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| Ask any musician who's been around the block the simple question: What's the best way to make money in a band ? The resounding answer is to play what the people want to hear. Yep, the dreaded cover band. It's a dirty word in many circles. Some players consider it prostituting themselves, giving up art for commerce. But does a bar full of drunken frat boys want to hear some skinny guy and his band pour out their hearts with their own compositions ? No. They want to hear the skinny guy and his bandplay some Hip or Dave Matthews. Like Earth, Wind and Fire said, "It's the Way of the World". Khyber front man and primary songwriter, John Grandy used the cover band cash-in to his advantage. After years of taking in every kind of music he could, he founded Khyber in 1998. He started the band as a Pink Floyd/Doors cover act, but also hoped the band could ultimately be a vehicle for his own music. The multi-instrumental Grandy enlisted guitarist Sam Graci and bassist/keyboardist Dan Burckhalter. The lineup was rounded out when Connecticut native Mike Shinnick came aboard as drummer. The band coelesced into exactly what Grandy had been seeking. Following two yeras of rehearsing, gigging and writing, Khyber has a new CD of all originals called Scarecrow Emotion. The recording is a dark affair, wrapping prog rock keyboards and heavy guitar around gray tales of self-doubt and detachment. After playing all that Pink Floyd, it appears the best of Floyd has certainly stuck with the band. The legend has inspired them on many levels. You see flashes of Floyd in Khyber's arrangements, song titles ("Sunrise Superimposed on a Lunar Eclipse"), adding instrumentals to the mix. Even the album artwork, which features a Dark Side-like shot of the pyramids. Beyond all of that, Grandy and company implement spacey Rick Wakeman keyboard lines, Alice Cooper's dramatic vocals, chunky bass solos, Alice In Chains vocal delivery and old school Voivod tough guy antics. Put it all together and you begin to get the idea of the things that Khyber has going on. They may be stepping away from the monetary pluses of being a tribute band, but Khyber is ready for a whole new path. Scarecrow Emotion is just the beginning. -nwc |
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