July 14, 2025 • 53 mins
Uncovering the musical evolution of Gradients, this episode takes listeners behind the curtain with a Minnesota rock band crafting their sound somewhere in the gradient between hard rock, alternative, and metal. The conversation reveals how a college talent show in 2019 sparked what would become a serious musical endeavor, bringing together musicians with surprisingly diverse influences.
What makes Gradients fascinating is their authentic approach to creating music. Three of the members hold audio production degrees and live together, allowing for a constant creative environment where songs emerge organically—sometimes from structured writing sessions, other times from spontaneous late-night jams. The band discusses how their influences range from the Beatles and 70s hard rock to more modern acts like Royal Blood and Arctic Monkeys, creating a unique sonic fingerprint that defies easy categorization.
The episode dives deep into their recording process, with the band handling all aspects of production themselves using Logic Pro and carefully planned microphone techniques. We learn how they've evolved from quick demo recordings to more sophisticated production approaches, while maintaining the raw energy that defines their sound. Drummer Trevor, who joined more recently, shares his perspective on learning songs that were already recorded and how his punk-influenced style complements the band's sound.
Throughout the conversation runs a thread of friendship and camaraderie—from elaborate pranks (including fully carpeting a bandmate's bathroom) to their shared commitment to high-energy live performances. The band emphasizes how showmanship matters as much as technical skill, with the goal of creating memorable experiences for audiences. With upcoming performances at the Red Carpet in St. Cloud and a new album "Come What May," Gradients represents what happens when musical passion meets technical skill and genuine friendship.
Want to experience Gradients for yourself? Follow them on social media to catch their upcoming shows and hear their latest releases. Your next favorite rock band might be just a concert away!
Links
- Jay Franze: https://JayFranze.com
- Gradience: https://gradiencerock.wixsite.com/my-site
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tony Scott (00:05):
Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a
behind-the-curtain look at theentertainment industry, with
insights you can't pay for andstories you've never heard.
Now here's your host, JayFrancie.
Jay Franze (00:32):
And we are coming at you live.
I am Jay Francie and with metonight the Amy to my events, my
beautiful co-host, Miss TiffanyMason.
Tiffany Mason (00:43):
Good evening Jay.
Jay Franze (00:45):
If you are new to the show, this is your source
for the latest news, reviews andinterviews.
My beautiful co-host, MissTiffany Mason.
Good evening, Jay.
If you are new to the show,this is your source for the
latest news, reviews andinterviews, and if you'd like to
join in, comment or fire offany questions, you can head over
to jayfranze.
com.
All right, my friend, tonightwe do.
We have a very special guest.
I said it once, I will say itagain we have a very special
guest.
Tiffany Mason (01:02):
I say, I say, I say, say it again.
Jay Franze (01:04):
We have a rock, an alternative and a metal
recording artist Hailing fromthe great state of Minnesota.
We have Gradience, gradience.
My friends, how are you?
Gradience (01:15):
Hello.
Tiffany Mason (01:15):
Hey.
Gradience (01:15):
Jay.
Jay Franze (01:16):
Pretty good.
It's good to have you guys here.
Thank you for joining ustonight.
Gradience (01:20):
Thanks for having us.
All right.
Well, let's just jump in.
We mentioned Thanks for havingus and is definitely still
(01:41):
pretty true to the music wecreate, because it's no
clear-cut boundary between oneor many objects, and for us it's
no clear-cut boundary betweenhard rock, metal and kind of the
rock we just like to make.
How did we get together in thefirst place?
(02:03):
I guess?
Jay Franze (02:03):
I'll do that one.
Gradience (02:04):
Okay, Kenny, it's my turn.
I wasn't here first.
Yeah, we started out in college,like many bands Formed in the
dorms, we started for a musictalent show at MSUM College up
in Moorhead, minnesota.
We wrote and played the samesongs within the same week there
and then we were graced withthe presence of Darian.
(02:24):
After that we kind of kickedoff.
We realized, hey, we like thisstuff, we want to keep doing it.
Jay Franze (02:29):
so we kept playing shows so you say you were graced
with his presence?
And.
I get that.
I completely understand.
I can feel that already.
However, how long was it?
Was it right away, like thatsame week?
Gradience (02:42):
we were jamming together.
It was me, Ford and ouroriginal drummer.
We were jamming together.
It was me, Ford and ouroriginal drummer.
We were just jamming in thedorms and stuff and we saw like
a talent show flyer that washappening that first fall
semester and we went to do thelike talent show work.
Yeah, we got this.
We're cool.
That was the fall of 2019.
We had the the talent showwhere basically I met these two
(03:05):
and the original drummer.
They were doing their set and Ihad a set immediately after
them where I was just doing asolo vocals guitar thing.
Afterwards they had asked if Iwanted to join them as a bass
player and a vocalist.
We kind of jammed around alittle bit and in the span of a
(03:25):
few months come February of 2020, we were doing our first show
together.
Jay Franze (03:31):
All right, I need to take a quick little tangent
because you mentioned it, you'rea bass player and vocalist.
How hard is it to play bass andsing at the same time?
Gradience (03:41):
It kind of depends.
I've been playing for a whilenow and so I've always been
playing guitar, piano, bass andsinging for many years now, and
so it's just kind of natural atthis point.
There's a few songs that we'veplayed where it is a little bit
difficult One of the first fewsongs that we were developing.
(04:03):
It was a bit of a challenge,but you just keep playing and
you get used to it.
It becomes muscle memory at onepoint, to the part where you're
only thinking about the words.
Jay Franze (04:14):
To me.
I would struggle with that.
It's just like playing drums.
I cannot get my limbs to dofour separate things.
I just can't do it for the lifeof me.
Tiffany Mason (04:22):
When I was growing up, my dad would always
ask us if we could spin one armin one direction and get the
other arm going in the otherdirection, and it's kind of the
same thing.
Right, it's something new foryou to try, but I feel like it's
the same thing.
It must be very challenging toacquire both, to be able to do
both.
Jay Franze (04:41):
Too tough for me, for sure.
Alright, you mentioned thesesongs that you put together
right away.
You wrote within a couple daysand played them in the show.
Any of those songs still aroundin your sets today?
Gradience (04:50):
Yeah, there is one that we played at our first show
that we still bring out.
It was our first single.
It was called Darkest Hour.
That's one of the first songswe wrote that we still play.
It's gone through a bit of ametamorphosis, but the first
show that we played it at, itwas very bare bones, very just
(05:12):
basic, and we kind of fleshed itout over a couple of years
until we eventually released iton our first album, the Call, in
2022.
But we took a couple yearsafter we first did it to refine
it a bit more.
That one and and every now andthen if we have to do super long
sets, we'll bring out a few ofthe other ones from the first
(05:33):
album yeah, that would makesense to fill up the time.
Jay Franze (05:36):
For sure, deep cuts right yeah, deep cuts all right?
Well, let's take that a stepfurther.
I mean, when you guys firstformed, did you have a musical
genre in mind?
Gradience (05:48):
I guess just rock, At least the yeah.
We were all fans of differentversions of rock and metal.
I didn't think we were going toform and start playing country
or pop.
Right.
Jay Franze (06:03):
So your influences?
You have reference to people inthe past, so whose influences
are those?
Gradience (06:11):
Everybody looks at me .
Jay Franze (06:14):
It's all Ford's fault.
Okay, we get it.
Gradience (06:18):
I like some heavier stuff, like more on the hardcore
slash, I guess more modernstuff Like who, like who, make
me think of band names on thespot.
Jay Franze (06:27):
Royal Blood.
Royal Blood is a big one.
Gradience (06:29):
I really like those guys.
Tiffany Mason (06:31):
Thank God, your friends know you Chevelle.
Gradience (06:35):
Chevelle Arctic Monkeys.
Yeah, yeah.
So also like I grew up with,like the big ones Def Leppard,
guns N' Roses but I kind ofmoved away from that after I
started.
It's all our fault.
Yeah, and then him.
So when I met them I'd oftentell them I'd say, well, my
biggest influence and it stillis is the Beatles, and I was a
(06:58):
huge Beatles fan growing up andthat was where, like because I
was already doing my own solostuff when I met them and all of
that was kind of heavilybeatles influenced.
Since then I've taken a lot ofother influences, all the way
from like stuff like daft punk,tame and paula, all the way to
queens of the stone age is mylatest obsession and we'll get,
(07:20):
like you know, metallica, oricaor any sort of modern.
A lot of the stuff they likehave rubbed off on me too.
So like Royal Blood, arcticMonkeys, all of that, and John
is probably the most.
I'm weird.
I started out loving 70s hardrock, so like UFO and early Ozzy
(07:46):
, with like Randy Rhoads andstuff like that, just before I
met everyone is when I startedgetting into like thrash, so
Megadeth, metallica and thatevolved into like a little bit
of Pantera and heavier stuff.
And then, like Darien said,like their music started rubbing
off on me so I startedlistening to Chevelle.
Darien said, like their musicstarted rubbing off on me so I
started listening to ChevelleTool and just all sorts of stuff
(08:07):
.
But I was very based in like inthe 70s based.
Tiffany Mason (08:13):
I'm surprised to hear such you know old artists I
mean quote-unquote old whointroduced you to that music my
dad.
Gradience (08:23):
For for me um yeah, as my dad and I we'd often
listen to, we've got a radiostation in the Twin Cities
called Cool 108.
Tiffany Mason (08:32):
And when.
Gradience (08:33):
I was growing up they played a lot of 60s and 70s
music.
Now it's more like 80s and 90s,but I would listen to that
every night.
I'd even sleep with it on, andthat's kind of how I learned a
lot of the songs from the 60sSuper familiar with a lot of
those, especially like Motownand all of that stuff.
But I kind of went on my ownpath and really delved down the
(08:56):
rabbit hole of the Beatles andall of their cohort and other
people of the time and that kindof went along with.
Uh, once I met these guys itwas more like what they like and
then kind of finding my waythrough through that as well
sure, and then you Trevor.
I've been kind of all over themap because I grew up with a lot
(09:17):
of, uh, classic rock both myparents were very into, like
Ozzy Osbourne and Tom Petty TomPetty's still one of my uh like
all-time favorites and then as Igot older I got into more punk
stuff, Green Day and a lot ofthe other classic ones.
And then got a little bit olderand got really into the heavier
metalcore and deathcore stuff.
And then as I've gotten into my20s I've kind of calmed down
(09:38):
from that and I've settled intomore of an alternative rock.
I still enjoy heavier stuffevery now and then, but lately
it's a lot of Green Day.
The Offspring Ford recentlyintroduced me to Dinosaur Pilup,
who I like a lot.
I've kind of gone through a lotof any style of rock or metal
and kind of settled into thealternative rock stuff.
It's kind of my main influenceright now.
(09:58):
You're mellowing already.
Jay Franze (10:00):
Yeah, so soon.
Gradience (10:01):
I've known you a long long time I've known you a long
, long time.
I didn't know you liked TomPetty as much as you say you do
Really, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
We're learning stuff too.
Tiffany Mason (10:12):
Keep that secret in the closet?
Gradience (10:14):
No, tom Petty is good , tom Petty is good.
Jay Franze (10:17):
All right, Darian, I have a question.
Gradience (10:19):
Yes.
Jay Franze (10:19):
The Beatles.
Gradience (10:27):
What is it about the Beatles that you seem to be
drawn to that has captivated you?
Yeah, you know, that's you know.
I don't exactly know why.
I mean it's just so early on inmy life.
Jay Franze (10:34):
I which era of the Beatles well.
Gradience (10:38):
I most vividly remember first hearing the Abbey
Road album.
But I got really obsessed withthe Beatlemania era, like the
earlier years, and a lot of itwas like the harmonies were
great, the energy was great, the, the songs were fun, innocent,
like simple for the time.
Just the musicianship I reallyenjoyed and that's how I learned
(11:02):
, basically how I taught myselfhow to play guitar and piano and
bass and sing and play at thesame time.
So it was a lot of those.
A lot of what they did is whatI tried to emulate and that's
basically made me the musician Iam today.
Tiffany Mason (11:18):
Do you think they would be surprised to know that
their Beatle influence hasturned into this gradients of
rock and metal?
Gradience (11:29):
Probably probably.
