Michale Graves

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Michale Graves with Marky Ramone (live, 2010)

Michale Graves (born March 21, 1975 in Dumont , real name Michael Emanuel ) is an American horror punk musician.

He achieved fame above all as the singer of the newly founded Misfits between 1995 and 2000. Since then he has been active solo and with different bands.

Career

Michale Graves was born in Dumont, New Jersey in 1975. He grew up in the lower middle class with two sisters and an older brother , his mother was a housewife, his father worked as a paramedic and bailiff. The parents' marriage fell apart in 1997. From around 1985 he moved into the local punk scene, coming into contact with bands like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols .

Contrary to what the press often claimed later, he was not entirely unfamiliar with the Misfits in the mid-1990s. He already knew individual songs, but only dealt more intensively with their music when a new singer was sought in the course of the planned re-establishment in 1994. At that time he was playing a demo in Lodi with his band, The Mopes, when he was told that the Misfits were going to audition . With the help of Collection I (1986) and the album Walk among Us (1982) he familiarized himself with their style and was finally hired as a singer in 1995. With the Misfits he released the two albums "American Psycho" (1997) and Famous Monsters (1999). As a songwriter , Graves was responsible for some of the best-known songs by the newly founded Misfits, such as "Dig Up her Bones", "Scream!", "This Island Earth", "American Psycho", "The Haunting" and "Shining".

A tour of the Misfits with the singer Myke Hideous led to a short-term exit from the band in 1998. The final separation from the Misfits finally took place in 2000, together with drummer Dr. Chud (David Calabrese). With this he then founded the band The Lost Boys, where they performed Misfits pieces written by them. Both then formed the group Graves, under which they released an album. Further publications failed due to differences between Michale Graves and Dr. Chud.

In 2002 Michale Graves founded Gotham Road (later Gotham Rd), but in 2004 it was dissolved again. At that time, Michale Graves' public commitment to right-wing conservative views and his support for the website conservativepunk.com provided for discussion . According to him, this was in response to left-wing websites openly calling for support for the Democrats and a reluctance to see punk as "left" or "progressive". These commitments were a step backwards for his career. Numerous labels, magazines, clubs and other musicians refused to work together. In retrospect, Graves said that he had expected resistance, but was surprised by the extent. He described the media hysteria as "terrible," and this at a high point in his career when Rob Zombie and George Romero offered to work together. However , he rejects any support for the Republicans . For him, it is about “intelligent procedures” in order to “promote a discourse that would show both sides of an argument”. Graves said: “I was convinced that it was at least owed to people that they could decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong for them without feeling the pressure that there is something like a strict model of thought that is only accepted as «punk». (…) I began to advocate and defend views that were by their nature quite conservative. It became something of a struggle for me, because why shouldn't I be able to assess something in a certain way without being attacked for feeling it that way and also saying it. "

Live with the Misfits (1998)

Due to concerns about the future and out of defiance, he therefore joined the United States Marine Corps in 2005 . Shortly before, he played the solo album "Punk Rock is Dead". Due to back problems, however, he resigned from the military after just one year with an “honorable discharge”. In 2008 he said that he was open to a return to the Misfits, that the relationship wasn't strained and that it was up to the band members. In fact, from 2009 onwards, he appeared again several times with Dr. Chud, Paul Doyle Caiafa and the band Gorgeous Frankenstein , also in the opening act for Danzig , where he sang songs from “his” Misfits time.

From then on Graves was mainly active as a solo musician with an accompanying band. He recorded an album with Damien Echols from West Memphis Three , and took on the role of singer for Marky Ramone's band Blitzkrieg. In 2012 he financed the release of his album Vagabond through Kickstarter . In 2018 horror punk legend Argyle Goolsby announced that he would join Michale Graves' band as bassist.

Discography

With the Misfits

  • 1997: American Psycho
  • 1997: Dig Up Her Bones
  • 1998: Evillive II
  • 1998: Scream!
  • 1999: Famous Monsters
  • 1999: Monster Mash
  • 2001: Cuts from the Crypt

With Graves

  • 2002: Web of Dharma

With Gotham Road

  • 2003: Seasons of the Witch
  • 2004: Gotham Rd. Live in Portland

solo

  • 2005: Punk Rock Is Dead
  • 2006: Return to Earth
  • 2007: Illusions (with Damien Echols)
  • 2008: Illusions Live at Viretta Park
  • 2008: Arkansas Sessions
  • 2009: Halifax: Live at the Musicroom
  • 2013: Vagabond
  • 2013: The Lost Skeleton Returns
  • 2013: Vagabond Acoustic
  • 2014: Supernatural
  • 2014: Wanderer
  • 2015: Wanderer Acoustic
  • 2015: Nightmares
  • 2016: When Worlds Collide
  • 2016: Bedlam
  • 2017: Backroads
  • 2017: The World Turned Upside Down

Guest Posts

  • 2010: When We Were Angels (with Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg)
  • 2010: If And When (with Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg)
  • 2014: Zombies Unite (with Night of Samhain)
  • 2015: Revenge of the Zombies (with Night of Samhain)

Compilations

  • 2007: Demos and Live Cuts Vol. I
  • 2007: Demos and Live Cuts Vol. II
  • 2008: Demos and Live Cuts Vol. III
  • 2008: Demos and Live Cuts Vol. IV: The 1998 Sessions
  • 2009: The Scarecrow Selections
  • 2015: Drifter
  • 2016: The Legacy Collection

Web links

Commons : Michale Graves  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.ox-fanzine.de/web/itv/3456/interviews.212.html
  2. ↑ http://www.ox-fanzine.de/web/itv/3456/interviews.212.html
  3. ↑ http://faygoluvers.net/v5/2017/12/former-misfits-frontman-michale-graves-interview-2017/
  4. ↑ http://liberaldead.com/blog/strange-transmissions-michale-graves/
  5. ↑ http://www.ox-fanzine.de/web/itv/3456/interviews.212.html
  6. ↑ http://faygoluvers.net/v5/2017/12/former-misfits-frontman-michale-graves-interview-2017/
  7. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/former-misfits-frontman-discharged-from-military/
  8. ↑ http://liberaldead.com/blog/strange-transmissions-michale-graves/
personal data
SURNAME Graves, Michale
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Emanuel, Michael (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American horror punk musician
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Dumont , New Jersey