Grant Hart
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| Grant Hart | |
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 Grant Hart in 2005 at the Metro Club in London.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Grantzberg Vernon Hart |
| Born | March 18, 1961 South Saint Paul, Minnesota |
| Genre(s) | Alternative rock |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist, Drummer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Guitar, Drums |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Label(s) | SST Warner Bros. |
| Associated acts | Hüsker Dü Nova Mob |
| Website | www.granthart.com |
Grantzberg Vernon Hart (born March 18, 1961)[1] is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-songwriter for the influential alternative rock and hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü. After the band's breakup in 1987, Hart formed the alternative rock trio Nova Mob, where he moved to vocals and guitar. Hart's solo career became his main focus after the dissolution of Nova Mob in 1997.
As the co-songwriter of Hüsker Dü, Hart's songs (such as "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" and "Turn On The News") received praise from critics and contemporaries. Hart's vocal style, in contrast to that of Hüsker Dü-bandmate Bob Mould, was a more measured and melodical delivery. His choice of lyrical themes, which included teenage alienation in "Standing By The Sea" and the depicition of a murder in "Diane," helped to expand the subject matter of hardcore punk.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Youth
Grant Hart was born in 1961, the youngest child of a credit union employee and a shop teacher. Hart described his family as a "typical American dysfunctional family [...] Not very abusive, though. Nothing really to complain about."[2] When Hart was ten, his older brother was killed by a drunk driver. Hart inherited his brother's drum set and records; he soon began playing in a number of makeshift bands as a teenager. At the time Hart had little interest in contemporary rock music. Instead, he preferred to listen to film soundtracks and bought cheap compilations of hit songs from the 1950s and 1960s.
Hart met Bob Mould while working at a record store. Mould, then a college freshman, would buy marijuana from Hart. At first Hart analyzed Mould as "an upstarter pretending to be a Manhattanite," but the two soon became friends.[3]
[edit] Hüsker Dü
Hart formed Hüsker Dü in 1979 with Bob Mould and his friend Greg Norton. The band's early material had them lumped in with the hardcore movement of the early 1980s. The bandmembers received help from their parents in their early days. In Hart's case, his mother let him use the copier machine at the credit union where she worked to make show flyers,[4] and the band added $2,000 to an existing loan at the credit union to release the band's first single, "Statues," on their own label Reflex Records in 1981.[5] Success existed on a small scale for the band; by 1982 Hart was unemployed and relied on support from friends and family.[6]
Hüsker Dü's music became more accomplished and melodic over time. By late 1982, Hart's drumming "rushed the music along more precisely than ever" and he and Mould, who traded vocal duties, were singing more tunefully.[7] While Mould was the band's primary songwriter, Hart began writing more songs. Hart wrote two songs for 1983's Metal Circus EP, the "perversely sing-along" "Diane" and the "impassioned speed-pop gem" "It's Not Funny Anymore." Hüsker Dü's more melodic take on hardcore struck a chord with college students, and various tracks from Metal Circus, particularly Hart's "Diane," were put into rotation by dozens of campus radio stations across the US.[8] Hart was tagged by observers as the "hippie" of the group due to his long hair and his propensity to drum with bare feet; biographer Michael Azerrad additionally noted that "the wide-eyed sincerity of his songs was far more San Francisco '67 than New York '77," which contrasted with the "incisively bitter" songs of Mould.[9]
As Hart and Mould developed as musicians and songwriters, an unspoken tension and competition arose in the band between them.[10] Tensions were heightened when Mould demanded that starting with 1984's Zen Arcade that the band's records contain individual songwriter credits.[11] In spite of the creative tensions, Hüsker Dü garnered critical acclaim with the release of Zen Arcade and subsequent albums. Michael Azerrad stated that by 1985' Flip Your Wig "the two songwriters were trying their level best to outdo each other, and with spectacular results"[12] Hüsker Dü had left the hardcore genre behind, which caused some discomfort with their label at the time, SST Records. In one interview, Hart hinted that SST thought Hüsker Dü were "soft" because they stayed in motels while touring and occasionally wrote happy songs. Hart elaborated, "We don't have to convince the world that we're suffering to convince them that we're artists," and added, "There's nothing wrong with being happy."[13]
