An Interview with Gravehuffer

Doomed & Stoned’s resident sludge-monger continues his quest to interview the filthiest doom and southern sludge bands on the planet! This week, a one-on-one with guitarist Ritchie Randall from long standing Jopllin, Missouri act GRAVEHUFFER, right on the heels of their just third album ‘NecroEclosion’ (2021 - Black Doomba Records) – an explosion of crusty grindcore and doom. (Editor)

Ritchie, tell us about your role in Gravehuffer.

I play guitar and do a little bit of the vocals. I write the riffs and Mike, the bass player, and I collaborate on all that. This time was kind of cool, because our drummer – our new drummer Jay Willis – he even wrote some riffs for this record. He wrote probably four or five. There were a couple of songs. That was his stuff. It has been really cool, with a collaborative effort this time.

Who else is in the band and what do they do?

Travis McKenzie is our brand new vocalist. He actually started when we were recording this record, which is kind of crazy. I think he joined us in February, possibly. He started hitting the ground running! We literally threw him in the fire. Our drummer, Jay Williis, has been with us for a year-and-a-half, I think. Previous to that, Larry Deerdorf was our drummer and he had been with us since 2008. Mike Jilge is our bass player. It has been Mike and myself since '08.

Can you explain about how the vocals are written and recorded? Sometimes they sound layered a bit. Do you have effects on the vocals?

There are very little effects on the vocals, maybe a little delay or reverb. Yeah, there is some layering. Yeah, it’s cool. Jay, our drummer, he actually sang a good bit of vocals and Travis sang I would say 50/50. We didn’t want to get Travis in the band while we were in the middle of recording and say, “Do all the vocals, dude!” (laughs) It was more of a collaboration with Jay and Travis.

Jay had been a singer in other bands prior to coming to Gravehuffer. The drummer thing I guess he did out of necessity. That’s what he told us. He has this really cool voice. He has a kind of hardcore-meets-black metal vibe going on. Travis has more kind of the spastic, crusty style of vocals. The stuff I do is more shouting, yelling in key, and some of the guttural stuff too. My contribution vocally is a lot less, but we are all in there singing at some point. Sometimes all three of us on a song.

I pick up some hardcore hints from Gravehuffer. There are sick ass riffs on track three, “Sights To The Sky.”

Thanks, man. I appreciate that because all those riffs were riffs I had on my phone. We all pulled our riffs together and just dumped them in our bass player Mike’s computer at his home studio. That was an amalgamation of two or three riff ideas. We put the riff ideas in his computer and it came out really cool. “We need to use the first half of that riff and then end with this riff.” I remember I wanted to use those parts for this song. Particular riffs I was adamant on using, for sure. I appreciate you noticing that.

I checked out your previous albums on Bandcamp, bought both Gravehuffer posters. Andre the Giant and the other one are pretty badass.

We have a song on the new album NecroEclosion and thought that would be cool, to have artwork to match.

“Death Before Disco” is badass! Reminds me of S.O.D. or M.O.D. with having the humor and acting some parts out.

We covered like a minute of the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing.” We had a friend play horns on this one. It was a lot of fun! Yeah, S.O.D.! Dude, we are in our mid-40s.

I am 44.

Right on, yeah. That is like totally our thing. We like to mix in the humor. Way back, they had these shirts that Mike had, or he wanted one, that said “Death before Disco.” Ever since we were in a band in the '90s, we were in a crust punk band called Initial Detonation. We released a couple 7-inches and toured a bit. Mike had wanted to do this for like 20 years. He was finally like, “I am going to learn a Bee Gees bass line and we are going to do this damn song!” (laughs) We all learned our parts. We had a friend of ours from Metal devastation Radio [and] he is the one who announces us on the song.

The whole skit in the beginning of the song had me rolling!

It was a lot of fun to record. We were worried about putting it on the album. I think that most people who are into us get the whole cheeky punk thing that we do.

Having fun! I’m glad you put the song on there!

We thought why not, you know? We have done it on every album, so why not?

More bands need to take those artistic avenues. I appreciate when bands take the directions they need to later on, after putting an album or several out there. Some fans won’t like it or understand it, and that’s okay.

