Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic records once made a sweeping statement – he claimed that all the good riffs had been played! FFS!!! So all the guitarists who were swept up and inspired by all that great music of the 60s and 70s should just hang it up and forget about it?

What Ahmet really meant was that the legacy of those times was a modern template for song writing, and an endless font of great ideas, but where you can still hear the roots of jazz and the Blues.

So where is modern song writing at? After hearing the top ten of JJJ’s “Top 100” it sounds a bit like everyone is writing the same song, but adding different production values. The writers and producers sound more interested in the amount of delay, reverb and synthetic spatial keyboard sounds than anchoring their songs in any obvious referential influences, and they don’t seem to be paying respect to what has come before. Could it be because of that a lot of the songs will not survive the magical test of time? They are part of the throw away culture and fashion of the times – there is good pop but man, it takes a bit of finding – there is a lot of shite out there.

Song writing is a craft that requires dedication and perseverance – writing a simple song can be a complex task. Distilling observations and experience into a vignette, constructing a lyric that has a meter to compliment the rhythm, and then expressing a theme in the lyric sympathetic to the emotion, mood or tone of the melody. Another crucial element is being able to hear and acknowledge the song’s roots, so you can hear where the writing is coming from, what style of song it is.

Now writing a blues or rock song can present challenges, there is no point of a middle class white boy rehashing “she done me wrong”, or “I’m out on the street” lyrics, we all now really know where that’s at. You can allude to those situations and the themes of the greats, but to spell out verbatim isn’t going to cut it. We learn our deepest lessons from myths and fables, and songs should reach in and inhabit the soul – they should stir the memory, touch the longing and pain we all carry, give us a sense of belonging, confirm our deepest desires and pleasure, stir up some happiness or scream at an unjust world – songs celebrate life.

Steve Grieve and The Mourners is primarily a vehicle for the song writing team of Dan Myles and Steve Grieve. The songs are trying to be all the above, out of respect for the craft and all the great artists who came before. There are references and roots in the songs, an obvious nod towhat has come before and an honest attempt to move the craft forward.

Caterpillar Maze is an album of songs touching on our many influences. We like to think we may have succeeded in putting our own stamp on the music we love, and, as far as we can tell, there isn’t another Australian band at the moment that sound anything like we do. We would love to know if you can hear that, and we hope these songs might resonate with you and your own ideas about what a good band is and should be playing. We cover a lot of ground in these songs. The Blues is the primary roots of our band, but there are other influences aplenty, with rock, funk, country and Americana elements in there as well.

Steve Grieve and The Mourners came out of Canberra in the early 80s. The band started out during the declining years of the great Oz pub rock era, when in order to stand out you not only needed good songs but you needed to have a mix of insight, bravado and be tough enough to muscle your way into the scene. You needed be able to play your instrument well and have a band full of players that all understood exactly what their part was in chasing the holy grail of being in a good band. The magic mantra of 1% talent 99% perseverance is a great insight into the process, and the hard work of achieving this goal requires mental focus, discipline and an unwavering belief. Then being able to generate that belief and deliver every time the band walks on stage, slowly brings on the next mystic mantra, the magical illusion of smoke and mirrors, making the difficult task of being a great band look natural and easy. You only really learn if you are achieving these things when the next mantra kicks in, preparation meets opportunity.

For us back in 1984 out of nowhere we got asked get to be the opening act for a one of the major great international blues acts that the planet has ever known, the virtuosic blues great Johnny Winter. We pulled it off, the road manager and the band made an effort to let us know we had it. We weren’t kidding ourselves, we were on our way to being a great band.

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The geek radio sleaze Howard Stern was once defending Bon Jovi’s massive success in an argument with some guests. No one in the argument liked the band but Howard’s point was that the people had spoken. 20 million copies of Slippery when wet didn’t mean it was a good album, it just meant that 20 million people liked it enough to buy.

