ZAGORO MOJA
Ante Tešija
Hrvoje Bubić; PERRY GRAYSON INTERVIEW
Hrvoje Bubić
Perry Grayson je američki glazbenik i pisac. Za Solin Live govorio o sebi, svome bendu Falcon, kao i o književnom radu
1.First, could you introduce yourself to our readers and say something about yourself?
My name is Perry Grayson. I’m a writer, editor, musician, radio host and all around creative type guy. I’m originally from the US, but I live in Sydney, Australia, with my wife and two cats.
I played guitar for the metal band Destiny’s End from 1997 to 2000. With DE I recorded two albums for Metal Blade Records (Breathe Deep the Dark and Transition) and toured the US in 1999 with Mercyful Fate, Iced Earth and Nevermore. DE also toured Europe (including a high profile gig at the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany) in 1999. I quit DE in April 2000, and I founded another metal band, Artisan, in 2000. In 2003 I played guitar on the Isen Torr EP Mighty & Superior, a project that was spearheaded by Rich Walker, axeman of the British metal act Solstice. I founded Falcon, a raw, loud, vintage-style heavy rock power trio, in 2002. For Falcon I picked Cirith Ungol multi-instrumentalist Greg Lindstrom to play bass and Darin McCloskey (Pale Divine, Beelzefuzz, Mythosphere) to play drums. With Falcon I recorded two albums (Falcon and Die Wontcha) and gigged around Southern California. I played bass for Pennsylvania doom metallers Pale Divine on a European tour in 2005. I moved Down Under to Australia at the end of 2006. And I’m currently reviving Falcon in Australia with a new bassist and drummer.
I ran a tiny small press business called Tsathoggua Press between 1994 and 2000. I was the publisher and editor in chief. I published several issues of a zine called Yawning Vortex and several chapbooks by authors like Frank Belknap Long, Donald Sidney-Fryer and Peter Cannon. I put Tsathoggua Press on hold for many years, but I’ve recently returned to the publishing business. I started out with chapbooks (side-stapled booklets), and now I’m concentrating on paperbacks, hardcovers and Ebooks.
I was a staff writer for the US metal mag Metal Maniacs from the end of 1999 until the mag went out of business in 2009.
As a radio presenter I had an Australian show called Heavy Rockin’ Raw on City Park Radio in Launceston, Tasmania, for about a year.
2. You are involved in writing (journalism, sci-fi, essays) and music, so I would like to ask you to tell me about your beginnings and influences as a writer and musician.
When it comes to writing, I first decided I wanted to become an author when I read Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles back in junior high school. I can’t forget to mention reading S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, Rumble Fish and That Was Then, This Is Now when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. But in terms of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Bradbury’s story “Usher II” was a standout for me. Then, reading Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith and even J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye,in high school also had a big impact on my becoming a writer. I met Bradbury when I was a senior in high school and exchanged couple of letters with him. I developed a love for crime fiction and true crime in my 20s – noir by the likes of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis, James M. Cain, James Ellroy, Gil Brewer, Charles Williams, Fredric Brown, etc.
Music-wise, I first caught the heavy rock fever through Aerosmith. Axemen Joe Perry and Brad Whitford were early guitar heroes of mine, as were Rush’s Alex Lifeson, Def Leppard’s Steve Clark, Randy Rhoads, Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster Cult, Tony Iommi, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, Maiden’s Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. When I started getting into ultra-heavy metal I was really influenced by Jeff “Mantas” Dunn from Venom and Chuck Schuldiner from Death.
3.As a journalist and essayist, you have written for various magazines and websites such as Metal Maniacs, Scream Factory and Empty Words. Please tell us something about it.
As I said previously, I was a staff writer for the major newsstand US metal mag Metal Maniacs from 1999 to 2009. It’s a bit of a funny story about how I managed to land that writing gig. Maniacs used to print monthly playlists from various metal musicians who were featured in the magazine. Destiny’s End was covered in Maniacs by the staff writer Sue Nolz, and she asked me for my playlist to print in the mag. When the issue was published they made the mistake of saying I was the guitarist in New Eden. New Eden was the band my DE cohorts were in prior to the formation of DE. When I bought the issue and saw that blunder I didn’t waste any time in contacting then Maniacs editor Jeff Wagner to have him correct the mistake in the next issue. Now, I was very active writing material for my own zine (Yawning Vortex) and I’d interviewed a lot of musicians and writers. At the time I scored an exclusive interview with Tony D’Iorio, the drummer and lyricist from 1970s heavy rawkers Bang. So, I pitched the interview feature to Jeff Wagner, and he was all ears. Jeff was instrumental in my landing the job with Maniacs, It was sort of by accident, but I wouldn’t have gotten the role if I didn’t have the writing/editing chops to prove things to other people. My second Maniacs Rewind article, published in early 2000, was on Cirith Ungol.
