Following the release of their third long player Ad Astra, we caught up with George Grant from the band to find out more about the record, living in New York, Sci-Fi and love, for all this and more, read on….
Firstly, I wanted to tell you how jealous I am about you being based in New York City, it’s one of my favourite places on earth and I visit whenever I can, tell me what YOU love about the city?
G: When I first moved to NYC I was in love with quite a few things. The access to the music industry, the ability to party all night (at great parties to boot) the air of “danger”. After being here almost 40 years a lot of that feeling has worn off as one by one, those things started to apply to me less and less. It’s still one of the greatest cities in the world mind you, I have a different relationship with it now as opposed to then. Don’t be jelly - for most people it’s a nice place to visit for a while, not somewhere they want to live these days.
And on the other hand, what do you HATE about living there? (tourists? LOL)
G: Parking. Traffic. And the city constantly having their hands in my pockets for one reason or another - hahahaha. This is the land of the tax at every turn.
The music scene in NYC must be incredible, do you tend to stay in a certain area and hang with the same people or are you a band that wants to touch all 5 boroughs?
G: We’d love to play all over the city. Any chance we get. We have mostly been playing in Manhattan up until now, but we already have gigs booked in Queens and Brooklyn for next year. We really wanted to get our crowd up to a certain level before we branched out - perception and then delivery in this case is everything concerning how you get treated. And - if you get asked back to perform. I think years ago (as probably any old timer would say hahahahaha) the independent music scene was a bit more vibrant. A lot of the good clubs I used to play have shut down. I think there is still a pretty good scene here, but I think the scale of what rock clubs USED to be is much smaller. I’m not sure indie rock (in all it’s forms) is as popular as it used to be IMO.
You released your 3rd studio album ‘Ad Astra’ on September 15th, tell me how you celebrated this momentous milestone?
G: We’re excited! it’s unlike any of the records I’ve done previously. My live drummer Luis and guitarist Frank, actually added their skills to the record on parts that I had traditionally done by myself. Their input created a serious and real new dimension to the overall sound. I have experts playing with me - I would have been foolish not to use their obvious talents. They really see the vision of what I’m creating, and jumped right into beautifully. The two years of playing together paid off in terms of cohesiveness also.
The album artwork is immense, who designed it and where did the idea come from?
G: I always work a space or galactic theme into my music and vision, and since the album is titled Ad Astra (“To Space” in Latin) I really wanted something that was bright, vibrant and colorful. I’ve been work with the same artist for two records now, Antonella at Eshmoon DM, and she’s really really good at taking my concept and running with it - much to my delight of course.
I remember owning a video game called ‘Ad Astra’ in the 1980’s (https://tinyurl.com/yhcjpau8) how did you come to settle on the name for your 3rd album?
G: The original phrase is “Ad Astra Per Aspera” - the full meaning in latin is “To Space With Difficulty”. I think it’s a perfect description of what I’m trying to achieve with the band at this point. We eventually WILL get “to space”, but I don’t really have any illusions that it won’t be difficult.
George – You are a self-confessed Sci-Fi fan, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being you’ve heard of Star Wars and 10 being you attend sci-fi conventions dressed as your favourite member of Star Trek) how much of a fan are you?
G: Oh I’m definitely a 10 hahahahaha! I have done both 1 AND 10 (and everything in between) hahahha.
Has any of your sci-fi-ness rubbed off onto the other 2 members of the band?
G: They are actually both Sci-Fi fans - maybe not to the degree of extremes I may be, but the both do love it as well. Sci-Fi and music are usually the main discussions on road trips honestly.
You are described as NYC-based new romantic post-punks, but the press image I received from your PR manager casts you in a rather menacing light, are you all tough looking like the photos show you as?
G: I have definitely been know to throw hands for sure hahahahahaha. But in reality and in all seriousness - I like using love (gone wrong OR gone right) to express myself. I consider myself a romantic in the sense that most times I feel a lot of things very, very deeply.
