Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
JDP: I was born in Johnstone, Scotland. Music is in my blood! I’ve been singing as far back as I can remember – my late father said he remembered me singing in the crib! I don’t remember that, but I do remember singing along to my Uncle Sam’s Beatles records probably around age 4 or so and writing my own songs even at a very young age. Later with my siblings and some friends, I remember playing ‘concerts’ at home in front of my family. My first ‘real’ band to perform in public was called Trojan Hammer, and the guitarist was Jeff Waters, who went on to fame as the mastermind behind Canadian metal legends Annihilator. Shortly after Trojan Hammer broke up I formed Ivory Knight (with drummer Paul Malek, who had played on the early Annihilator demos). We released a well-received cassette demo called Voices In Your Nightmare and a couple of other, less known demos. When the guitarist left, we auditioned many guitarists before finding Rob Gravelle via a ‘musicians wanted’ ad we had placed in the local newspaper. Since then I’ve worked on many projects, some with Rob, including Sudden Thunder, the reformed Ivory Knight, alternative rockers Dr. Squish, and cover band The Broke Brothers etc. With Ivory Knight we released 3 critically-acclaimed CDs – Up From The Ashes (2001), Unconscience (2004), and most recently, Unity (2018). Ivory Knight appeared in the Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles article “O Canada, Our Home and Metal Land! The List – Great White Metal A-Z;” in issue #92, among greats such as Rush, Saga, Voivod, Annihilator, Exciter, and Anvil! Additionally we’ve played a ton of shows, some in premier venues. In 2009 or so, I released a CD called Knightfall, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by Jeff Waters. Rob plays most of the guitar solos and co-wrote (with Jeff and myself) much of the album.
RJG: I was born in Ottawa, Canada, where I still reside to this day. I’m a guitar player by trade, but the Gravelle-Perinbam project has pushed me to expand my boundaries into engineering, production, marketing, and other facets of the music biz. Although I had been playing piano since the age of three, I switched over to guitar as a teenager, at my cousin’s suggestion that we both learn guitar and start a band. At that time I listened to a mix of classic metal (Maiden, Priest, Metallica) and progressive rock (Rush, Saga, Triumph). I was also very influenced by the virtuoso guitarists of the day, including Rik Emmett, Malmsteen, EVH, Marty Friedman, Jake E. Lee, etc. As a result, my own style evolved into a mix of moderately intricate rhythms and flashy solos. I got to write and play in a heavy/progressive style within the context of Ivory Knight. Then, around 2009, I started recording the odd cover song under my own name. I selected classic rock songs that I could mold into my style. For fun, I made lyric videos that I’d post to YouTube. To my delight, the songs began to accrue views, first hundreds, then thousands. The Covid pandemic put Ivory Knight on hiatus, which presented a unique opportunity to ramp up my cover song output. Before long, John I and started collaborating on songs, with him providing not only vocals, but bass and drums as well! Not content to stick with covers, we wound up introducing some original material into the mix. The first was Black Veil of Silence, a 6 minute long prog metal opus, complete with a 6/8 interlude. We trimmed that out of the video, but it remains intact in the MP3. We weren’t sure how fans would respond to an original, after getting nothing but covers, but it wasn’t long before it became evident that there was a demand for our own music, in addition to the covers. So now we’re looking forward to releasing part 2 of the Trilogy of Silence, tentatively titled “The Cage of Silence”. It’s a prog opus of a different kind, drawing from a variety of influences that include Zeppelin, Rush, Saga, and even Queensryche.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
JDP: Both. I’m originally self-taught but then took several years of private vocal training. I’ve also got some degree of training on the various instruments I play. I continue to try to expand and refine my abilities. In my view, we never stop learning!
RJG: I was formally trained all the way, from the time I started piano lessons at three years old. I did the same with guitar years later when I enrolled at my local music store. Oddly enough, even though I specified that I wanted to learn electric guitar, they ignored my wishes and paired me up with an amazing classical player! That wound up being somewhat fortuitous, because it exposed me to techniques and styles that were a little outside of your typical rock and metal music. As it was, I was really into Alex Lifeson’s acoustic parts as well as Rik Emmett’s insane classical pieces, so the idea of sticking a classical guitar song amidst rock music struck me as an amazingly cool thing to do. In fact, I wound up starting off the first Ivory Knight disc with a classical piece called “Initiation”. After high school, I studied music at University, mostly to keep my family off my back while my music career took off. Not surprisingly, I finished with a nice music degree, but still no real music career to speak of. In hindsight, sticking around my home town of Ottawa was probably not the best strategy, since there is very little music scene here to speak of. So, how did all my music education contribute to my career? It didn’t, other than help me win the occasional disagreement with other band members. As I learned from recording the Knightfall album with Jeff Waters (Annihilator), knowing a bunch of music theory is great for explaining what you’re playing or to write out the music, but it’s pretty much useless for playing or performing better, unless you are a classical musician or opera singer perhaps.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
JDP: Some of my influences include The Beatles, Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath Judas Priest, Gentle Giant, and others. Vocal influences include Dusty Springfield, Derek Shulman, Ian Gillan, Rob Halford, Ronnie James Dio etc. although I don’t sound like any of them! Bass influences include Joe Bouchard (Blue Oyster Cult), Roger Glover, Geezer Butler, Ian Hill etc.