Scream Factory was a horror mag that mainly published non-fiction about writers and filmmakers of the macabre. They published an essay I wrote on my fave writer, Frank Belknap Long’s involvement in the very first horror anthology comic book, Adventures into the Unknown.
Emptywords.org is the official Death and Control Denied website, run by husband and wife team Yvonne and Kees Kluitman from Holland. They published several pieces I wrote on Chuck Schuldiner’s musical history.
4. Speaking of writing, you started Tsathoggua Press, dedicated to the writer H.P. Lovecraft. As far as I have noticed, you write stories with similar themes, so tell us more about Tsathoggua Press and your stories.
We covered most of this above. To elaborate on things, I used to mainly write horror, fantasy and science fiction. Some of my stories were published in my Tsathoggua Press zine, Yawning Vortex, as well as some other small press zines like Crypt of Cthulhu and Al-Azif. Over time I’ve branched out to write crime fiction and true crime.
5.You were the editor of the books of the writer Frank Belknap Long, and you are preparing to publish his collection of poetry. Can you explain to our readers who is actually Frank Belknap Long?
Frank Belknap Long, Jr. (1901-1994), was an author who was very close friends with H.P. Lovecraft. Long is the probably my biggest influence. He wrote heaps of science fiction, horror, modern fantasy and mystery. He published three poetry collections in his lifetime as well. Lovecraft nicknamed him Belknapius. My first project to revive Tsathoggua Press is Long’s collected poetry, called When Chaugnar Wakes. It also includes four early fiction vignettes by Long. It’s available from several large online book distributors such as Amazon.
6.In addition to writing, you are involved in music, from which I would like to single out the band Falcon, in which the bassist is Greg Lindstrom, a member of the heavy metal legends Cirith Ungol. Also, as a guest vocalist on the debut album, Bobby Liebling came on the song On The Slab. Tell us more about Falcon and working with Bobby Liebling.
So, uh… I’ll share with you the tale of how I got Pentagram vocalist/songwriter Bobby Liebling to sing guest vocals on “On the Slab” off the self-titled Falcon album. I wasn’t happy with my vocal performance on “On the Slab”. It was late 2023, and Pentagram were cutting their Show ’em How album with our recording engineer, Chris Kozlowski (R.I.P.), at the Polar Bear Lair in Middletown, Maryland. Bobby sang two tunes on my drummer, Darin McCloskey’s band Pale Divine’s Thunder Perfect Mind, so there was some common ground between us. Chris and Darin both suggested we give Bobby a shot at singing it. Greg and I were all ears. I left my lyrics and a brief note to Bobby on our last day of recording, and he called me up in a really enthusiastic mood when I returned back to L.A. I thought Bobby might not be into the lyrical subject matter (a rock star self-destructing on hardcore drugs), but I was pleasantly surprised in that area. Bobby loved how the song was dedicated to Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott so much that he couldn’t refuse. Bobby and I spoke on the phone several times, but we never met in person. We lost touch around the time of the ill-fated Pentagram gig at the Black Cat in Washington, DC. The three of us Falcon dudes were very happy with Bobby’s performance.
7.In addition to music and writing, is there anything else you do?
I’m a movie buff too, especially horror and film noir. I helped my wife direct and produce a short student film called Cursed several years ago. That’s as far as I’ve come to actually making a film myself. I’m an animal lover and enjoy spending time with my two cats.
8.For the end, what are your future projects? What would you recommend to our readers?
My second perfect-bound Tsathoggua Press book will be published later in 2024 – Frank Belknap Long’s Johnny on the Spot and Other Tales of Mystery. I can recommend a few things I’ve enjoyed over the years to people who are interested in the macabre: anything by Cornell Woolrich and Clark Ashton Smith, Severed by John Gilmore, The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long and James Ellroy’s My Dark Places.