I think that could be said fora lot of groups.
I mean, I saw a video clip ofPaul McCartney and Ozzy meeting
for the first time and Ozzy wassaying, like Black Sabbath
wouldn't exist without theBeatles, I owe so much to you
and it's like who would havethought like the between those
two?
Jay Franze (11:50):
Did you pay any attention to that show over the
weekend?
Gradience (11:54):
Yeah, we were actually talking about it.
We were going to do thepay-per-view to watch, because
we weren't able to watch it whenit was live.
But then we realized it was 10hours long, so we just kind of
looked up some highlights.
Great shows, great shows goingon it was great, but we only had
until 7 am this morning towatch it.
Jay Franze (12:15):
Did you see Ozzy's performances?
Gradience (12:17):
I've seen clips on Facebook, but we're hoping for
there's probably going to be anofficial streaming release or a
DVD or something, so hopefullyit won't be the last time we're
able to see it.
Tiffany Mason (12:31):
Jay, for all of our listeners.
What are you referring to?
Jay Franze (12:34):
Black Sabbath.
We talked about it lastWednesday, as a matter of fact,
black Sabbath's final appearance, final show, and then a bunch
of, as we say supergroups gottogether to perform the Sabbath
songs as well as others.
Oh cool, including Hailstorm.
Tiffany Mason (12:51):
Oh, wow Cool.
Jay Franze (12:53):
Hailstorm's one of my favorites guys, so it was
cool to see that.
So, and then one of the otherones you mentioned was one of my
daughter's favorites.
I can't let it go by withoutmentioning the Arctic Monkeys.
How does the Arctic Monkeys fitin with all the rest of the
things you mentioned?
Gradience (13:07):
I think it's Gradients.
Unless you want to say it's farspectrum unless you want to say
far spectrum, unless you want tosay say anything.
I had a.
I had an arctic monkey's phasewhere that was like the
predominantly what I listened tofor for a few months I guess.
But it's one of those thingswhere it's like when a band is
together and they're so good atwhat they do, it's like, yeah,
(13:28):
you can't not listen to that.
Jay Franze (13:30):
That's kind of what drew me to I went to see them in
tenn, took my daughter and herfriend and we went to see them
play and it was a great show.
Everything was great about it,but it's just not the style of
music I can get into for a longperiod of time.
That's right.
That's right.
Gradience (13:45):
And even they've evolved so much.
Their earlier stuff is a lotmore upbeat, fast-paced.
And then you look at their mostrecent couple of albums and
it's very mellow, jazzy.
It's very different from howthey started.
We take more inspiration fromthat earlier stuff and more
(14:07):
off-the-beaten-path stuff thanmore recent albums that they've
released.
Jay Franze (14:11):
All right.
Well, let's go ahead and jumpinto your music the reason why
we're all here tonight.
So I want to talk about yourwriting and your production.
So let's start with yourwriting.
What's your writing processlike?
Gradience (14:23):
Our writing process is all over the place.
Sometimes I'll come up with ariff, I'll hold on to it and
next time we meet I'll juststart playing it midway through
a rehearsal and see if peoplelike join along.
Sometimes Darian will disappearinto his room at like three in
the morning after a rehearsaland come back the next morning
he's like hey guys, I wrotethree full songs Like what do
(14:45):
you think?
Ok, so it's very random,whatever hits us and when it
hits us.
But I think the best songs wehave are the ones when someone
brings just a portion or a riffand then we all kind of write it
in our jam space, like we werejust writing a song before this,
like we were just jamming.
Jay Franze (15:05):
So do I get credit for that?
Gradience (15:07):
Maybe the only problem is like I hit record in
like the intro riff, like by thetime we were done jamming, it's
like wait, what was that?
And I went and looked and itwasn't recording.
Classic, oh no.
Jay Franze (15:19):
Gone forever, and this is why we go back to the
Beatles, where we writeeverything that's memorable, so
that we can never forget.
That's why their songs are sosimple is they wrote them
because they had no other way toremember them.
They had to be able to rememberall those songs.
So you guys take an eclecticapproach to writing, so each one
of you either come up with anidea or Darian has to be a
superstar going into it.
Gradience (15:41):
There's some times where we'll just be all jamming
and we'll be done with rehearsaland then we'll just kind of jam
on something.
Some of the time not as oftenas you'd hope something cool
comes out of it and somethingsticks, and then we'll take that
core bit and then one of uswill flesh it out a little bit
(16:03):
and then sometimes like the songcomeback.
Pretty much all of that was doneby ford.
I did a lot of our song twistedand darian did which one of
like the main Honor Roll.
Honor.
Roll Chaos Brigade.
Tiffany Mason (16:19):
Which one did you write again, darian?
Gradience (16:22):
All of them which?
Jay Franze (16:23):
album did you write, we got it.
Someone's an overachiever.
That's awesome to be able to dothat.
So there is no separate.
I write lyrics, you write musicpiece.
Gradience (16:36):
We all just get in there and collaborate in
whatever comes to mind at thattime yeah, I think like the
music part of it is definitely alot more of a collaborative
effort.
I guess I I prefer to to writelyrics.
I usually have like subjectmatters in mind or just kind of
a direction, and I usually willflesh out lyrics kind of in one
(17:00):
fell swoop.
Jay Franze (17:01):
Do you find, as, being a vocalist, it's easier
for you to do that, so you canrelate to it.
Gradience (17:06):
Yeah, definitely, most definitely.
I take lyrics very personally,I guess Not necessarily
autobiographical Hard word tosay, I guess Trust us, we know.
But I don't know, I feel moreconnected to it when I guess
(17:31):
it's my quill to the paper.
Tiffany Mason (17:35):
Okay, I have a question for everybody for all
these rock songs.
Okay, now, I'm a littlesuburban wife, okay, a suburban
mom, so hard rock is not mypreferred genre.
You will not see me drivingdown the street jamming out to
some heavy metal music.
So you said that the lyrics arereally important to you, and I
feel like the lyrics are veryimportant to me as well, if I
(17:58):
was to someday become a hardheavy metal rock fan.
How do people learn the wordsthat the songs?
Because they're not alwaysbeing shouted, but they're
definitely.
You know, I feel like they'reequal level with, like, the
guitars and the drums, and rightthere, everything kind of
meshes together.
So how do you guys get to knowthe meanings of songs?
(18:20):
How do you think that youraudience gets to know the
meanings of these songs?
Do you have to look them up?
Because, right like back in the80s, we couldn't look them up.
So how do how do people relateto the music?
Or how do they find out whatthe song is about?
Gradience (18:39):
So well, at least when back when Cars had CD
players.
Tiffany Mason (18:41):
Right In our day, jay.
Gradience (18:43):
Actually actually.
When they had 8-tracks.
Another big part about with theBeals connection for me anyway
is that I would end up with a CDcollection and I'd love to open
up the CDs and pull out thelittle booklets and read the
liner notes, and they often hadlyrics in them.
Nowadays, online a lot ofplatforms have the lyrics.
(19:05):
I know we put our lyrics on.
When we distribute the songWe'll add our lyrics so it comes
up on Spotify and Apple Music.
But then when it comes down onSpotify and Apple Music, but
then when it comes down likeit's even a production decision
to try and make the lyrics, thevocals, as clear as possible you
know, and also with our style,I mean it's.
(19:27):
I'm definitely not one of thoselike heavy, heavy, like
gutturals or anything like that.
You won't catch me doing that.
I'm very much traditional.
Like we're singing, we're notwe're not going like the oh you
know, I can't.
I'm not really big on that, so alot of it's like the production
(19:49):
and just making it as availableas possible we do have a lyric
book, like in our cds too, likewith our newest album, one of
the things I'm like oh, I want,I want a lyric book so people
can like read them I love thatyou advocated for that, john.
Yeah, just because there arequite a few people that we meet
that are like, ah, like I don'tgo on my phone, smartphones,
(20:10):
like I'm not gonna look you.
Tiffany Mason (20:12):
I want your physical merch.
Gradience (20:15):
They're old school.
That's why we have a lyric bookand it's cool.
You have the CD and then youcan kind of interact with it by
following along and stuff likethat.
Tiffany Mason (20:26):
Absolutely Any song I can sing along with.
So even if it is a little bitharder rock or whatever I just
want to sing along.
So I appreciate that you guysare doing that.
Jay Franze (20:36):
So let's go ahead and take it a step further now.
So we talked about your writingprocess.
Now do you do any sort of demobefore you just go straight to
recording it, or do you gostraight to recording it?
Gradience (20:49):
Yeah, I think every song that we have I think we've
got demos for whether it'ssomething that any of us do
independently have an idea we'llrecord it on our own computers
and then we'll pitch it toeverybody else.
Jay Franze (21:05):
That's kind of how it's been Like a guitar, vocal
style vocal style.
Gradience (21:15):
Yeah, yeah, like guitar, vocal or just guitar and
instrumental.
Like it kind of varies inlevels of how intense the the
production of the demos are.
Like when ford sent us comeback, it was kind of almost a full
production without the vocals,but he had the lyrics and um,
like john and I, we've sentsongs where they just had
guitars only, no drums, novocals, and it's kind of a mix
(21:37):
of all that, but pretty muchalways it's gonna be like
guitars, guitar and maybe alight melody with like our songs
sometimes and in the mirror,like those are ones we wrote
like all together.
So we really made sure when wedo demos that like our rehearsal
will hook up everything.
It'll make sure we get one, oneor two really good takes of it
(21:59):
and then darian will go and mixit down so we can listen to it
all together for the first timeyeah, some.
Sometimes.
It's interesting because itcame, uh, as just kind of a.
We were kind of in between arehearsing and we were just kind
of just jamming on a couple ofnotes and it became like a
(22:21):
minute long jam, but it didn'treally go anywhere.
Well, I took that clip and Iedited it down, so we had like a
verse section and then I kindof copy pasted and then took the
section that was more or lessthe chorus.
I took that and I basicallyrestructured it to have a full
song structure and then I putvocals over it and I said, okay,
(22:43):
this is the idea, let's polishthis down.
And then that's kind of how howthat song kind of got put
together more or less.
Some chopping and screwing.
Well, that's a good point.
Jay Franze (22:56):
I want to tag on to that just a bit.
Do you then build off thatrough piece, or do you scrap it
and start a new session andbuild from there?
Gradience (23:06):
I'd say a bit of both .
Sometimes it's like, oh yeah,these two sections are really
good, but we totally need a newintro.
But then sometimes it's like,oh yeah, let's just play this,
but like nice and consistentlyand maybe add a few layers to it
yeah, I like an example I canthink of is uh, this, the song
(23:27):
of our new album in the mirror.
I had the the verse section andI had the riff and everything
and we did that, we did like achorus section, and then I had
pitched an idea for the bridge.
Well, that was completelydifferent and awful.
It was slow and completely tookthe energy away from the song
and we kinda sat on it for a bit, scrapped it and then totally
(23:52):
switched up the bridge and itbasically made the song whole.
And that's just a situationwhere it's like we took an idea
that wasn't working, scrapped itand replaced it with something
else, Basically took the middleout of the song and put a new
one back in.
Sometimes those demos are likevetting process, so like if
(24:14):
there's a demo out there and I'mable to listen to it in my car
for like three days in a row,and I find like wow, I don't
really like this very much.
Like sometimes it takes thatamount of time to figure out if
you like something or not, or ifthat's going to stick.
A lot of time in the moment likesomething seems really cool,
but then you step back andlisten to it and then you're
like eh or oh, there's a betterthing, let's do that instead.
(24:36):
I think we've had a few songswhere we took the demo, listened
to it, went and added parts,and then the parts we added were
really cool but we weren'tvibing with the original demo,
but the parts we added, so thenthey became their own song.
Tiffany Mason (24:52):
My daughter introduced me to a song and I
was like I don't like this song,and then she just kept playing
it, kept playing it, keptplaying it and I was like, oh, I
like this song now.
And then the same thing in thereverse way, right when you're
like this is awesome, Thenyou're listening.
You're like wait a minute,Maybe we'll change a part of it.
Jay Franze (25:10):
So talk to me about the recording process.
Are you guys tracking your ownstuff?
Then?
Yep, so what software are youusing?