Yeah, totally valid. We decided, “You know what? We are going to do what we want.” We shouldn’t second guess what people are going to think. We squashed that pretty quick. I will admit I thought, “Should we be doing this?” (laughs) Mike and I pretty much don’t care what people think. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s just that we don’t let it affect what we write. Jay, our new drummer, wasn’t sure about it at first. He is new coming into this thing and wasn’t sure what our fans thought at all. He has played a few shows, but this is his first album. I don’t blame him for that.

The song “Smaller Than Death,” is about Andre the Giant.

That one is about Andre, yes.

I love it! It’s nice and sludgy. Real thick and chunky. So what does Andre the Giant mean to you and Gravehuffer?

Mike had brought up the idea for writing a song about Andre. He just watched this documentary on HBO about Andre the Giant. He was really inspired by it and that’s basically where that came from. I always loved Andre when I watched wrestling in the '80s.

Oh yeah, me too!

He was like the first wrestling superstar. We thought it would be cool to write about wrestling but also his life, as well. He grew up in France then came over to America to be a wrestler. He wasn’t really interested in being famous. Everyday life was a challenge for him being a giant outside the ring. We wanted to make sure that we put that in there! We needed to make it more than just wrestling. He could have been viewed as a sideshow freak. That was a thing back then. He used his size to his advantage to become an amazing wrestler. He was a character, as well. He had a charisma about him that we related to a lot.

Have you ever seen any of the “Andre the Giant has a posse” stickers?

No, I haven’t seen those.

They are big where I am at, because the guy who created it is from here.

Oh really? Cool!

I’ll send you some stickers. I think you’ll like them. This guy Shepard Fairey is from Charleston S.C. and created them and “Obey.” He also did the iconic Hope picture for Obama years ago.

Really? Interesting.

He has traveled all over the world doing graffiti, posters, and sticking up these Andre stickers.

That is definitely something that we would love to be a part of, I think. (laughs)

I loved Andre the Giant from wrestling and especially from The Princess Bride. He was a gentle giant.

Exactly! Yes! I think the lyrics have “gentle giant” in there.

Gravehuffer is signed to Black Doomba Records?

Correct.

You guys have merch available through Seasons Of Mist as well, right?

Yeah. Shirts, tank tops, and hoodies.

Grave huffer also has masks right? You’re one of the first bands I saw making masks. More bands have that now.

Yeah, they have sold pretty well. We have marked them down to $6.66.

Sweet!

So what makes Gravehuffer laugh?

That is an interesting question. I don’t think I have ever been asked that. We find humor in off the wall fucked-up stuff. (laughs) I can’t think of anything in particular off the top of my head. S.O.D. and M.O.D. Stuff like that. Probably a typical humor. Mike, our bass player is like 6’ 5" probably weighs about 300 lbs but he’s like a big kid. We used to work together in the same office. I did printing, he did mail. I would be at my desk and he would fart. It would be very loud and like 10 seconds long! I would be like, “Oh, my god, what was that?” We would die laughing! He is just a big kid. Honestly, he cracks me up more than anything. The other day I came to the band room and he was watching Sanford and Son. We just sat and watched it for about an hour. We tend to like old comedies, poop and fart jokes.

Sounds like what makes me laugh.

Yeah! We are ridiculous! (laughs) I sent Mike a YouTube video where a guy in Walmart took an intercom phone and farted in it. (laughs)

I’ve seen that. It echoes and reverberates through the whole building.

I wish they would have filmed him for about 3 more seconds because the reverb just keeps going! (laughs) That is stuff that makes us laugh. We are just like little kids. We’re 8 years old! (laughs)

Tell me about writing the song “Ghost Dance” and what it means to you and the band.

As far as the music is concerned, that main riff Mike and I came up with. Actually, Mike came up with the first half of it and then I came up with the second half of it. Most times that’s what happens where someone will start a riff or lyrics and someone else will hear something a little different and add on to it or finish it. The chorus section was a collaboration between all of us. I remember coming up with that part and having Mike and Jay were telling me, “Hey, why don’t you just write the top string during that section?” It is cool how that whole song came together. When the song changes and becomes more intense we don’t tell each other what to play, but we tell each other what we are hearing. It goes through our filter and then we play it, “Yeah that’s perfect!” It is a pretty cool way of writing. The last part is kind of melodic and Mike said to pick a melody to play over it, so I did and that’s how that came about.

