join me on twitter to get my tour updates and insight. find out how the tour is going, and where i am hanging out. the link is on the main page.

This is the culmination of nine years of work, my "Purple Phase" as it were. It started as a new wave project with my friend John Reynolds, turning briefly into a collaboration with Hunter Burgan, and ended up essentially a solo project (with the aid of guitar maestro Arun Bali.) The basis of "Betray U, Betray Me" came from a song written back in 2000, originally performed in the vein of Tubeway Army. It has been rewritten here in the spirit of the project. "Electric Intercourse" is an unreleased Prince song - originally written for the Purple Rain soundtrack, i stumbled across a live version of the song and desperately wanted to hear a proper recording. Members of The Revolution were consulted in using the correct gear and getting the right sounds. Both of these songs sat unfinished for many years, until I recently recorded vocals while staying with a friend in Detroit. Recognizing that I had two slow R&B jams on my hands, I needed something to complete the picture. "After Funk" comes from another idea penned back in 2000 - a short, explosive instrumental number again showcasing the talents of Arun Bali on guitar. Clocking in at 11 minutes and 11 seconds - this is the Purple Trilogy.

Never thought i'd see Reaper merchandise, but here it is. Limited edition premium t-shirts available starting Tuesday, October 14th. Featuring killer artwork by Mark Penxa. Not available in the venues, not available online. Track me down before or after the shows to get one. $10 each (exact change please), available in size youth large, small, medium, and large while supplies last.

For a period of about three years I answered only to the name Reaper. My hair style changed slightly, but I still retained all of the b-movie mentality of those early days (I ask myself now, has it ever gone away?) The tapes I had made found their way into the hands of some older musicians who wanted to start a band, and so Dead End was born. I continued to write new material and when we could, we would borrow devices to record. Thus, documenting the rise of Reaper - through puberty and beyond (you can actually here my voice change throughout these recordings.) After a few short years of playing parties, roller skating rinks, and punk clubs the band drifted apart.

As I moved throughout the years, boxes of these 4 track master tapes would get shifted from state to state until I finally got around to digitizing them. I transferred a few songs to Pro-Tools to see about remixing them - what I found was some dreadfully recorded instruments, and a whole lot of poorly played music. My first instinct was to just re-record the songs, perhaps change some lyrics, and re-arrange the songs a bit. But while I am hopefully a more accomplished musician than I was 18 years ago, there's a spirit and energy to those songs that I could never recreate. It lives in the words and the vocals. So the decision was made to re-record the music around the vocal tracks.

I set about picking my favorite of the songs, digitizing all of the vocal tracks and EQ-ing them to sound half-way intelligible. I spent two days relearning and re-recording all of the guitar parts, then I took the recordings to Sonic Iguana Studios. There Mass Giorgini and Phillip Hill helped me to record the drums. In keeping with the original spirit, everything was recorded and mixed as quickly and haphazardly as possible.

Now it's posted on the internet for your listening pleasure - this is Reaper's vision come true!



MP3s | ARTWORK (JPG FORMAT) | ARTWORK (PDF FORMAT)


SONG SYNOPSIS:

Born Wolf - One of the oldest songs, written during the "Songs for the Macabre" sessions and no doubt inspired by Samhain's "The Shift". Several versions existed of this song - some adding a third verse, the vocal take here was the shortest of the three, but had the most attitude.

The Monster - A late entry for the "Songs for the Macabre" sessions. This is a 12 year olds attempt at re-writing Frankenstein. This vocal take was taken from a second version recorded with Dead End - featuring Matt Kovach and Scott Doerr on backups in the first verse ("Terrorizing, Murderizing"!)

Had A Corpse - A short, fast number about being best friends with a dead body.

Morbid Entertainment - Another old one, inspired by a film I saw on a horror double feature. A renowned movie star passes away, only to have his corpse stolen by fans - soon he returns to take revenge!! It's worth mentioning that I mispronounce the word "Morbid" throughout the song.

People Under the Stairs - Inspired by the film of the same name and recorded in the last days of Reaper. For the original version I used a Casio sampling keyboard to capture the "I'm gonna kill you" line from the movie.

Space PC - That's "Post Cataclysm" for whatever reason. Written and recorded while playing with Dead End. Utilizes an old space echo that I borrowed from a friend (maybe the inspiration for the title?)

Vampire - The oldest song in the collection. The original drums bled through onto the vocal track, which can be heard throughout this version.

Final Gasp - My inner Elvis coming through - or perhaps it was "American Nightmare" part two? I stumbled upon an acoustic demo of this song, which is where this vocal is taken from.

I'm currently in the process of recording/mixing a collaboration with myself entitled "D.Grant Meets the Reaper". So that you may understand what this means, I offer this brief synopsis of the birth of Reaper:

Up until age eleven, I was a relatively normal kid who answered to his birth name.
When resident vampire Jim Grove left "Walk Among Us" sitting in front of our family's stereo, all of that changed. Reaper was born.

Jim was friends with my older brother, and he looked like he stepped out of the pages of an Ann Rice novel...a striking figure for an impressionable kid to look up to. At that time, the music i listened to was all hard rock and thrash metal so, i wasn't immediately open to the music of the Misfits. However, I recognized their iconic "famous monsters" logo, and Crimson Ghost as it graced the shirts of nearly every metal band I listened to. I gawked at the creatures on the album cover a few times, but never bothered to listen to it... when I finally placed needle in groove, the impact was immediate and explosive.