Gradience (25:18):
I use Logic Pro, all right.
Tiffany Mason (25:21):
Solid choice.
Gradience (25:22):
Logic Pro, along with the Universal Audio interface.
Jay Franze (25:27):
What's the IO situation like?
How many ins and outs do youhave?
Gradience (25:30):
So I typically use the X4, which is going to be
your four preamps, unisonpreamps and then I think it's
got four lineouts.
But then for drum tracking I'vegot an Apollo X8, which will
add another four, and I've gotthe Audient 8P, which we'll add
(25:53):
another 8 preamp, so we couldtrack drums.
But when we were recordingdrums for the last couple songs
on the album we tracked them allat the same time but we ended
up redoing the guitars.
But for tracking drums I went alittle bit overboard with what
I had done with the other onesand I had added a couple of
(26:14):
additional room mics that I'dused facing away from the kit to
get the reflections, just toadd a little bit of a depth and
different tonality to the drums,which I think, in my humble
opinion, I think sounded reallygood.
I think it turned out some ofmy favorite drum recordings,
honestly.
Jay Franze (26:33):
That's pretty cool.
So you say sometimes you recordwith the guitars.
So when you're doing that, areyou doing them as line inputs?
How are you doing the guitars?
Gradience (26:42):
Both of their amps have a direct line out.
John uses a head rush unit sowe can just go straight from
that and, as much as he hates it, ford's got a Fender Mustang,
which is a little bit older.
Solid state digital amp Soundspretty good most of the
sometimes, but it's got.
It's got a.
(27:02):
It's got an external out, soit's it's good for being able to
go direct and not have to worryabout too much bleed if we
don't want any of the bleed.
Right and we go in and likere-record those.
Yeah, those DI tracks Get stufflinked up, but I have used the
raw DI to just sprinkle in, addsome depth to choruses and
(27:24):
things like that.
Tiffany Mason (27:25):
Trevor, are you just the beauty?
Are they the brains?
And you're just the beauty.
Gradience (27:30):
So far, yes, I'm still relatively.
I joined the band last fall,last winter, and it was actually
, on the topic of the demos, itwas kind of cool because the
whole album was written and Igot to have the demos to learn
all the songs and then, hearingthe masters for the first time,
you kind of hear what parts havechanged or whatnot.
So it was cool.
I kind of got to hear the songsfor the first time, like twice,
(27:52):
basically sure.
So so far we've been we've, Ithink for as long as I've been
playing with the band we've hada decent amount of songs like
written already since I'vejoined.
So it's been I've been excitedto kind of get in there and you
know, experience that for thefirst time.
But when it comes to like theyeah, the recording, it's all
dar Darren and these guys thathandle it.
(28:12):
Yeah, trevor had the arduoustask of trying to learn all the
drum parts for this new album.
When he was coming in it wasalready everything had been laid
down already by our fantasticdrummer Tom, who's up in Fargo
doing some other projects.
But I'd be remiss if we didn'tgive him his credit for doing
(28:35):
the marvelous drum work on thealbum, which Trevor has done a
wonderful job at learning all ofthose parts.
Jay Franze (28:41):
Now, Trevor, do you like that?
Does it bother you to learnsomebody else's parts?
Gradience (28:45):
No, I actually it helped a lot because I've always
this is the first band I'veplayed in and the way I've
always learned songs.
I've been playing drums since Iwas like 13, but it was like
you just put on headphones andthen you just play along to
whatever you hear.
So like I think it actuallykind of helped ease me into it
having to learn someone else'sparts instead of having to you
know if the album wasn'trecorded yet and I was like,
alright, we need you to writedrums for these 12 songs.
(29:06):
It's like I would rather.
I like kind of easing into it.
And then now that it kind ofhelped also learn the style of
the band, then I can kind of addmy own taste on top of that.
But yeah, I really enjoy boththe recordings and their old
drummer, tom.
His style, I think, really kindof fit well with it and yeah, I
enjoyed it a lot.
Tiffany Mason (29:25):
Do you feel like your style of drumming differs
that much from Tom's style?
Gradience (29:30):
He's a little bit more of the heavier thrash type.
I feel like I'm more of the Iwould say punk, where it's not
super fancy, but more about theenergy.
I try to keep it simple for themost part and then choose my
moments kind of wisely.
Jay Franze (29:45):
Do you think that works well with that old
70s-type style?
Gradience (29:49):
As long as you kind of fit to the song, I think I
think I'm good at adapting towhatever the mood of the song is
, which is drums.
A lot of times Something Ididn't really realize until I
started playing drums was even aslightly different hi-hat
pattern or whatever can totallychange the feel of the song.
So a lot of times when I'mwriting these parts whether it's
an older style song or aheavier one, you kind of got to
(30:11):
try out different things, maybeon a crash cymbal or just doing
a snare roll.
You kind of find what fits thevibe and the mood of the song.
Jay Franze (30:19):
Well, I think, if you're talking about bands I
mean even like the ArcticMonkeys or some of that earlier
feel, or the Beatles you'retalking about simplicity and
you're building aroundsimplicity.
You mentioned Tool as well,which is completely on the other
end of the spectrum.
Gradience (30:34):
Yeah.
Jay Franze (30:34):
So do you find yourself ever wanting to go down
the route of tool?
Gradience (30:40):
Not to that degree I've definitely, since joining
the band, I've been inspired tosit down there and practice and
learn a lot more.
It's been a long time since Ipracticed technique in different
stickings and whatnot, so itkind of made me step the game up
and like I don't think I'm evergonna get as crazy as like
Danny Carey.
I'm, yeah, trying to learn somemore intricate like stickings
(31:02):
and fills and, uh, some likerudiments too.
Which is what I always likedabout Travis Barker was he does
a lot of the like, you know,like marching kind of rudiments
in there.
Yeah, I gotta find the placefor it, but I think that could
be really effective.
You know, going forward as oflike lately.
Uh, the foo fighters come tomind as oh yeah as probably a
band where, where we all cametogether and we were like
(31:23):
they're kind of doing the, thething that we like.
Yeah, them and dinosaur pileupdinosaur pileup's a big one.
Dinosaur pileup has kind of moreof a hip-hop feel in a lot of
their songs versing and stuffwhich we don't really do, but
every other part of the song.
They're one of the bands we fitin well genre-wise or turnstile
(31:44):
with some of our stuff.
They're a newer band andthey're really good.
There's so many.
There's so many bands thatwe're discovering now.
Jay Franze (31:56):
Let's change gears a little bit.
Let's talk about your liveperformances, because you guys
definitely come with a lot ofenergy right?
First of all, who's bookingyour gigs?
Gradience (32:07):
Us, we are.
Jay Franze (32:09):
So, with that said, you guys are obviously a a band,
a fairly new band.
Are you wearing multiple hats?
Who does what in the band?
Gradience (32:17):
between john and I.
We do a lot of the like socialmedia stuff.
You know I've done a lot of thecold calls and emails, a lot of
unopened emails, unresponded toemails.
Yeah, it's.
It's mostly when john and Iwork in the social media game
(32:38):
and just trying to reach out tonew bands and and we've gotten a
fair amount of shows just fromother bands who find us and
they're like hey, you want to dothe show with us?
You know, you guys seem cool.
We've been fortunate to have afew other bands reach out to us
while we also are reaching outto bands.
Tiffany Mason (32:57):
I saw you got a pretty sweet gig coming up on
the 26th at the Red Carpet in StCloud, Minnesota.
Whoop, whoop.
Gradience (33:06):
Yeah, and we also like a couple days ago we just
had a band reach out to us toplay there this Saturday because
another band had dropped theshow.
So we're going to be playingthere the 12th and the 26th.
Tiffany Mason (33:18):
Oh my gosh.
Well, everybody who islistening.
That is my friend from WaitePark, sartell, st Cloud.
You guys got to go check themout.
Red Carpet this Saturday.
Gradience (33:29):
Yep this Saturday.
Tiffany Mason (33:30):
And the 26th and the 26th so yeah, head over
while the weather's stillbeautiful and you can be out and
about, out and about.
Jay Franze (33:44):
Don't encourage me, mercy me.
So what are you looking forwardto most about the show?
Gradience (33:51):
For me, like I love every show, cause I really love
like performing.
You're up there and then all ofa sudden you wake up the next
day and you're like whoa, whatjust happened?
But when you remember like thefeeling of being up there, it's
really cool because we put a lotof energy like into our
performance, because we wanteveryone to have fun and like to
(34:12):
go to a show.
I'm very much a believer oflike when I go to shows it could
be the best sounding show.
But if every every band memberis just standing there looking
at their fretboards or juststanding still and they move
maybe five feet throughout thewhole show, it kind of kills the
mood for me.
Like I want to see peoplejumping over things and I don't
know going through a fire loopor something.
Jay Franze (34:37):
That reminds me of the Cars.
I don't know if you're familiarwith the.
Cars.
But they just stood in one spotOne of the best-sounding bands
ever but they never moved, never.
Tiffany Mason (34:47):
Right, well, I always am impressed with rock
and heavy metal.
It takes a lot of energy tobounce around the stage like
that and still play the song andstill sound good.
You know, I mean I've been to acouple long story, but I've
been to a couple that they'recompletely distorted.
You can tell everything's offbecause they're too busy trying
to like put on a show.
Gradience (35:17):
So, john, I appreciate you know that you're
saying you want a great, greatshow, but I think you guys are
also keeping in mind that themusic is great as well.
Yeah, it's more so likepracticing and rehearsing enough
to like you, gotta, we gottaget our set like locked in to
where we're not even thinkingabout what we're playing I think
Basically making it so that theplaying part of it is muscle
memory and that we can focus onhaving fun but also the
showmanship part of it.
Jay Franze (35:39):
Yeah, that's going to come with hundreds and
hundreds of shows.
Tiffany Mason (35:43):
Yep who gets the most nervous?
Gradience (35:47):
Hmm, hmm, I don't know.
Horner just seems too much.
Sorry for it, it was like a toomuch.
Sorry, horner, it was like threeheads were flanking.
Tiffany Mason (35:56):
Because, john and Darian, you seem extremely
extroverted so I have to imaginethat you guys are just drawing
the energy off the crowd.
But I got to think in fourpeople someone's getting nervous
.
Gradience (36:07):
I really used to be like I had some stage fright and
then played a few shows andthat was gone.
I don't know what happened, butit was fantastic.
Tiffany Mason (36:15):
I'm happy we're proud of you Well, do you all
find that you have the jitters,maybe just even a little bit.
But you hit that first note ortwo and you're like all right,
now, we're in it, we're goingyeah.
Gradience (36:24):
I always find that it depends on the show.
I mean, growing up I hadterrible stage fright.
I did not want to go on stage,but over time, I think a lot of
it is feeling confident in yourabilities to perform or to do
what you do and it kind of helpsput the stage fright away.
(36:44):
Now, that said, like I wassaying, it depends on the show
Playing a different venue candefinitely bring in some
post-show jitters, or even thesize of the crowd or the size of
the venue.
I know we played Sturgis andjust that being such a big deal
for us at the time, there wasdefinitely some pre-show jitters
(37:07):
, especially because we weretowards the end of the lineup,
so already seeing the othergreat bands that were performing
, the nerves, the nerves were in, and I was sick at the time on
top of that, so I wasn't in goodvocal health.
So I was just like, oh man, Ihope I can pull through, like I
was chugging honey and drinkingwater and trying to find a
(37:27):
doctor, trying to find a doctor,and you know it's just the, the
, all those things that can workits way into just being, you
know, pre-show anxiety and alittle bit of stage fright, but
you know, it's just once youstart performing it it kind of
melts away, more or less I thinkto me it just displays the
(37:48):
passion.
Tiffany Mason (37:49):
You know how much it meant to you guys, and I'm
sure it still means a lot, butyou know you're getting more
familiar.
I would, guys and I'm sure itstill means a lot, but you know
you're getting more familiar Iwould say that's a big deal and
it meant a lot and you know youwere hoping great things would
come out of it.
Exposure and leads on otherevents, so that makes sense.
Gradience (38:04):
I was a little worried about Trevor for the
first few shows, because he waslike, yeah, I've never, played
in a band before.
Yeah, I had never my first show.
