s Dream Police. I guess that we worked so well together, it was inevitable!
As the covers started to gain traction, I was encouraged to continue down that road. We didn’t put out all that much material though because we were fairly busy with Ivory Knight…that was until Covid hit and all band activities ground to a halt! Although band practices had ceased, the pandemic presented a golden opportunity for John and I to collaborate from our home studios. Thus, the Gravelle-Perinbam project was born! At that point, we ramped up our output considerably, releasing a trilogy of prog rock covers within months of each other.
As fun as that was, our unbridled creativity was yearning for more personalized expression, so we dug out a couple of originals that the band had been working on before the pandemic hit; Black Veil of Silence was one of those.
We love your release, ‘Black Veil of Silence’. Can you give us some insight into the song?
JDP) Thank you ever so much. I’m glad you like it. Around 2011 or 2012, Rob composed the music for an early version of the song and introduced it to our band at the time, Sudden Thunder. I composed the lyrics, melody, and the original bass. However, shortly afterwards, the band dissolved and the song was shelved.
More recently, Rob re-introduced an updated version of the music to Ivory Knight. I re-wrote the lyrics (honestly, I couldn’t find the original!) and we started arranging the song in band rehearsals with the intention of releasing it under the Ivory Knight name.
However those plans got sidetracked during the COVID lockdowns.
Over that period of almost 2 years, our side projects were gathering steam and so, with Ivory Knight being inactive, we decided to release the song as the first Gravelle-Perinbam original.
The inspiration behind the lyrics was my feeling / observation that despite all our advancements in technology to make information widely accessible, there seems to be a disturbing trend towards rejecting scientific expertise in favour of politically-motivated and often divisive, inflammatory rhetoric. The “black veil of silence” refers to the unwillingness to challenge controversial and unsubstantiated views.
The verses refers to the atmosphere of fear, uncertainty, and hatred created by so-called “populist” leaders who seem to have few real ideas but seek to gain power through divisive rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and character assassination, as well as the promise that they alone can deliver stability and prosperity, and that some group or person is to blame for any and all problems.
The chorus refers to rejecting conformity, thinking for oneself, and choosing to NOT go along with the crowd which embraces unsubstantiated claims and theories.
The bridge is about the “leader” being exposed for the fraud that he is.
The last verse is about opening our eyes, recognizing bullshit for what it is, and punishing those responsible for its deliberate propagation. It’s also a bit of light at what would otherwise be a very dark song.
RG) That song had a long history. I wrote the opening riff in the early 2000s, but I didn’t have anything else to go with it until a few years later, when I presented the material to Sudden Thunder. We polished the song up nicely, but then I was fired for being difficult, and a variety of other (valid) reasons, which I won’t get into here. I sat on the song until John and I started looking for originals to work on around 2020. At first I was skeptical that we could pull it off as a duo, because the 6/8 middle section was something that seemed to mess up a lot of drummers. I was fully resigned to using drumming software, but then John put down some drums himself that just blew me away!
The guitar tracking took me forever, because there are a lot of parts, and some of the rhythms were pushing the limits of my ability, to be perfectly honest. The final song clocked in at over 6 minutes, so we wound up trimming it down for the video. My beloved 6/8 part was a victim of that editing process, but it lives on in the audio single, so it’s all good!
Are you planning to make it part of a larger release, such as an EP or album?
JDP) Hard to say at this point. We do have a lot more original and cover material in the works but we like the digital single format, which lets us release music more frequently and lets us interact directly with our fans. But I will never say never!
RG) From the get-go, I planned on releasing one song at a time, in digital format only, as it was both cheaper and more efficient. John and I have recorded several EPs and full length CDs together over the years. I always found the experience of working on ten to twelve songs at the same time to be very daunting and stressfull. Moreover, I was always disapointed in the results, because we were just overwhelmed by the scope of it all. Focussing exclusively on one song at a time allowed me to fully immerse myself in it and give it 100 percent of my focus. Does that mean that every mix is “perfect”? Not at all, but I do feel that we’ve been getting better and better on each release.
Rather than put out a full length CD, I can envision releasing a “best-of” collection at some point, because that would allow us to revisit the mixes and improve them, just as labels often release remasters of older material. Times change, and what’s considered to be “good” sound does evolove over the years. Just listen to an early 80s mix and compare it to a more recent one. Typically, there is a lot less dynamic range now, and more low end.
