Blowin’ Wind w/ Eli & Luna of Holy Grail: “You just have to be happy with the poverty that your art brings and take it seriously.”

Everyone knows that Holy Grail reigns supreme here at The Great Southern Brainfart. Holy Grail was recently here in Atlanta opening for Toxic Holocaust and after their face melting set I had the pleasure of talking to singer James Paul Luna and guitarist Eli Santana. While having some Sweetwater 420 beers, we talked about the things they learned from their first headlining tour, what it’s like touring in a van and what movies they totally geek out over. It was really great catching up with the nicest guys in metal and I hope you’ll enjoy this one!

Congrats! You guys are my first repeat interview!

Eli: YEAH! Count it! [laughs and fist bumps me.}

==================================

Eli, have a beer man!

Eli: This is some good fucking beer man! I should have started with this! Where is this from

==================================

Sweetwater 420 is brewed right here in Atlanta bro.

Eli: Right on man. If I have money and the choice to do so, I always tell people, “Give me your local shit man!” [laughs]

======================================================

It’s kinda like when you go to New Orleans and you have to have a Dixie Beer!

Eli: Man, I didn’t have that. I didn’t get a proper New Orleans experience. We didn’t go near anything touristy or fun. No Bourbon Street. No French Quarter. We got in there and played our gig and we were so far away from anything cool. We walked to McDonalds and even they gave us fucking grief [laughs].

======================================================

Next time you guys go back to New Orleans you’ll have to do something.

Eli: Oh yeah man. I’ve got a whole plan for the next time we go back. If I have to ditch people, I don’t care. I’m gonna make it happen [laughs]. The show was actually really cool though.

======================================================

You guys have been on the road with everyone from Exodus to doing your own headlining run. What tour has stood out so far as being your personal favorite?

Luna: I’m biased but honestly I think that our headline tour felt really awesome. We really got to sit in the driver’s seat and it was our baby. It’s like how do you pick between your best friends? It’s really hard to pick just what tour we liked the best.

Eli: We really learned so much from each tour and they were each unique within itself. We got to tour with Exodus, Blind Guardian, Amon Amarth and each one was a huge learning experience. They were all really cool so it’s really hard. The headlining tour was definitely on a smaller scale but it was really cool.

======================================================

Did you feel you learned things on your headlining tour that you feel you didn’t learn on the other tours?

Luna: Definitely. We learned that we need to advance the shows [laughs]. That was a big learning lesson.

=====================================

What do you mean by advance to the shows?

Luna: Advancing the shows is a task that a tour manager is usually supposed to do anywhere from a few days to a month in advance to get load-in times, talk with promoters and figure things out. We just never did that before and depended on everyone else to do it. I didn’t want to have to do that ourselves as it’s just an extra step. Yeah, we really learned a lot on that tour.

======================================================

Holy Grail has been touring non stop in America and in Europe behind “Crisis In Utopia.” How much longer will you guys be out for this one before hitting the studio for album #2?

Eli: We’re hoping to get at least one more tour in but we don’t want to force it. We’re not going to just go out on our own for no reason. If something cool isn’t happening then I think we’ll start working on the next record but we’re open to possibilities.

======================================================

Do you guys have any new material written for the next album?

Luna: Not really. We have our own riff tapes that we pull from. We each individually come up with structures of songs. At this point it’s just been us throwing around riffs. We haven’t actually got together to jam anything out.

======================================================

So you guys pretty much just have a collection of riffs that you pull from to get the writing process started?

Luna: Yeah. Well sometimes it’s a number of things. Sometimes it’s a melody, sometimes it’s a riff or a solo and sometimes it just all happens at once.

Eli: Sometimes the song just happens to you. Sometimes you just can’t get a song idea out of your head so you have to record it and those are usually the best ones.

======================================================

I have to say that for as long as you guys have been out on the road, you’re still playing these songs with so much energy and oomph. It never sounds tired. How do you keep that excitement up?

Luna: It just gets easier to do actually. It’s been almost a year since our album came out and to see these kids out there singing along with the songs is just crazy.

Eli: A lot of it has to do with the fans. Sometimes you might be saying, “Oh man, I can’t believe I’ve got to play this song again” and then you see the people out there getting excited from the first note and then you just say, “If he’s that pumped on it, I’m going to try and play this really well” and you just go back and forth feeding off of their energy. Then you start jumping off of speakers and trying to play it clean [laughs]. When we play that opening riff to “Call of Valhalla” and the people go nuts you just get into it. We’ve been playing that song for nearly three years [laughs].

======================================================

The word about Holy Grail has been spreading with all the constant touring. Are you seeing the fan base growing every time you revisit a city?

Luna: Yeah, it’s crazy.