It was this thing.
It wasn't so much the day, itwas the night before.
I got super nervous as soon asyou started playing.
It instantly just went away,and I think a large part of it
too is.
At any level it's natural to benervous, no matter how small or
(38:25):
big the show is.
But it's all about how youreact to that and feel that into
the performance, because Iplayed a lot of sports growing
up so I'm kind of used to likethe high-pressure situation.
So it's like you've got to kindof turn those nerves like into
adrenaline and then just intoenergy and then, you know, put
on a good show.
I've gotten really comfortablewith it now.
Jay Franze (38:44):
All right.
Well, let's take it a stepfurther.
You mentioned the social mediaand putting all that stuff
together.
Gradience (38:55):
Is that your core way right now of developing your
fan base?
Social media has definitelybeen a big focus, definitely of
the last year.
We recently, well last summer,we made the move from basically
Fargo down to the Twin Citiesarea, which was a pretty big
deal for us, just because, youknow, I grew up up here, trevor
grew up in the Twin Cities, butthese two hadn't, and for the
(39:17):
last five years the three of ushad been up in Fargo and we had
kind of made a fan base up there, but not so much really
anywhere else, and so werealized that the social media
is kind of the best way to reachout to the rest of the world.
Basically, uh, so we've reallyfocused a lot of time, effort
(39:41):
and a bit of money, uh, intodeveloping our social media
presence what do you feel isyour strength when it comes to
marketing yourselves?
probably at shows, honestly yeah, I'll say, our strongest point
is shows yeah, because that'sthe point.
Like you can be, you can bedirect with people.
You can meet them and greetthem and say hi and get to know
(40:04):
them as people like hey, I thinkyou're cool and I think you'd
like our music when you'replaying a show in a new venue or
maybe you're opening forsomebody and you're in front of
a new crowd, are you pushingyour social media?
Jay Franze (40:17):
Do you mention it from the stage?
Gradience (40:19):
Yeah, a lot of times I'll make sure, or we'll make
sure, to mention our socialmedia handles, not really try to
shove it down people's throats.
Handles, not really try toshove it down people's throats.
You know, I think we've all hadexperiences where a band takes
it a little too far and is alittle too incessant on it.
But you know, in between, ifwe're doing an hour-long set,
(40:39):
maybe I'll shout it out a coupletimes, maybe I should do it
more.
But I, you know, kind of gowith the flow and deem what
seems reasonable.
I'm not going to shout it outseveral times if there's still
only 10 people in the room.
If I say it once towards theend, I think they'll get the
idea, or by then maybe they'retoo plastered to understand.
(41:05):
We try not to do those ones ifwe can help it.
So if we get a good show with agood number of people and you
know there's people, new peoplecoming in and out all the time,
you know you want to make surethat those people know what's up
and make sure they know who youare, especially if it's like a
new town?
Because we do.
We use our social media heavilyto post like what shows are
(41:28):
coming up and when.
Media heavily to post like whatshows are coming up and when.
So if we're playing a new venuein a new town or like to new
people because it still kind offeels like we are new, because
whenever we do show, people likeoh, we've never heard of you
before it's like yeah, follow uson social media, so the next
time we play you can, if youlike us, you can come back out.
It's just a way of like makingsure people see when we're
(41:49):
coming back, if they, if theylike us are you guys jokesters
at all?
Jay Franze (41:55):
oh?
Gradience (41:55):
yeah, oh yeah, I did just the other night.
The three of us live together,like we all.
We've been living together forfour, three years, and once
again, trevor's the outcast I'mjust saying okay, when is trevor
moving in?
well, trevor is ahead of all ofus.
He's got his own house.
(42:15):
But I've known trevor sincesince we were kids.
I, I grew up with trevor for avery long time.
We kind of went our separateways in high school and you know
, and post, post high school andall that.
But when we realized we weregoing to end up needing a new
drummer, I had remembered that,like when we were growing up, he
started taking interest inplaying the drums and I'd asked
(42:36):
him if he would be interested inpotentially doing doing stuff
with us and darian what if hewould have stunk?
Tiffany Mason (42:46):
yeah I mean, you had had a break from him for a
while and here you are, like,join the band.
Gradience (42:51):
I don't even know if you're good anymore, but come on
but the thing was that when,when growing up like before we
had kind of went our separateways, like I started to notice
that he was like he was pickingup on, like he had his own drum
kit and like he was starting toactually like play and learn,
and it was around the same timelike both of us were really
starting into music.
Like I started playing guitar,he was playing drums and I
(43:14):
didn't really know how far longhe had gotten, but just reaching
out to see if he was still likedoing because I know I, like
you, were posting every now andthen on Facebook.
Yeah, you would post like stuff.
So it was like it's like I kindof had an idea that he at least
knew what he was doing.
Yeah, it was funny for me too,because I've followed for years
on like social media, a lot ofthe guys that do like the home
(43:34):
recording stuff and playinglocal shows, so a lot of it.
I had a good idea of what itentailed, but I just had never
like done it myself.
So yeah they kind of took me inand have been showing me the
ropes on all of that type ofstuff I love that so much yeah,
and, and just just so like weall went to college together,
the three of us.
Jay Franze (43:53):
Wait, whoa.
What did we go to college for?
Gradience (43:57):
I was curious about that in the beginning, Pujay.
Well, so yeah, all three of uswe have the same degree, the
Bachelor of Science in,basically, audio production is
what it boils down to.
It's got a different name butit's convoluted and it no longer
exists anymore where we camefrom.
It's something else now, butbasically audio production.
(44:21):
And live sound and performance.
I had a minor in basically musicvocal performance.
Jay Franze (44:27):
So this is why you guys have your own rehearsal
space and the reason why you'rerecording your own projects.
Gradience (44:34):
Basically, yeah, if I hadn't gone to school for audio
, like I wouldn't have takenupon myself to try and record us
, you know all those years agoand you know it really helps
living together because we canjust kind of grab each other and
be like, hey, let's recordsomething or let's practice this
, this.
And that was kind of the wholeidea about, uh, moving into a
(44:56):
house together.
sorry, we didn't include thatthat was one of the things that
really kind of attracted me tothese guys as a band, even like
before I was in, because I wasfollowing them on like social
media right now, but like thefact that it's a very organic,
like recording all their ownstuff legitimately and like just
jamming together instead ofjust writing everything in Pro
Tools and then be like hey,learn this, hey, learn this.
(45:17):
It's like no, we're all justjamming in a room together and
vibing off of it.
I really like that aspect of it.
Tiffany Mason (45:23):
Trevor, how far is your house from theirs?
Gradience (45:27):
30 minutes.
It's in a spot, though, that,like, if traffic's bad, like
I've tried to get over hereduring rush hour before and
it'll take like an hour of justsitting there, but uh, it's not
too far away thanks, 494 yeah Iwas gonna say something's never
changed usually it's at nighttoo, so that helps yeah, right.
Jay Franze (45:49):
I mentioned earlier you guys being pranksters.
Tell me what's one of thecraziest things you guys have
done to each other.
Gradience (45:55):
Oh, craziest, oh, uh-oh.
Jay Franze (45:56):
Uh-oh.
Gradience (45:59):
Ford speaking up.
Tiffany Mason (46:00):
Yeah, yeah, always the quiet one.
Gradience (46:02):
We had a bunch of leftover carpet.
It's the same one, yeah it'sthe same one.
It was the one I was going tosay A bunch of leftover carpet
and we had.
These two guys lived downstairsin our last place so we carpeted
their entire bathroom, likearound the toilet, in the tub.
We carpeted everything Likecovered the whole thing, cut it
(46:24):
out around the toilet andeverything.
The best part is I was there andI witnessed it because he was
gone, so I was there to documentthe process.
Yeah, they cut the carpet inLike it was perfectly fitted
carpet into the bathroom aroundthe toilet.
And I came back from like acollege trip to the cities for
like where I was working and Ireally had to use the bathroom
because I was like driving a vanfor like 12 hours.
(46:46):
So I got back, went into thebathroom and like as I was going
downstairs, they were waitingfor me and I just heard a bunch
of giggles.
I'm like what Such a stupidprank?
Why 'd you carpet the bathroom?
You wasted two hours on this.
The amount of time we took too.
Yeah, that was kind of it.
It was really a prank on us fordoing all that work.
Tiffany Mason (47:05):
I mean, it sounds to me like you guys have a plan
B, Like that was the most fandoesn't work out, you're putting
some carpet on hire us, we're,we're open.
Gradience (47:13):
I mean, he did actual carpentry.
So yeah, I did like the removalprocess mostly or just little
things around the house too,like last night he left a full
pizza out on the counter, and sosorry to dox you, but there's a
long story short.
It was his second pizza, but heleft it out.
So I I took it and I I put iton a chair and there we, we have
(47:40):
this stuffed animal and I putit in the lap of the stuffed
animal and I put it in front ofhis door.
So when he opened it, he would.
He would see it just simple,harmless, or like he had some
takeout or something, and it wason the kitchen counter and I
moved it to the couch, hidden inplain sight, and I just watched
to see how long it would takefor him to find it.
(48:03):
You're making me lose my mindover here.
A very long-running one where,like at our campus, they'd give
out you know like a bag that hadVaseline and condoms and stuff
in it.
So like we had this like littleportable Vaseline thing or like
this like lube thing.
Tiffany Mason (48:19):
Yeah, it was lube and we would hide it.
You can call it Vaseline if itmakes you feel better.
Gradience (48:26):
It was just like a little tube of it.
So what we would do is we'dhide it in the other person's
room.
Eventually, one day, we put itin the back of Ford's guitar.
Yeah.
And then at a show where he tookout the back plate of his
guitar to adjust some springs orchange his strings or something
, and he found it after like sixmonths.
(48:46):
Yeah, that was something.
I think it ended up in.
It ended up in in one of myguitar.
It ended up in one of my guitarpedals that I asked Ford to
dissect for me, which he didn'tdo a good job at hiding it
because he was he was gigglingthe whole time but I found it
and I hid it underneath hiscomputer monitor.
(49:08):
That eventually got taken backto his parents' house.
Jay Franze (49:14):
So your parents found your loot, got it.
Gradience (49:17):
Then we had this similar thing, but with this
little thing of peanut butterfrom the cafeteria.
That was found.
That was nasty.
Darian and I hid it in Ford'spedalboard case in our last
house two years ago and he foundit about a week ago and it had
been opened.
Yeah, we didn't open it, it justended up open all right, let me
(49:39):
ask you this.
Jay Franze (49:40):
We do this thing here.
We call unsung heroes.
We take a moment to shine lighton somebody who's worked behind
the scenes or somebody who mayhave supported you along the way
.
You guys have anybody you'dlike to shine a little light on.
Gradience (49:49):
Oh, most definitely, Most definitely A big shout out
to our photographer,videographer and just overall
great friend, emma Christensen.
She has been an incredible helpfor just helping out with all
of our music videos and she'sbeen working tirelessly all
(50:13):
through last year and she's beendocumenting, like photos and
taking videos Pretty much all ofour shows for the last couple
years.
Now we just got finished withprobably a last music video for
a while, for our song on a roll,which that was the first video
that we did.
We did it outside of our, ourhouse and we did like location
filming and rented out a spacefor two days and had a crew
(50:35):
casting call sorts of stuff andshe took it head on and we owe a
great deal to to her expertisein filmmaking and photography
what was that like for you?
it was great.
I mean, I it was.
It was definitely uh, it was apassion project, more or less.
It was.
(50:56):
It was kind of my idea to do itand we were.
We rented out a boxing ring,basically, and I was doing some
boxing lessons to prepare forthe, for the shoot, and, uh, I
did that for a month.
Yeah, that's commitment.
You learned how to box.
That was cool.
And then the filming process.
It was a lot of heavy liftingbecause I mean, it was basically
(51:18):
putting on we call themcapstone projects in the
undergrad program with a smallfilm crew and it was just a big
undertaking which wouldn't havebeen possible without Emma to be
able to help out with that.
Jay Franze (51:33):
Well, thank you, Emma.
Tiffany Mason (51:35):
I imagine Emma went to school with y'all as
well.
Gradience (51:37):
Yep, she was a film major.
