Meet Grass

Oh heck yeah we are back once again with another interview! Today we shake the foundation of the planet to its core with Grass! The doom metal outfit from Brooklyn. They have some choice words for us as we discuss their first live performance, sweat, and the benefits of an improvised smokescreen! Also they have mugs. would you just get a look at those mugs! You can buy those mugs along with their music here!

Would you rather be able to dispense whipped cream from your fingertips, or shoot clouds of bats from your ears? Also please tell us why.

Bats, for sure. I can’t think of a use for whipped cream other than consumption, and nobody’s gonna want to eat whipped cream from my fingertips. These fingertips are attached to hands that take the New York City subway every day. That’s gross. Also, having an army of ear-dispensable flying friends at a whim would be pretty cool.

What is your go-to Karaoke song? Why?

Raining Blood by Slayer! Most karaoke bars in New York are full of people who definitely love metal, especially Slayer, so the reaction I get is priceless. But nah, in all seriousness, probably something palpable for the discerning public like Pearl Jam. Alive usually goes over pretty well. I love that song and that band, in all honesty and earnestness. Ten is at least a top five debut record of all time.

If you could bottle the smell of a live performance what would it smell like?

It would get you fucked up from one whiff. Some combination of drugs, sweat excreted by a group of people constantly doing said drugs, cheap but not as cheap as you think it might be beer, and Jack Daniel’s. Oh, and MONEY. Piles and piles of money. The scent of 80’s metal decadence.

If we’re talking GRASS gigs, it definitely doesn’t not smell like pot on or around the stage. And while we haven’t lived nearly as hard as the boys from the Crue or the Prince of Darkness himself, I think we can sweat with the best of them. Our singer (the guy typing this, hi everybody!) in particular inherited the sweat gene, for better or for worse. Not so sure about the piles and piles of money thing, though. Slightly weed-y sweat without the intrusive odor of financial stability.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

We all definitely have our own influences and personal favorites but I think there’s a lot of Black Sabbath, the Obsessed, Sleep, Soundgarden, and Misfits in our sound. As for more modern bands, Mothership has been releasing some really great stuff on Ripple Music for a few years now. Their first record is fantastic. And the more recent Power Trip record kicks ass. I saw them a year or so ago when they came to New York at Elsewhere and it was one of the better shows I’ve been to.

What was the intention with this release FRESH GRASS?

We wanted an EP that accurately represents our music and our sound without sounding super overproduced or glossy, and I think we accomplished that pretty well. All of our recordings prior to this were either entirely self recorded in our practice space or live recordings done at gigs, so we wanted something a little more official. It was just about getting music out there in a presentable form that we could be proud of and stand behind.

What was your first performance like as a band?

I think our first gig was at a club called The Delancey in Manhattan, in the Lower East Side. It’s a cool venue but we were booked on the tail end of a hip-hop/R&B night. There was some sort of miscommunication with the promoter because it was presented to us as a rock night. We figure we’re heavy rock, let’s do it. Anyway, I don’t think we even started playing before people started to bolt. We roll up with a 100 watt guitar head and a 200 watt bass head and we’re wearing like Metallica and High Reeper shirts and everyone in the crowd was like “absolutely not”. It was something.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be (doesn’t need to be music related)?

I wish I could somehow dispense and produce smoke bombs or smoke screens. Just drop one and make a speedy escape, like a really bad magician. Wouldn’t that be fun at work or in awkward social situations? You’re in some meeting or talking to someone who you really don’t wanna be talking to and then just BOOM, cloud of smoke, where’d he go? He’s running down the street as we speak, dying of smoke inhalation.

This would also be fun for music! Save money on smoke machines and all that.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Just thanks a lot, y’all, for giving us the opportunity to do this. And thanks for the fun questions, many interviews are a lot more “serious” so this was really great, I mean that. Also keep your ears peeled for new music from us this summer/fall most likely, gonna try and get in a studio and get some new tracks down. If you’re so inclined to listen, we always appreciate it.

Grass