In 1986 Hüsker Dü became the first key band from the American indie scene to sign with a major label, inking a deal with Warner Bros. Records.[14] However, tensions within the band worsened after signing with Warner Bros. Hart became addicted to heroin following the band's tour behind their major label debut Candy Apple Grey in 1986, with Hart also being incorrectly diagnosed as HIV-positive in the middle of that year. Mould and Hart were feuding openly about Hart's drug use and creative conflicts, with Hart accusing Mould of ensuring he could not have more than 45 percent of the songs each of the band's albums.[15]
The band dissolved after a show in Columbia, Missouri in support of the band's 1987 double album Warehouse: Songs and Stories. Hart was trying to quit heroin using a supply of methadone, but the bottle had leaked. Hart played the show, but Mould and Norton were concerned Hart would soon be suffering from withdrawal and thus would be unable to play the next few shows. While Hart insisted he could perform, Mould had already cancelled the dates. Hart quit the band four days later. Hart has said his drug use was not the reason for the band's demise, rather, it was the tensions between the bandmembers. Hart said, "It just became that it was easier to be around Bob if you were playing a part of Bob's game," and also said he felt Mould's songs had become increasingly "square."[16]
[edit] Solo and Nova Mob
Six months after Hüsker Dü's breakup, Hart discovered that his diagnosis as being HIV-positive was incorrect.[17] In 1989 he released the solo EP, 2541, on Hüsker Dü's former label SST. Interestingly, the number of the title is taken from the address of his former band's office and rehearsal house, where the members had at one time lived.[1] Marshall Crenshaw would later cover the title song, as would the Go-Betweens' Robert Forster. After the release of the EP, Hart went further into sobriety.
In late 1989, he formed a new band, Nova Mob, with Michael Crego on drums, and Tom Merkl on bass, with Hart himself taking guitar duties. The band released their first single, "All of My Senses," in 1990, with the EP Admiral of the Sea following a year later.[1] The lineup later changed with Marc Retish and then Steve Sutherland on drums, and Chris Hesler on lead guitar. The band routinely toured Europe to warm reception. Nova Mob released two full-length recordings, one EP and a handful of singles. They disbanded after the last record and a final tour.
[edit] Recent years
Hart returned to recording as a solo artist with the release of Ecce Homo, in 1996, and Good News for Modern Man, offered in late 1999. In 2005 Hart and Mould reunited at the benefit concert for Karl Mueller, the bassist for fellow Minneapolis stalwarts, Soul Asylum, who was then fighting what would turn out to be a losing battle with cancer. According to his website, Hart is currently recording in Montreal, with a release expected in 2007. He told Britain's Q in September 2006, "I'm working on some stuff with the Godspeed You! Black Emperor people. They've given more of themselves in a few weeks than Bob did in nine years with Hüsker Dü."[18] In 2008, he was one of the guest singers on Lotuk, the third album of Arsenal, a Belgian band combining roots and dance music.
[edit] Musical style
As a vocalist, Grant Hart can be credited (along with band mate Bob Mould) as one of the forefathers of the emo movement. His emotional singing and lyrical subjects on songs such as "Keep Hanging On", "Standing By The Sea", "Diane" "It's Not Funny Anymore", "Turn On The News", "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill", "If I Told You" and "Sorry Somehow" pointed the way to deeper personal expression and broadened subject matter in hardcore punk and rock music in general.
As a drummer, Hart plays in several different styles, with a jazzy style perhaps best heard on Zen Arcade, metronome-like bass drum rhythms prominent on Flip Your Wig and powerhouse punk drumming on Land Speed Record. After Hüsker Dü, Hart abandoned the drums to concentrate on vocals and guitar. However, in 2005 he returned to the drum set to play on the Melvins' Pigskin, a limited 7" record.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
- 1987 All of My Senses - SST
- 1989 2541 - SST
- 1989 Intolerance - SST
- 1996 Ecce Homo [live] - World Service
- 1999 Good News for Modern Man - Pachyderm
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Grant Hart > Biography. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-05.
- ^ Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991. Little Brown and Company, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1, pg. 160
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 161
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 163
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 164
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 167
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 171
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 173
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 176
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 177
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 181
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 189
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 187
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 190
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 192
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 194
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 195
- ^ Q, October 2006
[edit] External links
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