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| The Exclusive Interview With Tom Griesgraber! |
| The highly talented Tom Griesgraber, a former attendee of the reknowned Berkley College of Music, found early inspiration through his studies in piano, violin, and electric guitar, but in 1997, his life changed when he discovered the versatility and endless possibilities of the Chapman Stick, an instrument in which he found that he could satisfy all of his music talents into one device. Tom was a quick study, and quickly became a highly touted musician along the west coast, playing in his jazz/rock trio Agent 22, and finding time to work with other musical luminaries such as Jerry Marotta and Steve Lukather. Tom was kind enough to take some time to join me for some questions in the middle of his many new endeavours! |
| Q: Tom, thank you very much for taking the time to join us here for this interview! I wanted to start off by asking you about your recent series of gigs in which you opened for the California Guitar Trio on a string of West Coast dates. This had to have been some great exposure for you, and I know that from all accounts, you were very well received from the various audiences. How did you enjoy that series of gigs? A: Hi Billy. How did I enjoy them? well... with a good deal of emotional restraint I was able to overcome the fact that CGT audiences are wonderfully attentive and open to hearing new things and I was able to contend with the fact that the CGT themselves are some of the nicest people I've met in the business. (sarcasm there.. sorry ;) Really though their audiences are ideal for me, and vice versa. I can recommend CGT without reservation to anyone who likes what I do and yes, it seems their audiences are always appreciative of what I do. I can't ask for more than that, but I get it since all of the guys are just fun to be around as well. Q: Knowing that Tony Levin was able to add a unique element to the CGT's music on their collaborations with the Chapman Stick, is it possible that we may see you doing some more work with them together in the near future? A: Actually, while CGT were in San Diego rehearsing before the tour started, I managed to get them to come into a local studio (Spotted Peccary) and record on a track of mine. They added some great parts to what's fast becoming a very orchestrated track that also includes Jerry Marotta on Taos drums and percussion and Agent 22 drummer Darren DeBree. While it's only one track, the thing is about 13 minutes long, so... it's a significant part of a new solo CD I'm working on. Q: You are a standout in an elite group of musicians who has taken on the challenge of learning and mastering the techniques of the Chapman Stick, and you have even received some ringing endorsements from the creator of the Stick himself, Emmett Chapman, whom has praised your creative concepts and versatility with the Stick! How did you come about playing the Stick for the first time? A: My "Stick story" dates back to 1997. I graduated from Berklee College of music in 1995 as a guitar performance major. I spent 95-96 in San Diego State's master program as a jazz major, but by that time I was actually getting tired of the guitar. Berklee has an average of about 1000 guitar players a semester, and all of them are at least decent musicians. I just heard so much guitar music that I was becoming hungrier and hungrier to find something different. At the NAMM show of 1997 (late January probably) I saw Tony Levin play with Jerry Marotta and Steve Gorn. He was mainly playing Stick and I became hooked from that one show. That group was the one that recorded in a cave in NY, so all their parts were fairly simple due to the huge ambience of the cave. I could watch Tony's hands and understand what was happening, but was captivated by the fact that it didn't quite sound like a guitar OR a bass. It was something new to me and I made up my mind that night to get one. I bought my first Stick used from some people in North Carolina in July of 1997. Q: Although the answer to this question may be somewhat obvious, I was curious as to your perspective on how playing the Stick is different from playing a standard bass or guitar? A: What I'm really interested in most these days I think is writing and arranging. I've recently gotten some great basses from Music Man, still play standard guitar, dabble with the CGT's New Standard Tuning for guitar and am getting more and more into synths and looping. To me they're all just different toold for making music. If you want to pound a nail, a hammer works much better than a screwdriver. Likewise.. a strummed chord on a guitar is an amazingly powerful sound that a Stick can't do. A bass guitar is better at doing a melodic (scale based) low end part than a Stick because of the tuning differences. So to me, they're all just tools, but when it comes time to play live the Stick works out the best since I can do guitar parts, bass parts and synth parts all at once. It's like having a small band under your fingers, and for a solo player that's fantastic. Q: I listened to your solo Chapman Stick pieces on the MP3 site, one of which was an original improv piece entitled El