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 Guild of American Luthiers Member |
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Biography
Influences: Billy Sheehan, T.M. Stevens, Dave Pomeroy, Flea, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, John Entwhistle, Stu Hamm, Felix Pappalardi, Paul McCartney, Wizard, Queen,
Yes, Jethro Tull, Chet Atkins, and everything and anything that makes sound or noise.
Style / Preferences: Grandon's style of playing is extremely broad, using all types of techniques including standard finger style, slap, picking, two hand tapping and rhythm & melody playing (he includes a two handed version of the Charlie Brown theme "Linus and Lucy" in his live solo), and even flamenco guitar techniques. He incorporates rock, jazz, fusion, country, celtic, and classical styles in his playing. "To me, music is like flowers, each type is beautiful and unique in it's own way. You can't only like roses, and music is the same way. You should listen to as many different styles and artists, old and new, as you possibly can." His sound is unique and aggressive, and at the same time extremely varied with his creative use of some vintage equipment, custom wiring of his basses and custom built speaker cabinets. " I wire my own instruments and build my own cabinets for certain applications as it is the only way I can get the aggressive tone and variety of sounds and frequencies that I need" says Grandon.
History: Grandon Westlund has been involved in music in one form or another since his early childhood, writing songs, rhythms and melodies on anything he could get his hands on. His formal music education started in the 4th grade with the clarinet, and then the guitar in 6th grade, due to his love of several Chet Atkins records. "I have always loved Chets' [Atkins] playing ever since I was old enough to put a record on the turntable at home" says Grandon, "and still do today. He was a major early influence on me"
At 16 he was recommended by his guitar teacher for a local production of the musical "Godspell". Grandon continued to play the guitar through his late twenties in various pop, rock, and heavy metal bands typical of the times including Sapphire, Lust, Raves, and various others, however, as he puts it "I always seemed to struggle with the guitar, and my playing to me was always very mechanical and predictable. I was an average bar band type guitarist, I didn't stand out.". After moving from Buffalo, NY to Houston, Texas, he was working with drummer Jim May and looking for a bass player with little success. "We spent a long time writing a ton of original material and looking for a bass player and just couldn't find one, so I decided to buy a cheap bass in a pawn shop so that I could lay down basic bass lines for our material and WHAM... within a week or two of buying that bass I found I could do things on the bass that I had never been able to do on the guitar. It was like a rock fell out of the sky and hit me. It just felt so natural and perfect... I was meant to play the bass."
So Grandon sold his guitar equipment (except for his acoustic and a 1961 Gretsch...) and he started buying basses and bass equipment with a very specific sound and style in mind. "I had grown up in Buffalo, [New York] and was a teenager there all through the seventies and early eighties. The music scene there was great at the time, especially this local three piece band called "Talas". We would go see them all the time at clubs like He's & She's, The Barrelhead, etc., just to watch their bass player Billy Sheehan. His sound and playing just blew our minds! So when I started building up my basses and equipment I knew that I had to run a stereo setup as well. It is the only way to get that type of sound from a bass, which has such a dynamic frequency range as opposed to a guitar. A stereo rig setup right sounds like a bass, a rythym guitar and an organ all rolled into one."
His first band as a bassist was Spooky La Casa, an aggressive and heavy band with a wide variety of styles and influences. Spooky's first release, "Appetizer", was very well recieved, and they generated quite a buzz at the first Annual Arizona State Music Conference and Expo in Phoenix. Shortly after their guitarist left the band, and unable to find a suitable replacement Spooky La Casa called it quits. "It was a hard time" says Grandon. "Spooky was my baby." Grandon was then picked up by Jasper Vincent, which had been formed by John Silipo and Steve Luke from the band Kraken along with guitarist Alan Lammey. Their initial release No Temporary Thing was well received and sold quite well in the Southwest Market. "I had always kept in touch with Dodd ever since Spooky broke up, and he had been working on a new project with Andy and a new guitarist. He had me out to the studio one night to listen to the new material, and then asked me to join the band. I was excited about the opportunity to work with Dodd and Andy again. That's how we became 19 Good Bones.
After 3 years with 19GB due to circumstances beyond his control, in 1997 Grandon had to take a "semi-retirement" from the music industry. Beginning in late 2001, Grandon has started up once again thumpin' on the bass. 2002 has been a great year for Grandon with the release of the new Dodd Michael Lede CD "Whatever Happened to You" released on Sonic Smack records, with Grandon providing the bass work for several tracks. His work on this CD led to his being signed to provide all of the bass tracks for Dodd's next release due out in March of 2003, as well as signing a deal with Sonic Smack Records for his first Bass Solo project titled "Basket Case" due out in the spring of 2004 as well.
Grandon is currently living, working, and continuing to expand and grow his bass work in Colorado Springs.