Jay Franze (51:40):
Now, that's a school to go to.
You get your whole team rightthere at the school Pretty much.
Yeah, that's awesome, all right.
Well, we have done it.
We've reached the top of thehour, which doesn't mean we have
reached the end of the show.
If you've enjoyed the show,please tell a friend, if you
have not.
Miss Tiffany.
Tiffany Mason (51:56):
Tell two.
Jay Franze (51:57):
Tell two you can reach out to all of us.
All of us, I said it, all of us.
There's a lot of us tonight.
All of us.
You can reach out Jfranzycom.
We'll be happy to answer anyquestions or keep this
conversation going.
Guys, my friends got any finalwords for us?
Gradience (52:14):
Go listen to our new album, Come what May.
Jay Franze (52:17):
All right, folks On that note have a good night.
Tony Scott (52:22):
Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze Show.
Make sure you visit us atjayfranze.
com Follow, connect and sayhello.
Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a
behind-the-curtain look at theentertainment industry, with
insights you can't pay for andstories you've never heard.
Now here's your host, JayFrancie.
Jay Franze (00:32):
And we are coming at you live.
I am Jay Francie and with metonight the Amy to my events, my
beautiful co-host, Miss TiffanyMason.
Tiffany Mason (00:43):
Good evening Jay.
Jay Franze (00:45):
If you are new to the show, this is your source
for the latest news, reviews andinterviews.
My beautiful co-host, MissTiffany Mason.
Good evening, Jay.
If you are new to the show,this is your source for the
latest news, reviews andinterviews, and if you'd like to
join in, comment or fire offany questions, you can head over
to jayfranze.
com.
All right, my friend, tonightwe do.
We have a very special guest.
I said it once, I will say itagain we have a very special
guest.
Tiffany Mason (01:02):
I say, I say, I say, say it again.
Jay Franze (01:04):
We have a rock, an alternative and a metal
recording artist Hailing fromthe great state of Minnesota.
We have Gradience, gradience.
My friends, how are you?
Gradience (01:15):
Hello.
Tiffany Mason (01:15):
Hey.
Gradience (01:15):
Jay.
Jay Franze (01:16):
Pretty good.
It's good to have you guys here.
Thank you for joining ustonight.
Gradience (01:20):
Thanks for having us.
All right.
Well, let's just jump in.
We mentioned Thanks for havingus and is definitely still
(01:41):
pretty true to the music wecreate, because it's no
clear-cut boundary between oneor many objects, and for us it's
no clear-cut boundary betweenhard rock, metal and kind of the
rock we just like to make.
How did we get together in thefirst place?
(02:03):
I guess?
Jay Franze (02:03):
I'll do that one.
Gradience (02:04):
Okay, Kenny, it's my turn.
I wasn't here first.
Yeah, we started out in college,like many bands Formed in the
dorms, we started for a musictalent show at MSUM College up
in Moorhead, minnesota.
We wrote and played the samesongs within the same week there
and then we were graced withthe presence of Darian.
(02:24):
After that we kind of kickedoff.
We realized, hey, we like thisstuff, we want to keep doing it.
Jay Franze (02:29):
so we kept playing shows so you say you were graced
with his presence?
And.
I get that.
I completely understand.
I can feel that already.
However, how long was it?
Was it right away, like thatsame week?
Gradience (02:42):
we were jamming together.
It was me, Ford and ouroriginal drummer.
We were jamming together.
It was me, Ford and ouroriginal drummer.
We were just jamming in thedorms and stuff and we saw like
a talent show flyer that washappening that first fall
semester and we went to do thelike talent show work.
Yeah, we got this.
We're cool.
That was the fall of 2019.
We had the the talent showwhere basically I met these two
(03:05):
and the original drummer.
They were doing their set and Ihad a set immediately after
them where I was just doing asolo vocals guitar thing.
Afterwards they had asked if Iwanted to join them as a bass
player and a vocalist.
We kind of jammed around alittle bit and in the span of a
(03:25):
few months come February of 2020, we were doing our first show
together.
Jay Franze (03:31):
All right, I need to take a quick little tangent
because you mentioned it, you'rea bass player and vocalist.
How hard is it to play bass andsing at the same time?
Gradience (03:41):
It kind of depends.
I've been playing for a whilenow and so I've always been
playing guitar, piano, bass andsinging for many years now, and
so it's just kind of natural atthis point.
There's a few songs that we'veplayed where it is a little bit
difficult One of the first fewsongs that we were developing.
(04:03):
It was a bit of a challenge,but you just keep playing and
you get used to it.
It becomes muscle memory at onepoint, to the part where you're
only thinking about the words.
Jay Franze (04:14):
To me.
I would struggle with that.
It's just like playing drums.
I cannot get my limbs to dofour separate things.
I just can't do it for the lifeof me.
Tiffany Mason (04:22):
When I was growing up, my dad would always
ask us if we could spin one armin one direction and get the
other arm going in the otherdirection, and it's kind of the
same thing.
Right, it's something new foryou to try, but I feel like it's
the same thing.
It must be very challenging toacquire both, to be able to do
both.
Jay Franze (04:41):
Too tough for me, for sure.
Alright, you mentioned thesesongs that you put together
right away.
You wrote within a couple daysand played them in the show.
Any of those songs still aroundin your sets today?
Gradience (04:50):
Yeah, there is one that we played at our first show
that we still bring out.
It was our first single.
It was called Darkest Hour.
That's one of the first songswe wrote that we still play.
It's gone through a bit of ametamorphosis, but the first
show that we played it at, itwas very bare bones, very just
(05:12):
basic, and we kind of fleshed itout over a couple of years
until we eventually released iton our first album, the Call, in
2022.
But we took a couple yearsafter we first did it to refine
it a bit more.
That one and and every now andthen if we have to do super long
sets, we'll bring out a few ofthe other ones from the first
(05:33):
album yeah, that would makesense to fill up the time.
Jay Franze (05:36):
For sure, deep cuts right yeah, deep cuts all right?
Well, let's take that a stepfurther.
I mean, when you guys firstformed, did you have a musical
genre in mind?
Gradience (05:48):
I guess just rock, At least the yeah.
We were all fans of differentversions of rock and metal.
I didn't think we were going toform and start playing country
or pop.
Right.
Jay Franze (06:03):
So your influences?
You have reference to people inthe past, so whose influences
are those?
Gradience (06:11):
Everybody looks at me .
Jay Franze (06:14):
It's all Ford's fault.
Okay, we get it.
Gradience (06:18):
I like some heavier stuff, like more on the hardcore
slash, I guess more modernstuff Like who, like who, make
me think of band names on thespot.
Jay Franze (06:27):
Royal Blood.
Royal Blood is a big one.
Gradience (06:29):
I really like those guys.
Tiffany Mason (06:31):
Thank God, your friends know you Chevelle.
Gradience (06:35):
Chevelle Arctic Monkeys.
Yeah, yeah.
So also like I grew up with,like the big ones Def Leppard,
guns N' Roses but I kind ofmoved away from that after I
started.
It's all our fault.
Yeah, and then him.
So when I met them I'd oftentell them I'd say, well, my
biggest influence and it stillis is the Beatles, and I was a
(06:58):
huge Beatles fan growing up andthat was where, like because I
was already doing my own solostuff when I met them and all of
that was kind of heavilybeatles influenced.
Since then I've taken a lot ofother influences, all the way
from like stuff like daft punk,tame and paula, all the way to
queens of the stone age is mylatest obsession and we'll get,
(07:20):
like you know, metallica, oricaor any sort of modern.
A lot of the stuff they likehave rubbed off on me too.
So like Royal Blood, arcticMonkeys, all of that, and John
is probably the most.
I'm weird.
I started out loving 70s hardrock, so like UFO and early Ozzy
(07:46):
, with like Randy Rhoads andstuff like that, just before I
met everyone is when I startedgetting into like thrash, so
Megadeth, metallica and thatevolved into like a little bit
of Pantera and heavier stuff.
And then, like Darien said,like their music started rubbing
off on me so I startedlistening to Chevelle.
Darien said, like their musicstarted rubbing off on me so I
started listening to ChevelleTool and just all sorts of stuff
(08:07):
.
But I was very based in like inthe 70s based.
Tiffany Mason (08:13):
I'm surprised to hear such you know old artists I
mean quote-unquote old whointroduced you to that music my
dad.
Gradience (08:23):
For for me um yeah, as my dad and I we'd often
listen to, we've got a radiostation in the Twin Cities
called Cool 108.
Tiffany Mason (08:32):
And when.
Gradience (08:33):
I was growing up they played a lot of 60s and 70s
music.
Now it's more like 80s and 90s,but I would listen to that
every night.
I'd even sleep with it on, andthat's kind of how I learned a
lot of the songs from the 60sSuper familiar with a lot of
those, especially like Motownand all of that stuff.
But I kind of went on my ownpath and really delved down the
(08:56):
rabbit hole of the Beatles andall of their cohort and other
people of the time and that kindof went along with.
Uh, once I met these guys itwas more like what they like and
then kind of finding my waythrough through that as well
sure, and then you Trevor.
I've been kind of all over themap because I grew up with a lot
(09:17):
of, uh, classic rock both myparents were very into, like
Ozzy Osbourne and Tom Petty TomPetty's still one of my uh like
all-time favorites and then as Igot older I got into more punk
stuff, Green Day and a lot ofthe other classic ones.
And then got a little bit olderand got really into the heavier
metalcore and deathcore stuff.
And then as I've gotten into my20s I've kind of calmed down
(09:38):
from that and I've settled intomore of an alternative rock.
I still enjoy heavier stuffevery now and then, but lately
it's a lot of Green Day.
The Offspring Ford recentlyintroduced me to Dinosaur Pilup,
who I like a lot.
I've kind of gone through a lotof any style of rock or metal
and kind of settled into thealternative rock stuff.
It's kind of my main influenceright now.
(09:58):
You're mellowing already.
Jay Franze (10:00):
Yeah, so soon.
Gradience (10:01):
I've known you a long long time I've known you a long
, long time.
I didn't know you liked TomPetty as much as you say you do
Really, I didn't know that.
Yeah.
We're learning stuff too.
Tiffany Mason (10:12):
Keep that secret in the closet?
Gradience (10:14):
No, tom Petty is good , tom Petty is good.
Jay Franze (10:17):
All right, Darian, I have a question.
Gradience (10:19):
Yes.
Jay Franze (10:19):
The Beatles.
Gradience (10:27):
What is it about the Beatles that you seem to be
drawn to that has captivated you?
Yeah, you know, that's you know.
I don't exactly know why.
I mean it's just so early on inmy life.
Jay Franze (10:34):
I which era of the Beatles well.
Gradience (10:38):
I most vividly remember first hearing the Abbey
Road album.
But I got really obsessed withthe Beatlemania era, like the
earlier years, and a lot of itwas like the harmonies were
great, the energy was great, the, the songs were fun, innocent,
like simple for the time.
Just the musicianship I reallyenjoyed and that's how I learned
(11:02):
, basically how I taught myselfhow to play guitar and piano and
bass and sing and play at thesame time.
So it was a lot of those.
A lot of what they did is whatI tried to emulate and that's
basically made me the musician Iam today.
Tiffany Mason (11:18):
Do you think they would be surprised to know that
their Beatle influence hasturned into this gradients of
rock and metal?
Gradience (11:29):
Probably probably.
I think that could be said fora lot of groups.
I mean, I saw a video clip ofPaul McCartney and Ozzy meeting
for the first time and Ozzy wassaying, like Black Sabbath
wouldn't exist without theBeatles, I owe so much to you
and it's like who would havethought like the between those
two?
Jay Franze (11:50):
Did you pay any attention to that show over the
weekend?
Gradience (11:54):
Yeah, we were actually talking about it.
We were going to do thepay-per-view to watch, because
we weren't able to watch it whenit was live.
But then we realized it was 10hours long, so we just kind of
looked up some highlights.
Great shows, great shows goingon it was great, but we only had
until 7 am this morning towatch it.
Jay Franze (12:15):
Did you see Ozzy's performances?
Gradience (12:17):
I've seen clips on Facebook, but we're hoping for
there's probably going to be anofficial streaming release or a
DVD or something, so hopefullyit won't be the last time we're
able to see it.