Prado, and the other being an arrangement of the classic piano piece Prelude # 1, and I was really blown away. It was beautiful stuff! As you mentioned earlier, you have actually been working on your first solo CD. What is the progress of this project? A: Right at the moment, progress is slow, but I "think" it'll be out later this year. I've actually been working on it for some time now, but got "distracted" when Jerry Marotta approached me about starting a group together. For a time I tried to juggle both projects at once, but then realised I should just concentrate on one at a time. I spent about two months in Woodstock last year with Jerry and another week this last February. Things are pretty much done with our CD now, and once they are I'll be back to concentrating on mine. Of course.. summer can also be extremely busy for me with shows, soo... that's why I'm prediciting it'll be late this year. Q: You have been playing in a jazz/rock/funk trio for several years entitled Agent 22, and you have recorded two albums together, including your most recent, a live recording from the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego. How has playing in such a creative outlet with other talented musicians in your band like Jimmy Patton and Ryan Moran helped you to develop more freedom creatively with your own projects? A: Actually, most of the time these days the live Agent 22 is just myself and drummer Darren DeBree although Jimmy Patton is around once in awhile and some other musicians actually come and go as well. Agent 22 really started as a collaboration between myself and Jimmy. It was a crazy idea really.. to combine his two guitars at once tapping with a "full" Stick approach (melody bass, chords). Arranging wise, it could be as dense as having about 4 guitar players and a bass player all playing at once. We spent a lot of time while making the first album just sorting out how it could work and I loved that. Since there were no other groups around with our instrumentation, we really had nothing to base what we were doing on, and had to sort of figure out a musical puzzle on our own. I love that type of scenario. Q: Are there any gigs in the near future coming up with Agent 22? A: There will be some in San Diego this summer. Really Agent 22 has always been more or less a "local phenomen" to date. It's also really become more or less an extension of what I do as a soloist and as I mentioned is usually myself and drummer Darren DeBree. I'm kind of always keeping my ears open to other possibilities for it though. Q: I wanted to ask you a bit more about the very special project you are working on with one of my idols, the legendary drummer Jerry Marotta. You spent a long period of time late last year working on some tracks with him for a forthcoming release. How has it been for you to work with a drummer with such a sense of dynamics and such an ability to create an instant chemistry with his fellow musicians? A: At the risk of sounding conceited, I think people are going to be blown away by this record. Like you, I've been a fan of Jerry for years, and have heard most of the albums he's best known for, but I've never heard him do anything quite like this. Jerry's known as a guy who has great ideas, but I think this is possibly the first time he's had the freedom to do really whatever he wants on an album. The other big gem for me on the project has been Harvey Jones the keyboard player. He came in after Jerry and I had pretty much put all our parts down, and added some amazing textures and sounds. All three of us went for a very orchestrated approach. Although the album has a few versions of some of my solo pieces, on much of it, we really approached the music with no real concern about how we'd pull it off live. We just tried out ideas. Then we tried out other ideas. To use Jerry as an example, I think there's at least one track where he's got two full drum kits layered, with several Taos drum ideas underneath it all and probably some hand percussion as well. It's really amazing. Q: Just like many, many other musicians and fans around the world, Jerry is definitely very high on your abilities. Is it possible that there may be some touring associated with your collaboration together? A: Absolutely. Our aim here isn't just to make an album, but to launch a new band. The first step though is for us to get the CD out. It's pretty much ready to be mixed now, so I'm hoping we'll have it by summer. Q: Tom, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to join us here. It has been a real pleasure to have you. I want to finish up here by asking you what other ideas and projects that you are looking to work on in the next few months? A: Thanks Billy. My main goal in the next few months is to help complete the CD with Jerry and Harvey. This summer should see a bunch of solo shows mixed with a handful of Agent 22 shows. I may also be doing a few shows with some of Spotted Peccary's artists (spottedpeccary.com). In between all that I'll be trying to finish my solo CD and there's talk of another tour with CGT, which I hope we can pull together because I really enjoyed this last one. |
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