Which bands/artists would you say have helped to shape and influence your sound? Have you ever met any of them? If so, where/when was it and how did you get on with them?
G: Over the years I have been exposed to a lot of music through various industry jobs and causal listening and I often access a lot of bands from my formative music years (which is everything from KISS to progressive 70’s rock, Goth, Punk you name it). Rush is a big influence. I have met a lot of musicians and have seen a lot of amazing shows in my day, I have to say I never really had a terrible experience. Music has been very good to me overall - for a lot of reasons.
The three members of Black Rose Burning came together in 2018, do you all share the same tastes in music or was it tough to agree on the sound that you wanted to achieve? Would you say that you have now found your sound or are you still experimenting?
G: We do share tastes in music and crossover musically to various degrees. We all pretty much like metal. We all pretty much like Rush. I think I listen to more Post Punk and Goth than the other guys, but I think somewhat similar music tastes, with variations, is what made Ad Astra work so well. As for a “sound”, I’ll always be looking for ways to expand the sound - but still sound like Black Rose Burning. I think my voice is unique in the genre, and I never want to feel like i’m retreading anything.
If you had the chance to curate your own 3 day music festival with bands or artists that are dead or alive, who would you choose as the 3 headliners and why?
G: Rush, Zeppelin and The Clash in their prime - these are bands I love that I will never get to see in their true form ever again.
Aside from Ad Astra, the 3rd album from Black Rose Burning, does ‘the perfect’ album/record exist? If so, what is it and why is it ‘perfect’?
G: I always considered Pink Floyd “Dark Side Of The Moon” to be perfect. It has all the feels, all the sounds, all the song and lyric writing and a way ahead of it’s time feeling that I really consider timeless.
What are your Saturday night and Sunday morning albums/records? Why these?
G: I don’t really have particulars for these. Anytime is a good time for any music to me.
You have played a few dates since the new album landed, how are the new tracks being received when
played live?
G: We’re doing really well with them. When we go out for a proper tour in spring of ’24 that’s when they’ll REALLY get tested. I’m sure we’ll do some swapping in and out night by night as we go along!
Let’s imagine that you are picking us up from JFK airport and taking us on a day trip around NYC, where
will you be taking us and what will we be doing?
G: Hopefully you’ll come on a weekend where there is a Red Party - my monthly favuorite goth event, other that that - you’re my guest - I’m here for you!
Have you any plans to head to Europe/UK in 2024?
G: We’d like to, but we need a solid booking agent there. Hitting Europe is lot different than touring here. We definitely need direction and assistance. I do have a lot of friends there so a few dates are definitely not out of the question at this point. We’d like to do some Canadian dates too - which also seems feasible. Hopefully we’ll be asked to perform at more festivals - in the states AND hopefully Europe.
Where are the best places to keep up to date with you on the social channels? I see you don’t have a TikTok channel, is this something you are working on?
G: We do have a Tik Tok - blackroseburning1 and we have all the “conventional” media. Bandcamp, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube (where we have some really cool Sci-Fi influenced videos BTW). We also have Spotify, SoundCloud and our own website BlackRoseBurning.com. Industry can also get in touch with us through our PR Rep Shauna at ShamelessPR. SOOOOO many ways hahahahaha!
Finally, would you rather be able to speak every language in the world fluently or be able to communicate with animals?
G: Hmmmmmm. Why can’t I do both?
We’d like to thank George for sparing the time to chat to us and we wish him and the band every success for the future.
Keep in touch with Black Rose Burning at the following places.
www.blackroseburning.com
www.blackroseburning.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/blackroseburning
www.instagram.com/black_rose_burning
http://twitter.com/blkroseburning
http://soundcloud.com/user-640046899
https://www.youtube.com/c/blackroseburning
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0v5iflv29Z5iYpK6a0Rkee
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/black-rose-burning/1518408681
Credit - Shane K Gardner