PREMIERE: Grenade Brain Deliver Pleasurable Doses of Heavy with New Track ‘Miserable Existence’
If you’re the type of person where nothing we publish gets past you, then you will have seen the name Grenade Brain get thrown around a bit lately, including a chat not so long ago, and there’s a bloody good reason for it. They’re Perth’s next big heavy music outfit and they’ve been very busy this year recording new music.
We’re beyond stoked to be able to premiere the band’s brand new track ‘Miserable Existence’ packed with a blistering music video. Of course, we wanted to hear all about what the boys have been up to, so we got talking about all things Grenade Brain, and they ALL got involved. Check it out below, you might even learn about an upcoming EP!
It's been an immensely busy few months for you guys. It was only a few months ago that we were lavishing in your killer track 'Headache' and here we are again with a new banger called 'Miserable Existence', a monster track coupled with a sick music video. How did the thinking come together for this one?
Matt: Yeah man, we’ve slaved away over lockdown and punched out an entire record! We spent a few weekends locked away writing and recording ‘Sick Of It’ after the initial drawn-out writing process. The video itself was really an attempt just to encapsulate as much of a juxtaposition as possible in relation to the different elements of the track.
Ryan: The music video, with the suits and general atmosphere have a real funeral aesthetic, and a world of other open-to-interpretation pieces. Whereas with the song, more noticeably in the blast-beat and the section before the breakdown, we took elements of our favourite songs and wanted to incorporate that. Miserable Existence being one of our favourite songs of the EP, we wanted to really capture that impact.
The video for the song immediately took my [grenade] brain to Upon a Burning Body, visually at least anyway. Black Tie, heaps of tatts and heavy fucking music. What inspired the music video?
Matt: We really wanted to find something that represented the juxtaposition as well as possible, finding abstract characteristics that ambiguously capture the vibe, whilst also letting the viewer take their own point of view about the ultimate message below the surface. Also to be honest, I’ve wanted to make videos for a heavy band in suits for such a long time haha.
Interestingly, Grenade Brain is proving to be quite an eclectic band, given how different 'Miserable Existence' is to 'Headache' the remastered track of what we spoke about last time. The new one has a real 'hardcore' sound. Do you see yourselves as a pretty diverse sounding band?
Ryan: I see ourselves as a ‘write what we like’ kinda band, all our members like a mix of different genres be it Grind, Deathcore, Djent, Pop, Hardcore etc. We like to blend our riffs amongst them all and wear our influences on our sleeves, as diverse as they are. The EP throughout has a lot of these different styles of riffs and sounds. Having this diverse mindset is what sets apart the tracks and tops off the EP as a diverse release.
So with a few singles now in the mix, we can now talk about the upcoming EP Sick Of It. This is huge for you guys! How do you see all these awesome singles you guys have put together, fitting into one big release? It's got to be exciting right?
Jay: Most definitely, it’s exciting - all these singles (as well as others that didn’t make the cut) were all a part of the bigger picture for the EP as a whole. So with each single, it adds its own element for the grandiose sound that we’re going for as a band, whilst also further progressing ourselves as a collective unit. Each song is it’s own entity within the whole bigger picture of the record.
Which track on the EP best describes Grenade Brain do you think?
Raphy: ‘Cut Out My Veins’ is probably the closest to where the future of Grenade Brain is going.
Jay: So, as we said before, we had a few extra tracks that didn’t quite make the cut as we’ve been trying to forever evolve our sound with every new track. ‘Cut Out My Veins’ is probably the most indicative representation of the route we’re taking as a band. Maybe just stepping up into an additional grind aspect haha.
I've got to ask the standard COVID question and understand how you guys got around the pandemic to create the EP? Did you find it challenging or was it rather seamless with the combination of technology and Perth's low impact?
Raphy: We took a bit of time off, but really made the most of the downtime to work with what we could, using online resources and the lack of jam rooms to instead use Jay’s studio to write a record.
Jay: So as soon as the restrictions allowed us to have everyone in the room together, we really knuckled down and utilised that time in the studio to focus more so on writing and developing new songs instead of spending evenings in the jam room on old material.
Raphy: The downtime also allowed us to fill a lot of overdue errands as a band such as tabbing all our material, which helped a huge deal when it came to Ryan joining the band in April.
With touring still a bit how ya goin' at the moment, what's the plan for you boys for the rest of the year, and even beyond for that matter?
Jay: Play it by ear unfortunately, we have already started our next record though, album should be shooting for next year!
Who would you boys love to tour with, once you can travel across the nation?
Raphy: Crystal Lake, Thy Art Is Murder
Jay: Fucking END!
Ryan: Alpha Wollllllllf, JFTD, Bodysnatcher, Varials, Strangled, Traitors
Matt: Man the bands I would love to tour make zero sense but like, Brockhampton, The 1975, The Smith Street Band. But on a more genre realistic note probably like Justice For The Damned, Alpha Wolf, Holehearted, Soulkeeper, Stepson
Jack: Harms Way, Guilt Trip, Trail Of Lies
If there are still gronks sleeping on Grenade Brain, what would you want to tell them to get them on board?
Ryan: If you like the Perth heavy shit with the slow down breakdowns, you’ll love Sick Of It. The riff to breakdown ratio is bangin’. Keep your eyes on Grenade Brain.
Matt: Yeah if you enjoy raw as fuck heavy music, that hits the angst angle as well as the balls deep heavy angle, hit us up!
You heard the lads, get involved asap!
Interview by Ricky Aarons @rickysaul90
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Pre-Order/Save Sick Of It here
Grenade Brain – Sick Of It EP tracklisting
1. All My Friends Want To Die
2. Cut Out My Veins
3. Headache
4. Zero34
5. Godforsaken
6. Miserable Existence
