What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?
As I started to write more songs and perform, I was talking to a friend about coming up with the right band name, and I said “it’s like grasping at straws! Oh wait!” and The Grasping Straws was born. The idiom ‘grasping at straws’ comes from an old proverb “A drowning person will clutch at straws,” meaning that a drowning person will grab at anything around to try to save themself, even a floating straw. It represents the hope and willingness to keep reaching out even when nothing is there. It evokes a sense of music creation as a survival instinct.
Our influence include: Jeff Buckley, Björk, Cat Power, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden/Chris Cornell, Alice in Chains, Grace Slick, Heart, Jeffrey Lewis, Phoebe Kreutz, Debe Dalton, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tina Turner, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, St. Lenox, Deerhoof, Hiatus Kaiyote, Laura Stevenson, Led Zeppelin, Screaming Females, the Gits, Courtney Love, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Stevie Wonder, Funkadelic, Fiona Apple, Tegan and Sara, Van Gogh, Basquiat, Keith Haring, Angela Davis, and so many more
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
There’s always music swimming around in my head. Often when I’m in the flow, traveling home from an open mic or show, walking, biking, showering, waking up, or going to sleep, I’ll get a song idea in my head and I’ll sing a riff or a lyric into my phone. Later I’ll go back and listen, guitar in hand, and try to plunk it out and build on it. Once I get going, parts of the song will get stuck in my head until I finish it. I play around with words based on sounds, and I read poetry books until I get a sense of the meaning being conveyed. Next, I show it to the bandmates and they run with it, create their parts and add ideas to it. We might change around the rhythms, parts, add dynamic elements and new meanings and feelings come to light. The songs continue to evolve and change each time we play them live.
I often find myself writing about situations that frustrate me. Themes range from relationships to existentialism and technology. A more recent song was about robots becoming sentient and learning how to breathe. They take over our phone numbers and text us sweet nothings until we’re kissing the screen.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
There’s always music swimming around in my head. Often when I’m in the flow, traveling home from an open mic or show, walking, biking, showering, waking up, or going to sleep, I’ll get a song idea in my head and I’ll sing a riff or a lyric into my phone. Later I’ll go back and listen, guitar in hand, and try to plunk it out and build on it. Once I get going, parts of the song will get stuck in my head until I finish it. I play around with words based on sounds, and I read poetry books until I get a sense of the meaning being conveyed. Next, I show it to the bandmates and they run with it, create their parts and add ideas to it. We might change around the rhythms, parts, add dynamic elements and new meanings and feelings come to light. The songs continue to evolve and change each time we play them live.
I often find myself writing about situations that frustrate me. Themes range from relationships to existentialism and technology. A more recent song was about robots becoming sentient and learning how to breathe. They take over our phone numbers and text us sweet nothings until we’re kissing the screen.
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
I think the sort of music I write is a result of a lot of the music and art that inspires me. Learning to play the guitar and write music has given me an outlet through which I can express ideas and connect to my community. Working with the bandmates and collaborating brings new life to the initial ideas of the songs.
“Grace” by Jeff Buckley changed my life. I became obsessed with Jeff Buckley’s songwriting, and the raw expressiveness of his voice and guitar playing. This was around the same time I bought myself a guitar and started writing music in 2012.
I’m immensely inspired by Laura Stevenson. She is also from Long Island, a few towns over from where I grew up. The layering of her vocal harmonies on her first record is mesmerizing to me. I was also deeply influenced by the vocal harmonies of Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley in Alice in Chains, and the harmonies in vocal jazz groups like the New York Voices
Beyond that, I feel very inspired by many of the artists I’ve met in the local NYC music scene. Going to open mics motivates me to write and try out new styles.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We try to introduce at least one new song in each live performance. I bring a list of songs to band rehearsal, and we play through them together and decide which would be the most fun to play. Depending on the live setting, I might ask different bandmates to perform, and we might adjust the arrangement or instrumentation. For example, for a recent acoustic rooftop show, I asked Henry and Jake to play on hand percussion and upright bass. For a louder rock club show, I might ask Jim and Sam to play on drum set and bass guitar. With Henry and Jake, our sound is more jazzy and experimental. With Jim and Sam, our sound is more grungy rock with lots of dynamic shifts. We adapt to the space we’re in.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We try to introduce at least one new song in each live performance. I bring a list of songs to band rehearsal, and we play through them together and decide which would be the most fun to play. Depending on the live setting, I might ask different bandmates to perform, and we might adjust the arrangement or instrumentation. For example, for a recent acoustic rooftop show, I asked Henry and Jake to play on hand percussion and upright bass. For a louder rock club show, I might ask Jim and Sam to play on drum set and bass guitar. With Henry and Jake, our sound is more jazzy and experimental. With Jim and Sam, our sound is more grungy rock with lots of dynamic shifts. We adapt to the space we’re in.
What plans do you have for the future?
I am in love with touring. With the recent state of music and travel, this is the longest period of time I’ve gone without touring since 2014. I can’t wait to start booking our tour dates again, and rejoining the larger DIY touring communities around the US, Canada and Europe, and getting to see and travel with our bandmates in New Orleans again, Edwin and Clair on Cello and Viola!
We have more recorded tracks in the works! I had a concept idea of what could be our first vinyl album release: Dichotomy. One band configuration on side A, and another on side B. I’d like to try and get all of the bandmates and collaboration captured through time. Two opposing forces create each other.
We also have plans to continue our collaboration with experimental video and performance artist Erica Schreiner. Erica VJ’d for us at our single release show, and we’ve started talking about the next music video!
We have a few live performances coming up that we haven’t announced yet! Stay tuned 🙂