Metal go getters
GRANSHAW have been around for the past 10 years and will continue to roam the metal community as they see fit. For they have an all new EP on their hands titled "Bloody Hands, Clear Conscience", with further music in the works, along with shows, and so much more, there is no stopping them! Frontman vocalist Bo and the rest of the band discuss this EP, their future, and everything in-between!
1. So tell me about Granshaw. Why did you decide on that name for the band. What kind of ideas did you explore before making that choice of namesake?
Granshaw started around 06-07, about 1 to 2 years before I, the vocalist, Bo, joined up with them. They were a southern hard rock band playing covers and crappy originals. Their singer left and a little while later I happen to find their ad looking for a vocalist on craigslist, one night just by chance. The next day they came and met me at my house and we talked at great length. A week later we had a practice on October 20, 2008, and everything just clicked. And we’ve been going full blast ever since. It took a little while in the beginning to find our sound but I’m pretty sure we’ve honed in on it. The name Granshaw originated from a mental/rehab facility that was supposedly pretty bad bad. After I joined we ended up changing the spelling of it a little bit so that it phonetically sounded how it looked but that’s always been the name that we’ve had since the beginning. It was different. It was one word. It just fit us.
2. Can you introduce yourselves for our readers, giving us a brief history summary and where is the band from exactly?
The life-long members of Granshaw consist of Bo White on vocals, Corey Arnold on guitar, Josh Puckett on bass, and Travis Furlong on drums. We originate from the Bowling Green Kentucky/south-central Kentucky area.
3. How would you describe your music?
We would describe our music as brutal Kentucky metal. We’ve never been able to pinpoint a certain genre or description that better describes us than that. It’s very straightforward and real.
4. Speaking of which, what bands have influcned you the most?
Our biggest influences probably come from Pantera, Lamb of God, Slipknot, Clutch, Sepultura and numerous little odds and ends of other metal and non-metal bands.
5. What are your songs about and what topics do they cover?
Our songs are usually about violence and brutality and all the fucked up shit that goes on in the world. We have a brand new song we just got through writing called "Gimmick", and it’s about how so many of these talent less bands have to have a gimmick to get ahead; it overshadows their lack of actual talent and depth. A lot of it is cringe-worthy.
6. While on the topic of music, whereabouts are you in the process of your new EP?
Our new EP titled, "Bloody Hands, Clear Conscience", is all wrapped up and finished and getting printed as we speak so we will have plenty of inventory of physical copies. We put in a lot of hard work staying super focused on this project because we knew it’s potential.
7. How would you describe the overall sound of this new EP?
The sound of this new EP is very straightforward and raw. A lot of time goes into writing the music for our songs and we felt these five were the best to describe how we feel overall. There’s a lot of emotion in these songs.
8. Did the band have any definitive goals they were shooting for before the recording process began for this EP?
We really just wanted to make this record heavy as fuck and we were pleased with how well our sound was captured in the recording process. Our good buddy Sam Schneider of INFERI had us come record in his home studio. It was extremely comfortable and laid-back and it really allowed us to be able to dig deep and unleash the hate and brutality in our hearts. Just about all of Corey‘s riffs are lead-based riffs and they always turn out to be something special and different.
9. Are you using any new instrumentation you've never used in the recording process before?
The one major thing we did different in the recording process this time was the use of a click track. First time ever! It’s so extremely difficult to confine our songs within the limitations of a click track. Our music lives and breathes and is somehow alive during the live show process and having to shove it all into a perfect, exactly timed space was tough but we somehow managed it with Sam‘s help.
10. Can you go into one or two tracks on the new EP? If so, can you give us the track title and brief description of how the track sounds and how it came about?
A couple songs I’ll all about on the album are "Killing Epidemic" and "Raise My Glass In Hell". "Killing Epidemic", is a very in-your-face, fast-paced, blunt force trauma of a song. It’s starts blazing right out of the gate with only the drums and then when it all comes in, you just can’t stop moving. "This whole world fuckin' makes me sick" is one of the lines in the chorus. It's like the majority of people complain about their problems while creating bigger ones and ignoring the fact they’re doing it to themselves and nobody is gonna fix anything for them. "You're all a product of a killing epidemic." The other song, "RMGIH" (as we in the band call it), is kind of mocking this life on Earth as if Hell is the better option. The party-like, yet comforting and soothing walk-in-the-park atmosphere of Hell in comparison to living where we are now. "Stay and suffer through your life while I’m taking shots in Hell", says it all. It stemmed from watching people complain about their so-called problems while others have it so much worse and never complain at all. It’s more of a slow, fast, slow, fast song structure. It starts with a nice slow intro riff and ends with a really heavy break-neck breakdown that’ll leave you feeling satisfied.
11. When can we expect the new EP to be released?
"Bloody Hands, Clear Conscience" is brutal and it’s available for digital/physical pre-order now through all the major online music stores and the physical copy can be ordered straight from our GRANSHAW Facebook page. The official release date is 06/16/18 worldwide!
12. Will you be playing any shows and or tours for this EP? Is there a chance you will be doing a short round up of dates before the EP is released?
We will be playing a string of shows in June for its release and there will be big things in July we can’t say quite yet. We are always playing shows so it shouldn’t be too difficult to catch us.
13. What plans are set up for the rest of this year, for this band in particular?
We’ll pretty much be playing shows off and on for the rest of the year in between writing for the next EP or LP we record next spring with Sammy at the wheel again. We’ve got a huge metal fest cancer benefit the first weekend of August that we play every year for our good brother Allen Ashbaugh who puts it on out of the love for metal and for raising money for the fight against cancer. There will also be a lyric video and music video coming in the near future in support of this EP as well.
14. Would you like to say or add anything else?
We put a whole lot of time and effort into this band. The four of us are like brothers who get along better than any band I’ve ever seen; local or national. And they’ll all agree on it too. We’ve pretty much been doing this for a decade, and there’s nothing else we’d rather be doing. Even if success never comes on a large scale, we love just being able to have the four of us get together and make music and play music that we love and get to spend time together. We have children and families and all of them are like one huge family put together. You wouldn’t have a clue none of us were blood related. We will do this until we’re old because we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves if we didn’t. It’s in our blood. The awesome relationships that we’ve forged over the years through playing shows with different bands and promoters and venues, is impossible to obtained any other way. We love metal and we love to make it and bring good tunes to the ears of metalheads all over. Stay tuned because there is always more to come. BRUTAL KENTUCKY METAL!
15. Is that your final answer?
That is most certainly our final answer.
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