Grace Is Gone

With a debut album just released, and a growing local reputation, 2010 shapes as a promising year for Sunshine Coast hardcore outfit Grace Is Gone. Bass player Jackson was kind enough to catch up with Killyourstereo recently to talk music, touring and everything in between.

Could you please state your name, and role in the band?

Jackson, I play Bass

You just released your debut full-length album ‘Rise Up’. What is the initial feeling amongst the group at seeing your CD come out?

Relief!! It has been such a long process trying to get the album done, and right in the middle of the recording we had to deal with splitting with the record label that was supposed to be putting the album out because of money issues. We then had to work out how to pay for 3 months in the studio plus all the other assoicted costs that come with an album due to us being a independant band once again.

Although the album has only just hit stores, what have been the early reactions so far?

From what I have heard so far its been ok. I mean it's not going to be everyone's piece of cake and I'm not gonna pretend that its musical genius or anything like that, but everyone that I know that has got or has heard the album have said that it's good, catchy hardcore.

How would you explain the sound of the band/album to someone who may be unfamiliar with Grace Is Gone?

Oldschool New York style hardcore basically, with a small blend of some of our other influences as well. All the boys in the band listen to bands like Madball, E-Town Concrete, Death Before Dishonor, Raised Fist, & Hatebreed so this sound comes out on the album.

Last year you guys got to support US hardcore band Misery Signals in Asia. How did that support slot come about?

Orignally we were talking to the promoter in Asia about going over with the boys from Against and supporting them on a tour, but the time that they wanted Against to go over clashed with their commitments here so the promoter then asked us to come over and support Misery Signals instead.

How was the tour?

So much fun! The boys from Misery Signals are such nice fellas and they love a cold beer just like us! They're the tightest band live too, just amazing to see! Whenever we go on tour we try to treat it like a holiday and throw heaps of fun stuff in to keep everyone happy, keeps moral in the band high. The 1st day when we landed in Singapore they took us to the Tiger Brewery and the staff there took us in and kept bringing jugs of beer out to us. Next thing I knew I was back at the backpackers we were staying at and it was the next morning. We all surf too so we had planned to go check out the famous wave pool in Malayasia while we were there, but we miss out because we got cut short of time and had to leave for Thailand.

What can one expect from a Grace Is Gone live performance?

Fun times! We don't come out and lecture the crowd on this or that, who are we to tell people what to do or think. We just try to be as high energy as we can and as upbeat as we can for the whole show and hopefully let everyone in the room enjoy themselves for 30 mins!

Ten/fifteen years ago, it was an almost impossible task for an Australian hardcore band to have a successful career. However, with bands like I Killed the Prom Queen and more recently Parkway Drive, heavy music has never been bigger. How important has the Aussie hardcore scene been to your success as a band so far?

Huge, I mean, who doesnt look at Parkway in amazement. They have done so well, and deserve everything they have. They have made people sit up and take notice of Heavy bands in Australia. And bands before them like Mindsnare & Toe To Toe also helped paved the way as well. Now there are so many good Australian hardcore bands that are doing well internationally like Carpathian and Deez Nuts and The Amity Affiicition so this will all help the scene here in Australia, and makes it easier for up and coming bands to get noticed.

Channel 10 approached Grace Is Gone last year about music rights to feature in their rally car telecast. Did you have any indication that they were going to approach you or was it something totally out of the blue?

It was totally out of the blue! It was so weird, we actually got the messege while we were in the airport in Singapore, they approached us through our myspace page. I thought it was one of our mates playing a joke on us! We couldn't work out why they would want to use a shitty demo track of our song "Something Sexual" for their theme music. Anyway it turned out to be legit and after a few emails back and forward it was all set up. Just lucky I suppose.

What are some of your main influences as a band?

Madball, Raised Fist, E - Town Concrete, Death Before Dishonor, Mindsnare, Hatebreed.

What was your favourite album of last year? And, which one are you most looking forward to this year?

Raised Fist's Veil Of Ignorance . In 2010 I'm looking forward to the new Cancer Bats album.

With a new album out and the best part of 2010 ahead of you, what are the plans for Grace Is Gone this year? Lots of Touring? Plans to go overseas?

Yeah we are looking to work as hard as possible this year and play as many shows as we can so we can pay off this recording debt! We are talking to a few American bands at the moment about doing Australian and USA tours with . We had plans to go to Europe in May but that fell through. We are still 100% DIY band at the moment so we are hoping to get a professional booking agent onboard soon, these talks have been dragging on a bit lately so hopefully it will be sorted asap. In the meantime if anyone wants us to come play shows, email us at altgroup@optusnet.com.au or just hit us up on our myspace www.myspace.com/graceisgoneschc

Any final words?

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with us man! I know there is 1000's of other bands you could of interviewed so we appreciate it!!! Cheers!!

Thanks for the interview.