Tiffany Mason (12:31):
Jay, for all of our listeners.
What are you referring to?
Jay Franze (12:34):
Black Sabbath.
We talked about it lastWednesday, as a matter of fact,
black Sabbath's final appearance, final show, and then a bunch
of, as we say supergroups gottogether to perform the Sabbath
songs as well as others.
Oh cool, including Hailstorm.
Tiffany Mason (12:51):
Oh, wow Cool.
Jay Franze (12:53):
Hailstorm's one of my favorites guys, so it was
cool to see that.
So, and then one of the otherones you mentioned was one of my
daughter's favorites.
I can't let it go by withoutmentioning the Arctic Monkeys.
How does the Arctic Monkeys fitin with all the rest of the
things you mentioned?
Gradience (13:07):
I think it's Gradients.
Unless you want to say it's farspectrum unless you want to say
far spectrum, unless you want tosay say anything.
I had a.
I had an arctic monkey's phasewhere that was like the
predominantly what I listened tofor for a few months I guess.
But it's one of those thingswhere it's like when a band is
together and they're so good atwhat they do, it's like, yeah,
(13:28):
you can't not listen to that.
Jay Franze (13:30):
That's kind of what drew me to I went to see them in
tenn, took my daughter and herfriend and we went to see them
play and it was a great show.
Everything was great about it,but it's just not the style of
music I can get into for a longperiod of time.
That's right.
That's right.
Gradience (13:45):
And even they've evolved so much.
Their earlier stuff is a lotmore upbeat, fast-paced.
And then you look at their mostrecent couple of albums and
it's very mellow, jazzy.
It's very different from howthey started.
We take more inspiration fromthat earlier stuff and more
(14:07):
off-the-beaten-path stuff thanmore recent albums that they've
released.
Jay Franze (14:11):
All right.
Well, let's go ahead and jumpinto your music the reason why
we're all here tonight.
So I want to talk about yourwriting and your production.
So let's start with yourwriting.
What's your writing processlike?
Gradience (14:23):
Our writing process is all over the place.
Sometimes I'll come up with ariff, I'll hold on to it and
next time we meet I'll juststart playing it midway through
a rehearsal and see if peoplelike join along.
Sometimes Darian will disappearinto his room at like three in
the morning after a rehearsaland come back the next morning
he's like hey guys, I wrotethree full songs Like what do
(14:45):
you think?
Ok, so it's very random,whatever hits us and when it
hits us.
But I think the best songs wehave are the ones when someone
brings just a portion or a riffand then we all kind of write it
in our jam space, like we werejust writing a song before this,
like we were just jamming.
Jay Franze (15:05):
So do I get credit for that?
Gradience (15:07):
Maybe the only problem is like I hit record in
like the intro riff, like by thetime we were done jamming, it's
like wait, what was that?
And I went and looked and itwasn't recording.
Classic, oh no.
Jay Franze (15:19):
Gone forever, and this is why we go back to the
Beatles, where we writeeverything that's memorable, so
that we can never forget.
That's why their songs are sosimple is they wrote them
because they had no other way toremember them.
They had to be able to rememberall those songs.
So you guys take an eclecticapproach to writing, so each one
of you either come up with anidea or Darian has to be a
superstar going into it.
Gradience (15:41):
There's some times where we'll just be all jamming
and we'll be done with rehearsaland then we'll just kind of jam
on something.
Some of the time not as oftenas you'd hope something cool
comes out of it and somethingsticks, and then we'll take that
core bit and then one of uswill flesh it out a little bit
(16:03):
and then sometimes like the songcomeback.
Pretty much all of that was doneby ford.
I did a lot of our song twistedand darian did which one of
like the main Honor Roll.
Honor.
Roll Chaos Brigade.
Tiffany Mason (16:19):
Which one did you write again, darian?
Gradience (16:22):
All of them which?
Jay Franze (16:23):
album did you write, we got it.
Someone's an overachiever.
That's awesome to be able to dothat.
So there is no separate.
I write lyrics, you write musicpiece.
Gradience (16:36):
We all just get in there and collaborate in
whatever comes to mind at thattime yeah, I think like the
music part of it is definitely alot more of a collaborative
effort.
I guess I I prefer to to writelyrics.
I usually have like subjectmatters in mind or just kind of
a direction, and I usually willflesh out lyrics kind of in one
(17:00):
fell swoop.
Jay Franze (17:01):
Do you find, as, being a vocalist, it's easier
for you to do that, so you canrelate to it.
Gradience (17:06):
Yeah, definitely, most definitely.
I take lyrics very personally,I guess Not necessarily
autobiographical Hard word tosay, I guess Trust us, we know.
But I don't know, I feel moreconnected to it when I guess
(17:31):
it's my quill to the paper.
Tiffany Mason (17:35):
Okay, I have a question for everybody for all
these rock songs.
Okay, now, I'm a littlesuburban wife, okay, a suburban
mom, so hard rock is not mypreferred genre.
You will not see me drivingdown the street jamming out to
some heavy metal music.
So you said that the lyrics arereally important to you, and I
feel like the lyrics are veryimportant to me as well, if I
(17:58):
was to someday become a hardheavy metal rock fan.
How do people learn the wordsthat the songs?
Because they're not alwaysbeing shouted, but they're
definitely.
You know, I feel like they'reequal level with, like, the
guitars and the drums, and rightthere, everything kind of
meshes together.
So how do you guys get to knowthe meanings of songs?
(18:20):
How do you think that youraudience gets to know the
meanings of these songs?
Do you have to look them up?
Because, right like back in the80s, we couldn't look them up.
So how do how do people relateto the music?
Or how do they find out whatthe song is about?
Gradience (18:39):
So well, at least when back when Cars had CD
players.
Tiffany Mason (18:41):
Right In our day, jay.
Gradience (18:43):
Actually actually.
When they had 8-tracks.
Another big part about with theBeals connection for me anyway
is that I would end up with a CDcollection and I'd love to open
up the CDs and pull out thelittle booklets and read the
liner notes, and they often hadlyrics in them.
Nowadays, online a lot ofplatforms have the lyrics.
(19:05):
I know we put our lyrics on.
When we distribute the songWe'll add our lyrics so it comes
up on Spotify and Apple Music.
But then when it comes down onSpotify and Apple Music, but
then when it comes down likeit's even a production decision
to try and make the lyrics, thevocals, as clear as possible you
know, and also with our style,I mean it's.
(19:27):
I'm definitely not one of thoselike heavy, heavy, like
gutturals or anything like that.
You won't catch me doing that.
I'm very much traditional.
Like we're singing, we're notwe're not going like the oh you
know, I can't.
I'm not really big on that, so alot of it's like the production
(19:49):
and just making it as availableas possible we do have a lyric
book, like in our cds too, likewith our newest album, one of
the things I'm like oh, I want,I want a lyric book so people
can like read them I love thatyou advocated for that, john.
Yeah, just because there arequite a few people that we meet
that are like, ah, like I don'tgo on my phone, smartphones,
(20:10):
like I'm not gonna look you.
Tiffany Mason (20:12):
I want your physical merch.
Gradience (20:15):
They're old school.
That's why we have a lyric bookand it's cool.
You have the CD and then youcan kind of interact with it by
following along and stuff likethat.
Tiffany Mason (20:26):
Absolutely Any song I can sing along with.
So even if it is a little bitharder rock or whatever I just
want to sing along.
So I appreciate that you guysare doing that.
Jay Franze (20:36):
So let's go ahead and take it a step further now.
So we talked about your writingprocess.
Now do you do any sort of demobefore you just go straight to
recording it, or do you gostraight to recording it?
Gradience (20:49):
Yeah, I think every song that we have I think we've
got demos for whether it'ssomething that any of us do
independently have an idea we'llrecord it on our own computers
and then we'll pitch it toeverybody else.
Jay Franze (21:05):
That's kind of how it's been Like a guitar, vocal
style vocal style.
Gradience (21:15):
Yeah, yeah, like guitar, vocal or just guitar and
instrumental.
Like it kind of varies inlevels of how intense the the
production of the demos are.
Like when ford sent us comeback, it was kind of almost a full
production without the vocals,but he had the lyrics and um,
like john and I, we've sentsongs where they just had
guitars only, no drums, novocals, and it's kind of a mix
(21:37):
of all that, but pretty muchalways it's gonna be like
guitars, guitar and maybe alight melody with like our songs
sometimes and in the mirror,like those are ones we wrote
like all together.
So we really made sure when wedo demos that like our rehearsal
will hook up everything.
It'll make sure we get one, oneor two really good takes of it
(21:59):
and then darian will go and mixit down so we can listen to it
all together for the first timeyeah, some.
Sometimes.
It's interesting because itcame, uh, as just kind of a.
We were kind of in between arehearsing and we were just kind
of just jamming on a couple ofnotes and it became like a
(22:21):
minute long jam, but it didn'treally go anywhere.
Well, I took that clip and Iedited it down, so we had like a
verse section and then I kindof copy pasted and then took the
section that was more or lessthe chorus.
I took that and I basicallyrestructured it to have a full
song structure and then I putvocals over it and I said, okay,
(22:43):
this is the idea, let's polishthis down.
And then that's kind of how howthat song kind of got put
together more or less.
Some chopping and screwing.
Well, that's a good point.
Jay Franze (22:56):
I want to tag on to that just a bit.
Do you then build off thatrough piece, or do you scrap it
and start a new session andbuild from there?
Gradience (23:06):
I'd say a bit of both .
Sometimes it's like, oh yeah,these two sections are really
good, but we totally need a newintro.
But then sometimes it's like,oh yeah, let's just play this,
but like nice and consistentlyand maybe add a few layers to it
yeah, I like an example I canthink of is uh, this, the song
(23:27):
of our new album in the mirror.
I had the the verse section andI had the riff and everything
and we did that, we did like achorus section, and then I had
pitched an idea for the bridge.
Well, that was completelydifferent and awful.
It was slow and completely tookthe energy away from the song
and we kinda sat on it for a bit, scrapped it and then totally
(23:52):
switched up the bridge and itbasically made the song whole.
And that's just a situationwhere it's like we took an idea
that wasn't working, scrapped itand replaced it with something
else, Basically took the middleout of the song and put a new
one back in.
Sometimes those demos are likevetting process, so like if
(24:14):
there's a demo out there and I'mable to listen to it in my car
for like three days in a row,and I find like wow, I don't
really like this very much.
Like sometimes it takes thatamount of time to figure out if
you like something or not, or ifthat's going to stick.
A lot of time in the moment likesomething seems really cool,
but then you step back andlisten to it and then you're
like eh or oh, there's a betterthing, let's do that instead.
(24:36):
I think we've had a few songswhere we took the demo, listened
to it, went and added parts,and then the parts we added were
really cool but we weren'tvibing with the original demo,
but the parts we added, so thenthey became their own song.
Tiffany Mason (24:52):
My daughter introduced me to a song and I
was like I don't like this song,and then she just kept playing
it, kept playing it, keptplaying it and I was like, oh, I
like this song now.
And then the same thing in thereverse way, right when you're
like this is awesome, Thenyou're listening.
You're like wait a minute,Maybe we'll change a part of it.
Jay Franze (25:10):
So talk to me about the recording process.
Are you guys tracking your ownstuff?
Then?
Yep, so what software are youusing?
Gradience (25:18):
I use Logic Pro, all right.
Tiffany Mason (25:21):
Solid choice.
Gradience (25:22):
Logic Pro, along with the Universal Audio interface.
Jay Franze (25:27):
What's the IO situation like?
How many ins and outs do youhave?
Gradience (25:30):
So I typically use the X4, which is going to be
your four preamps, unisonpreamps and then I think it's
got four lineouts.
But then for drum tracking I'vegot an Apollo X8, which will
add another four, and I've gotthe Audient 8P, which we'll add
(25:53):
another 8 preamp, so we couldtrack drums.
But when we were recordingdrums for the last couple songs
on the album we tracked them allat the same time but we ended
up redoing the guitars.
But for tracking drums I went alittle bit overboard with what
I had done with the other onesand I had added a couple of
(26:14):
additional room mics that I'dused facing away from the kit to
get the reflections, just toadd a little bit of a depth and
different tonality to the drums,which I think, in my humble
opinion, I think sounded reallygood.