RJG: I grew up listening to bands like Rush, Saga, Maiden, Priest, Def Leppard, Zeppelin, Van Halen, Metallica, Megadeth, Ozzy, Triumph, Malmsteen, stuff like that. All of those influences combined into a style which incorporates elements of prog rock, classic British Heavy Metal, thrash, with a liberal sprinkling of fiery guitar solos. The challenge is that all these acts have legendary guitar players, so I didn’t really set myself up for an easy time!
Q: What is the message of your music?
JDP: There’s no underlying theme across my lyrics. Some of the darker topics I’ve spoken about in the past include the environment (and mankind’s abuse of it), inequality, injustice, insecurity etc. But I’m equally at home with lighter fare. It all depends on where the music takes me.
RJG: Since John has been writing the lyrics so far, I can’t speak to the underlying messages, but, I can say that, philosophically, I want to create something that can stand the test of time and is comparable to any big act, despite our lack of record company backing – a tall order I know, but that’s the goal anyway. After all, I don’t have children (that I know of), so I have no legacy other than the music. That’s it. Should my music fall by the wayside, everything I ever was will be forgotten as well.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
JDP: Hard to say at this point. We do have a lot more original and cover material in the works but we like the digital single format, which lets us release music more frequently and lets us interact directly with our fans. But I will never say never!
RJG: John an I have collaborated on several EPs and full-length albums over the course of the last thrity-odd years or so. I personally have found the whole experience to be quite draining and, frankly, unsatisfying. It’s just such a huge amount of work within a fairly constrainted timeframe, that I found that we could never quite give every song the care and focus that it deserved. I don’t know how other acts do it, but for me, working on one song at a time is far more productive and rewarding. As such, I would not hold my breath waiting for a full-length album to come along. On the other hand, I think that we will release some sort of best of collection at some point, as that will give us a change to fine tune any mixing and mastering that we might like to improve upon.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
JDP: I have always had a preference for material with strong melodies and harmonies and (hopefully) this is reflected in the music. I really just write and play whatever comes out – I’m not a big believer in sticking to genre labels / limitations or anything like that. Life’s too short to listen to those voices saying “oh, you can’t do this, you’re a artist” LOL!
RJG: Well, I’ll tell you this: what should resonate with listeners and what does are two very different things. You can’t predict what people will connect with. All you can do is make music that’s honest and interesting and hope that it affects people in some way. As someone who’s been making music for around three decades now, I have come to realize that you can think that your music is the best thing since sliced bread, only to have it stomped on by critics and listeners alike. It’s a steep climb to get to a point where your song writing is at a level where people accept it as something worthy of their attention, that is unless you can bombard them with it from every direction (ahem, pop music). I used to naively assume that as soon as people heard my music, they’d be blown away by its depth and magnificence. Same with guitar musicianship; I had my eyes opened very early on when I entered a Guitar Wars contest. Going in, I was convinced that I would clean up and take the whole thing. To my surprise, I wasn’t even a finalist for my night! I like to think that I’ve improved quite a bit since those early days, but I have no illusions of being at the level of a John Petrucci or Malmsteen. Nor do I want to be. I just want to make the best music I can make and hopefully other people enjoy it as much as I do making it.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
JDP: Absolutely 100%! Music and art are their own reward for me. I’m very grateful to be able to be involved in music whether it’s writing, recording, performing, or lately creating video. The fact that others seem to be appreciative of our efforts is awesome and humbling. I just wish there were more hours in the day or that I could do without food / sleep LOL!
RJG: I think that it’s getting there. I am finally at to the point that I’m proud to play my songs for people. There were many years where I would kind of cringe at some of my recorded performances. As a result, I didn’t feel as motivated to give it the promotion that it needed to go anywhere. We even sat on the Knightfall album, which we recorded with Jeff Waters (Annihilator) in 2009. My parts actually sound pretty good I think, but, at the time, I felt so unworthy, compared to Jeff, that just couldn’t push it at all. Now I have no trouble with letting the World know about it. The fact that I did practice my a$$ off for years after those recording sessions might have helps alleviate my inferiority complex a little as well, who knows. In terms of listener and industry response, it seems that, the more we promote our music, the better received it is. That tells me that we really do have some solid material, but that it’s not cutting through all of the competing acts out there. I hope to reach a critical mass in the near future, where our popularity is growing organically, under its own steam.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start and shape ideas into a completed song?
