Perth’s Grenade Brain Are Here And Ready To Detonate
The heavy music scene in Perth continues to flourish. While we celebrate the successes of global outfits from the west like Make Them Suffer, we always have an ear to the ground for the next wave of talent coming from the isolated corner of our country.
Today we look at Grenade Brain who have been productive in iso, and have released chaotic track ‘Headache’, partnered with a highly stimulating video, ready to take over all of your senses.
We went on a bit of a first date with frontman Matt Daly and got to learn whether the band enjoy long walks on the beach, or…. well – grenades in your brain.
Before getting into ‘Headache’, what can you tell us about Grenade Brain? How did the band come about?
Basically, Grenade Brain is the product of what was originally a two-man side-project of a much older band, which through time, and an extensive list of past members, has evolved into an amalgamation – of some pretty outstanding people making some music that really represents a group with members from such different musical backgrounds. It’s basically my lil baby of a band that i’ve never been able to let go of haha, so I’ve constantly pushed it through different lineup iterations to finally get it to where we are now.
The song ‘Headache’ is full of energy. It’s got a bit of a mathcore vibe, a hardcore vibe, and even a Suicide Season BMTH vibe at times – but by bringing all these sounds together, you’re pretty unique. Tell us a bit about why you guys have released this song as a single?
I’d be lying if it wasn’t purely for the fact that it was the first song we had finished at the time of shooting a video haha. Our writing process is fairly different to a lot of other bands, considering our guitarist is a professional sound engineer with his own studio. So a lot of our writing is done in the studio, on the spot. Through that process, ‘Headache’ was just the first song completely rounded out at the time.
Is ‘Headache’ anecdotal of what Grenade Brain sounds like, and is it similar to what fans would expect to hear from an EP?
Well, the new EP was decided once we had finalised ‘Headache’, so I think that as a single it really defines what to roughly expect from future releases from this same EP. As a whole, I think our back catalogue of music has been quite diverse considering the different iterations of the band that have existed at the time of writing each release. The rough core of the band has remained the same for some time, but all those little influences that each member brings can really be heard through our last couple EPs.
On that note, what are you guys working on? Can we expect an EP coming in the near-ish future?
With the release of ‘Headache’, we announced our next EP ‘Sick Of It’ which will be released this year!
Obviously COVID-19 is affecting all artists small and large, how have you guys been coping as a fairly new band in the scene, in the absence of shows and being able to practice and record together? Though, Perth seems to have relaxed quite a bit, so maybe things are feeling more back to normal for you guys?
As I mentioned before, we do a lot of writing in our own studio, so fortunately enough for us, we’ve kind of been locked away working on ‘Sick Of It’ throughout this whole COVID season. We’ve jammed here and there, but I think luckily for us, Perth is doing significantly better than most places and has mostly gone back to normal. I even saw this week that shows are about to start going back ahead this month!
Tell us a bit about the shows you guys have played, before the pandemic?
We’ve played a fair amount of shows throughout the band’s storied history of different members, none with this exact version of members though. Nothing too major in regards to supporting slots, most notable I’d say would be opening for Alpha Wolf’s ‘Fault’ Tour not too long ago.
I mentioned what my ear caught out in terms of musical similarities for ‘Headache’, but who would you guys describe as your musical influences?
As a band it’s extremely hard to narrow that down, considering how many different influences we have, I’d say a lot of stuff like Soulkeeper, Alpha Wolf, Traitors, Structures, Brockhampton, Kingmaker, End etc.
The video for ‘Headache’ has a lot going on, and some really cool special effects, who did you work with to produce the video?
The video was made by our friend Victor Lim, he’s a Perth lad himself and really ran with our vision on making something that just had a heap going on and was extremely sporadic.
What’s a fun fact about the band or a band member, that fans wouldn’t know?
Well the band has existed since 2017 surprisingly, considering how low-key we are, and the only reason the band exists is because myself and the original other member when we were a two-piece just really liked the name Grenade Brain, No one wanted our other band to be called that so we just made a whole new band haha.
Any final words you’d like to share with the world about Grenade Brain?
Please get involved with our back catalogue of music and I promise that there is so much more good gear to come with our new EP ‘Sick Of It’. Love y’all.
Interview by Ricky Aarons @rickysaul90