I think it turned out some ofmy favorite drum recordings,
honestly.
Jay Franze (26:33):
That's pretty cool.
So you say sometimes you recordwith the guitars.
So when you're doing that, areyou doing them as line inputs?
How are you doing the guitars?
Gradience (26:42):
Both of their amps have a direct line out.
John uses a head rush unit sowe can just go straight from
that and, as much as he hates it, ford's got a Fender Mustang,
which is a little bit older.
Solid state digital amp Soundspretty good most of the
sometimes, but it's got.
It's got a.
(27:02):
It's got an external out, soit's it's good for being able to
go direct and not have to worryabout too much bleed if we
don't want any of the bleed.
Right and we go in and likere-record those.
Yeah, those DI tracks Get stufflinked up, but I have used the
raw DI to just sprinkle in, addsome depth to choruses and
(27:24):
things like that.
Tiffany Mason (27:25):
Trevor, are you just the beauty?
Are they the brains?
And you're just the beauty.
Gradience (27:30):
So far, yes, I'm still relatively.
I joined the band last fall,last winter, and it was actually
, on the topic of the demos, itwas kind of cool because the
whole album was written and Igot to have the demos to learn
all the songs and then, hearingthe masters for the first time,
you kind of hear what parts havechanged or whatnot.
So it was cool.
I kind of got to hear the songsfor the first time, like twice,
(27:52):
basically sure.
So so far we've been we've, Ithink for as long as I've been
playing with the band we've hada decent amount of songs like
written already since I'vejoined.
So it's been I've been excitedto kind of get in there and you
know, experience that for thefirst time.
But when it comes to like theyeah, the recording, it's all
dar Darren and these guys thathandle it.
(28:12):
Yeah, trevor had the arduoustask of trying to learn all the
drum parts for this new album.
When he was coming in it wasalready everything had been laid
down already by our fantasticdrummer Tom, who's up in Fargo
doing some other projects.
But I'd be remiss if we didn'tgive him his credit for doing
(28:35):
the marvelous drum work on thealbum, which Trevor has done a
wonderful job at learning all ofthose parts.
Jay Franze (28:41):
Now, Trevor, do you like that?
Does it bother you to learnsomebody else's parts?
Gradience (28:45):
No, I actually it helped a lot because I've always
this is the first band I'veplayed in and the way I've
always learned songs.
I've been playing drums since Iwas like 13, but it was like
you just put on headphones andthen you just play along to
whatever you hear.
So like I think it actuallykind of helped ease me into it
having to learn someone else'sparts instead of having to you
know if the album wasn'trecorded yet and I was like,
alright, we need you to writedrums for these 12 songs.
(29:06):
It's like I would rather.
I like kind of easing into it.
And then now that it kind ofhelped also learn the style of
the band, then I can kind of addmy own taste on top of that.
But yeah, I really enjoy boththe recordings and their old
drummer, tom.
His style, I think, really kindof fit well with it and yeah, I
enjoyed it a lot.
Tiffany Mason (29:25):
Do you feel like your style of drumming differs
that much from Tom's style?
Gradience (29:30):
He's a little bit more of the heavier thrash type.
I feel like I'm more of the Iwould say punk, where it's not
super fancy, but more about theenergy.
I try to keep it simple for themost part and then choose my
moments kind of wisely.
Jay Franze (29:45):
Do you think that works well with that old
70s-type style?
Gradience (29:49):
As long as you kind of fit to the song, I think I
think I'm good at adapting towhatever the mood of the song is
, which is drums.
A lot of times Something Ididn't really realize until I
started playing drums was even aslightly different hi-hat
pattern or whatever can totallychange the feel of the song.
So a lot of times when I'mwriting these parts whether it's
an older style song or aheavier one, you kind of got to
(30:11):
try out different things, maybeon a crash cymbal or just doing
a snare roll.
You kind of find what fits thevibe and the mood of the song.
Jay Franze (30:19):
Well, I think, if you're talking about bands I
mean even like the ArcticMonkeys or some of that earlier
feel, or the Beatles you'retalking about simplicity and
you're building aroundsimplicity.
You mentioned Tool as well,which is completely on the other
end of the spectrum.
Gradience (30:34):
Yeah.
Jay Franze (30:34):
So do you find yourself ever wanting to go down
the route of tool?
Gradience (30:40):
Not to that degree I've definitely, since joining
the band, I've been inspired tosit down there and practice and
learn a lot more.
It's been a long time since Ipracticed technique in different
stickings and whatnot, so itkind of made me step the game up
and like I don't think I'm evergonna get as crazy as like
Danny Carey.
I'm, yeah, trying to learn somemore intricate like stickings
(31:02):
and fills and, uh, some likerudiments too.
Which is what I always likedabout Travis Barker was he does
a lot of the like, you know,like marching kind of rudiments
in there.
Yeah, I gotta find the placefor it, but I think that could
be really effective.
You know, going forward as oflike lately.
Uh, the foo fighters come tomind as oh yeah as probably a
band where, where we all cametogether and we were like
(31:23):
they're kind of doing the, thething that we like.
Yeah, them and dinosaur pileupdinosaur pileup's a big one.
Dinosaur pileup has kind of moreof a hip-hop feel in a lot of
their songs versing and stuffwhich we don't really do, but
every other part of the song.
They're one of the bands we fitin well genre-wise or turnstile
(31:44):
with some of our stuff.
They're a newer band andthey're really good.
There's so many.
There's so many bands thatwe're discovering now.
Jay Franze (31:56):
Let's change gears a little bit.
Let's talk about your liveperformances, because you guys
definitely come with a lot ofenergy right?
First of all, who's bookingyour gigs?
Gradience (32:07):
Us, we are.
Jay Franze (32:09):
So, with that said, you guys are obviously a a band,
a fairly new band.
Are you wearing multiple hats?
Who does what in the band?
Gradience (32:17):
between john and I.
We do a lot of the like socialmedia stuff.
You know I've done a lot of thecold calls and emails, a lot of
unopened emails, unresponded toemails.
Yeah, it's.
It's mostly when john and Iwork in the social media game
(32:38):
and just trying to reach out tonew bands and and we've gotten a
fair amount of shows just fromother bands who find us and
they're like hey, you want to dothe show with us?
You know, you guys seem cool.
We've been fortunate to have afew other bands reach out to us
while we also are reaching outto bands.
Tiffany Mason (32:57):
I saw you got a pretty sweet gig coming up on
the 26th at the Red Carpet in StCloud, Minnesota.
Whoop, whoop.
Gradience (33:06):
Yeah, and we also like a couple days ago we just
had a band reach out to us toplay there this Saturday because
another band had dropped theshow.
So we're going to be playingthere the 12th and the 26th.
Tiffany Mason (33:18):
Oh my gosh.
Well, everybody who islistening.
That is my friend from WaitePark, sartell, st Cloud.
You guys got to go check themout.
Red Carpet this Saturday.
Gradience (33:29):
Yep this Saturday.
Tiffany Mason (33:30):
And the 26th and the 26th so yeah, head over
while the weather's stillbeautiful and you can be out and
about, out and about.
Jay Franze (33:44):
Don't encourage me, mercy me.
So what are you looking forwardto most about the show?
Gradience (33:51):
For me, like I love every show, cause I really love
like performing.
You're up there and then all ofa sudden you wake up the next
day and you're like whoa, whatjust happened?
But when you remember like thefeeling of being up there, it's
really cool because we put a lotof energy like into our
performance, because we wanteveryone to have fun and like to
(34:12):
go to a show.
I'm very much a believer oflike when I go to shows it could
be the best sounding show.
But if every every band memberis just standing there looking
at their fretboards or juststanding still and they move
maybe five feet throughout thewhole show, it kind of kills the
mood for me.
Like I want to see peoplejumping over things and I don't
know going through a fire loopor something.
Jay Franze (34:37):
That reminds me of the Cars.
I don't know if you're familiarwith the.
Cars.
But they just stood in one spotOne of the best-sounding bands
ever but they never moved, never.
Tiffany Mason (34:47):
Right, well, I always am impressed with rock
and heavy metal.
It takes a lot of energy tobounce around the stage like
that and still play the song andstill sound good.
You know, I mean I've been to acouple long story, but I've
been to a couple that they'recompletely distorted.
You can tell everything's offbecause they're too busy trying
to like put on a show.
Gradience (35:17):
So, john, I appreciate you know that you're
saying you want a great, greatshow, but I think you guys are
also keeping in mind that themusic is great as well.
Yeah, it's more so likepracticing and rehearsing enough
to like you, gotta, we gottaget our set like locked in to
where we're not even thinkingabout what we're playing I think
Basically making it so that theplaying part of it is muscle
memory and that we can focus onhaving fun but also the
showmanship part of it.
Jay Franze (35:39):
Yeah, that's going to come with hundreds and
hundreds of shows.
Tiffany Mason (35:43):
Yep who gets the most nervous?
Gradience (35:47):
Hmm, hmm, I don't know.
Horner just seems too much.
Sorry for it, it was like a toomuch.
Sorry, horner, it was like threeheads were flanking.
Tiffany Mason (35:56):
Because, john and Darian, you seem extremely
extroverted so I have to imaginethat you guys are just drawing
the energy off the crowd.
But I got to think in fourpeople someone's getting nervous
.
Gradience (36:07):
I really used to be like I had some stage fright and
then played a few shows andthat was gone.
I don't know what happened, butit was fantastic.
Tiffany Mason (36:15):
I'm happy we're proud of you Well, do you all
find that you have the jitters,maybe just even a little bit.
But you hit that first note ortwo and you're like all right,
now, we're in it, we're goingyeah.
Gradience (36:24):
I always find that it depends on the show.
I mean, growing up I hadterrible stage fright.
I did not want to go on stage,but over time, I think a lot of
it is feeling confident in yourabilities to perform or to do
what you do and it kind of helpsput the stage fright away.
(36:44):
Now, that said, like I wassaying, it depends on the show
Playing a different venue candefinitely bring in some
post-show jitters, or even thesize of the crowd or the size of
the venue.
I know we played Sturgis andjust that being such a big deal
for us at the time, there wasdefinitely some pre-show jitters
(37:07):
, especially because we weretowards the end of the lineup,
so already seeing the othergreat bands that were performing
, the nerves, the nerves were in, and I was sick at the time on
top of that, so I wasn't in goodvocal health.
So I was just like, oh man, Ihope I can pull through, like I
was chugging honey and drinkingwater and trying to find a
(37:27):
doctor, trying to find a doctor,and you know it's just the, the
, all those things that can workits way into just being, you
know, pre-show anxiety and alittle bit of stage fright, but
you know, it's just once youstart performing it it kind of
melts away, more or less I thinkto me it just displays the
(37:48):
passion.
Tiffany Mason (37:49):
You know how much it meant to you guys, and I'm
sure it still means a lot, butyou know you're getting more
familiar.
I would, guys and I'm sure itstill means a lot, but you know
you're getting more familiar Iwould say that's a big deal and
it meant a lot and you know youwere hoping great things would
come out of it.
Exposure and leads on otherevents, so that makes sense.
Gradience (38:04):
I was a little worried about Trevor for the
first few shows, because he waslike, yeah, I've never, played
in a band before.
Yeah, I had never my first show.
It was this thing.
It wasn't so much the day, itwas the night before.
I got super nervous as soon asyou started playing.
It instantly just went away,and I think a large part of it
too is.
At any level it's natural to benervous, no matter how small or
(38:25):
big the show is.
But it's all about how youreact to that and feel that into
the performance, because Iplayed a lot of sports growing
up so I'm kind of used to likethe high-pressure situation.
So it's like you've got to kindof turn those nerves like into
adrenaline and then just intoenergy and then, you know, put
on a good show.
I've gotten really comfortablewith it now.
Jay Franze (38:44):
All right.
Well, let's take it a stepfurther.
You mentioned the social mediaand putting all that stuff
together.
Gradience (38:55):
Is that your core way right now of developing your
fan base?
Social media has definitelybeen a big focus, definitely of
the last year.
