Mitch Grainger
Mitch Grainger | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mitchell Grainger |
| Born | February 12, 1974 Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Genres | Blues, Rock, Roots |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Educator, Producer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, harmonica |
| Years active | 1988 – Present |
| Labels | Albert Productions, Flashpoint Music, Festival Records |
| Website | www |
Mitch Grainger (born February 12, 1974), is an Australian Blues, Rock and Roots musician based in Los Angeles, California who is best known for his harmonica playing and education thereof through his successful YouTube channel. In his 26 year music career he has worked with a long list of iconic Australian rock musicians such as Harry Vanda and Malcolm Young.
Early Music Career
Teenage Years
Mitch Grainger grew up in Balmain, Sydney, during the 70’s and 80’s and by age 13 was playing the harmonica and guitar professionally in local venues, emulating American blues artists Little Walter and Muddy Waters in "The Beefs", a band he formed with fellow high school students Alex Lloyd and Declan Kelly.
Despite all members of the band being under 18 years of age, The Beefs performed in pubs and clubs across Sydney’s inner west 5 nights a week for a period of 4 years, before disbanding in 1992 when Alex Lloyd left to form Mother Hubbard. During this period The Beefs met Malcolm Young of AC/DC who took Mitch Grainger and the band into Albert’s studios to record.
In 1992 after The Beefs disbanded Mitch Grainger (now 19 years old) was hired by The Bondi Cigars to play guitar and harmonica across Australia as a part of their touring show. The Bondi Cigars were on the road for 3 weeks out of every 5 during this period of their career. Mitch Grainger stayed with the band for 2 years in which time he recorded on The Bondi Cigars album “After Closing Time”.
Papa Lips and Grainger
After leaving The Bondi Cigars Mitch Grainger formed Papa Lips a five-piece Blues & Roots band that he fronted with his sister Kara Grainger. Through Mitch Grainger’s connections with Malcolm Young and Albert Productions, the band was introduced to John Brewster of The Angels (Australian band) who managed the band along with Mitch.
Papa Lips recorded and released one EP (Harmony - 1996) and one album (High Time Now - 1998) distributed by Festival Records. They toured extensively on Australia’s east coast, and played major Australian music festivals such as the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival and Woodford. In 1998 Papa Lips were awarded, "Best New Band" at the Australian Blues Music Awards [1].
In 1998 the band was introduced to the producer Harry Vanda of The Easybeats and AC/DC fame and signed by Albert Productions. The band changed their name to “Grainger” and were in the studio for a period of two years recording a self titled EP and Album (unreleased). In September of 2001 Mitch Grainger traveled along with his sister Kara Grainger to New York to meet with American record labels, Atlantic, Sony BMG, Virgin and Electra. The pair arrived in Manhattan on the 9th of September and were witness to the September 11 attacks. This brought on a period of reflection and the band was soon to be disbanded with Mitch and his sister Kara deciding to take separate musical paths.
Love & Demons and 2UP
In 2004 Mitch Grainger was signed by Harry Vanda's new production company Flashpoint Music) and Mitch began work on his debut solo album, entitled "Love & Demons".
In early 2006 the first single "Insane" was released to radio with the full length album released later the same year. Harry Vanda was impressed with Mitch Grainger's production skills and Mitch started working as a recording engineer at Flashpoint while simultaneously promoting his music career in Australia. During this period Mitch Grainger worked as a recording engineer with established Australian acts such as The Wrights and John Paul Young.
Also during this period Mitch Grainger was introduced to Australian pop star Rick Price and the two quickly formed a strong working relationship that saw Mitch Grainger perform "Nobody Knows my Name" for the soundtrack of the feature film December Boys, starring Daniel Radcliff and Jack Thompson (actor).
In 2007 Rick Price and Mitch Grainger recorded and album of acoustic duets. The album was named 2UP, borrowing from the Australian gambling game of the same name.
Relocation to America
In late 2011 Mitch Grainger relocated to Los Angeles, where he met a group of artist and musicians known as The Beachwood Rockers. At the time this group of actors and musicians, all living around the Beachwood Canyon area of Hollywood consisted of people like Michael Tyler of Friends, musician Lissie, John Hawkes (actor) and Rosa Pullman of The Lovers (Californian band).
The Lovers
Mitch Grainger and Rosa Pullman started making music together very soon after they met in 2011, and by 2012 had formed a band called 'The in From out of Towners' an acoustic duo that performed 2 to 3 nights a week across Los Angeles, and held a weekly residency at The Piano Bar, a well known Hollywood venue [2], where a diverse group of celebrity musicians from Billy Gibbons to Kamasi Washington played on a regular basis.
In the process of recording their debut album "The In From Out of Towners" took on a rhythm section and changed the band name to The Lovers (Californian band).
The Lovers self-titled debut was released in 2013 at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood and has been featured in American national TV shows, such as Nashville (ABC), Killer Women (ABC) and Rake (Fox) as well as in the feature film "Is That a Gun in Your pocket", released September 2016.
The Blues
In 2015 Mitch Grainger recorded and released "The Blues" an acoustic blues album, and the first album under his own name in 9 years. After it's Australian release the album spent 5 months in the Australian Blues & Roots Radio Chart, debuting at number 16 before reaching as high as number 6 [3]. It's success on Australian Blues radio saw Mitch Grainger return to tour Australia twice in six months, playing over 50 dates across the east coast of Australia as a part of "The Blues Tour" [4].
In February of 2016 Mitch Grainger was officially invited to showcase for the American Folk Alliance National Conference in Kansas City https://www.youtube.com/user/mitchgraingerdotcom, which was followed in September of 2016 by Mitch Grainger's first tour of Scandanavia.
Harmonica
YouTube Success
Before relocating to America, Mitch Grainger taught Harmonica privately in Sydney, Australia for over 20 years. After one of his students recommended Mitch look into posting some videos on Youtube, In March of 2012 Mitch Grainger uploaded the first lesson in his Step-by-Step Harmonica Course to YouTube, "Step by Step Harmonica Lessons - Lesson 1".
This first video now has over 1.4 million hits, and along with his other videos has seen his YouTube channel grow to currently receive 2,500 - 3,000 hits a day and have over 42,000 subscribers [5].
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Certifications | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Black the Sun | 9 | * | — | AUS: Platinum[6] | |
| 2001 | Watching Angels Mend | 2 | * | 22 | AUS: 2× Platinum[6] | |
| 2003 | Distant Light | 9 | * | — | AUS: Gold[6] | |
| 2005 | Alex Lloyd | 7 | * | — | AUS: Platinum[6] | |
| 2006 | Amazing: The Best of Alex Lloyd | 34 | * | — | — | |
| 2008 | Good in the Face of a Stranger | 80 | — | — | — | |
| 2011 | Rare Tracks & B-Sides | — | — | — | — | |
| 2013 | Urban Wilderness | — | — | — | — | |
| 2016 | Acoustica | 45 | 11 [7] |
— | — | |
| "—" denotes the album did not chart or achieve certification "*" denotes the album was not applicable to chart | ||||||
References
- ^ Debra Morris (30 November 1999). "1994 - 98 Australian Blues Music Award Winners". Australian Blues. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ Crystal Coser (22 September 2016). "Hollywood's Iconic Piano Bar Sings Its Last Tune". La Eats. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ A.B.A.R.A.C. "Australian Chart 2015". Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ mitchgrainger.com. "Mitch Grainger Tour Dates2015". Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ Youtube. "Mitch Grainger's YouTube Channel". Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ a b c d Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988-2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
- ^ "Album chart (Independent Labels): The week beginning 15 August 2016". Retrieved 17 August 2016.
