My name is Grant, occasionally Ron, I'm the lead vocalist in Death Metal band Acherontia Styx.
2.What / Who made you want to sing?
It kinda happened by accident, i'd been playing bass for years with no interest in singing at all. The first band I sang for formed from a failed cock rock band, i shit you not.
We'd all been pulled in by one guy who wanted to form a proper fun glam/cock rock band, we didn't really know eachother, and he never turned up for a single practice.
The Poison tracks we learned for the early practices got boring very quickly so we started jamming
Me, being more into White Zombie, Sepultura, Pantera the drummer Jez, who was solidly into Black and Death Metal and Richie who's now playing bass in NWOBHM band Tantrum started finding common ground to jam with.
Someone had to take a mic, and i knew i had a loud voice if nothing else. Turns out the noises that came out were alright.
3.Who was the first singer you saw live that gave you chills?
Tarrie B, i saw her singing for Manhole just as they changed their name to Tura Satana in 1997 in some grotty little pub in Middlesbrough. The rage in the woman was unbelievable.
4.Many people say heavy music is just screaming, How would you combat that statement?
Heavy music is so dissected by genre now, it's a nonsense statement.
There is plenty of heavy music that is just screaming, i do it enough. If you're conveying vast amounts of rage, or you just want to sound evil screaming fucking works. Monsters don't whisper they roar.
There's dozens of awesome punk bands out there that just shout, they'll be the 1st to admit it, and it works really well.
I think anyone listening to Dio saying it's just screaming probably needs a lobotomy, and then you've got this whole power and operatic end to metal where the singers are just off the chart and the mere suggestion that it's just screaming is just silly.
5.If you growl or do harsh vocals how do you keep your voice after such violent performances?
Resistance builds with time, i aint a kid anymore i'm nearly 40. I've burned my voice out a few times over the years, the high end of my vocals in really tough to reach these days after ripping my throat to shreds when i was younger.
6. Do you have a warm up routine? Tell u bout it ?
Tea! Loads of it.
Before i quit smoking it was Guinness and Lucky Strike. The Guinness is still good the night before
7. Do you think power or performance is more important?
Power. I've done sound for vocalists who's speaking voice is louder than their singing voice and it's fucking infuriating.
I do like to put on a show though, there's a lot of 80s cock rock in me. If i'd had the option for hairspray and lycra i'd have done it in a heartbeat.
8. Who do you think gets unfair vocal praise, someone the world thinks is great but is not? / Andwho is great but does not get the credit?
For the great voice, Terry Reid without a doubt. It's not so much credit, as that the man deserves to be whispered in the same breaths as true vocal gods. I'm talking Freddy Mercury, Aretha Franklin level gods. People who literally changed what music is.
Too much credit, i mean these days it is so difficult to know what's autotuned and what's not. You have pop singers out there like Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani and Beyonce who, like it of not, have good voices. But they're still layering track after track of synthetic shit over the top just for the hell of it.
A lot of music now you struggle to know what's real and what's not.
Ed Fucking Sheeran, proof that you can market anything to people if it's done right
9.Name your top 5 vocalist
Sammy Davis Jnr
Terry Reid
Kate Bush
Michael Hutchence
Stevie Nicks
Probably not what you were expecting, but it's true. If we're just talking my metal influences.
Chuck Billy
Max Cavalera
Rob Zombie
Glen Benton
Jeff Walker
10.Micheal Buble or Jim Gallette? Just testing your skills here
I'll give Buble credit where it's due, he's a joke in the UK, only surfacing in Winter to sing Christmas songs. But when the guy lets loose with Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra he does a good job of them.
I have no clue who the other guy is. I googled it and it auto corrected it to a cock rock singer, i still have no idea who he is
11.Who do you love to listen to that would surprise people?.
The Bangles, the top 5 up there is probably surprising enough. I fucking adore Suzanna Hoffs voice.
In fact i love a hell of a lot of 80s and 90s female fronted stuff. Pat Benetar, Roxette, Kate Bush, Stevie. The 80s produced some astounding female artists and the UK in the 90s was awash with angry women like Garbage, Skunk Anansie, Elastica.
12.If you could remove the autotune from any singer who would it be.
All of them man, if you can't sing without autotune, you have no fucking business doing it.
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