Biography
Gronk was born in Tonbridge, famous for the £53 million robbery, on 15th January 1980. Like many middle-class children, piano lessons were considered a virtue and it was in these early days that Gronk's prodigious talent for music was first noticed. He continued playing the piano up to Grade 8 level whilst consecutively learning the guitar. A course at school (a large public one, we'll say no more) in Music Technology taught him the rudiments of recording, mixing and producing music, and laid the foundations for much of his work.
Gronk has been writing and recording—initially with a microphone and reel-to-reel tape recorder set up in his bedroom—since the age of 12, and compiled many full "albums" onto cassette, including The Sound Of Space, Electron, Let The Fool Go Down and Master Of Disaster. The best tracks from these youthful efforts were collected onto Psychadelic Toothbrush, a 15 track Best Of..., and many of them, though inexpertly recorded and featuring a Gronk with unbroken voice, still stand up as good tracks in their own right.
It was at secondary school that Gronk really started to become prolific. In 1994, Gronk wrote, performed and produced Centrifugal Force, a 50 minute instrumental album, broadly divided into 9 movements—Centrifuge, Out Of Time, Brave New World, Heaven, Genisis, Antigrav, Venus, The Elemental, Revelations—each with its own distinct theme.
With a new maturity evident, both in his singing and in his lyrics, and armed with recording facilities amounting to something near to professional, Gronk started writing the double album, The Sweet Streams Of Nancy. Heavily inspired by The Cure's Disintegration, the final product—"released" in 1996 and accompanied by Singular, an EP of the "singles" and their "B-sides" (including 4 original tracks not featured on the album)—charted Gronk's developing music taste. The album ranged from atmospheric instrumentals such as Initiation, through pop tracks (A Dream Of St Peter, Turn and the heart-wrenching Message Of Farewell), majestic reverb-laden epics (Half A Second, Open Water) through to the final heavy rock anthem Born In Pain.
Carnival Of Souls
His collaboration on one track, The Pains Of Sleep, with George Apsion led to the formation of the first incarnation of Carnival Of Souls. It was a three-piece, featuring Andy Overend on violin, George on vocals and guitar and Gronk on guitar, vocals and keyboards; the sound was unusual and at times ethereal. The songs from that era are in the Music section. You can read the further biography of Carnival Of Souls on their website.
Although Gronk has been playing with The Souls, and living in London, for the last six years, he has never stopped writing his own material. Some is experimental, some would not fit with the band's style and some were very personal and not intended for a general airing. Gronk has also played as a session musician for other bands, including The Skinks. He continues to play with Carnival Of Souls, and as long as he continues to write his own material, then you will be the first to hear it here...