Getting up close with Grymm
Grymm are a Brighton-based ambient and grunge fusion of fuzzed guitars, reverb and compelling vocal hooks that will take you on an enigmatic journey through each song they provide.
I sat down with Morgan, guitarist and vocalist, and Andrew, bassist, before their gig in Brighton, all of us perching on stools of slightly different heights in the dusty upstairs of The Prince Albert. As I explained I would just be asking a few questions, Andrew chewed enthusiastically on a Sainsbury’s cookie.
So, how are you both feeling today?
Morgan: That’s a difficult question, would you like to elaborate? Feeling about the world? Within myself? About politics?
(laughing) Just today, within yourself, what’s the general feeling?
Morgan: Yeah, it’s decent
Andrew: Pretty decent
Good, good. So, in terms of your sound, from seeing you live you seem to have an interesting mix of grunge and ambient sounds (at which they nod at each other and high five), is that the sound you were aiming for when you formed?
(both shake their heads dramatically)
Morgan: No, fuck no! Our first rehearsal was us covering Get Lucky. Have you heard the Daughter cover of it?
No I haven’t actually
So Daughter did a cover of Get Lucky by Daft Punk, we then did a cover of that cover, so we started with that and then made it into kind of funky, Foals type thing and I made a new guitar part for it which made it kind of heavy.
Andrew: But it’s been a long time, it’s been about 3 years since we started so inevitably there’s gonna be a change.
On your Facebook page you listed Daughter as one of your influences along with Nirvana and Radiohead, do you feel like you’ve got any more recent influences?
Morgan: Like fuck tons. We’ve said this before, the music we listen to at home is obviously all the old bands, like Nirvana, The Wytches, Tigercub, Rage Against the Machine; heavy shit, but we’ve kind of veered away from that and now the stuff that we share with each other is more electronic and weird, stuff that we find really interesting and Andrew’s getting into Hip-Hop as well.
Andrew: Hip-Hop and also funk music, I’ve always listened to a lot of funk music so that appears in our songs as well.
You can hear a lot of mixed styles in your music
Morgan: Not all of it’s intentional (laughs). Like ‘Dream of You’’s got a funky bassline and I didn’t realise it was funky until Andrew played it on his acoustic bass in his bedroom and I was like, shit, that’s so funky!
Nice. You also listed one of your band’s interests as ‘getting mental on bee stings’, was there any particular event that prompted that?
Andrew: Well when I was in year five I was one a coach and I got stung by a bee and it was right at the start of the trip so I had to suffer for the rest of it, that was pretty mental.
(Laughs)
Morgan: Yeah, one time I was going to watch a film in Chichester with my family and had a really itchy hand, went to close it and it was a wasp and it stung me twice like it was saying ‘that one’s for squishing me, and that one’s just cos I’m quite a ballsy wasp’ and the rest of the film was ruined.
Sounds pretty traumatic. I remember you guys used to perform as ‘Deadweight’ until late 2015, what prompted the name change?
Morgan: Well Deadweight was the stuff that we were doing like ‘Get Lucky’ and funk and pop-punk -God help me- and it was basically because-
Andrew: We changed our drummer.
Morgan: Yeah and also Deadweight was the name because we were like ‘oh we’re a heavy band’ so I went on Google and searched ‘other names for heavy’ and found Deadweight. Then I started talking to promoters and they thought we were this other metal band with the same name and we were like right, okay we need to change it because we were getting mixed up with other people.
Andrew: We had a gig at Brighton Dome in November that year and beforehand decided we wanted to change the name.
Your music sounds as if it’s really developed since then, how do you think your new single ‘OCD’ has been received?
Morgan: Pretty well received considering it’s like a 3 year old song which I wrote on my Dad’s acoustic guitar thinking ‘it sounded like Biffy Clyro. I’ve actually got the first recording at home and there’s like 3 extra verses and a weird chromatic downbeat that sounds really jazzy. It’s changed so much over the 3 years and it’s really nice that it reminds us of our beginnings and that our beginnings are getting such a good feedback.
Andrew: ‘OCD’ was one of the first, and then you move down the line a bit and you get ‘Jurassic’, and then you move on a bit more to the end of 2015 just before we replaced the drummer and we wrote ‘Dream of You’ and you can see that in that year ‘OCD’ changed from quite a relaxed, laid back song to a kind of ‘let’s go all ham’. ‘Dream of You’ also really shows our progress because it’s more intellectual as a song, it’s got a more interesting structure.
If you don’t mind me asking, was the title ‘OCD’ inspired by any real life experience?
Morgan: I have pretty bad OCD, but I didn’t know it at the time when I wrote the song. I was in a little relationship type thing with someone and the song was kind of based around the fact that, especially at that age when you’re a teenager, people always complain about themselves like ‘oh there’s so much wrong with me’ and what gets irritating is the fact that you know, I like you the way you are. Then came along the idea of OCD where people don’t want anything moved or changed and it was kind of a non cheesy way of saying ‘You’re perfect the way you are.’ without uttering those disgusting words.
Later on I began realising that I had it and Andrew looked up the cycle of OCD and it is literally the song.
Andrew: Yeah you can look up the cycle and it’s like ‘obsession’, ‘denial’ and so on and you can take the lyrics and apply them to each part of the cycle which was completely unknown to Morgan at the time.
Wow that’s crazy, so interesting. So is there any recording plans in the near future?
Andrew: We hope so, we’re very close to recording again.
That’s all the questions I have, thank you so much guys.
Morgan: Awesome, thank you for interviewing us!
I also wanted to include a small review of their most recent single ‘OCD’
Grymm’s recent single ‘OCD’ starts out slow with only Morgan Jones’ particularly haunting vocal hooks drifting over an equally sombre riff that winds it’s way into the depth of the song.
The drums come in softly, as does the steady heartbeat of the bass, adding a needed emphasis to the vocals and by the time the guitar begins to fuzz on the edge of the chorus, the song has you fixated.
“You are my favorite record, you keep me going in circles.” express the vocals, aided by the praiseworthy lyricism.
Retaining a clearly thought out spike and lilt formula, the song eventually explodes into a cacophony of fuzzy guitars and crash symbols, before reigning it in for the outro and leaving us with the echo of the moody and memorable melody ringing in our ears.
This three piece know how to take their listeners on a rollercoaster throughout their songs, delivering tunes that would hit the heartstrings of any grunge-lover out there, and indeed anyone willing to listen.
https://soundcloud.com/grymm2/ocd