The GRAFIA Story –Working our way back home
Grafia is also an acronym for "Grateful For It All."
It is also a group of musicians who include the arts, photography/ video making and work collectively resulting in the band
creating songs and performing shows with lighting background imagery and a sense of theatre. This group so far has had more than
fifteen contributors and has recently made a first recording of original songs, an album titled “Ultimately Free.”
It's nine years since it started playing songs and organising performances, concerts and sharing gigs with other musicians / bands.
There has been a steady growth and evolution to the band’s sound and musical style. The ability to play tunes that are of interest
and exciting is growing and gaining support. This is due largely to the enthusiasm and application of the key members of the band.
Keith Austin is the keyboard wizard who also plays
electric bass when called for, or piano accordion and mixes sound at our live shows.
Backing Keith is the newest member of our core trio, Steve Shivas playing lead guitar. Steve has a varied musical history, mainly due to family and business commitments, and he is only recently getting back playing guitar regularly and being available to play most of our gigs. He also has the essential role of supplying most of our equipment,strings, leads, pedals etc from his music shop which is the hub of the Wairarapa Music scene.
The third and founding member is Rob Maunsell, who has developed his ‘presence’ as lead singer and acoustic rhythm guitarist. He also loves to play harmonica, and adds this to songs in a tasteful fashion.
Dave Dewsnap played guitar on most of the songs on our debut "Ultimately Free" album and did the mastering.
Stephan Schulz was another core contributor to the album, playing violin and recorder.
Jordan Tredray, a Masterton native, plays drums and percussion but is unable to join the trio for their live sessions very often as
he has a professional drum school and a young family plus a second business to attend to.
Jeremy Were,our comrade helping to organising Tin Hut Live and Mark Bradley an old musical compatriot of Keith’s, are keen to
sit in on drums whenever needed. Their input is much appreciated.
Titles of the songs on the album include "Think about it", a thought provoking boogie blues led by Keith on "acoustic" piano,
"The Archivist", a folk ballad with memorable chorus, and "Quietly going blues", an ode to Rob's father, John, set in an extended
slow-tempo blues form. “To be Heard” and “You are the Maker” have become favourites of our returning listeners/ followers.
The recording was done at Keith's home studio with contributions by friends including Lenny TeWhare, Clare Christian, Stefan Brown
and Jacq Knox.
Many of the performances Grafia has organised over the last nine years have included other local musicians and bands. Another essential contributor is their artist, photographer, video maker, A J Hunter, who covers the gamut of artistic needs from poster design, photography, video imagery, screen presentations and website development.
Grafia's music blends a palate of musical colours that include Blues, country rock, Irish folk and Americana styles. The appeal is to those who have a variety of tastes and appreciate melody and mood in a song. New songs are being recorded for a soon to be released EP. Two of these have been written by Stephen Nelson, a lifelong friend of Rob’snow living in Lismore, northern NSW.