We paid engineers to mix and master our CD releases, thinking that this would result in a more pro sound. After that didn’t produce the desired outcome a few times, I realized that making a really good sounding record is not easy…for anyone. With that in mind, I resolved to improve at every step of the recording process, from tracking to mastering. We have done almost everything ourselves since then, so any weaknesses in the final product would be our responsibility, and ours alone.
Your music interweaves so many different styles and sounds. If you could collaborate with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
JDP) That’s a tough one – there are far too many for me to list individually.
RG) I’m glad that you noticed the different styles. Although my wheelhouse is classic metal, I have many other influences, including rock, prog rock, classical music, and all sorts of music that I heard growing up in the 70s and 80s. Case in point, our latest single is a cover of The Monkees’ Pleasant Valley Sunday. I watched their TV show all the time and enjoyed their music very much as a kid. It was so thrilling to be able to reimagine such a classic via my own sensibilities. And then, to receive such a tremendous response to it, was the icing on the cake!
With regards to collaboration, I would hesitate to try to entice one of my idols to work on music with me. I already got to experience that when I collaborated with Jeff Waters on Knightfall. That was the thrill of a lifetime, but also emotionally draining and taxing. Not many people know this, but there was a period of about two years after the Knightfall sessions where I didn’t pick up my guitar once for more than two minutes. You know how being exposed to a great player will either inspire you to practice more or quit altogether. In my case, it led to a bit of both. First, I recorded an instrumental called Ultraviolence to prove to myself that I could play guitar. Listening back to it now, I am still impressed by what I achieved there. It’s surprisingly tight and well played considering that I only started recording at home a few months before. Once I got that out of my system, I didn’t want to even think about music for a while. Eventually, I realized that I would be a much better player as a result of all that I had learned from JW, so I forged on and put all of the lessons that I learned from that experience to good use!
What’s been your favorite musical experience to date?
JDP) Again, a tough question. I’m just happy and grateful to be making music whether I’m performing live on stage or recording in the studio. Hard to pick any particular favourite but hearing the fans chanting “IVORY” before Ivory Knight’s performances is always humbling.
RG) I agree with John that we’ve had some very memorable shows – both amazing and nightmarish! One time we
were almost in a head-on collision after a show when the driver in the opposite lane fell asleep or something and
veered into ours. I was sleeping in the back of the truck, but John told me about it later on.
My favorite experiences lately have actually been attending concerts. We were all deprived of live shows for a
couple of years during Covid. Once things opened up again, we were all raring to get out there and experience the
magic of music together. My first show after Covid was Avatar in Montreal. What a treat that was! I followed that
up with Rammstein just a few weeks later. I can honestly say that that show will stay with me for the rest of my
days. It was the most massive show I had ever witnessed, both in attendance and scope. It was outdoors and they
had fifty foot flames shooting into the night sky!
And what was the first album you remember owning?
JDP) I think it was probably The Beatles Something New and VI. I was (and still am) a huge Beatles fan and was given these together as a gift when I was about 4 or 5.
RG) The first album that I purchased with my own money was Moving Pictures (Rush). It’s still my favorite album of all time to this day. I also remember my 2nd purchase: AC/DC’s Back In Black. Also not to shabby!
If you could perform at any venue in the world, where would it be and why?
JDP) I’m just happy to be making music. Any venue – no matter how big or small, any time.
RG) I don’t care about the venue. As long as people show up and enjoy the show, I’m a happy camper!
Finally, have you got anything to share regarding upcoming gigs and what have you got planned over the rest of 2022?
JDP) As we’re a recording duo, we have no plans to gig. I also don’t want to give too much away but we have a lot more original and cover music coming down the pipe, though, so to speak. Stay tuned and check out our websites robgravelle.com and johnperinbam.com for all the latest! Rock on!
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Gravelle-Perinbam and wish you all the best!
RG) We have a few songs in the works right now, including another original, as well as a rock prog rock cover, but
that’s all I will say about that right now! While you’re waiting, I would urge everyone to check out the Black Veil of
Silence video at https://youtu.be/XOPXPkuotIE as well as our new cover song, Pleasant Valley Sunday at
https://soundcloud.com/rob-gravelle-450614847/pleasant-valley-sunday-1?
si=6d4bc317bd1d4bf4a13f17f2aab56b3b&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing.
You can follow us on our individual websites – https://robgravelle.com, https://johnperinbam.com and Facebook
page at https://www.facebook.com/RobGravelleOfficial.