There are three basic types of people, if divide a crowd into 3 categories, visual, audible and kinesthetic (feeling) you have to satisfy one of these elements enough to get an individual’s attention. We all have different levels of the three but usually one is the more dominant. So if you have a room full of punters and you are an purely audible band, with no visuals and no emotional energy, you will only get the attention audible types in the crowd, the visual will loose interest and the kinesthetic may pick up a bit of a vibe off of the audible types and you may get a little bit of atmosphere. The bands that really work the magic and get all three happening are celebrated and revered,we’ve all been in a room with a fantastic band, blowing the place away, you can feel the energy overwhelm you and everyone is in for the ride, powerful addictive stuff

Getting in the pocket is the magic space that great bands can access at will, be it a well rehearsed muscle memory and or a particular chemistry between players. The band knows that feeling and it is as addictive as great sex or a powerful drugs, maintaining access to that space is a deceptive thing and it can haunt a band when they loose that access. It usually calls for someone to be sacked, a sacrifice to the rock gods in hope of a resurrection. My first memory of it in the original Mourners lineup was opening for Ian Moss at a small bar called Billboards in Canberra. Moss had pulled an all star band together, we were thrilled to be opening for him, our band were in a fantastic place and during that time we had taken our song writing to another level, we had some great new songs ready to go.

We got to the gig and it was full house, walking in through the front doors, through the packed crowd to the back stage area you could feel a fantastic energy already. As we got to the corridor leading to the band room and there was mayhem ahead. Moss’s road crew had beaten the crap out of a few over zealous punters and a major scuffle had broken out, we waded in and pulled a few bodies out and with the management and bouncers it was calmed down. But it was clear the roadies were over top and taking their roll and little to seriously, but that’s rock’n roll. In the band room the vibe was crap, we were getting barked at as the blood pressure was still a little too high, there was not going to be a relaxed, easy path onto the stage.

I locked eyes with one of the goons and we had a little exchange, I basically thanked him for the good vibes. There was a lot of tension and before we knew it they were telling us to go on, as I turned to walk on stage I threw up in a bin, something I had never done. The crowd erupted as we came on, there was no time to think about what the fuck just happened it was time to play. Three or four songs in something magic happened,it suddenly felt effortless, like I just had to open my mouth and the singing came out. I looked around at the guys and it was like we were all in a bliss state, we were flying, the road crew were now rocking out with us, pumping fits and yelling from side stage as were the crowd. It was a powerful band in the pocket and that is the space, it is rock’n roll magic. It ruined me, I have never recovered and I have a burning continual need to get back to that space.

Not every gig goes so well, some are absolute nightmares. Promoters will pair up bands just to get your loyal crowd there and make sure some money comes through the door.This is where those three elements can really come into play.We arrived at the sound check to hear a really lame attempt at a John lee Hooker style boogie taking place, we all cut our teeth in a pretty solid garage scene in the Northern suburbs of Canberra and ZZ Tops La Grange was a standard jam tune.We stood near the desk in disbelief when our drummer Justin Mcmahon loudly said what we were all thinking “How the fuck did these guys get anywhere” well within earshot of their roadies and sound guy and um, things went pear shaped real quick.

Hunters and Collectors were a band of their time, successfully riding the punk zeitgeist to national fame. They wrote a couple of solid songs that are now part of national psych of a particular generation of music fans. Unfortunately at the time their music missed us on all three levels, they were competition and that was how we were, we were our tribal about the idea of being in a band .We well knew weren’t a good fit with their local diehard fans either.To top off the good vibes Steve Grieve did an interview in the local music paper Pulse leading up to the gig and gave the band a brutal critique on their lack of musical prowess.

We wore a lot of hostile bullshit from their road crew, they weren’t as heavy as the Moss crew but they let us know we weren’t in for a good night, as did their crowd when we walked on stage. But hey just like Bon Jovi the people had spoken.

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They turned all the lights out back stage and then we saw the dressing room door open, his band leading the way out. His manager walked out of the room backwards holding a torch at the brim of Johnny’s hat. Johnny walked slowly with his hands held forward. For those of you who don’t know Johnny was albino and had 10 to 15 % vision. He was a very rare and powerful looking human being, we were all thrown into a kind of silent reverent shock at the sight before us ,he looked like he has risen from the crypt. He got to side stage and the manager helped him put his guitar on and he seemed to double in size and energy, then he turned toward the stage and off he went, he put on a fantastic high energy show. He was of a whole other level.

