Vocals : Phil Jamieson Lead Guitar : Pat Davern Bass Guitar : Joe Hanson Drums : Kristian Hopes
Grinspoon are a four piece band who hail from the small North Coast Town of Lismore, Northern New South Wales, Australia. The band are now based in Byron Bay just north of Lismore and other member's of the band reside in Sydney. Lismore is a mainly rural community which has also produced the likes of other Australian band's The Simpletons, Half of Skunkhour's members, Headlister, and more recently Diana Ah Naid.
Grinspoon were formed when Pat Davern and Joe Hansen hooked up with Kristian Hopes and Phil Jamieson who had been playing together in different bands for about a year. Kristian and Phil had been playing in a band in Port Macquarie called Crabapple at the time. Then after having a few jams at Lismore's The Gollan Hotel, a few songs were written. 'Clockwork' was the title of the first song written by Grinspoon. Later on, after hearing Australia's national youth radio station Triple J were Unearthing bands in regional area's of Australia. They recorded a demo, and entered it into Triple J's, Inaugural Unearthed Competition. It came as quite a surprise to Grinspoon when they found out they had won.
The prize for winning Unearthed was a song professionally recorded for a compilation cd of other unearthed bands, and radio airplay of the winning song. The song that won them a place in Unearthed was "Sickfest" which soon became the number one request on Triple J for 7 weeks. Grinspoon were rewarded at the end of 1995 when "Sickfest" also made it into the Triple J's Hot 100 list, voted in by the listeners. There song "Sickfest" was produced by Phil Mckellar who later worked with them on future releases.
A few months after winning Unearthed, Brisbane independent record label Oracle signed Grinspoon and gave them a distribution deal. They recorded their self-titled Ep in two days at Grevillia Studios in Brisbane.
After parting ways with their first manager they started working with Apollo Artist Management and things started to happen for them. After recording their "Licker Bottle Cozy" Ep which was produced by Phil Mckellar at the Abc's Ultimo studios and self financed from the money they earn't after doing gig's endlessly. They were planning to release it through Oracle again but just before they were about to send the master disc off to be pressed, MCA's/Universal's new label Grudge picked them up and signed them.
The Grinspoon sound has always been an aspect in which the band has allowed room for growth, the bands first Ep was influenced heavily by bands such as Helmet , the result of which was very rock sounds. The bands second Ep has seen them take a new approach. As well as keeping the rock element, the band has introduced some samples as well making the Ep somewhat of a melange of styles.
Grinspoon's live act has seen them play gigs along side many Australian and International artists including : Def Fx, Screaming Jets, Spiderbait, Frenzal Rhomb, silverchair, Iggy Pop, and throughout July 97, The Rollins Band on their national tour of Australia. Grinspoon have also played the inaugural Homebake Festival in Byron Bay and 1998 Homebake Festival's in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.
In September of 97 Grinspoon played alongside Bush, Veruca Salt and The Bloodhound Gang at Grudgefest in Sydney as part of the Pacific Circle Music Convention. The band also completed their Road Rage Tour which took them all over Australia with support by Melbourne based band Non Intentional Life Form and another former Lismore band Bloody Mary. Grinspoon finished there Road Rage tour playing Brisbane's annual Livid Festival on October 4th to a packed out Loudmouth stage. Over the summer they also supported silverchair and The Offspring at Springboard on the Gold Coast in November 97, and silverchair on some dates of their Australian tour.
Other notable gig's include The Fall's Festival at Lorne, Victoria which was headlined by Iggy Pop over the New Year's Eve long weekend. The band are currently undertaking a tour across the Usa and Canada supporting some dates with No Means No, and playing famed clubs such as club La Luna in Portland, Oregon and CBGB's in New York City. They plan on touring part's of Europe after touring the Usa and Canada.
Their debut album "Grinspoon's Guide To Better Living" which features the singles "Pedestrian" , "DCx3", "Repeat", "Just Ace" and the final single to be lifted from the album "Don't Go Away" was recorded at Rocking Horse Studios, Byron Bay. Grinspoon chose to work with Phil Mckellar again on the new Lp which was released on September 16th 1997. There debut album has now gone certified platinum, meaning sales of over 70,000 copies Australia wide.
The band left Australia in March, to tour Canada and the USA and also making there way over to Europe in between. The band will be playing and promoting there "Licker Bottle Cozy" Ep which has just been released in Canada and the Usa. A new Grinspoon album is rumored to be recorded while they are overseas and hopefully be out late 1998. When Grinspoon return in September/October they also plan on doing a major regional tour of Australia.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/alley/2575/whogrin.html
