Skateboarding is usually aligned with SoCal punk and other aggressive music. Pick up any skate or snowboard video, and I guarantee you won't find anything from the Grandaddy catalogue ? at least not yet. Grandaddy formed in Modesto, California, near a skateboard ramp owned by keyboardist Tim Dryden. Guitarist Jim Fairchild explains that although the band shares a collective love for the sport, "Our music wouldn't be the best to skateboard to. I'm not going to put on 'He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot' [the nine-minute opening track to their new album] and hit Tim's ramp."
Their second full-length, The Sophtware Slump, shares more in common with drinking tea and relaxing than thrashin' and pulling Method Airs. A step up from their brilliant debut Under The Western Freeway, Sophtware is a testament to the band's further developments in songwriting and engineering skills. It's no secret that the band are fans of prog purveyors like Radiohead, Home and E.L.O. It's these aspects of their songs, paired with an organic Giant Sand flavour, that make Grandaddy's music so powerful.
"I think some of the most intriguing skateboarders have been creative and artistic, and I think that's a lot of what skateboarding is about, [but] maybe not in the general public's mind. You got Mark Gonzales and Neil Blender, and Ed Templeton. Guys like Matt Hensley [of Flogging Molly] are in bands. There is and always will be that element. To me, it's completely natural. Skateboarding's about creativity and flowing, and stuff that hopefully exists in our music."
Their second full-length, The Sophtware Slump, shares more in common with drinking tea and relaxing than thrashin' and pulling Method Airs. A step up from their brilliant debut Under The Western Freeway, Sophtware is a testament to the band's further developments in songwriting and engineering skills. It's no secret that the band are fans of prog purveyors like Radiohead, Home and E.L.O. It's these aspects of their songs, paired with an organic Giant Sand flavour, that make Grandaddy's music so powerful.
"I think some of the most intriguing skateboarders have been creative and artistic, and I think that's a lot of what skateboarding is about, [but] maybe not in the general public's mind. You got Mark Gonzales and Neil Blender, and Ed Templeton. Guys like Matt Hensley [of Flogging Molly] are in bands. There is and always will be that element. To me, it's completely natural. Skateboarding's about creativity and flowing, and stuff that hopefully exists in our music."
