It’s quite rare that you meet a group who hail from the pebbled shores of Brighton without at first relocating here. Grymm fracture that rule somewhat having met at the local secondary school, Dorothy Stringer. The band have now released a smattering of singles, each one delicately demonstrating different fragments to the musical kaleidoscope that is Grymm. Some songs such as ‘OCD’ at times show a tenderness, others such as ‘Jurassic’ put forth a cathartic explosion.

The group have been making waves throughout Brighton’s flamboyant underground scene of late. With notable comparisons to the likes of Blaenavan and locals, Tigercub and The Wytches, they are picking the best of the recent fruits to incorporate into their own sound. I caught up with Morgan and Andrew of Grymm to discuss where they are at right now and what lies in-store for 2017.

How have you found your time in the Brighton music scene so far – why is it Grymm exist and work here?
Andrew: Yeah I’ve been here like, I dunno, 17 years now and it almost feels like I was born here.

Morgan: I’ve been here since I was about 12 and so far have thoroughly enjoyed myself. I can wear hot pink shoes and no one looks at me twice.

Andrew: We both went to the same school so we just happened to raise our band here.

Morgan: Grow our little man child.

What is your favourite thing about Brighton?
Andrew: I like the fact that there’s such a diverse music scene, you don’t just have indie bands you have hardcore, punk, grunge, indie, math rock, experimental etc.

Morgan: To be honest we’re most familiar with hardcore bands as they are the ones who gave us our first gigs. Bands like Negative Measures and Skint Circus we hold very close to our hearts.

Now three singles in, can you tell us about the recording process of these tracks?
Morgan: I wrote the core of all the songs in my bedroom, I then took them to the rehearsal room which we all finished together in the studio. We then went to Transmission Studios and recorded all the songs live with an amazing sound engineer called Ali Gavan. He really brought the recordings to life.

Who do you point to as your main sources of influence?
Andrew: I always find this question really hard because when I’m home alone I play a lot of funk, classic funk, RHCP funk, soul funk just everything funky. But when I’m writing with Morgan I tend to write whatever suits the songs while still retaining my own style. Really what I listen to isn’t always extremely present in my parts. So I do listen to a lot of grunge and funk like The Wytches, Metz and RHCP, but I also listen to alt-J, some modern hip-hop like Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator, and I love a bit of Beyonce every now and then.

Morgan: I’ve found that the more me and Andrew have grown up together we tend to listen to and share with each other more electronic and innovative music (which we’re beginning to incorporate more) than the heavier stuff. Although I still love the classics like Nirvana, Drenge, the Pixies and The Wytches, more and more what I listen to now and am inspired by is alt-J, Bjork, Radiohead, James Blake, and Nick Cave.

Each of your tracks seems to carry a different tone in sound and also in the energy behind it. ‘OCD’ for example feels a little more melancholy, ‘Dream Of You’ is slightly more tense and ferocious and ‘Jurassic’ is a lot more to the point. Can you tell us more about your approach to writing?
Andrew: I think because of the length of time we spend writing not one of our songs will be exactly the same because we’re ever changing people and because of that the moods of our songs are not carried over from one to the other.

Morgan: With all of the songs I’ve been in very different mindsets. ‘Dream Of You’ for example was when I was going through a very dark time mentally so the song replicates that. Whereas ‘Jurassic’ I was just my usual pissed off self.

Where did you meet to form Grymm and when did it really feel like something clicked?
Morgan: Me and Andrew met at Stringer (our school), we started a band and we’re not finished with [school] yet.

Do you have a favourite moment from being in Grymm so far?
Andrew: Recording the songs was a really lovely moment, as we wanted to record for a while. And as well as that, releasing them and getting all the positive feedback we received has also been very special.

Morgan: We played a gig at BYC early last year and the crowd were amazing. Everyone knew all the words and was generally just going ape, which we gratefully joined in on.

Do you find you work more as a live band or recorded? Can you tell us why?
Andrew: Definitely live. When you’re live all the pedals can be used so much more freely, just turn them all up for the last section and have a musical rant.

Morgan: There’s always so much more energy live and interaction between band members, and when recording I think it’s really important to replicate the mood and emotion of your live performance.

Asides from music, what do you each find yourselves doing?
Andrew: Shout out to Isobel.

Morgan: I just spend some time with my thoughts.

Do you have a favourite live band in the city?
Andrew: I always love watching Skint Circus play, they’re loud and they’re rowdy and I love it.

Morgan: I saw Tigercub in November and they were incredible, everything I wanted.

Do you have aspirations to move out of Brighton and play elsewhere? If so, where?
Morgan: I’d love to have a little tour in a skanky little van around the whole of England.

Andrew: Yeah that’d be a good bit of banter.

What does 2017 have in store for you?
Andrew: Constant releases, constant giggng and just trying to play our music as much as physically possible.

Morgan: I concur.

Facebook: facebook.com/Grymm2