God's Monkey - ProfilesArchive

About Me

God's Monkey are a music collective from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - their music varies from early 70's Berlin school electronica instrumentals to 80's electro-pop and new age. Influences also arrive in various flavours from jazz fusion, prog rock and hard rock.

God's Monkey is fronted by Ian Gregson [aka RockerBiff ] a self confessed musical neophyte and all round political junkie. Ian has a chequered musical past; initially from 79-81 he was a sound engineer for a cabaret rock band performing the workingmens clubs of northern England. In the 80's he became a DJ at CJSF radio in Vancouver, eventually becoming station manager. In the 90's Ian took a rest from music and raised a family. Then in 2000 Ian bolted from the "guitar playing" closet and performed solo in front of his neighbours. Ian then went on to host the Open Mic night at SFU and in January 2006 joined East Vancouver's legendary Carnival Band. In October 2006 Ian started Vancouver's only Northern Soul band "Mr M and the All Nighters", paying tribute to the Wigan Casino and Northern Soul.

Here's what guitarist Steve Khan had to say about the track Guy Lafleur...
"Dear RB: Thanks for the link to "Guy Lafleur" redux. It's remarkable that the sampled portion sound so good. Anyway, I'm happy that you could make something useful, more personal, out of what we did." Steve Khan

Ian's 2003 track "God Amongst Insects" is a result of meeting Sir Ian McKellan during the filming of X Men 2 in Vancouver. The scene in which Magneto turns to a young Pyro and says "you are a god amongst insects" sufficiently inspired the naming of this track.

The folks at Gods of Music said about "God Amongst Insects"
"...if you like electronic tracks that breathe into your mind and make you just sit back and THINK... listen to this. Drink a beer, watch a poster under a blacklight, and just think."
C. Mitchel Marinos - Gods of Music
Read the full Review HERE

Full CD Listings:
2006 - God's Monkey - Casino Club
2005 - God's Monkey - Good for All Creatures
2004 - RockerBiff - Electrocentric Ethnoglide
2003 - RockerBiff - Deliverance from a Damned Nation
2002 - RockerBiff - From Longshaw Common to Seneley Green

Equipment used:
Ian uses Epiphone, Hamer and Fender guitars; D'Addario Strings and Jim Dunlop pics [2mm]. The music was recorded using a Mac G4 using Reason 2.x; Peak; Deck; for mastering and editing. Guitar and vocal tracks were added using a Boss BR 1600 recording unit. Ian also uses a Boss GT-3 for live and studio work.

Track list so far:
1. Blaguegate 2. Salvatore's Dream 3. Another Green Dub 4. Another Green Dub [single edit] 5. Nevasa Brocade 6. Chameleon 7. Moliendo Cafe

Songs can be purchased at

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 4/5/2006
Band Website: soundclick.com/godsmonkey
Band Members: Ian Gregson - Guitars, keyboards, percussion, Reason programming
Anne Nyguyen - Vocals
Brandon Walker - Trumpet

Influences:

Songs can be purchased at

God's Monkey's primary influences are from Tangerine Dream, Bill Nelson, David Sylvian, King Crimson. However other influences come from Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Ozric Tentacles, Steve Hillage, Hawkwind, Wishbone Ash, Motorhead, Gary Moore, Eric Johnson, Steve Tibbets, David Torn, Richie Blackmore, Rainbow, Status Quo, Brian Eno, Vangelis, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Rush, Philip Lynott, Sad Cafe, Glenn Hughes, Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, Larry Carlton, Joe Pass, Kate Bush, John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola, Steve Morse, Michael Hedges, Mike Stern, Orbital, Rory Gallagher, Van Halen, Underworld, Steve Khan, Barry Gray, Frank Zappa, Weather Report, Jaco Pastorius, The Carnival Band, Mark Isham, Claire Hamill, Judie Tzuke, Jon Hiseman, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Level 42, Queen, Black Sabbath, Allman Brothers, Dire Straits, Godspeed You Black Emperer, Wilko Johnson, Ronnie James Dio, Be-Bop Deluxe, The Stranglers, Joy Division, New Order, Ian Drury, Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew, National Health, Mark Shrieve, Philip Glass, Cozy Powell, SRV, Talk Talk, James Horner, Brand X, John Goodsall, Percy Jones, CCS, BBC, OGWT, BluesBreakers, Alexander Courage, Lalo Schifrin, Herbie Hancock, Dr Feelgood, Jean Michel Jarre, Paul Weller, Stanley Clarke, James Horner, Stewart Copeland, Apollo 440, David Gilmour, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Papa Chubby, The Jam, Wigan Casino, Danny Gatton, Thomas Dolby, Terje Rypdal, Colosseum II, UK, Eddie Jobson, Genesis, Pat Martino ....

