Mr. G
Chris Grenda Prepares A New Album
Despite the prospect of a major line-up change, Mr. G continues to gain momentum on the Jersey Shore scene. Chris Grenda, the band's singer/guitarist, prides himself on doing it his own way.
The band is currently focused on recording a compact disc, for spring release, at Long Branch's Shorefire studios. "I probably won't play another show until the release party because I want to have a big blowout," said Grenda. However, Grenda is faced with the task of filling the shoes of his solid bassist, Ryan Martin. Martin will record the CD, but leave the band after its release party. Grenda plans on using the new disc and his two earlier releases to give to Martins's potential replacements. This can help them decide if they feel the music.
"I feel like this one is actually going to be more dramatic than the last one," said Grenda of his release in progress. "It's going to have that kind of mood. There's going to be some rock songs on there, but it's going to be my more melodramatic rock style."
The band last played, with Brown, at the Saint for "One Nite of Music" on October 9. The event, organized by Local Voices for USA, had bands around New Jersey play local venues and donate all proceeds to the Twin Towers Fund. Money from this fund goes directly to families of the victims of the September 11 tragedy.
Before that, the band played in front of 4,000 people at Ernie Ball String's Extreme Moto Music Madness Tour.
Grenda has decided not to play area clubs, but to organize his own events for Mr. G and other local artists to perform. This gives him the chance to tailor treatment of bands and audiences to his liking. "I'm not going to be beating on (the club's) doors asking for gigs," he said. Grenda wants to give those who attend his shows what he feels local clubs are missing.
The last event he organized was G-Fest, which took place on August 4. Although rain ended the event before the last three bands took the stage, he still doubled the previous years attendance at 200 people.
He has chosen to put these shows together every three or four months. This gives Mr. G fans the opportunity to see the band, but not be overexposed to them. Grenda admits that seeing his favorite bands more than once a month would make him tired of that band. "I'm going to put enough time between each one of my shows so people start asking me when I'm going to be playing again," said Grenda.
Josh Davidson has written music feature articles for Jersey Style and served as the Jersey Shore rock columnist for Steppin' Out Magazine. Other music writing credits include Aquarian Weekly, Jersey Beat, Backstreets and njcoast.com. He has written free-lance for the Asbury Park Press' Community Sports section and has written featured articles for its news section, as well as covering campus news and sports weekly for the Signal, the College of New Jersey's (formerly Trenton State College) student newspaper. He has worked as a staff writer for The Independent, and his work for Greater Media Newspapers has also been published in the News Transcript. He is a former beat reporter for the Ocean County Observer who presently is a news writer for Symbolic Systems Inc. supporting the US Army's Knowledge Center. His music writing covers a vast range of topics, from the current cover band craze, highs and lows of the original scene, to the early days of the Jersey Shore rock scene in Asbury Park. He is also a musician, having written hundreds of songs as a singer/songwriter, and playing them out as a solo/acoustic artist. He has also played with cover bands, including It Doesn't Matter, and several original bands, including as the guitarist for the solo project of singer/songwriter Dave Eric. He continues to work on solo material and is presently the guitar player for Jersey Breeze.