HRVATSKI PRIJEVOD
1. Prvo, možete li se predstaviti našim čitateljima i reći nešto o sebi?
Moje ime je Perry Grayson. Ja sam pisac, urednik, glazbenik, radijski voditelj i sav kreativan tip. Podrijetlom sam iz SAD-a, ali živim u Sydneyu, Australija, sa suprugom i dvije mačke.
Svirao sam gitaru za metal bend Destiny’s End od 1997. do 2000. S DE-om sam snimio dva albuma za Metal Blade Records (Breathe Deep the Dark i Transition) i bio na turneji po SAD-u 1999. s Mercyful Fate, Iced Earth i Nevermore. DE (Destiny’s End) je također bio na europskoj turneji (uključujući visokoprofilni nastup na Wacken Open Air Festivalu u Njemačkoj) 1999. Napustio sam DE u travnju 2000. i osnovao sam još jedan metal bend, Artisan, 2000. Godine 2003. svirao sam gitaru na Isen Torru EP Mighty & Superior, projekt koji je predvodio Rich Walker, član britanske metal grupe Solstice. Osnovao sam Falcon, sirovi, glasni, heavy rock power trio u vintage stilu, 2002. Za Falcon sam odabrao multiinstrumentalista Cirith Ungola Grega Lindstroma da svira bas i Darina McCloskeya (Pale Divine, Beelzefuzz, Mythosphere) da svira bubnjeve. Sa Falconom sam snimio dva albuma (Falcon i Die Wontcha) i nastupao po južnoj Kaliforniji. Svirao sam bas za doom metalce (doom metal:žanr metal glazbe inspiriran ranom fazom Black Sabbatha,op.prev.) iz Pennsylvanije Pale Divine na europskoj turneji 2005. Preselio sam dolje u Australiju krajem 2006. I trenutno oživljavam Falcon u Australiji s novim basistom i bubnjarom.
Između 1994. i 2000. vodio sam malu tiskarsku tvrtku pod nazivom Tsathoggua Press. Bio sam izdavač i glavni urednik. Objavio sam nekoliko brojeva zina (Zine je malonakladno samoizdavačko djelo izvornih ili prisvojenih tekstova i slika, obično reproducirano fotokopirnim strojem, op.prev.) pod nazivom Yawning Vortex i nekoliko knjiga pisaca kao što su Frank Belknap Long, Donald Sidney-Fryer i Peter Cannon. Stavio sam Tsathoggua Press na čekanje mnogo godina, ali sam se nedavno vratio izdavačkom poslu. Počeo sam s chapbooksima (knjižice sa klamericama), a sada sam se koncentrirao na meke, tvrde uveze i e-knjige.
Bio sam pisac za američki metal magazin Metal Maniacs od kraja 1999. do prestanka rada časopisa 2009.
Kao radijski voditelj imao sam australsku emisiju pod nazivom Heavy Rockin’ Raw na radiju City Park u Launcestonu, Tasmanija, oko godinu dana.
2. Bavite se pisanjem (novinarstvo, znanstvena fantastika, esejistika) i glazbom pa bih vas zamolio da mi ispričate o svojim počecima i utjecajima kao pisca i glazbenika.
Kad je riječ o pisanju, prvi put sam odlučio da želim postati pisac kada sam pročitao Marsovske kronike Raya Bradburyja još u srednjoj školi. Ne smijem zaboraviti, a da ne spomenem čitanje S.E. Hintonove Autsajdere, Štemer i To Je Bilo Tada, Ovo Je Sada kad sam bio veoma mlad. Ali što se tiče znanstvene fantastike, fantazije i horora, Bradburyjeva priča “Usher II” za mene se izdvajala. Zatim, čitajući Edgara Allana Poea, H.P. Lovecraft, Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith, pa čak i Lovac u žitu J. D. Salingera, u srednjoj školi također su imali veliki utjecaj na to da postanem pisac. Upoznao sam Bradburyja kad sam bio završni razred srednje škole i s njim sam razmijenio nekoliko pisama. Razvio sam ljubav prema kriminalističkoj fikciji i istinitom kriminalu (publicistička literatura, podcast i filmski žanr u kojem autor ispituje zločin i pojedinosti o postupcima ljudi povezanih s kriminalnim događajima i pogođenih njima, op.prev.) u svojim 20-ima – noir od Dashiella Hammetta, Raymonda Chandlera, Cornella Woolricha, Davida Goodisa, Jamesa M. Caina, Jamesa Ellroya, Gila Brewera, Charlesa Williamsa, Fredrica Browna itd.
