Having formed as a two piece act by Grant Stacey and Vil,
the band's name came from the two piece, "Gra" and "Vil" to
create Gravil. Through the course of their musical careers the two piece went
into a five piece act, writing as well as recording music that would lead to
some EPs, singles, videos, and a debut album called "Thoughts of a Rising
Sun". Frontman vocalist Grant Stacey discusses the band's debut efforts,
as well as mentions of new music and plans on getting out there soon enough to
play, play, play!
1. You guys had formed as a two piece act, so why did you go
from being a two piece to a five piece?
Grant: Natural progressive of where to take the band
further. The guy I started the band with Vil, he decided he wanted to go back
to Germany, so he didn't mind if I carried on with the band. He had recorded
some stuff and I wanted to continue it, so it's all part of being a band. At
the time I was in another band, going on tour, meeting new people, so now I
have four friends instead of the one.
2. Your name was a combination of the two piece formation,
why did you want to take two parts of your own names and fuse it into one?
Grant: It's not a really exciting explanation just took the
start of each of our names put it together to create Gravil and thought it
rocked.
3. Does the name Gravil, have any meaning to go with it or
no representation whatsoever?
Grant: Just a name, I would have liked a meaning to it, but
it's just two names stuck together.
4. How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced
your music?
Grant: I think we do a lot of different styles of metal, we
do a little bit of death metal, industrial metal, thrash metal, I say we're
just metal. But I mean we've been labeled with industrial metal death it's what
we do. Influences go it's a massive amount of things, started listening to
Queen, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, then the heavier stuff like Pantera, then
the new wave of American metal like Chimaira, Caliban, Killswitch Engage etc.
Also some European metal as well like Children of Bodom, Morpheus, all sort of
bands. We played Download where we saw a lot of up and coming bands so it's
just metal.
5. What about your songs, what are they about, do you write
your own songs?
Grant: Yeah we do, the actual songs are about personal
experiences, not much about Satan worship stuff like that, there have been
times where I was drunk and I would write about the Spartan stuff like in the
movie 300.
6. Where has been the craziest place you have come up with a
song or an idea for one?
Grant: I don't know, a lot of the ideas come when we get
drunk just sitting in a room together. Getting inspiration from the feeling of
the song, then just imagine what would go on with it, where the titles would
come in, just by doing it like that.
7. Why did you want "Beyond Reprieve" as your
single and video choice off "Thoughts Of A Rising Sun"?
Grant: We can of felt it was a visual song, all of our songs
are about different things. But that one is a headbanger's song and the people
and us enjoy playing it. So we could do a lot with it. So we went with the
performance video, of us not just standing around with our hands in our
pockets, we wanted to play and did.
8. When it comes to picking that single and deciding on the
video for it, have you guys ever gotten into a argument about it? Like,
"No I want they one, no this one, no".
Grant: It starts with us, we decide on which songs we want
to do, then take it to the management see what they think. Then we go into the
right direction of things and don't really argue much as a band, if there is a difference
I just walk off, come back later on and the problem is solved. So yeah, we have
a cool thing going on for us.
9. You've released your debut full-length "Thoughts Of
A Rising Sun", but why did it take you guys so long to release it?
Grant: We wanted to make sure it was perfect. It took a
while to write. There were only 9-10 left and we had written and recorded 16
songs. We wanted to make sure all of the revisions of the songs, sounded right.
We took some time to listen to it, change it, we wanted to get it, and wanted
our strongest foot forward for it.
10. Did you get to do everything you wanted with this album
or was there stuff you wanted or that was leftover?
Grant: There's a couple of tracks that we re-worked we might
use for the next album. It took a while to release it because we wanted to make
sure it all worked out and was perfect but you'll never get it perfect but it
works for us.
11. Do you have any new music in the works, in terms of a
follow-up?
Grant: Yeah, we're about 8-tracks into the next new album as
of now. I think, we're hitting the studio in May, putting stuff down like the
drums etc. finish it up by then.
12. What are the plans that you guys have for this year, any
touring or shows lined-up we can expect?
Grant: At the minute we're looking for a new guitarist, once
that's down, we'll be looking to tour and play shows. We wanted to make sure we
have the right person that likes us and our band and works well with us. We may
be playing some festivals just try to get ready for everything.
13. Any last words for the friends and fans out there?
Grant: Just thank you for sticking by us all this time.
We'll be out on the road soon, will have new music, just bear with us, it will
be worth the wait.
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