Gary L Grape profile picture

Gary L Grape

Groovy!

About Me

This is my music profile, I have a personal MySpace profile as well. You can check it out on www.myspace.com/garygrape if you're interested.
I was born in the Aaland Islands between Finland and Sweden, now I'm living in a village just south of Vaasa in Finland. I'm a bass player (basically freelance, I play all kinds of different music styles), and I also like to arrange music. I started playing Electric Bass back in the '80s, Electric Bass still rules, but I've started to enjoy playing the Double Bass more lately. I also sing, play guitar and piano/keyboards. I might even pull off some drumming if necessary. I like most kinds of music as long as it's good, but I prefer rock, prog, metal and folk. For me, the groove is perhaps the most important factor in the music I play, no matter what style.
People I've played with: Johanna Grüssner, Fredrik Erlandsson, Ronnie Svenblad, Lars-Åke Lundberg, Oikoumene Gospel Choir, Roland Utbult, Calvin Bridges, Robert Granholm, Rasmus F Forsman, Markus Björkholm, Jonas Backman, Mikael Ahlskog, Tomas Boström, Per Harling, Sofie Björkgren-Näse, Tobias Tåg, Martin Holm. There are some more people in the list of bands I've played in.
Recordings I appear on:
'Follow You' - Oikoumene (A Finnish Gospel Choir). I played the bass, sang a solo part and wrote some brass parts on this CD
'Go'morron sa solen' - 36 songs by Margareta Othman-Sundell. I played the bass on this CD
Other publications:
Stora Sångboken. 250 Finlandssvenska sånger och visor. I wrote some new arrangements to a few songs for this publication
Gryning - Kimmo & Monica Penttala. I wrote the sheet music for this publication
Tillbedjan - Maria Ã…svik. I wrote the sheet music for this publication
Some Bands I've played in:
NAKED & FAMOUS (Punk & Rock): Johan Sjölund - Guitar and Backing Vocals, Myself - Bass and Lead Vocals, Kennet Lindberg - Drums (2005), Kim Jansson - Drums (2008)
Prayer (80's Metal): Conny Johns - Lead Vocals, Tomas 'Toto' Ericksson - Guitar and Backing Vocals, Johan Sjölund - Guitar, Roger Nordberg - Drums, Myself - Bass and Backing Vocals
Urbra (Alternative): Jonas 'Oa' Stenström - Guitar, Henrik Åkerfeldt - Guitar, Juha Kunnari (RIP) - Drums, Myself - Bass and Lead Vocals

Creed (Not the famous band with the same name): Johanna Gröning - Lead Vocals, Leif Eriksson - Guitar, Jörgen 'Jösse' Lönnqvist - Guitar, Dennis Palén - Keyboards and Backing Vocals, Markus Helander - Drums and Percussion, Myself - Bass and Backing Vocals

Lajbans Guldgossar: Henrik Åkerfeldt - Guitar, Dennis Palén - Keyboards and Backing Vocals, Markus Helander - Drums, Myself - Bass and Lead Vocals

Coo Coo Cachoo (Simon & Garfunkel covers mainly): Carl-Ove Björkman - Guitar, Kazoo, Percussion and Vocals, Tom Käldström - Guitar, Kazoo, Percussion and Vocals, Myself - Bass, Kazoo, Percussion and Vocals
Springbrunnsquartetten ('Dansband'): Mikael 'Micki' Ahlskog - Guitar and Vocals, Rasmus F 'Rasse' Forsman - Keyboards and Vocals, Markus 'Macko' Björkholm - Drums, Myself - Bass and Vocals
Myspace Editor
Pimp MySpace

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/14/2008
Band Members: I'm only active in one band at the moment, and that's in a band called Naked & Famous. We play covers (Green Day, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Presidents of the USA and so on) and we're not really that active...however, there are only two permanent members, and they are:

Johan Sjölund - Guitar (+some vocals)
Myself - Bass/Vocals

The Drummer has changed pretty regularly, and to be honest I'm not even sure we have a steady drummer at the moment...we started out with Kennet Lindberg, and Kim Jansson has also played with the band.

Other than this band, I'm still not sure which direction I want to go. At the moment it feels like I want to do Soul/Rock with a hint of metal, but that seems to change on a regular basis.

As they say: Stay tuned!
Influences: AC/DC, Alter Bridge, Amaran's Plight, Apulanta, Arena, Audioslave, Ayreon, Backyard Babies, The Beatles, Ludwig van Beethoven, Blackfield, Black Sabbath, Bo Kaspers Orkester, Bon Jovi, Caedmon's Call, Clannad, Creed, Andrae Crouch, Deep Purple, Dio, Dokken, Dream Theater, Europe, Extreme, The Flower Kings, Foo Fighters, Frost, Galactic Cowboys, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Gesualdo, Gov't Mule, Green Day, Hellacopters, Himlaväsen, Huey Lewis and the News, Iron Maiden, Jamiroquai, Jan Johansson, Jethro Tull, Kansas, King Crimson, King's X, Koinonia, Lenny Kravitz, Led Zeppelin, Tomas Ledin, David Lee Roth, Level 42, Living Colour, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Manic Street Preachers, Marillion, Metallica, Neal Morse, Nazareth, Opeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Pain Of Salvation, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, A Perfect Circle, Pink Floyd, P.O.D., The Police, Porcupine Tree, Presidents of the USA, Queen, Queensryche, Rage Against The Machine, Rainbow, The Real Group, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Return to Forever, Georg Riedel, Rush, Saga, Joe Satriani, Saxon, Scar Symmetry, Shadow Gallery, Jean Sibelius, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Spin Doctors, Spock's Beard, Spyro Gyra, Sting, Roine Stolt, Stonecake, Symphony X, System Of A Down, Take 6, Thin Lizzy, Tool, Toto, Tower Of Power, Devin Townsend, Trouble, Uriah Heep, Steve Vai, Van Halen, Vanden Plas, Whitesnake, Stevie Wonder, Yes, ZZ Top
Sounds Like: Well, actually I'm still working on that...but I'm finding out more and more that although I prefer to listen to Progressive Rock and Metal, my own sound leans more toward Soul and Folk. And besides, it depends a lot on the people I'm playing together with anyway in the end.
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Thank you!

I would just like to thank the musicians that I played with tonight, Robban, Martin, Mattias and Toni. I was very happy with your performance, and I'm proud of you all. Big thanks to all of you!/Gary...
Posted by Gary L Grape on Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:20:00 PST

Blah, blah...

So...it would be nice to play in a proper band and do gigs. But...I'm not sure that it's for me right now. I tend to play only in temporary setups at the moment, and I REALLY mean temporary, I'm talk...
Posted by Gary L Grape on Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:50:00 PST

Just a short update

I changed my mind about this blog of mine...everyone will be able to read it, not only my friends. So, I've had this MySpace Music account for quite some time now, and I've only managed to upload two...
Posted by Gary L Grape on Thu, 29 May 2008 01:27:00 PST

Finally...

So...I've finally done it and opened a MySpace Music account. I will make this first blog post public, so everyone can read it. But starting from the next one, my blog posts will be available for my f...
Posted by Gary L Grape on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:02:00 PST