CURT GRANGER: THE EVOLVING STORY

I was born the son of a rice farmer in Cullman, Alabama. We were dirt poor (probably because we couldn't grow rice), but even then all the chicks liked to hang out and change my diapers. I really got hooked on music around the age of 9, listening to bands such as KISS, Journey, Boston, and Aerosmith. Later after I got pubic hair, I discovered girls and the guitar at the same time. I learned all the Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, and Thin Lizzy songs I could. I also discovered that if I played really loud I could piss off a lot of people.

I played in my first band called "Tyrant" which was an exercise in buying cheap gear, drinking cheap beer, and finding out that going to jail wasn't free. I formed my first real band in 1984 after seeing Van Halen, Ozzy, and Motley Crue at the '83 US Festival. I named it "Pyrate," (my drummer Jeff Stewart and I pulled out my dictionary, flipped the pages, and my finger landed on it. Of course I changed it to a 'Y'). Now I had something that would occupy my time other than masturbating, watching David Letterman and Sanford & Son reruns, and hanging out at the Chevron drinking Icees. We got better, got better gigs, started making enough money to buy cigarettes AND porno magazines, and soon I was traveling across the country with my redneck friends (which included Charlie Brodie, Mark Verwyst, Tate Beckham, Craig Mullins, Tim Ward, Tom Brown, Tommy Travis, Joey Ledbetter, and Alex Garmen), learning how to beg for food and wash clothes in a laundry mat. We played lots of shows in places you've never heard of, and about eleventy billion shows at a dirty little bar called Al's Crossroads here on the west side of Birmingham.

I caught the recording bug after I bought my first 4 track, a cheap Fostex X-15 cassette deck. I figured if the Beatles could do something that great with 4 tracks, so could I. (I failed to realize at the time they actually wrote really good songs, and had George Martin to produce them - little did I fncking know.) I learned the fine art of overdubbing (it's where you punch in and out without sounding like a jet plane landed), and then I created my own little project studio called Blue Nite Recorders. I also did one smart thing in my life - I went back to college and earned a degree in electronics. It gave me a very keen ability to tinker with computers until they either work or explode. I learned how to build websites by hacking into porn sites and uploading doctored photos of people who pissed me off. Don't ask me where I learned to hack, it wouldn't be pleasant.

I took a break from music for a few years after school because basically I was about burned out and tired of being poor and thought I wanted a normal life. Yeah, that was really ignorant of me - someone who's NOT normal like me wanting normalcy. After getting fat and trying my hand at being a couch potato I got up off my lazy ass, went to the gym, and then formed the hard rock band Scream Sophie in 1997. It was with this band (and my old Pyrate brother Timmi G) that I grew my first real goatee. I also wrote, recorded and produced 2 full length CDs. We played over 100 shows throughout the southeast and got our music out on the internet, and subsequently made fans worldwide. After several member changes (mostly bass players - aren't bass players all jerks?) Scream Sophie took an extended hiatus in August 2003. Tim and I really just wanted to play more golf.

I did a brief stint on bass guitar (hey I wanted my shot at being a jerk too!) with the pop/rock band Empty Fall from 2003-2004. We released one CD which is now out of print. We were hated by everyone in Birmingham, so I quit that band and hid under a rock for about 2 months. Shortly after that I put together another project called Traumatide. We released our debut CD 'This Thing Called Life' in 2005. You can buy it at CDBaby.com. During that time I also played a bit of lead guitar for country artist Chris Scott.

Now in 2007, I find myself performing in another band, Citizen Jayne. I must be addicted to second-hand cigarette smoke and bartenders telling me to "turn down!"

Now back to my music. I've always written music. Lyrics come harder, but when I'm inspired they usually come quickly, or either I'll slap stupid myself until the coolest phrase you've ever heard jumps out of the pen. Where do the songs come from? Sometimes I wake up at 5am with a song, sometimes I feel like playing and a song will come out. I hardly practice [guitar] technique anymore, probably because nobody does Yngwie licks anymore anyway. Anytime (do those last 3 words sound like the name of a CD? See? I'm always thinking) I sit down to play I usually end up writing something. Which is good because I have to do something with all the recording gear I have. I love recording - I love the endless possibilities, I love the feeling of hearing a guitar solo after adding just the right amount of delay, I love listening to a newly mixed and mastered recording loudly through headphones, and I love being able to immediately share it with the whole world. But nothing beats playing live, hitting that bend on the 15th fret, shaking the hell out it, and watching the looks on people's face - if they're sitting still long enough to see it.



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