Gr1mes is a seasoned music maker with many strings to his bow and plenty of diverse releases under his belt. As a core member of the Beyonders Music collective, he has recently debut a new EP under the imprint as part of an introductory series. We caught up with GR1MES as Beyonders Music preps for the release of its first full length project.
NICK GR1MES - Interview
Hey Nick! Welcome to Minimal Mag, great to chat to you. How’s life?
Life is jolly good, thank you. Right now it predominantly comprises of musicking, writing and hiking the Yorkshire Dales with my dog oh, and I’m in the process of starting a micro-brewery.
You’ve just dropped your brand new EP, ‘Flame’, the latest entry in the Beyonders Music introductory series. We’d love to know more about this release as well as Beyonders.
‘Flame’ is the last of our ‘character EP releases’ where, in the lead up to the album, we each choose four tracks from our repertoire to showcase the broad scope and diversity of the project. ‘Flame’ and ‘Atoms Of The Soul’ are collaborations with Dekoi, a brilliant, experimental DnB artist from Leeds; he and I worked through the tunes initially and then threw them into the Beyonders ring for Jimi (James Hadfield), Mala (Malcolm Sharp) and Nos (Jason Goodings) to weave their magic. ‘Ferme’ is a reworking of an older track, while ‘Ask and Receive’ was written more recently when I was living in Bristol. Musically, they’re all rather unique but the overarching vibe forges a connection, resulting in their hanging together quite beautifully as an EP…or at least, we think so and hope you’ll agree.
Tell us about your musical background and how you apply those skills to your current work.
After cutting my teeth playing Indie/Psych/60’s Garage/Rock ’n’ Roll in my teens and early twenties, I went on to study music at Newcastle University for a number of years, enabling me to really dive into Jazz, Indian Classical, Electronic, Improvisational and Experimental musics. Later, living in London as a session guitarist and vocalist I played with an eclectic mix of wonderful artists, further broadening my musical landscape, and it was during this period I started collaborating with Jolly Damper (Foehn Records), an outstanding experimental dance/pop artist from Barcelona, which drew me deeper into the world of dance and electronic music.
As far as application of skills is concerned, I think that overtime every serious musician develops their own artistic identity, but allows themselves to evolve, flare and ultimately be deconstructed, only to evolve and flare up again. Rather like a fingerprint that never changes, but is always born anew as the skin cells die and are replaced. Basically, you always take yourself to a different party wearing a different outfit, but YOU are always present at the party.
The Beyonders collective create experimental music from a wide range of genres. Within music, why do you think experimentation is important?
For me musical experimentation is paramount. I can’t imagine anything more dull than finding some little formula that works and tickles a fancy, only to repeat it over and over again. There is a universe of inspiration out there… use it! Push yourself out of your comfort zone, for that is where all the real beauty lies, undisturbed… until you stumble upon it.
Loving the instrumentation of your EP! Can you talk us through your typical production process?Because the Beyonders project started during lockdown, we’ve established a method of writing, recording and producing remotely across the ether, which has proven to be rather prolific, with each of us submitting tracks into the collective pool on a regular basis. From there we pass the works around between us, noodle, tweak, noodle, tweak, then sign it off and send for mastering when we’re all happy.
What can you tell us about the upcoming Beyonders collective LP, and when can we expect to hear it?
I simply cannot wait to release this LP. So much passion and hard graft has gone into the material and we’re all super stoked with the tracks that made the cut. You’ll certainly get a smorgasbord of diverse styles with plenty of intricate, experimental flourishes and bad-ass WONK to boot. It’s all but finished and we’re looking at an Autumn 2024 release… date to be confirmed.
Do you have anything else planned for the rest of 2024 you can share?
Everything is geared towards the album, so we’re very much focused on that, but alongside the DJ sets, rehearsals are booked in for semi-live and full-band live shows due to start back end of the year. Beyonders LIVE: Imagine watching a group of sugared-up toddlers in a room full of opened tins of paint…
NICK GR1MES - Links
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