Some of my early influencial albums include:
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak/Live and Dangerous/Black Rose
Status Quo - Live/On the Level/Blue for You
Deep Purple - 24 Carat/Made in Japan/Stormbringer
Wishbone Ash - Classic Ash/New England
Tangerine Dream - Tangram
Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live
Steve Hillage - Green
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
John McLaughlin - Electric Guitarist
Rainbow - Rising
Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Bruford - Feels Good to Me
The Jam - Sound Affects
JM Jarre - Oxygene
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Be Bop Deluxe - Live in the Air Age
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage
Mark Isham - Vapor Drawings
Brian Eno - Music for Airports/Apollo Soundtracks
Simple Minds - Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call
Colosseum II - Electric Savage/Strange New Flesh
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence Soundrtrack - Ryuchi Sakamoto
Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth
Gary Moore - Back on the Streets

Sounds Like: my influences hopefully
Record Label: I dislike labels, stereotypes monotones, neocons..
Type of Label: None

My Blog

New track from Gods Monkey

It's been a helluva year musically, sadly nothing creative from God's Monkey as I have been 100% active in my other "performing" band "Mr M and The All Nighters.I could not let 2007 end without some e...
Posted by God's Monkey on Sat, 29 Dec 2007 11:38:00 PST

Chameleon

Seems a lot of you really like my guitar pieces, so here in another selection from Casino Club, it's a cover of the classic "Chameleon" by Herbie Hancock.For you non-Canadians, the dude in the pic is ...
Posted by God's Monkey on Sun, 04 Feb 2007 02:24:00 PST

Nevasa Brocade

I finally decided to change one of my songs and add the impovised track "Nevasa Brocade".Living with a textile artist has great benefit in music creation, I would never have thought textiles would ins...
Posted by God's Monkey on Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:39:00 PST

Mr M and the All Nighters

I have come to realisation that Northern Soul and electronic music have a symbiosis, however I'm not exactly sure where that is for me.So in order to make things happen I have started a Northern Soul ...
Posted by God's Monkey on Wed, 22 Nov 2006 02:17:00 PST

The name God's Monkey ?

Is derived from the David Sylvian track of the same name, originally taken from the album "First Day".My interpretation of the lyric is that it describes human evolution, we aspire to be god's but fal...
Posted by God's Monkey on Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:12:00 PST

Moliendo Cafe

Moliendo Cafe is a track I've played with my other band "The Carnival Band" for some time now. however, their version is certainly very different from this one, [less guitar, more horns].I honestly di...
Posted by God's Monkey on Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:16:00 PST

Another Green Dub [single mix]

After working on this track as an instrumental I contacted Anne after seeing her perform as a guest singer with the Carnival Band. The vocals were recorded in a four hour session on August 5th, with f...
Posted by God's Monkey on Thu, 10 Aug 2006 10:52:00 PST

Blaguegate [featuring Brandon Walker]

This track features Brandon Walker from the Carnival Band on trumpet.Despite the excessive heat over the weekend, I managed to pull together a new track "Blaguegate". The track starts with an ominous ...
Posted by God's Monkey on Mon, 24 Jul 2006 09:19:00 PST

Salvatore's Dream

I've posted my new track "Salvatore's Dream" on myspace. This track is inspired by the character of Salvatore from Umberto Eco's novel/movie The Name of the Rose.The character of Salvatore appealed to...
Posted by God's Monkey on Thu, 06 Jul 2006 01:49:00 PST