Što se glazbe tiče, tešku rock groznicu prvi put sam uhvatio kroz Aerosmith. Gitaristi Joe Perry i Brad Whitford bili su moji rani gitaristički heroji, kao i Alex Lifeson iz Rusha, Steve Clark iz Def Lepparda, Randy Rhoads, Buck Dharma iz Blue Oyster Culta, Tony Iommi, James Hetfield i Kirk Hammett, Dave Murray iz Maidena i Adrian Smith. Kad sam se počeo baviti ultra-heavy metalom, na mene su stvarno utjecali Jeff “Mantas” Dunn iz Venoma i Chuck Schuldiner iz Deatha.
3. Kao novinar i esejist, pisali ste za razne časopise i web stranice kao što su Metal Maniacs, Scream Factory i Empty Words. Recite nam nešto o tome.
Kao što sam već rekao, bio sam pisac u glavnom američkom metal magazinu Metal Maniacs od 1999. do 2009. Pomalo je smiješna priča o tome kako sam uspio dobiti taj spisateljski angažman. Manijacs su ispisivali mjesečne liste pjesama raznih metal glazbenika koji su bili predstavljeni u časopisu. Destiny’s End je u Maniacs obradila scenaristica Sue Nolz, a ona me je zamolila za moj popis za reprodukciju za tiskanje u časopisu. Kad je izdanje objavljeno, pogriješili su rekavši da sam ja gitarist u New Edenu. New Eden je bio bend u kojem su bile moje kolege iz DE-a prije formiranja DE-a. Kad sam kupio broj i vidio tu grešku, nisam gubio vrijeme kontaktirajući tadašnjeg urednika Manijaka Jeffa Wagnera da ispravi grešku u sljedećem broju. Sada sam bio vrlo aktivan u pisanju materijala za vlastiti zin (Yawning Vortex) i intervjuirao sam mnogo glazbenika i pisaca. U to sam vrijeme napravio ekskluzivni intervju s Tonyjem D’Ioriom, bubnjarem i tekstopiscem iz 1970-ih teških rawkera Bang. Tako sam dao intervju Jeffu Wagneru, a on je bio sav u ušima. Jeff je bio ključan u mom pronalaženju posla s Maniacsima, bilo je to slučajno, ali ne bih dobio ulogu da nisam imao sposobnosti pisanja/montaže da dokažem stvari drugima. Moj drugi članak Maniacs Rewind, objavljen početkom 2000., bio je o Cirith Ungolu.
Scream Factory bio je horor magazin koji je uglavnom objavljivao publicistiku o piscima i redateljima macabre (kvaliteta nekih umjetničkih ili književnih djela koje karakterizira tmurna ili jeziva atmosfera ili veliki naglasak na jezive prikaze smrti, op.prev.). Objavili su esej koji sam napisao o svom omiljenom piscu, Franku Belknapu Longu doprinosu u prvoj horor antologiji stripa, Adventures into the Unknown.
Emptywords.org je službena web stranica Death and Control Denied koju vode tim muž i žena Yvonne i Kees Kluitman iz Nizozemske. Objavili su nekoliko članaka koje sam napisao o Chuck Schuldinerovoj (gitarist Death i Control Denied, op.prev.) glazbenoj povijesti.
4. Kad smo već kod pisanja, pokrenuli ste Tsathoggua Press, posvećen književniku H.P. Lovecraft. Koliko sam primijetio, pišete priče slične tematike, pa nam recite nešto više o Tsathoggua Pressu i svojim pričama.
Većinu ovoga pokrili smo gore. Da razradim stvari, prije sam uglavnom pisao horore, fantaziju i znanstvenu fantastiku. Neke od mojih priča objavljene su u mom časopisu Tsathoggua Press, Yawning Vortex, kao iu nekim drugim malim tiskovinama poput Crypt of Cthulhu i Al-Azif. S vremenom sam se počeo baviti pisanjem krimića i istinitih zločina.