JDP: I must admit I don’t really have any formal process. Some songs have come out of fiddling around on an instrument, usually guitar or keys. I wrote the original Theatre of the Insane, later re-arranged and recorded by Ivory Knight, while learning to program a drum machine that I had just bought. I wrote ‘Watch You Walk Away’, a song later demoed first by Ivory Knight then by Sudden Thunder, while stopped at traffic lights – I sang the melody into a portable recorder, then went home and composed the music around that. The opening drum and corresponding guitar pattern for ‘Devoid’ by Dr. Squish came to me while I was taking the bus. I think the word ‘shape’ is really good in this context. It’s precisely what happens. Once the rough ideas are there I/we shape them like a sculpture until I/we are happy with the result. So far each Gravelle-Perinbam song has begun with Rob creating a rough version of the the song with guitar, keys, and programmed drums and sending me an MP3 file. I then compose and record my bass guitar, followed by lead vocals, and once I’m done with that I’ll usually have a pretty good idea of what I want for backing vocals. So far I’ve recorded all the backing vocals myself. The next step is for me to record my drums. Once that’s done we’ll see if we’re happy with the arrangement or if any tweaks are needed and re-do where needed.
RJG: I guess since Gravelle-Perinbam started out as my own solo project, I have been the one coming up with the song ideas so far. That being said, I have no doubt that John will be contributing more of his ideas as time goes on. The neat thing about digital recording, is that collaboration takes the form of someone sending files to the other, who then adds their two cents. This process goes back and forth until both parties are satisfied. It’s all a very iterative process, really. I myself also work in iterations, where I’ll lay down a really rough guitar track. Then, I’ll redo it at a higher, though not perfect, quality. Finally, once the drums and bass are pretty much finalized, I will go over everything with a fine toothed comb and redo anything that strikes my ear as not being 100% where I want it.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
JDP: I consider myself very fortunate and I’m thankful. I haven’t had many – apart from things that are simply part of life that everyone will at one point experience.
RJG: I’ve been lucky that the worst things that have happened to me pales in comparison to things that some people have been through. For instance, I was diagonosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) as a young man. That’s been an interesting ride. It’s not dangerous or particularly harmful, compared to almost any other condition, but when it’s acting up, it can be a challenge to navigate. I’ve learned a multitude of ways to lessen its impact on my life, but it’s been an ongoing annoyance. I have some well defined triggers, but sometimes it just rears its head for no apparent reason. At that point, you’ve got two ways to go: you can either change course as it’s directing you to, or realize that it’s feeding you distortions of trivialities that are not dangerous or threatning in the least. Nights can be the worst because there is very little to distract you from your thoughts. I’ve been known to wake up my wife in a state of despair, telling her that I love her, as if I’m about to die, and yet, there isn’t the slightest danger to be found! The lunacy of it all came crashing home one day, when I was telling my buddy that I was afraid of flying because I feared that help couldn’t get to me in time if “something” should happen to me. Without missing a beat, he pointed out that we were currently driving in northern Ontario, where help certainly could NOT get to us for hours! And yet, I was not at all fearful of that. Long story short, my fear of flying stemmed from an episode brought on by running up seven flights of stairs as fast as I could, for cardio. Afterwards, I realized that I was out of breath, and thought that would pass out, which triggered a panic attack. I did not pass out, nor suffer any ill effects at all, other than some light-headedness. However, that gave me a fear of enclosed spaces, which an airplane certainly is. Sometimes, the best medecine is just to laugh at the obsurdity of it all!
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
JDP: Recently seeing our video of Pleasant Valley Sunday quickly get over 35000 (last time I checked) views on YouTube was pretty awesome, as was hearing the chants of “I-VO-RY” at our bands performances!
RJG: Right now I would say that my greatest achievement is that I’ve realized the dream of financial independence at an early enough age to give my music the attention it needs. When you decide to be a musician and artist, you can either go full tilt and be prepared for a life of poverty or you can get a day job and hope that you can somehow manage both. In fact, there are practically no part-time musicians that are successful, and the reason is no mystery. Traditional, full-time jobs are engineered to deplete most of your energy. It’s not by design; it’s just that everyone’s trying to make as much money as possible, and, on an hourly wage, that takes a lot of hours. I tried being poor for a long time, but it just wasn’t for me, so I went into IT as a software developer, because it appealed to my analytical nature. A lot of people that I met there seemed to have very little going on outside of work. In fact, I noticed that a lot of them were working off hours (unpaid!), because that’s all they cared about. Those same people would criticize me for not becoming as adept as possible at programming. Meanwhile, I was squirelling away money at every turn so that I could get the hell out of there and do something truly meaningful with my life. I guess that some people are doers, and others are sheep. If you work as a salaried employee, you’re being a sheep. My advice would be to get out while you can. One of my guiding mantras was related to me by Dave Warnock, the Dying Out Loud Podcaster who is bravely chronicling his battle with ALS. It’s “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” So, people, do what you love now. Don’t wait. It’s do or die this very moment. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Do…it…now. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel to be updated whenever there’s new music!
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