INTERVIEW ~ JOE GRAH

Jibe began late in late 1993 and it didn’t take long for the guys to start creating a big buzz not only in Texas, where they were based in, but also nationally. Within a few years, the band saw themselves opening up for such heavyweights as Staind, Sevendust, Shinedown and Seether. They even toured nationally with the likes of Jerry Cantrell, Nickelback and Marilyn Manson. Then in 2004, the band disbanded much to the surprise of everyone. Fast forward to 2015 and the band played their first show together in eleven years and went back into the studio to record a new album. The result was Epic Tales of Human Nature which received favorable reviews across the board and had the guys back on the radio again. In 2018, as the band was preparing to hit the road with Candlebox, lead vocalist Joe Grah was in a devastating and near fatal motorcycle accident. The accident left him with a shattered left clavicle, a crushed left hand and left foot, multiple fractured ribs, a broken right thumb, internal bleeding and an anomaly on his left lung. The band had to back-out of the tour and the future of Jibe seemed to be on hiatus.

While the Jibe camp continued to remain quiet, there was a musical rumbling starting to happen from the camp of Joe Grah. Music definitely has a healing and therapeutic aspect to it and it became a channel of release for the metal surgically infused Grah. To keep from spiraling down a dark tunnel of depression from the canceled tours, all of the pain and isolation, as soon as he was well enough to move a bit, he began to create. Suddenly, there were songs flowing through him at a rapid pace. On September 13, 2019, the world was graced with his solo offering in the track and film “Who Ya Dyin’ For.” Grah was back, giving it all that he had and moving forward. Over the next four months, three more tracks and films followed and word started to spread that Grah was making music again. We had the chance to sit down with him again (we first spoke with Grah back in 2017 right before Jibe’s Epic Tales of Human Nature was released) and talk about his new solo journey and much, more. I do have to mention that a convo with him is always a unique journey as the passion that he has for music and life in general is so incredibly infectious. When it’s over, you leave feeling so elevated and ready to conquer the world. I hope that feeling comes across in this interview because it truly is a beautiful thing.

I can only imagine how crazy things must be for you right now with the release of a new track and video.

Joe Grah: Yeah, it’s definitely been crazy plus I’m also finishing up three other tracks. It’s basically been Pro Tools sessions for days.

For those who may not be aware of it, you are kind of doing your own solo thing right now and, so far, you have released four new songs and videos. I’m curious as to what the reaction has been so far? I feel like you may have surprised some people and caught them off guard with what they’re hearing.

I didn’t know what to expect and I never know what to expect. As an artist, I have to stay true to myself at all times. I have to honestly reflect what I’m feeling in the moment or I’m full of fucking shit like 70% of the shit that’s being pumped out into the world. That’s whether socially, economically, religiously or anything you want to put into the frame with how much we’re constantly being misled. So, it’s one of those things when the song comes out I am on fucking pins and needles because I don’t know what to expect. I was actually surprised when I saw some of the comments. Someone said, ‘oh my god, you’re going back to the JIBE sound’ and I was like ‘what; am I really?’ It’s all perspective and everyone has their own perspective. Interpretation is what art is all about; it’s all about interpretation and perspective in my opinion. Life’s about multiple perspectives and each brain fires differently. One may be just a little bit to the left and one may be just a little bit to the right. That’s what makes colors so diverse and gives you that opposing side because we need that in life.

For our readers who may not know, you were in a pretty major motorcycle accident in October of 2018. Can you fill us in on what happened?

We finished up our run with Slash and I came back home because we had about a week and a half before the Candlebox tour. I had the flu and I had a package that had to go out. There was a deadline on it so I thought I would hop on my motorcycle and go mail it. I’m on my motorcycle and going down the hill here and right before I got to Sunset there’s this lady in front of me turning and didn’t see me. I fucking hit head-on at about 35 or 40 mph. It was a BMW and I crushed the front end and went flying over the bars. That was pretty heavy duty and not a fun thing because I fucked up my body pretty good. I had a ton of injuries already from the previous motorcycle accident in 2015 and fucking my ankles up with JIBE from jumping off of stacks of speakers. Now, I am basically more metal than most.

Did you start writing the new stuff while recovering from your injuries?