Meeting Peter Haycock of the Climax blues band was another interesting experience, it was at the Workers club in Canberra, they were a world class band and sadly nobody came. Before the gig Peter Haycock and the band walked into the empty room, Haycock he was a very handsome Englishman, he had a crazy orthopedic brace on his right fore arm and hand. He was quite a sight, he oozed a sophisticated cool, he was so comfortable in his own skin, he just looked like a super star. He casually walked up to us and started chatting, I asked him about his hand and he said he had fallen asleep when drunk on the plane over to Australia, he slept for hours with his hand in a upright position, the blood drained and his hand fell asleep big time. An orthopedic surgeon put the brace together for him in Perth, the brace had light sprung metal rods on each finger attached to the arm brace that helped his fingers move enough to pick the strings, he told us the band had just finished a big European tour and thought they’d come to Australia to unwind. Peter Haycock was one of the best guitarist I have ever seen play and he could also really sing. The Climax blues band were a brilliant modern blues band, they had such a contemporary take on the Blues and they played like the place was packed, they were awesome. Hanging out at the end of the night was such a blast as they were really cool relaxed people, in Europe where they playing to 20 or 30 thousand people every night and here they were at the Canberra Workers Club playing to a handful of people. Lucky us.

One of the more interesting greats we got to open for was the fabulous Doctor Feelgood, one of the great British R’n B bands. Along with my other heroes The Sensational Alex Harvey Band they were a huge influence on the generation that brought the world Punk Rock. Both these bands had a theatrical cartoonish image, Lee Brilleaux and Wilco Johnson were one of the great front/man axe man teams in rock music history. In the same vain as Alex Harvey and Zal Clemons and then Bon and Angus borrowed heavily and carried on this British tradition. By the time we opened for them Wilco Johnson had long gone off to become a Blockhead but that didn’t diminish the thrill of opening for them.

It was a packed night upstair in the ANU refectory, there was a really great vibe happening. By this stage we were in our groove and we slayed it. During the show Steve was doing his own shtick of flying around whilst playing a driving riff in the Big City Song, he lept so high he slammed his head into a steel girder and fell off stage, quite a hilarious thing to watch, he quickly regathered and bounced back on stage and we kept playing through it all, we didn’t miss a beat. He had quite a lump at the end of the night.

Back stage after Doctor feelgood finished their set there was a real party happening. Out of nowhere Lee Brilleaux came up and put his arm around my shoulders and said “You’ve really got it mate, that’s a big voice you have and you really have a great presence up there, you’re a fabulous band and I love the name, keep it up and who knows, you may make something of it”. The biggest compliment I’d ever received during my time and it was straight from one of my biggest heroes. I knew a bit about Dr Feelgood so I had a great chat with Lee about his band and career, they had a young guitar player with them, Johnny Guitar, who Lee said first auditioned for the band when he was 14 and they could have hired him then, he knew all of Wilco’s licks inside out. So when Gypie Mayo left they grabbed him, it was quite a night for us, quite a night for me.

But the one we enjoyed the most and the one that still brings a smile to our faces was the night we got to open for the Blues great Lonnie Mack at a packed Canberra Workers club. Lonnie Mack was a mentor to the great Stevie Ray Vaughn, along with Freddie and Albert King he was instrumental in the rise of virtuoso blues rock guitar soloing with early instrumental hits in the early sixties. A true Texas Blues giant. Unfortunately Lonnie missed our set but one of our local heroes didn’t, the great Gunther Gorman who had carved himself out a career as a guitar sideman with stints in Daddy Cool and Sherbert. Gunther loved what he saw and was all over Steve and his playing, he came out back after our set and told us so, it was a blast for us all as we had been watching Gunther do his thing for years and he was the real deal. Suddenly the door to the band room swung open and in walked the man himself, Lonnie Mack, he stood there and all the oxygen left the room and that reverent silence returned, the man had a huge cool presence. I couldn’t speak, Gunther broke the silence and told him he really missed out on seeing our set. Lonnie stood there and slowly, cooly looked us over, then in his cool Texan drawl responded with “y’all look like y’sound real good anyhow”.

Boom! Yes indeed,we’ll take that! Karazma!

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