5.Bili ste urednik knjiga pisca Franka Belknapa Longa i spremate se objaviti njegovu zbirku poezije. Možete li našim čitateljima objasniti tko je zapravo Frank Belknap Long?
Frank Belknap Long, Jr. (1901.-1994.), bio je autor koji je bio vrlo blizak prijatelj s H.P. Lovecraftom (pisac horora i sci fi, op.prev.). Long je vjerojatno moj najveći utjecaj. Napisao je hrpe znanstvene fantastike, horora, moderne fantastike i misterija. Za života je objavio i tri zbirke poezije.
Lovecraft mu je dao nadimak Belknapius. Moj prvi projekt za oživljavanje Tsathoggua Pressa je Longova sabrana poezija pod nazivom When Chaugnar Wakes. Također uključuje četiri Longove rane fikcijske vinjete (izražavanje kratkog i opisnog djela koje obuhvaća kratko vremensko razdoblje, op. Prev.). Dostupna je kod nekoliko velikih online distributera knjiga kao što je Amazon.
6.Osim pisanja, bavite se glazbom od koje bih izdvojio bend Falcon, u kojem je basist Greg Lindstrom, član heavy metal legendi Cirith Ungol. Također, kao gostujući pjevač na albumu prvijencu, Bobby Liebling je nastupio na pjesmi On The Slab. Recite nam više o Falconu i radu s Bobbyjem Lieblingom.
Dakle, uh… podijelit ću s vama priču o tome kako sam nagovorio Pentagramovog pjevača/tekstopisca Bobbyja Lieblinga da otpjeva gostujuće vokale na “On the Slab” s istoimenog albuma Falcon. Nisam bila zadovoljan svojom vokalnom izvedbom na “On the Slab”. Bila je kasna 2023. i Pentagram je snimao svoj album Show ’em How s našim inženjerom za snimanje, Chrisom Kozlowskim (R.I.P.), u Polar Bear Lairu u Middletownu, Maryland. Bobby je otpjevao dvije melodije na mom bubnjaru, bendu Pale Divine’s Thunder Perfect Mind Darina McCloskeyja, tako da je među nama bilo nešto zajedničkog. Chris i Darin oboje su predložili da damo Bobbyju šansu da to otpjeva. Greg i ja smo bili uši. Ostavio sam svoje tekstove i kratku poruku Bobbyju tijekom našeg posljednjeg dana snimanja, a on me nazvao u stvarno entuzijastičnom raspoloženjem kad sam se vratio u L.A. Mislio sam da Bobby možda ne voli tematiku pjesme (rock zvijezda koja se samouništava na žestokim drogama), ali bio sam ugodno iznenađen u tom području. Bobbyju se toliko svidjelo kako je pjesma posvećena frontmenu Thin Lizzy Philu Lynottu da nije mogao odbiti. Bobby i ja smo se nekoliko puta čuli telefonom, ali nikad se nismo sreli uživo. Izgubili smo kontakt u vrijeme nesretne svirke Pentagrama u Black Catu u Washingtonu, DC. Nas trojica frajera iz Falcona bili smo jako zadovoljni Bobbyjevom izvedbom.
7.Uz glazbu i pisanje, čime se još bavite?
Ja sam filmofil, posebno horor i noir filmovima. Supruzi sam pomogao u režiji i produkciji kratkog studentskog filma pod nazivom Cursed prije nekoliko godina. To je zapravo najviše koliko sam, ja sam mogao napraviti sa filmom. Ja sam ljubitelj životinja i uživam provoditi vrijeme sa svoje dvije mačke.
8 Za kraj, koji su tvoji budući projekti? Što biste preporučili našim čitateljima?
Moja druga savršeno ukoričena knjiga Tsathoggua Pressa bit će objavljena kasnije 2024. – Johnny Na Licu Mjesta Franka Belknapa Longa i druge misteriozne priče. Mogu preporučiti nekoliko stvari u kojima sam godinama uživao ljudima koje zanima macabre: bilo što od Cornella Woolricha i Clarka Ashtona Smitha, Razrezano od Johna Gilmorea, Psi Tindalosa od Franka Belknapa Longa i Moja Mračna Mjesta Jamesa Ellroya .
