Although Fredericton band Gravity Strike might be a relatively new band, a vast array of talent and experience lurks behind the scenes of the group.
Comprised of Bob Deveau, Brad Perry, Tim Walker and Stephen Dunn, all but Dunn are also members of the acclaimed group Grand Theft Bus. Unlike the occasional elaborate song structures that Grand Theft Bus have tended to lean upon at various points in time, Gravity Strike prefer keeping their electronic-influenced music to a minimum.
Gravity Strike performs Friday night at Plan B Lounge, located at 212 St. George Street, Moncton.
“Gravity Strike is a project that I have wanted to start for a long time. It was just a matter of finding the time and the right people to participate,” drummer Bob Deveau begins. “I love electronic music but was finding it tough to find others who enjoyed it enough to want to play it.”
Deveau says that when Perry joined Grand Theft Bus, he immediately felt that Perry would be a good fit for an electronic-influenced act based on his creativity and knack for all things technological.
Stephen Dunn is no stranger to Deveau either, playing with the drummer in another Fredericton band, Force Fields. In Gravity Strike, Dunn mans the keyboards. And after more than a dozen years of making music together, Deveau says that enlisting Bus bandmate Tim Walker to handle bass duties in Gravity Strike was a fairly easy decision.
Taking his bandmates out of their comfort zone to help create something unique and memorable in Gravity Strike was Deveau’s master plan all along:
“Gravity Strike is a project that is intended to get these guys thinking outside of their comfort zones which in turn helps create something entirely unique.”
While the group has less than two dozen shows under their belts, Deveau shares that at the present time, Gravity Strike have no immediate plans to rush into the studio to make a record. Letting things unfold naturally and at their own pace is perfectly fine as far as Deveau is concerned.
“We loosely discuss doing an album here and there but the band is more about the live experience,” he says. “A lot of the songs tend to be themes that I write which we use as templates for improvisation. There are some structured pieces as well but there is a lot of open-ended music in the live show. We all come from fairly structured, pop-influenced backgrounds. It can be challenging to get out of that mindset when writing music for this band. It might end up making the most sense for us to do a live album; it would probably best capture what the band is about. We simply try to keep the music interesting while attempting to retain some of the characteristics that playing minimal techno entails.”
Article published in the February 15, 2013 edition of the Times & Transcript