For this Special DOC III Edition of Making Meaning, we’re talking with Ed Grabianowski of Spacelord!
Catch Spacelord at Descendants of Crom III on Sunday 9.22.19 at Cattivo! Get tickets here.
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MAKING MEANING: THE BACKGROUND
Spacelord plays space wizard-tinged Stoner Doom with clear Heavy Rock and Heavy Blues influences. They are from Buffalo, New York.
Forming in 2016, Spacelord has released three albums – all with fantastical and science fiction-related themes. Their most recent LP, Indecipher, was released in 2018 on Kozmic Artifactz Records. They are currently working on material for a 2020 release!
Spacelord is: Chris Cappiello (bass), Kevin Flynn (drums), Ed Grabianowski (vocals), and Richard Root (Guitar).
Keep up-to-date with Spacelord on their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Bandcamp.
MAKING MEANING: THE SONG
Listen to the song “Zero Hour” from Spacelord’s album Indecipher and learn what meaning Ed makes:
“Zero Hour” was written by Richard Root and Ed Grabianowski; recorded in Spacelord’s home studio in Buffalo, NY; and produced by Richard Root.
Lyrics to “Zero Hour”
I sit in a darkened room / my head held in my hands / A voice that echoes through the years / I am a vast machine whose spring has come unwound / I hear the turning of the gears
There’s a clock that’s always ticking / measuring the days / An hourglass that looks like me / How many more times will the sun rise in your eyes / There’s a grain of sand that sets you free
There’s no way out / I’m counting down / To my / Zero Hour
I got a void of jagged silence / screaming inside my head / And there’s nothing anyone can do / I got a feeling / something waits behind the sun / When it casts a shadow, it falls on you
There’s no way out / I’m counting down / To my / Zero Hour
I walk the long walk / through the space between the stars / And enter nameless through the door / Follow the corridor / that leads you to yourself / And sing your song forevermore
Ed Speaks
I wrote the lyrics to this song the week after Chris Cornell died. It hit me pretty hard, he’s always been a big influence for me, and just sort of a presence and a power that had been there for most of my life. So I felt a little like the floor had dropped out from under me. And I was in some fairly dark mental places myself, anyway.
I hesitate, almost, to discuss this song, because it doesn’t draw any conclusions or offer anything hopeful or triumphant. It’s just a reflection and a response to where my head was that week, and a description of isolation and alienation and fear. Maybe in the final lines there’s some hope. But most of it is pretty bleak. I do feel like I got as close as I’m probably capable of to describing what the deepest depression feels like with some of the lines. “I am a vast machine whose spring has come unwound,” etc.
“I do feel like I got as close as I’m probably capable of to describing what the deepest depression feels like with some of the lines.” – Ed Grabianowski on “Zero Hour”
I wouldn’t want it to seem like a celebration of what happened in any way. Maybe laying those feelings bare is illuminating for someone.
The screams at the end are an intentional homage to Cornell, particularly “Slaves & Bulldozers.”
DESCENDANTS OF CROM III
We talked to Ed about playing at Descendants of Crom III. The Third Annual Descendants of Crom heavy music festival takes place in Pittsburgh, PA September 20 – 22, 2019.
How do you feel about playing DOC III?
Honestly it feels like our entire year of shows has been building up to it. We’re finishing off 2019 with a bunch of festival performances, culminating in DOC. We’re beyond psyched.
What can the audience expect from your performance?
We set off a 50 megaton nuclear device as the finale of every show (don’t tell the fire marshal, it probably wouldn’t get approved).
What other bands are you excited to see perform?
I’m personally really excited to see Frayle, from Cleveland. I also can’t wait to see the two dozen bands I know nothing about, because I’m going to fall in love with a bunch of them and spend too much money on Bandcamp the next day.
What else do you want readers to know?
We’re continually blown away by the way the heavy music community has embraced us, despite us being a bunch of northern weirdos who don’t know anyone. We’ve got a bunch of new music for a 2020 album release that we can’t wait to share with y’all.
Thanks so much to Ed of Spacelord for talking with us about their song “Zero Hour” and Descendants of Crom III! We hope this adds to your experience of their band, their song, and their performance. Thanks for making meaning with us.
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