HONEYMOON SUITE Guitarist
DERRY GREHAN - "I Went Back To The Way I Used To Write... I’m Having Fun Playing Guitar Again"
BW&BK scribe Cark Begai recently spoke to
HONEYMOON SUITE guitarist
Derry Grehan about the reunion of the band's original line-up and their new album, Clifton Hill. The following is an excerpt from the interview:
“It kind of put the cart in front of the horse a little bit because we did the reunion before the record,” says Grehan of putting the band back together. “I was going through this really creative phase, writing a lot of songs, and the offer from Frontiers came in to do a record, so all these things came together quite nicely all at once. Me and Johnnie (Dee/vocals) were half way through writing the record, and I was seeing a lot of older bands getting back together. We never stopped touring, but as you know we had a lot of different side players, and even though it was good it had always been in the back of my mind to get the original line-up back together. There was this chemistry we had, and I wanted to hear that sound again. I just made some calls, fully expecting that it wouldn’t happen, and everybody came back with a ‘yes.’”
The songs on the new album, Clifton Hill, are short and sweet, with only one clearing the four minute mark (!), and while they lack the bombast of hits like ‘Burning In Love’ and ‘Bad Attitude’ there is a definite sense of purpose. Grehan’s playing, for example, hasn’t been this lively in years, and he paints a rich canvas of riffs from beginning to end like he used to.
“The whole record was written by me and Johnnie, so it was just the headspace that I was in,” Grehan explains. “The Big Prize is probably my favourite Honeymoon Suite record, it’s probably the best one sonically, and we were coming full circle in a lot of ways so I wanted to revisit that sound. It wasn’t a conscious effort, it was just a what was coming out of me at the time. I went back to the way I used to write, which was me picking up a guitar and trying to write songs quickly. I think those are the ones that come out the best. Like ‘New Girl Now’; I wrote that in 20 minutes. This album is less thinking, more open, just simple melodic rock. Like the opening riff of ‘She Ain’t Alright’, I’m just having fun playing guitar again.”
“I think there’s a real variety of music on the new album,” he adds. “If you listen to all our records you can hear that there’s a variety, like having ‘Wave Babies’ and ‘Burning In Love’ on the same record. I think that’s what attracts people to Honeymoon Suite. I don’t want a record to sound the same all the way through, I like throwing different things at people to surprise them. I’m getting the sense when I talk to people that the new record has a genuine appeal.”
Go to
this location for the complete interview.
Accueil 