I had the surgeries and stuff and I was stuck here at my house. My left arm was strapped to my side and I couldn’t really move. I was propped up for about a month. Everything was happening and then my accident happened and I got fucking depressed. The momentum of finally getting my band back after all those years and then the Candlebox was tour was about to happen. I spent every penny I had and every ounce of energy that I had to get them back into the flow. After the surgeries in October and then towards the end of November I started getting really bummed out. I started having these remembrances in my mind telling me I knew how to fix this and get out of this, but I kept saying no and fuck you. I think around the end of November or beginning of December I just got up out of my bed, went towards my Pro Tools and started writing. I wrote this song called “One Last Ride” and I’m actually finishing up some post production stuff on it right now. So, I started writing and recording and I haven’t stopped since. We all face adverse things in our lives and we’re all given chances and opportunities to overcome them and become strong and more than we were before. I’ve had that chance before when I wrote The Dead Girls Don’t Lie stuff. I had lost The Loser deal and I was in a bad place. That’s when I became conscious of how to fix it, but in a subconscious way.

I was going to ask if it was difficult getting back into the writing groove, but it sounds as if the floodgates really opened for you. Other than the four already released, do you know how many you wrote?

Right now I have about ten or twelve that are going to come out. I don’t believe in weak links anymore; I believe that each one deserves a chance. If I had a child at this time, I would make sure that the child was who it wanted to be. Not what I wanted them to be or what they should be. That’s kind of how I am about songs too because you have to nurture them like you would a child. I can be writing a song all week and it’s like something is writing through me. I get to a point and I walk away and come back to it in a week or two or sometimes a month. I don’t revisit it until it calls me; I dance with it. It pulls me in and I write as the words come through me. I don’t really try, it just kind of happens. I’ve found out that if you’re true to that dance and you don’t try to control it, be overbearing or in charge of it, that it will call me back to it. It took me my whole life to figure out this essence of writing. It’d like what Bruce Lee said. Be like water. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Be fluid and adaptable.

You’ve dropped four singles and vids on us so far. Is the singles vision the current plan or maybe an entire album?

When I get started on something and feel convicted about it, I usually don’t stop until there’s no reason to do it anymore. I love albums and I love the feel of the continuity of an album. I love the beginning, I love the middle and I love the end. I’ve adapted a bit to the new model of how things are happening, but I’ve kind of applied the old model as well. Each of these songs tie together; I feel like I’m putting out an album in sections or chapters. I have this huge catalog between I Am The Wolf, JIBE, South of Earth, Loser and my solo stuff of dozens and dozens of songs that have never come out. My thing is to get out as much stuff as I can, but as you know it’s a very expensive and tedious process. What the fuck else is there man? I’d love to pull them all together, but I’m doing this independently. I am working with a few people here and there. I have a great mixing engineer, a great mastering engineer and a great videographer. I’m trying to keep the helm because in the past I’ve let managers and others do it. I have fucking regretted it, but it was my own damn fault.

Let’s talk about your music videos or films as you call them for your new material. I do think films are more appropriate because they are like mini-movies and not just a dude standing there singing. Every time I hear that you have a new one about to come out, I wonder what the hell is he going to come up with next!

I wish I knew dude (laughs)!

Dude, the “Tidal Wave” film freaked me the fuck out!

That was pretty heavy duty; he buried me eight or ten times. I was completely under six inches of soil and had to hold my breath. People always say that they would know what they would do if they ever got buried alive in a coffin and all that shit. I was under six inches of soil and I could barely push it up because it was so heavy. He sprayed me down with water first, so I had dirt in every orifice. It was in my nose, in my ears, in my throat, it was everywhere. Charles Salvaggio worked with me in Loser and when I have a new song mixed and mastered, we collaborate and come up with ideas.

The kid in your our latest one “Parts + Pieces” is such a cool little dude!

He’s the kid of the woman who plays his mom in the video and she’s a friend of my girlfriends. That kid was so fucking bad-ass! He really makes the video. At first we were just going to use cameos, but I knew I wanted him tied into it somehow. Charles had the idea for a kid playing a video game in it and my girl just happened to know of someone with a kid.

You can’t help but love the guy when you’re watching the video.

He’s very lovable; he makes the video.

Had he ever done anything like that before?

No, he’s a very unique kid who puts up with a lot of bullshit and really just needs a fucking break. He just killed it! He was such a natural and it was like the camera wasn’t even there.