I had been struggling to write songs for a few years, trying to hone my adolescent speed metal skills... but this stuff was much easier, and much cooler to play. Before I knew it, I had amassed a dozen or so songs... short and fast. I would spend afternoons glued to Channel 20's "Thriller Double Feature" or with my nose planted in an issue of EC Comic's "Tales from the Crypt"... all fodder for these new creations. I would raid the local record stores grabbing any Misfits vinyl I could. I was obsessed, and my adoration grew larger as my devilock grew longer.

My father played in various bar bands, and occasionally some recording equipment would land in the house. One day, I ran home from school to find a Tascam 4 track lying around, and I went to work learning how to use it. I had been recording songs in my basement with a boom box, the process went something like this:

Put the boom box on the far side of the room...
"1-2-3-4" record drums...
Run upstairs, put the tape in the stereo...
Play it through the speakers in the basement...
Run back downstairs....
Grab a guitar....
Wait for the "1-2-3-4" to blast through the speakers...
Play along with the drums, recording everything on the boom box...
Run back upstairs...
and so on...

It was a timely (and tiring) process, and the results were less than stunning. With the Tascam I had all the features in one box.

I wasted no time in recording a cover of "Skulls", this allowed me to test the waters and figure out how to "bounce" tracks to turn four tracks into six, and sometimes eight tracks. Before too long I had enough songs for a demo. I threw them all on one tape, and called it "Songs for the Macabre". I made a few copies of the tape and passed them out at school.

To be continued...

i started playing with the vandals in 1997. for some, as-yet undisclosed, reason their drummer was now a member of guns ’n roses and was waist-deep in the early stages of "chinese democracy". alas, the vandals had a plan b! but plan b was trapped in a world of suicidal tendencies. with an australian tour pending, the vandals dropped me a line.

this came at a time when i had practically sworn off music. a year prior, i had walked away from what could have been my only chance to travel the world doing what i’d loved - i was slowly coming to terms with that. now here was a chance to do it all again. i accepted the assignment, and the rest was history.

i owe a lot to the vandals for giving me those opportunities, and helping me to regain not only my confidence as a musician, but my love of playing music.

the vandals taught me to improvise (because you never knew when warren was going to strip naked and destroy the drum set).
the vandals showed me the world; from the exploration of japanese bondage clubs - playing for tens of thousands of people while opening for pearl jam in spain - being held captive in greece by a violent mob protesting the show - playing festivals with KISS.
some of my fondest memories were made with the vandals, and some my greatest musical accomplishments fell within the 60 or so seconds they allow for me to solo each night.

this last stint with the vandals was a trip; i hadn’t played with them in at least a year, and playing small clubs on equipment borrowed from the opening bands was a real refresher course for me. it only took a few seconds to knock the cobwebs loose, then it was the same-as-it-ever-was.

so, thanks to those who came to the shows - those who let us borrow gear - and most of all, thank you vandals. i hope to be on stage with you again before too long.

The Vandals "I’ve Got an Ape Drape"
..

thank you to everyone who took part in this project. i had no idea where i stood on the subject of the declining music "industry" as i’ve been in the thick of it for many years. i had intended for this "open dialogue" to be an ongoing topic (certainly, longer than two posts!) but in the end, i received what i was looking for far sooner than i could’ve hoped.

as it stands; i am comfortable with the state of things, optimistic of the future - and i will resist picking at the scabs of the issue so that they may heal.

in the meantime, david byrne summed up a lot of what i wanted to say in this recent article. very informative and thorough, read it aloud HERE.

cheers.

derek

I'll be taking a break from the studio to play with the Vandals for a few shows. For those who want to come hang out, and see an amazing (and always entertaining) show... here are the dates:




hope to see you there

i am pleased to see so many passionate people concerned about the state of music. some very valid points were made in response to my last post.
i see now that for a lot of new artists, the exposure that comes with the internet far outweighs the negatives. and for the upper echelon, perhaps the decline in album sales isn't such a big deal. it's the bands that fall in-between that stand to struggle the most. and i see a trickle effect.

let me explain something.

record labels primary purpose is to finance the recording of an album, they also handle the marketing and promotion of said album. it is no secret that the retail price of compact discs are over-inflated, and that the bands typically don't make much money per sale. but it is the money brought in from album sales that reimburse (or repay) the record label for their initial investment, and help musicians survive when not on tour. if we were all to self-finance our albums, there would be a noticeable decline in quality and frequency of albums (which in some cases, is not a bad thing).

"bands could just tour more!", you say. well, here's what could happen...
bands tour more than usual, resulting in venues being overwhelmed with shows. band A and band B both want to play the same venue on the same night - concert promoter picks the more popular band and now you can't see your favorite band because they don't sell enough tickets. and for the local bands trying to get their foot in the door, it could become even harder to get a show. never mind the fact that ticket & merchandise prices could spike to compensate for lost album sales.

a bit of a doomsday scenario, i know.

let me know what you think.

the music industry has been slowly shifting ever since i got into bed with it.
the advent of digital audio files, and the ever-progressing internet have brought about a massive change - and i'm afraid that we are on quite the slippery slope.

the purpose of this post is to explain things a bit from the perspective of a career musician, and to hopefully open a dialogue to discuss the future of music. allow me to stick my foot in my mouth a few times over the course of the discussion... it is bound to happen.

let me first state, that i believe the digitization of music is one of the most wonderful things to have happened. it has nearly leveled the playing field between the independent and the corporate. never before has marketing and distributing ones music been so easy. this sword, however, has two edges.

the problem (from a career perspective), is that there is no way to secure the music once it has been released into the great, wide-open. file sharing and downloading has shortened the lifespan of the industry tenfold. a few years ago i noticed some of the big music stores were disappearing, just recently i was shocked to find the virgin megastore in chicago gone. the dinosaurs are dying - but what will take their place?

let's start with this broad inquiry:

how do you feel about the current state of music?