We recently, well last summer,we made the move from basically
Fargo down to the Twin Citiesarea, which was a pretty big
deal for us, just because, youknow, I grew up up here, trevor
grew up in the Twin Cities, butthese two hadn't, and for the
(39:17):
last five years the three of ushad been up in Fargo and we had
kind of made a fan base up there, but not so much really
anywhere else, and so werealized that the social media
is kind of the best way to reachout to the rest of the world.
Basically, uh, so we've reallyfocused a lot of time, effort
(39:41):
and a bit of money, uh, intodeveloping our social media
presence what do you feel isyour strength when it comes to
marketing yourselves?
probably at shows, honestly yeah, I'll say, our strongest point
is shows yeah, because that'sthe point.
Like you can be, you can bedirect with people.
You can meet them and greetthem and say hi and get to know
(40:04):
them as people like hey, I thinkyou're cool and I think you'd
like our music when you'replaying a show in a new venue or
maybe you're opening forsomebody and you're in front of
a new crowd, are you pushingyour social media?
Jay Franze (40:17):
Do you mention it from the stage?
Gradience (40:19):
Yeah, a lot of times I'll make sure, or we'll make
sure, to mention our socialmedia handles, not really try to
shove it down people's throats.
Handles, not really try toshove it down people's throats.
You know, I think we've all hadexperiences where a band takes
it a little too far and is alittle too incessant on it.
But you know, in between, ifwe're doing an hour-long set,
(40:39):
maybe I'll shout it out a coupletimes, maybe I should do it
more.
But I, you know, kind of gowith the flow and deem what
seems reasonable.
I'm not going to shout it outseveral times if there's still
only 10 people in the room.
If I say it once towards theend, I think they'll get the
idea, or by then maybe they'retoo plastered to understand.
(41:05):
We try not to do those ones ifwe can help it.
So if we get a good show with agood number of people and you
know there's people, new peoplecoming in and out all the time,
you know you want to make surethat those people know what's up
and make sure they know who youare, especially if it's like a
new town?
Because we do.
We use our social media heavilyto post like what shows are
(41:28):
coming up and when.
Media heavily to post like whatshows are coming up and when.
So if we're playing a new venuein a new town or like to new
people because it still kind offeels like we are new, because
whenever we do show, people likeoh, we've never heard of you
before it's like yeah, follow uson social media, so the next
time we play you can, if youlike us, you can come back out.
It's just a way of like makingsure people see when we're
(41:49):
coming back, if they, if theylike us are you guys jokesters
at all?
Jay Franze (41:55):
oh?
Gradience (41:55):
yeah, oh yeah, I did just the other night.
The three of us live together,like we all.
We've been living together forfour, three years, and once
again, trevor's the outcast I'mjust saying okay, when is trevor
moving in?
well, trevor is ahead of all ofus.
He's got his own house.
(42:15):
But I've known trevor sincesince we were kids.
I, I grew up with trevor for avery long time.
We kind of went our separateways in high school and you know
, and post, post high school andall that.
But when we realized we weregoing to end up needing a new
drummer, I had remembered that,like when we were growing up, he
started taking interest inplaying the drums and I'd asked
(42:36):
him if he would be interested inpotentially doing doing stuff
with us and darian what if hewould have stunk?
Tiffany Mason (42:46):
yeah I mean, you had had a break from him for a
while and here you are, like,join the band.
Gradience (42:51):
I don't even know if you're good anymore, but come on
but the thing was that when,when growing up like before we
had kind of went our separateways, like I started to notice
that he was like he was pickingup on, like he had his own drum
kit and like he was starting toactually like play and learn,
and it was around the same timelike both of us were really
starting into music.
Like I started playing guitar,he was playing drums and I
(43:14):
didn't really know how far longhe had gotten, but just reaching
out to see if he was still likedoing because I know I, like
you, were posting every now andthen on Facebook.
Yeah, you would post like stuff.
So it was like it's like I kindof had an idea that he at least
knew what he was doing.
Yeah, it was funny for me too,because I've followed for years
on like social media, a lot ofthe guys that do like the home
(43:34):
recording stuff and playinglocal shows, so a lot of it.
I had a good idea of what itentailed, but I just had never
like done it myself.
So yeah they kind of took me inand have been showing me the
ropes on all of that type ofstuff I love that so much yeah,
and, and just just so like weall went to college together,
the three of us.
Jay Franze (43:53):
Wait, whoa.
What did we go to college for?
Gradience (43:57):
I was curious about that in the beginning, Pujay.
Well, so yeah, all three of uswe have the same degree, the
Bachelor of Science in,basically, audio production is
what it boils down to.
It's got a different name butit's convoluted and it no longer
exists anymore where we camefrom.
It's something else now, butbasically audio production.
(44:21):
And live sound and performance.
I had a minor in basically musicvocal performance.
Jay Franze (44:27):
So this is why you guys have your own rehearsal
space and the reason why you'rerecording your own projects.
Gradience (44:34):
Basically, yeah, if I hadn't gone to school for audio
, like I wouldn't have takenupon myself to try and record us
, you know all those years agoand you know it really helps
living together because we canjust kind of grab each other and
be like, hey, let's recordsomething or let's practice this
, this.
And that was kind of the wholeidea about, uh, moving into a
(44:56):
house together.
sorry, we didn't include thatthat was one of the things that
really kind of attracted me tothese guys as a band, even like
before I was in, because I wasfollowing them on like social
media right now, but like thefact that it's a very organic,
like recording all their ownstuff legitimately and like just
jamming together instead ofjust writing everything in Pro
Tools and then be like hey,learn this, hey, learn this.
(45:17):
It's like no, we're all justjamming in a room together and
vibing off of it.
I really like that aspect of it.
Tiffany Mason (45:23):
Trevor, how far is your house from theirs?
Gradience (45:27):
30 minutes.
It's in a spot, though, that,like, if traffic's bad, like
I've tried to get over hereduring rush hour before and
it'll take like an hour of justsitting there, but uh, it's not
too far away thanks, 494 yeah Iwas gonna say something's never
changed usually it's at nighttoo, so that helps yeah, right.
Jay Franze (45:49):
I mentioned earlier you guys being pranksters.
Tell me what's one of thecraziest things you guys have
done to each other.
Gradience (45:55):
Oh, craziest, oh, uh-oh.
Jay Franze (45:56):
Uh-oh.
Gradience (45:59):
Ford speaking up.
Tiffany Mason (46:00):
Yeah, yeah, always the quiet one.
Gradience (46:02):
We had a bunch of leftover carpet.
It's the same one, yeah it'sthe same one.
It was the one I was going tosay A bunch of leftover carpet
and we had.
These two guys lived downstairsin our last place so we carpeted
their entire bathroom, likearound the toilet, in the tub.
We carpeted everything Likecovered the whole thing, cut it
(46:24):
out around the toilet andeverything.
The best part is I was there andI witnessed it because he was
gone, so I was there to documentthe process.
Yeah, they cut the carpet inLike it was perfectly fitted
carpet into the bathroom aroundthe toilet.
And I came back from like acollege trip to the cities for
like where I was working and Ireally had to use the bathroom
because I was like driving a vanfor like 12 hours.
(46:46):
So I got back, went into thebathroom and like as I was going
downstairs, they were waitingfor me and I just heard a bunch
of giggles.
I'm like what Such a stupidprank?
Why 'd you carpet the bathroom?
You wasted two hours on this.
The amount of time we took too.
Yeah, that was kind of it.
It was really a prank on us fordoing all that work.
Tiffany Mason (47:05):
I mean, it sounds to me like you guys have a plan
B, Like that was the most fandoesn't work out, you're putting
some carpet on hire us, we're,we're open.
Gradience (47:13):
I mean, he did actual carpentry.
So yeah, I did like the removalprocess mostly or just little
things around the house too,like last night he left a full
pizza out on the counter, and sosorry to dox you, but there's a
long story short.
It was his second pizza, but heleft it out.
So I I took it and I I put iton a chair and there we, we have
(47:40):
this stuffed animal and I putit in the lap of the stuffed
animal and I put it in front ofhis door.
So when he opened it, he would.
He would see it just simple,harmless, or like he had some
takeout or something, and it wason the kitchen counter and I
moved it to the couch, hidden inplain sight, and I just watched
to see how long it would takefor him to find it.
(48:03):
You're making me lose my mindover here.
A very long-running one where,like at our campus, they'd give
out you know like a bag that hadVaseline and condoms and stuff
in it.
So like we had this like littleportable Vaseline thing or like
this like lube thing.
Tiffany Mason (48:19):
Yeah, it was lube and we would hide it.
You can call it Vaseline if itmakes you feel better.
Gradience (48:26):
It was just like a little tube of it.
So what we would do is we'dhide it in the other person's
room.
Eventually, one day, we put itin the back of Ford's guitar.
Yeah.
And then at a show where he tookout the back plate of his
guitar to adjust some springs orchange his strings or something
, and he found it after like sixmonths.
(48:46):
Yeah, that was something.
I think it ended up in.
It ended up in in one of myguitar.
It ended up in one of my guitarpedals that I asked Ford to
dissect for me, which he didn'tdo a good job at hiding it
because he was he was gigglingthe whole time but I found it
and I hid it underneath hiscomputer monitor.
(49:08):
That eventually got taken backto his parents' house.
Jay Franze (49:14):
So your parents found your loot, got it.
Gradience (49:17):
Then we had this similar thing, but with this
little thing of peanut butterfrom the cafeteria.
That was found.
That was nasty.
Darian and I hid it in Ford'spedalboard case in our last
house two years ago and he foundit about a week ago and it had
been opened.
Yeah, we didn't open it, it justended up open all right, let me
(49:39):
ask you this.
Jay Franze (49:40):
We do this thing here.
We call unsung heroes.
We take a moment to shine lighton somebody who's worked behind
the scenes or somebody who mayhave supported you along the way
.
You guys have anybody you'dlike to shine a little light on.
Gradience (49:49):
Oh, most definitely, Most definitely A big shout out
to our photographer,videographer and just overall
great friend, emma Christensen.
She has been an incredible helpfor just helping out with all
of our music videos and she'sbeen working tirelessly all
(50:13):
through last year and she's beendocumenting, like photos and
taking videos Pretty much all ofour shows for the last couple
years.
Now we just got finished withprobably a last music video for
a while, for our song on a roll,which that was the first video
that we did.
We did it outside of our, ourhouse and we did like location
filming and rented out a spacefor two days and had a crew
(50:35):
casting call sorts of stuff andshe took it head on and we owe a
great deal to to her expertisein filmmaking and photography
what was that like for you?
it was great.
I mean, I it was.
It was definitely uh, it was apassion project, more or less.
It was.
(50:56):
It was kind of my idea to do itand we were.
We rented out a boxing ring,basically, and I was doing some
boxing lessons to prepare forthe, for the shoot, and, uh, I
did that for a month.
Yeah, that's commitment.
You learned how to box.
That was cool.
And then the filming process.
It was a lot of heavy liftingbecause I mean, it was basically
(51:18):
putting on we call themcapstone projects in the
undergrad program with a smallfilm crew and it was just a big
undertaking which wouldn't havebeen possible without Emma to be
able to help out with that.
Jay Franze (51:33):
Well, thank you, Emma.
Tiffany Mason (51:35):
I imagine Emma went to school with y'all as
well.
Gradience (51:37):
Yep, she was a film major.
Jay Franze (51:40):
Now, that's a school to go to.
You get your whole team rightthere at the school Pretty much.
Yeah, that's awesome, all right.
Well, we have done it.
We've reached the top of thehour, which doesn't mean we have
reached the end of the show.
If you've enjoyed the show,please tell a friend, if you
have not.
Miss Tiffany.
Tiffany Mason (51:56):
Tell two.
Jay Franze (51:57):
Tell two you can reach out to all of us.
All of us, I said it, all of us.
There's a lot of us tonight.
All of us.
You can reach out Jfranzycom.
We'll be happy to answer anyquestions or keep this
conversation going.
Guys, my friends got any finalwords for us?
Gradience (52:14):
Go listen to our new album, Come what May.
Jay Franze (52:17):
All right, folks On that note have a good night.
Tony Scott (52:22):
Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze Show.
Make sure you visit us atjayfranze.
com Follow, connect and sayhello.
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