Watching that kid got me to thinking about little Joe Grah and what you were like when you were young. Do you remember when you got bite by the music bug and knew it was your path to travel?

I do; it was when I was between five and eight and before my house burned down in Philly. My dad who was trying to find himself, used to party and bring home all sorts of women and shit. My dad has this huge vinyl collection of singles. I had stacks and stacks of those things. I had The Beatles and Manhattan Transfer and do whop shit. I’d sit around listening to all of that shit because I was scared and alone and nobody was there. I think that’s where I made my first connection. It kept me company and kept the fear away.

Were you a shy kid or the class clown?

After the house burned down, we moved around a lot so I was always the new kid. I never hung out with kids my own age because I never fit in with them and they never liked me or they didn’t understand. I moved to New Jersey where I’d wear Jordache jeans and then move to Arkansas where it was Levis so I looked like a total weirdo. I don’t know if I was trying harder or hiding more. I’d say I was a little the same, but I don’t really know. That’s a really good question. I guess I was similar to me today, but a lot more naïve, hopeful and wide eyed.

When I first heard that you had solo stuff coming out, my initial thoughts turned to JIBE and what was going on there. Can you give us an update? If it something you’d rather not or can’t talk about, then I will totally respect that and move on.

I can’t go into too much detail about everything because that band is a respected kind of Mafioso thing in that everyone’s protective and has each other’s back. Not everybody is ready to be in a band after I swept everybody off of their feet after being gone for 11 years. I came back in, put us on tour, got us on radio and did all of these crazy things. These people have regular jobs and families that they have to support. I take them away from all of that and then I get injured and left everybody hanging. They had to go back to their lives and I totally understand it. The thing about JIBE is you cannot kill it; just look at what happened after all of that time. That band will come back when the time is right. It could be this year, it could be next year, it could be five years from now. I’d love to play with JIBE and I’ve been ready for a while. So, whenever everybody is ready, I‘m ready.

Here’s hoping that the universe makes that happen again dude! As for you and your solo stuff, what can you mention about what’s ahead?

Expect more music and more videos! I’ve got a net out right now for a band and I already have a few people. To be honest, because this is so new, I didn’t want to come out with a new song and go out and be like ‘this is the new Jan Brady with my new black wig’ and all that shit. I wanted to establish myself a sound or a brand if you will and have a catalogue built and pull people in from all of the bands that I’ve had. I’m coming out brand new and not everybody knows who the fuck I am. I have to find ways to pull people in so I’ll go out and tour by myself and convince people that I’ve got my shit. It’s calling me and it has been since the end of last year. These songs are getting a really good reception and people want me to come out and play.

(Hand raised) Yes they are and I am one of them! Ok Joe, we have limbered you up with some easy questions and now that you are all warmed up, it’s time for the tough ones. Do you remember the first album that you bought with your own money?

Yes, it was KISS Love Gun and you know why? For Christmas, my mom had bought me The Bee Gees Saturday Night Fever and Rod Stewart’s album where he had the pink satin shirt on. I thought, ‘I need some rock!’

Great albums! How crazy is it that they’re both still going?

Rod’s one of the great all time crooners!

Did you have a favorite cartoon growing up?

The ones that stick out are Thundercats, but I think I was a little older. The younger ones I remember were the ones about your nouns and pronouns and how a bill gets through the Senate.

Oh yeah, School House Rock!

Oh yeah, I used to think that was kind of funny.

Who knew cartoons could teach us shit?

I know, right!

If you choose anyone to be your inner voice, who would it be?

I’d probably use Johnny Depp because he has a low, cool voice plus he’s a great character actor.

We’ve lost a lot of music icons over the last few years. If you could bring back any musician, not to jam with, but to sit down and talk to who would it be?

That’s a tough one man! I’d want to talk to Prince, Bowie, Sinatra, Elvis, (Chris) Cornell. If I had to pick one, it would be Cornell because he was an influence on me vocally and lyrically. The guy was a genius.

One last one and I will be on my way. If music was over and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your name be?

The Dirty Taco.

You responded way too quickly on that one! I’m not sure I want to know.

(Laughs) That comes from multiple days of being out of our minds in certain holes and certain elevated places of insanity and coming up with dance moves like the dirty taco.