As far as the subject matter, I always thought it would be appropriate to write about Wounded Knee. That is something I feel strongly about. Travis, our new singer, that was the second set of lyrics he wrote. The first was “Death Before Disco” and “Ghost Dance” was the second. We were like, “Travis this is really good!” We haven’t ever seen his lyrics prior to Gravehuffer and he knocked it out of the park. We thought it would be a good idea to create a lyric video especially considering the subject matter. That is pretty much how “Ghostdance” came together, ya know?

Awesome! What has been an awkward moment for Gravehuffer as a band?

An awkward moment? Let me think.

like trying to get across the Canadian border and you got grass on you.

(laughs) Right, right. We’ve never played outside the US yet. We don’t have any crazy things like that. I don’t know. We haven’t had many awkward moments as a band. Nothing like really crazy. I do remember one time we were playing at a place called The Bottleneck in Kansas. We’d played there a couple times prior, but for whatever reason we were outside the back door and knocking and no one was coming. This is where the bands load in and out. I guess no one was back there at the time, so I text the promoter and he gets ready to come out.

While we are waiting to get inside and load in, there is someone coming down the alley the wrong way and he is wanting us to move. Hey, no, we are not going to move! So the guy just starts yelling at us and starts cussing at us. So the promoter finally comes out and starts laying into the guy who is telling us to move. “You need to move, you’re going the wrong way down a one way street!” The guy was getting really mouthy and Mike stood up and you have to worry! (laughs) I saw him shove someone and that was the end of it! He is a big guy and I wouldn’t want to ever make him mad. That was definitely an awkward moment.

There have been a couple instances like that. There was another instance where we were playing in Iola, Kansas and a guy came out and he was really drunk. He was saying how much he really liked us. He started talking about being in prison and it got weird quick and getting a little too personal. So Mike again stood up and I was like, “Oh no!” I am looking at Mike going, “No no no!” That’s about it, where stuff could have gotten out of hand. People are just acting weird.

Where do we find Gravehuffer’s music? Bandcamp, Spotify?

Yes, we are on both. I usually send people to Bandcamp.

I love Bandcamp!

Bandcamp is terrific! It is so artist friendly and having merch on sale there. Dude, we have like 15 or 20 items up there.

I got the Gravehuffer patch a while back and recently got those posters. Is there anything else you want to promote or plug before we end this?

As far as the new album is concerned, it’s at Black Doomba Records. It’s on three-color vinyl, with yellow, red, and black splatter.

Nice!

It’s on a180 gm vinyl. It also comes with two signed posters for the first 50 editions. The next 50 after that have the same posters, just not signed. Each vinyl is hand numbered by Tommy Stewart. One more thing. We were talking about “Ghostdance,” off the album NecroEclosion. The next one is “Causes.” It was the last song to be recorded for lyrics. The reason why is our drummer Jay and our singer Travis were supposed to collaborate on lyrics and just never happened. It was the last week in the studio and we needed to turn the record into the label and crunched for time. Our old singer James had suggested that we used a friend for this song. This particular friend had passed away a few years ago. We got the blessing from the family to use a poem of his for the lyrics for the song. The poem fits the song perfectly. We didn’t edit or add anything. In the song where the horns come in is where the poem actually ends. It couldn’t have fit anymore perfectly! It is dedicated to our friend Ryan Smith.

Very amazing!

It turned out very cool. It might not stick out, but it definitely has a different vibe from the rest of the record.

It sounded like an older song. A bit hardcore.

Our bass player wrote that entire song on bass. It was a pretty unique way of going about it. Our drummer Jay when he recorded the drums he did it in one take. (laughs)

Holy shit!

I know, right?

I know studio time can be expensive.

Yeah, it’s a unique song. We have artwork for that song that fits it really well. It fell together so well.