Brendan Grace – Necronata ‘Reviving MySpace Memories Through Music’

Say what you will about nostalgia driven tours, but before coronavirus ruined everything for everyone, they were fast becoming one of the best ways to revisit your youthful days of skinny jeans and side-parted emo fringes (yes we all had that phase). Since the touring has stopped, the only way we can go back in time is via music and Necronata are well and truly on the ball when it comes to honing in on that unique sound we were listening to back in our MySpace days!

As it turns out, that was Brendan Grace‘s intention all along, finding a sound that reminded us of that era (he’s dubbing dark pop) and tomorrow, he releases the music video for ‘Diabolical‘ upon the world to showcase what he’s been working on… Luckily for us, we can get a sneak peek today as well as an in-depth chat about his music, motivation and the madness behind the band name…

Heya mate, firstly, this track is an absolute trip down memory lane, legit thought I was back on MySpace trying to rate my Top 8 friends again, how’d you come up with this sound?

This sound is definitely something I’ve been working on for a bit. There was a point in time recently I was listening to pop and rock bands exclusively from that 2008-12 era and I just adore the over the top pacing and production. When I was at uni, still writing songs, there was a recent gap in that true late naughties era synth-pop coming out and I just wanted to satisfy that itch so I did it myself. I have to hand a lot of the production to my producer Nat from Maple Studios, he really took my clunky, dated demos and the collaboration is something special hey.

It harks back to bands like Cobra Starship and 3OH!3, would I be right in saying that’s a style you’re looking to revive or was it a sheer coincidence?

Definitely not a coincidence, like I said, that exact sound is something I’ve been wanting to hear but with a modern, heavy twist for like my entire teenage years since the sad decline of the best social media network on the planet (MySpace of course).

Before we get to the MySpace factor, give us a rundown of Necronata!

So the writing is actually just myself and I would consider it a solo piece for that reason. When I play live I will have my studio guitarist, Ben Shone, and my childhood friend, Andre, playing guitars as well as the drummer for Broken Earth, Seb Weir, playing live with synths running through house for that truly studio sounding live experience.

The name is actually a play on a word from a book series I read as a child from the author Darren Shan. He wrote two series at the time, one called “Demonata”. I then thought of an analogous occult prefix instead of “demon” and “necro” was the first that came to mind! It really flows off the tongue so I kept it.

I’ve played in bands since like 8 years ago. I did a couple of embarrassing August Burns Red and Parkway Drive cover shows for my school in high school. Won a talent quest for a band performance of ‘The Eleventh Hour’ by August Burns Red which is cool. I then went to JMC Academy where I achieved a Bachelor of Music specialising in songwriting. I’ve written a number of orchestral video game scores which are currently unreleased. I did vocals for a metalcore band called Guardian for like 2 shows AND THEN I started on Necronata, so yeah just a bunch of mucking around doing random stuff until now where I’m ready to take over the world but I guess it all culminated to the same place.

Sounds like you shopped around until you found what works for you, good stuff! Talking MySpace, at this point in time what track would you have as your home page anthem if it didn’t die out all those years ago?

Back in the day it would have been ‘The Crimson’ by Atreyu, but now I would pay homage to my true predecessors so ‘Fer Sure’ by The Medic Droid it should be.

The thing I loved about ‘Diabolical’ was it sounds so different to a lot of the Australian music getting around right now, is Necronata intending to stand out from the rest with a completely different sound?

Necronata is definitely looking to stand out in the heavy or pop scene. I go to SO MANY shows whether that be local hardcore gigs or triple J hype artists and I’m really looking to cement myself as something wholly unique. I feel like it couldn’t have come at a better time either. A lot of my heavy music artist friends are getting into pop and a lot of my pop music friends dabble in the heavy so I can see Necronata taking the scene by surprise.

If we all weren’t in lockdown right now, how would the band celebrate a weekend?

Oh my goodness how I’ve missed gigs! I would be taking both Broken Earth and the Necronata lineup along with a few friends in other bands to Hideaway Bar or Burdekin or the like, have a few too many drinks and make some memories!

Oh man, live shows, I’d sell a kidney for one right now! What’s the plan moving forward and how has coronavirus impacted that?

The plan for now is to release and record as much music with visual media as possible before we really blast off and get on a few shows. Coronavirus has not stopped us in doing a lot of the “behind the scenes” stuff including releasing music, really we just can’t practice as a band yet. In saying that I will have to warn it might be a while before we’re comfortable playing a show, but when we do it’ll be a night to remember!

Anything else to add for those reading?

Be good to each other through these trying times, like really think about your own impact in others lives, be good to each other, to yourself and never stop doing the things you love or compromising on your passion!

Also thanks so much Browny for the platform I love love love what you do here.

Always a pleasure!

Interview by Browny @brownypaul

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