An Interview With Gravelle and Perinbam
A new single release from Rob Gravelle and John Perinbam has a way of sneaking up on you with lyrics that you begin to get attached to as the song plays through along with some incredible guitar work and beautiful arrangement which is not outside the staple of the artists style and approach.
"Beyond The Cage" has a lot going on and within the walls of this single and the whole thing has a way of keeping you not only attached to it, but afloat with the progressions, changes, and story told.
These two have teamed up before and it seems like it makes perfect sense because between the two of them, a bit of magic seems to occur and they capture some lightning in a bottle.
This track is a perfect example of such a thing because not only does it give off this heavily classic metal influence but it does so in a way that feels refreshing and robust without anything being too overdone, these guys hit the sweet spots that you want to hear in a song like this and it seems like they do it with ease.
I love hearing this level of gracefulness in deliveries and performances on rock songs because it's something that I miss a little bit when it comes to the genre and it's very enjoyable to have it back.
Gravelle-Perinbam have a natural way of working together it would seem and when they get together to do their thing they really do have a way of feeding off each other's energies whether they're in the same room or not.
I think that these two have a sort of classic Duo element to them where they have found their musical other in a certain way and to a certain extent.
When something like that happens you really hope that they make as much music as possible because it's not every day that it occurs.
The vocals have just as much of a passionate delivery as the guitars do and the whole song is built with such a driving backbone that it makes the song subtle yet hard hitting at the same time.
Not something easy to accomplish.
The lyrics paint pictures as you listen and the music are the brush strokes so you're able to really fall right into this and sort of get engulfed in it.
With the release of such and impactful song, we wanted to have a sit down with both Gravelle and Perinbam to talk shop.
Here's what went down.
TSWS: Let's begin with Beyond The Cage! This single had a vast and crisp hard rock feel that featured some of your staple sounds! How did this single happen?
JDP: Rob and I wrote the song years ago - in fact an early version was actually performed live back around 1998 or so by our then band, Dr. Squish. A few years back, we decided to rework it as part of Rob’s solo project. If I remember correctly that’s when I recorded the drums and bass - yes, oddly enough these tracks for our second original release were done well before tracking our first original release! However the song took a back seat as our band Ivory Knight was still active at the time.
However, Ivory Knight was sidelined during the pandemic of 2020, during which time Rob and I continued to work on recording and releasing music. I released the song Picture on the Wall, and collaborated with Rob on his covers of Saga’s Mouse in a Maze, Oingo Boingo’s Private Life, and The Monks Suspended Animation. Once it became apparent that due to various commitments and priorities, Ivory Knight would be unable to resume in the foreseeable future, Rob and I decided to release our original music under the Gravelle-Perinbam banner. Black Veil of Silence was our first release, and Beyond the Cage of Silence is the followup.
The song is about overcoming obstacles imposed by damaging thought patterns inflicted upon us, especially in childhood. Thus we become trapped in a cage of silence, afraid to be ourselves, follow our dreams, or voice our opinions. Instead we blindly follow others straight into misery. Summarized, the message is essentially: “Never let anyone put you down. You ARE good enough and you deserve to be heard. Be yourself.”
Rob: I'm glad that you recognized some of our “staple sounds” because Beyond the Cage of Silence has a somewhat different style than it's predecessor, Black Cage of Silence. Whereas it had a very classic metal sound, Beyond the Cage is more classic rock. Having said that, both dip into the realm of prog territory; in Black Cage it's the 6/8 middle section, and in Beyond the Cage it's more in the arrangement, which goes through many sections in its 9:32 minutes running time.
That song has been in the making for a long time, since the late 90s actually! An early version of it would have been on Dr. Squish's 2nd album, if that had materialized. After Dr. Squish disbanded, I reworked the music a bit and planned on releasing it under my own name in the early 2000s. Then that got put on hold when I joined Ivory Knight. Now, after the Covid pandemic, seemed like the perfect time to revisit it because the song is all about hitting the open road, something that I've been itching to do ever since the lock-downs started.
I'm really happy with the final result. The song has just the right mix of classic rock and progressive elements. I would go as far as to say that it's our Magnum Opus. Artists often fall in love with their creation and think that it's a lot better than it really is. But, after 30 years of music making, I like to think that I've become a fairly good judge of a song's merit. My hunch is that this song will outlive us all. It's the kind of song that an artist can only hope to have once in their career, and I feel really fortunate that Lady Luck smiled upon us.
TSWS: What are the instruments you are performing on this song?
JDP: On this song I’m performing all vocals, as well as playing drums and bass guitar.
Rob: I played all the guitars, which are layered pretty think in some spots. There are as many as eight guitars going at some points. Maybe more, but I'd have to check.
TSWS: Do you do all of this at a home set-up or do you go out to a studio to track this stuff?
JDP: We each track in our individual home studios. As I live in a small condo, I use an electronic drum kit and record my drums via MIDI. That 1) allows me to play my drums at all!! and 2 ) removes the need for mic’ing up a drum kit and 3) has the added advantage of being able to change the drum sounds later in the process.
Rob: These days we record everything in our home studios. In Gravelle-Perinbam we try to do everything ourselves. It's not because we're too cheap to splurge on studio time; it's just that we've gone that route many times before with bands that we've played in, and we've never been all that satisfied with the results. I think it's partly because there were only a few local studios and they weren't really all that knowledgeable about mixing heavier music styles. After being disappointed in the final product a few times, we started recording our songs ourselves. It took a while, and many iterations of trial and error, but we eventually got the hang of it. You can hear how far we've come in Beyond the Cage of Silence.
TSWS: What is your favorite part of doing this?
JDP: I actually enjoy all parts of creating music, from composition to tracking the instruments and vocals, to producing the finished work. All that said, I always have a blast creating, singing, and layering the backing vocal tracks.
Rob: I love the process of creation, from the initial spark to the finished product. I find every aspect of music really challenging, which pushes me to strive to continually improve. It's also nice when people enjoy the fruits of our labours.
TSWS: Has music always been our first passion?
JDP: Absolutely. I’ve been singing ever since I can remember. I think I was about 4 or 5 when I started writing my first songs.
Rob: As a kid I was heavily into drawing, but eventually, music become my preferred form of artistic expression. I did play piano until my teens, but I wouldn't say that I as passionate about it. In fact, if I'm being honest, I was a lot more into video games in those days. I even won a local contest once. It wasn't until I started playing guitar that the music bug really bit me.
TSWS: The music video was really well put together! Did you do this as well?
JDP: Thanks so much. I’m really glad you liked it. Yes, guilty as charged!! In Gravelle-Perinbam we like to handle as much of the creative side of things as possible.
Rob: I made some lyric videos for our early song, but these days, I let John handle that, because he does a much better job than me.
TSWS: The song has depth to it and a lot of soul in the performance. Do you perform any of this in a live setting?
JDP: Thanks again. As I mentioned, an early version was performed in the late 90s by our then-band Dr. Squish, but that version was significantly different from the Gravelle-Perinbam single. But as Gravelle-Perinbam is, at the moment, a studio recording project, we have no plans to perform live in the foreseeable future. I’ll never say never, but for now our focus is on recording.
Rob: Well, thanks. All of the recording was done in our home studios, but we have played earlier incarnations of the song live years ago. I guess that contributed to the parts having more “worn-in” feel than you'd usually get when tracking. I do tend to go over parts many times until the feel really natural, but in this case, all the groundwork had already been laid.
TSWS: Will this track be part of an upcoming larger release? What are you panning next?
JDP: At the moment we’ve had great results releasing digital singles and we’ll likely stick to that at least for now. We’re able to release music more frequently and interact directly with our fans on each song. Also, with the plethora of distractions bombarding us all constantly, along with short attention spans these days, I think we will do well to hold off on larger releases until we are more established.
We do have a lot more stuff in the works - we never stop! I’ll just say we have a couple of covers we’re working on right now but I don’t want to spoil the surprise so I’ll keep the titles to myself.
Rob: Beyond the Cage of Silence is the second part of the Trilogy of Silence, so you can expect the last instalment to be forthcoming. We've got a couple of covers in the works that will be ready before that, but Part III has been written and is almost ready to be recorded.
As usual, we'll be releasing each song in turn as individual singles, so that we can give each one the attention it needs. That's a process that Gravelle-Perinbam has been following since day 1. We'd prefer to put out new material every couple of months rather than every year and a half or longer.
TSWS: How do you end up writing your song? Is it guitar chords first? Vocal melodies? It's different for everyone. How does this work for you?
JDP: So far in Gravelle-Perinbam, the songs have begun with Rob creating the chord progressions and basic song structure, against which I’ve written the melody and lyrics at the same time.
As far as the arrangements go, Rob sends me an MP3 of the instruments as well as MIDI of programmed drums that he’s used to compose the piece. I’ll compose my own drum parts based on that, then we may go back-and-forth until we’ve come up with a more-or-less final arrangement. I’ll then compose and record my bass, then lead vocals followed by backing vocals. Nothing’s etched in stone though - we have a couple of songs in the works featuring Rob on bass duties.
I’d say even my own writing usually starts off with a chord progression on top of which I’m creating the melody and lyrics. But there are exceptions. The opening of Dr. Squish’s Devoid came to me while I was riding the bus. I’ve written other material in the process of trying out a new instrument or piece of gear. I wrote the lyrics and melody for the Sudden Thunder song ‘Watch You Walk Away” while stopped at traffic lights - I sung it into a portable cassette recorder (yes, old school!) and later completed a rough musical arrangement on a synth I had just bought. That’s probably the only time so far that I’ve written the melody and lyrics first.
Rob: It's a very iterative process. Sometimes we get really good ideas fairly late while recording the “real” tracks, which then necessitates redoing a part. Conversely, there are times that something just won't sound right, so we'll go back and try it again. It all comes down to getting a song to sound as good as we can get it. I think that I may have even made some last minute changes to Beyond the Cage while it was being mastered. That would mean remixing the song and running it through the mastering app again. That's not something that's usually done, but when you're doing everything yourself, you have the luxury of revisiting parts anywhere along the way.
TSWS: Before we go, what would you like to say to fans of your music?
JDP: Thank you all ever so much for your ongoing support! We definitely appreciate each and every one of you who takes time away from their busy lives to listen to our music and watch our videos. Also, sign up for our mailing list at our relatively new website gravelleperinbam.com for the latest and greatest, including music, video, merch, and more!
Rob: Thank you everyone for all your support. We couldn't do it without you!
