Gracie Mae members: Ryan Caron (L), Aaron Barry (C) and Tanner Havens (R). Photo Gracie Mae on Facebook
By Greg Holden
A new rock band, Gracie Mae, has formed in southwestern Ontario, aiming to get you to tune in and turn it up.
Fronted by Aaron Barry from London, who plays guitar and sings, the trio is backed up by two members from Chatham-Kent, drummer Ryan Caron and bassist Tanner Havens. The band released an official video of their single, Harbour and Ship, last month and expect to have three more songs completed by the end of April. Harbour and Ship was one of three songs Gracie Mae released in December, 2013, as part of an EP by the same name.
The band lists influences like the Deftones, Sunny Day Real Estate, Sleeper Set Sail and the Manchester Orchestra on their webpage.
“The band is brand new. The next three songs we are going to do are pop-rock. The first three gave us an idea what people are responding to”, said Ryan Caron when asked about the bands immediate future. Previous singles by the band include Altars and Crisis.
Crisis is a song loaded with winding riffs and a driving beat that takes the listener through a range of emotions from defeat to anger, resolving in reasons for not letting go of a relationship. Altars, which has an acoustic version, is a solemn ode to lost love. Harbour and Ship is pure resignation to love gone wrong, punctuated with bitterness. All three of Gracie Mae’s releases so far are heavy rock. Caron told the CKReview that the next batch of songs will feature “real angelic singing”, which isn’t hard to imagine with Barry’s high ranging voice.
Caron describes the songwriting by saying, “Aaron will present an idea and the writing process is a collective.” Caron added, “We do want to inspire people to reach higher. Especially in a (smaller) community like this. We need to come together. So we are trying to write music that can move a lot of people. If that makes sense.”