Originally from St. John's, the five indie rockers who make up Gramercy Riffs first captured acclaim and attention with their debut album, It's Heartbreak. Singers and songwriters Lee Hanlon and Mara Pellerin trade back and forth between the equally compelling male and female vocals. Driven by melodic tunes, and punched up with dazzling keyboards and upbeat drums, it earned the distinction of Best Newfoundland Album of 2010. Since then, the band has spent the better part of this year touring with the likes of Hey Rosetta!.
Before Gramercy Riffs — now based out of Toronto — head back to the studio to record their second album, the band will play one more show on Oct. 6 at Horseshoe Tavern. We caught up with singer and keyboardist, Mara Pellerin.
How would you describe your sound?
We're a rock band for sure. We like a song that's got a nice arc to it. We always think about that. Lee especially is getting into more kind of like, I won't call them ballads, but a little more — he really loves Roy Orbison and Joel Plaskett and that kind of style, so that definitely informs the music. There's definitely a tender element to a lot of the tunes.
How have you found it touring across Canada for the better part of the year?
It's been really amazing. We did one larger tour and two smaller tours. The bigger tour we did was with Hey Rosetta! back in the winter, and that was really incredible. That was the first time we'd gone all the way to the west coast. We couldn't have really asked for a better way to see the country for the first time because Hey Rosetta! is such an incredible band and they have such an amazing fan base, and every show was just full of energy.
So tomorrow night is your last show before you take a hiatus for your second album?
Yeah, we're going to be writing in the fall and we've got some grant applications in the works and some demoing plans, so that's what we're going to be doing up until Christmas, and then we'll be going home for a few shows.
What are you setting out to do when you sit down to write the second album?
Our band has changed a bit since the last record, membership wise, because we've all moved. Brad Kilpatrick and Jimmy Lee Rose — they've been permanent members of the band for the past year, but they weren't on the first record, so they really bring a lot to the sound of the band. Brad's drumming style is a big change to the sound and Jimmy's a great guitar player, super creative with his sound as well, so that's kind of been a big shift in our live sound, so I think that's definitely going to translate onto the record.
I noticed that all the songs [on your first album] kind of had a distinct sound.
Yeah, that's the thing. That's kind of what I've been noticing or what I've been thinking about I guess with Mark [Bragg, who the band recently backed up and toured with]. He's got a really cohesive sound all the way through his record and I think we're definitely working towards focusing in on a more cohesive sound, too, for the next album. We haven't really dug into it yet.
Recommended track: “Call Me”
Gramercy Riffs are:
Lee Hanlon – vocals, guitar
Mara Pellerin – vocals, keyboard
Daniel Banoub – bass
Jimmy Rose – guitar
Brad Kilpatrick – drums