Eli: Every time we come back to a city we see more Holy Grail shirts and we realize that this touring thing actually works [laughs].

======================================================

That’s true man. I’ve bought three so far so when you come back with new designs, I’ll buy another!

Eli: [laughs] Man, thank you so much!

Luna: That rules!

======================================================

You guys filmed a video for the song “My Last Attack” and that seemed to really open some doors for you guys. Now people had a visual of Holy Grail to go along with the music. Have you guys thought about doing another video or single release?

Luna: Yeah, definitely. We haven’t actually talked much about it but it’s something we would love to do. We just haven’t actually figured out our next game plan yet.

Eli: We are really just going for that grassroots approach of touring our asses off and getting our music out that way. That was the basis of that video as an introduction to us. It was just us being a live band and that’s what we wanted to show the world. Hopefully it will escalate from there.

======================================================

I’ve heard from a lot of these touring bands that there is a lot of down time during the day while on tour. What do you do to make the time pass by?

Luna: I don’t know. It just seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day. There’s so much stuff to do. I just keep myself entertained. I like to surf the web [laughs].

Eli: I sleep because I do a good chunk of the driving along with Blake (Mount; bassist) and Tyler (Meahl; drummer). When I’m not driving I really just try and rest up. I try to return messages and get in touch with people on my shitty phone which misses half of them [laughs].

======================================================

You guys have been touring in van. I’ve had a few people ask about what it’s like touring in a van. What is that like?

Luna: Man, it’s five dudes in a small confined space sweating their balls off [laughs].

Eli: August in the south. It just smells terrible!

======================================================

Have you guys thought about getting a bus or something?

Luna: We’re not anywhere near that level yet. The guarantees and the level we’re at right now, we’re still a baby band. We have to pay some more dues before we get something like that. Buses average about $800 to a grand a day so you really got to be making some dough. Sometimes bands will get a bus and split it between three bands and do it that way.

======================================================

Ok, enough serious questions. Let’s have some fun. I’ve been totally hooked on that show Ancient Aliens on History Channel. Are you a believer?

Luna: I love that show man. I haven’t seen it in so long but yeah, I’m totally a believer.

Eli: Totally. It’s ridiculous and pretty arrogant. to think we are the only people in this whole universe.

======================================================

If you could UNLISTEN to any album or band, what would it be and why?

Eli: Unlisten?[laughs]

Luna: Oh man. The 2nd version of Jesus Christ Superstar. I love the version with Ian Gillan as Jesus. He does these awesome high pitched screams and shit. It’s awesome [laughs].

Eli: Oh man. I wish I could unlisten to Risk by Megadeth [laughs].

======================================================

Is there a specific movie that you totally geek over?

Luna: There are a lot of movies we like but we really love YouTube videos [laughs].

Eli: YouTube is fucking killer. Actually, I totally nerd up on “Wrath of Khan.” I am probably going to be Khan for Halloween [laughs].

Luna: That’s awesome [laughs]. I really like “Rocktober Blood.” Have you seen that one?

======================================================

What the fuck is that?

Luna: [laughs] It’s a slasher film with this band called Sorcery from LA in the late 70’s or early 80’s. They did magic mixed with hard rock that sounded like Led Zeppelin or Judas Priest. It was awesome. The first movie was called “Stunt Rock” and they had a comeback in the 80’s with “Rocktober Blood.” It’s so rad and it’s like New Wave of British Heavy Metal stuff. I think it totally rules.

======================================================

So I have a couple of questions from one of my readers for you. What is your guilty pleasure when it comes to TV shows?

Luna: Man, I don’t own a TV but I do watch a lot of online stuff.

Eli: This is scary man and I’m really extremely guilty about this. They all fucking know it. Aw fuck it. The cat’s out of the bag. I’ve seen every episode of Gilmore Girls [laughs]. I’m all about it so fuck off everyone! It’s a great show [laughs].

======================================================

And finally, what advice would you offer up to up and coming bands wanting to do this for a living?

Luna: Keep playing out live and always practice to a click track and practice without a click.

Eli: I would tell them to take their art seriously. Just don’t think about making money. Just really love it and immerse yourself completely in it. Understand that, while it sounds shitty, you’re most likely not going to make money at it. You just need to love it that much and do it because you can’t do without it. Not because you think you’ll get a song on the radio and become millionaires. You just have to be happy with the poverty that your art brings and take it seriously.

Luna: Wow man, that was the perfect answer [laughs].

======================================================

Thanks so much for doing this interview guys. Y’all are the fucking best!

Luna: Thanks so much Don!

Eli: Thanks a lot for doing this. You’re a cool dude Don!

 

For more on the almighty Holy Grail, head over to http://www.holygrailofficial.com

Discover more from Southeast of Heaven

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading