Get Ready to ROCK! Interview with Kevin Martin and Chad Taylor from rock band The Gracious Few,London,18 February 2011

The Gracious Few were formed by the coming together of guitarist Chad Taylor, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer and drummer Chad Gracey of LIVE with vocalist Kevin Martin and guitarist Sean Hennesy of Candlebox.

GRTR!'s Andy Nathan caught up with Chad and Kevin prior to their showcase gig in London on 18 February 2011.

GRTR! Welcome to England! You're a new name, but with some history behind you, so tell us a little about how you guys got together and how The Gracious Few came about?

Chad Taylor Going way back 19 years back, Live and Candlebox would do shows together. One memorable night before we had played together, Live was on MTV's 120 minutes tour with England's own Johnny Rotten in PIL and Mick Jones in Big Audio Dynamite, and we were the third act and the opening band was a then unsigned band called Blind Melon. We played Seattle and Kevin came out: he knew the guys in Blind Melon who were a bunch of young guys like us, and we were hanging around with them.

It was an insane gang - we were these young kids from Pennsylvania, with all these Seattle guys. The Seattle scene had already broken though it hadn't gone mainstream and I was impressed guys from Candlebox and Nirvana came out. Kevin and I hit it off right away - we always had interests in common like cars, and as the years went by Candlebox and Live played together. The most memorable was when we showed up and played at a New Years Eve Party of Dennis Rodman's.

A mutual friend of ours was in a band I was producing, and we had to fire drummer and she suggested we get to Kevin to play drums and he said he'd d do it even though I only knew Kevin as singer and didn't know he could play the drums. Before you know it I called Kevin and brought him into the fold and during time working on that band, about six years ago, he was the only person I could relate to in the room.

He was pushing me back as producer with the bigger picture things that had to happen on a record. We hit it off, drinking lots of beer, hanging out more than working and we said we ought to make a record together, but Candlebox were just about to reunite and Live were still touring.

Very fast six years go by and Chad, Pat and I are in a room making noise and music and asking who's going to sing on these six songs we've done. I asked another close friend in John Slovak and said you should use Kevin Martin.

So I called the guys, though I had already sent text asking if he wanted to do it before getting the ok from the other guys. He called me back within minutes to figure out his plane flights and the first day we got together we wrote three songs, all from scratch.

The chemistry was amazingly simple and Kevin fitted in with my guys. His skills as singer were well represented, but they were sold on how he was as a human being and where he could fit in.

GRTR! When you got together and started recording was there a specific sound you had in mind and particular influences you were bringing together ?

Kevin Martin We were all looking at the kind of record we hoped we could always make, thats not to discount Throwing Copper or Candlebox's self-titled album, but there comes a point as a musician where you say I have not made record I want to make. He is known for his tone, (Chad) Gracey is known for his style of drumming and Patrick is known for his incredible finesse of music as well as incredible bass playing but didn't come into play.

We opened ourselves up to whatever is going to happen will happen: I picked up one of Patrick's 335 Gibson guitars, plugged into fender amp and started jamming, these guys said whats that and quite honestly that was how that side of band unfolded - what they had done before Appetite, Honest Man, Try to See, the very hard dark stuff.

I sing rock n roll - I come from a pop punk background and from the lighter side, musically writing and those combinations of the freedom to make any record we could make with no inhibitions and fears, just the desire to make music is what allowed is to make this record , and that was the freedom we were looking for.

Chad Taylor When we finally wrote songs and amassed them, without discussion of it will be like band A or B we called Jerry Harrison. He didn't ask what the record would sound like, he asked if you could pick any, what fan base we would make a record for, which was a very interesting question, and I said Guns n Roses. He said but do you have songs like G n R? I said they are as heavy, though he hadn't heard any music. But this has a big arena rock sound, maybe a bit more blues.

Kevin Martin Jerry as a producer is like the famous basketball coach Phil Jackson who is known as the Zen Master - he lets the team suffer so they find their own way.

He was there reading the New York Times, and there were only two occasions where he stepped outside the studio, stopped us and said where are you going and you need to do this, with Appetite and Crying Time. Otherwise he didn't steer.

He comes from that pop punk background and knew what we were capable of and we were doing it anyway and he was happy with how we evolved as a band. We wrote 17 songs in 39 days in total in writing rehearsal sessions, a lot of material in a very short space of time. Sean and I met in Southern California and Chad and Patrick flew in, and we wrote song after song and Jerry was pleased with that.

It was important the songs propel themselves without a melody in place - so that just the band jamming or playing together was entertaining, and then add in the melody and lyric that draws it together.

Chad Taylor We also did something different in the writing from our previous bands. It was important the songs propel themselves without a melody in place - so that just the band jamming or playing together was entertaining, and then add in the melody and lyric that draws it together.

On the early morning sessions Kevin would pick up a guitar when he didn't want to sing right away and start playing with us, the chorus rhythm in All I Hear is all Kevin and I still can't really play that on stage . And I would go, �thats awesome how are you playing that'?. We became dependent on each other in a different way.

Kevin relates to music in a different way to me. I'm the guy who has to dredge it up out of my soul, and Kevin says �oh no, thats like so and so'. He'd have it on his ipod and call it up and play, which was having an amazing music collection in room with us. That had a large part to do in the writing feel of the record.

Kevin Martin It's funny, we made a collective decision not to do Candlebox and Live stuff, and also decided that prices are too high, and it has to be 10 dollar ticket. We have a song, Honest Man, about the difficulties of the blue collar worker trying to put food on table - why is it 25 dollars, we don't need that. The reaction from that decision and ticket sales increasing 200% was amazing.

We only market the band as �this is The Gracious Few', so you don't play to 3000, but to 300. We are seeing sales increase and radio play slowly build and coming to Europe is instrumental to our future as band Tonight there will be 200, tomorrow in Holland 600 and its all good, we're going back to how we started.

We met a bunch of musicians in opening bands who are kids, have no idea who Candlebox and Live are, and were thinking how young and nascent they are, in this bubble of innocence - they don't care about the headliner. I was that kid forever and ever and now 22 years on, thats a totally different feel and I'm saying to them �good luck, and have fun'.

GRTR! Would you hanker after playing stadiums again or is this the true spirit of rock n roll?

Kevin Martin The first time Candlebox played , we played at the Underworld and I just walked by there last night.

Chad Taylor I remember turning 21 in London and won't tell you what I did but it was definitely an illegal birthday - somehow I ended up in Harrods.

We don't claim to be doing anything original - our take is its all been done, so do it like the guys who did it very well. The Stones are there, and Zeppelin, and though they were influenced by US blues, there is a big British influence you hear in the songs.

Chad Taylor I think they chased us out - they knew we were up to no good. London has always been a special place for me musically because of my love for, in particular, the Rolling Stones and their coming of age here - they were a cover band playing blues all around the city and we are carrying on that lineage, basically playing blues .

Kevin Martin The Clash had a big influence - in fact I was meant to invite Mick Jones to this show but forgot.

Chad Taylor Mick was a huge champion of Live and loved what we did. He heard the pop power thing - conversely if you listen to Candlebox there was a blues band there. There was always some commonality with us.

GRTR! Fashions and musical trends come and go but blues based heavy rock is timeless.

Chad Taylor Another influence on me is ACDC. It's hard not to think of bands who use the higher vocal register and not think of that band.

We're playing much heavier in places and doing totally new things to what we've done before. It's insane on stage - it's a really hard show to play. We were doing 75 -90 minutes in the USA and I was coming off stage thinking it's not just us getting older, its that this music is really hard to play.

Chad Taylor You will hear tonight we're not afraid to stray off the beaten path and luckily we have the musicians to do it. That's where some bands get caught out.

Kevin Martin We go back to the States and would like to make a new record in April/May for release in late summer - we've got some material and other songs to write.

We have dates booked around May and hoping to get back to festivals in Europe early and late summer. We're not planning to tour unless someone asks us. If we got those May/June dates we'd come just for those.

Candlebox are still around doing records, but its not the love of my life, it's the ex-wife I keep paying Child Support to, and I am loving the mistress I have - who is sexy and doing whatever she wants - so why go backwards?

Kevin Martin We'll take whatever we can as we're trying to break the band. This is our project.

No-one goes back to their ex-wife and if they do they're just a shell of a man, and I don't want to be like that. I'm still making records with Candlebox but this is my love and focus.

GRTR! How would you sum yourselves up for people who don't know The Gracious Few and want to check you out - what can people expect?

Kevin Martin It's called rock n roll - look it up! Whether you call it alternative mainstream, it's just rock n roll, and people have forgotten that terminology. Its what drives dance music and electronic and drum n bass, its rock n roll music, it all came from the blues and that's what's called rock n roll - look it up!