Grant sings, plays, writes songs, builds Web sites and satisfies his urge to createBy Bob Mehr
February 2, 2007
FROM: The Commercial Appeal
On the surface, there's nothing really remarkable about Robby Grant. A quiet, unassuming 33-year-old, he's a husband, a father of two, a homeowner and has a job with a big title ("senior solutions architect") with local a advertising company. But Grant is also one of Memphis' more interesting singer-songwriters -- and has been for more than a decade.
Though he's probably best known as a member of now-defunct rock band Big Ass Truck, he's quietly built an impressive catalog as a solo artist, mostly recording under the name Vending Machine. Last month, Grant released his fifth album, King Cobras Do. A charmed collision of styles and sounds, its 12 tracks refract everything from '50s doo-wop to early '80s Australian pop through his own skewed kaleidoscope. Grant will mark the release of the disc -- and the launch of his new label, Shoulder Tap -- with a show at the Hi-Tone on Saturday.
Born in Little Rock, Grant grew up in a musical environment. His mother, who emigrated from England to the United States with her family during World War II, was a massive Beatles fanatic. His father was a Memphis native who'd fronted a mid-'60s garage outfit called the Deltas. "I have these vague, very early memories of him when he was singing and playing," says Grant. Grant's father was killed in a car accident when he was just 5, and the family left Little Rock and came to Memphis.
Grant first picked guitar as a teen and was soon playing in a succession of groups. "I've been in bands since seventh grade, and every group has been the logical extension of the previous one," he says. In high school, Grant, along with his classmate Steve Selvidge, formed Thrill of Confusion, which later became Fester, which -- after the pair graduated in 1991 -- evolved into Big Ass Truck. The latter group would enjoy a decade-long run and considerable national success, recording four critically acclaimed psych-tinged albums (including 1996's standout Kent) and touring heavily.
In the midst of his tenure with Big Ass Truck, Grant decided to indulge his avant-pop sensibilities, cutting an eclectic solo album as Robert Grant for North Carolina indie Yep Roc, before switching to the Vending Machine moniker with 2000's Chamber from Here to There for Boston's Powerbunny label. That year Grant joined his Big Ass Truck bandmates in the studio to write and record an experimental album called The Rug. But the group broke up soon after the album was released in 2001.
Meanwhile, Grant had begun teaching himself how to write computer code and do Web site design. "I was always interested in computers, long before you could go to school for that," says Grant. "So I had two tracks going at the same time. As a touring musician, you're not on the road all the time, so I had other jobs. Eventually, I stopped touring and those other jobs took over."
In 2000 Grant began working at local firm, Ringger Interactive -- the company's head, Paul Ringger, had been an early Big Ass Truck supporter and had actually released the group's first album. Ringger Interactive was eventually bought and Grant has been working at the new company since 2005.
Since the demise of Big Ass Truck, Grant's put out a series of largely one-man band, home-recorded and self-released Vending Machine titles: 2002's Five Piece Kit, 2004's Kicked & Scratched, and a limited-edition CD of holiday songs, released late last year. A prolific songsmith, Grant is constantly writing and piecing together songs from fragments before refining them in his attic studio.
"Mostly, I just record these 10- to 30-second ideas on a little tape recorder, and build a collection of those and then take them upstairs and flesh them out as songs."
Musically, Grant's latest, King Cobras Do, mixes his well-defined brand of left-field pop with more meditative moments. "I've been listening to a lot of quieter stuff. And as far as writing songs, I've gotten more personal than I have in the past. I write more specifically about what's going on in my life," says Grant, referring to numbers like "Rae" and "Tell Me The Truth and I'll Stop Teasing You," sweet odes to his wife and baby daughter.
Grant's unique recording process also dictated the warm, easy feel of the album. "I work in the mornings -- really early, before the kids get up," he says. "My studio is removed enough from their bedrooms so I can record -- I can't play drums but I can play guitar and sing."
While generally working around his kids, Grant did end up in an unlikely collaboration with his young son, Five, who provided the lyrics for the track "Saturn National Anthem."
"I played it for him and he was kind of free-associating some lyrics, and I pulled them together and put them in the song," says Grant who gave his son co-writing credit. "I mean, I won't be a stage father by any means, but I'd be lying if I said that it wouldn't be great to have a family band someday with my daughter playing drums and my son playing guitar."
Unlike his last few albums, King Cobras Do received a proper pressing and release -- a change made possible thanks to MTV. In 2005, through a connection with local roots rockers Lucero, the network contacted Grant to license instrumental versions of a pair of Vending Machine songs for placement in its "Real World: Austin" series.
"It was funny 'cause I made more money from one placement than I ever made selling records or CDs with any other band I've been in," says Grant. With his MTV windfall, Grant decided to start a small label, Shoulder Tap, with his friend, New York City-based musician Yazan Fahmawi. The new album was released to stores a couple weeks back, as well as on I-tunes -- and Grant already has secured further placements for songs from the CD for the new season of MTV's "Pimp My Ride."
Although largely a recording project, Grant does occasionally play out with a live version of Vending Machine. The core group includes Grant's younger brother Grayson on bass, Circuit Bender veteran Quinn Powers on guitar, and his longtime Big Ass Truck bandmate Robert Barnett on drums. Recently, the group added a second drummer, the Secret Service's John Argroves. "Fortunately, neither one of the guys are 'check me out' kind of drummers; they really listen to each other. Plus," jokes Grant, "playing with two drummers makes me feel a couple feet taller than I really am."
In addition to doing a handful of local shows over the next few months, Grant will mount a brief tour later in the summer. "In the days of Big Ass Truck, you really had to tour and get out there and play just to connect with people," he says. "With the Internet, connecting with fans is much easier these days. My only regret is that MySpace wasn't around in 1996."
Grant's other band, Mouserocket, which he co-fronts with singer/guitarist Alicja Trout, has been on a semi-hiatus while Trout's been touring with her main project, the River City Tanlines. However, Mouserocket will be going in to Memphis Independent studio later this month to complete tracks for a new album, the band's first since its 2004 self-titled debut.
For Grant, the commitments of a family and full-time job don't allow for music to be a 24-hour-a-day passion anymore. But he says his wife, Rachael, who teaches art at the Montessori school that the couple's children attend, has allowed him to pursue his muse. "I've known my wife since we were in high school, so she's very aware of the things that are important to me," says Grant. " In the end, I'm just creating. As long as I can do that, I'm happy."
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