CALIGULA’S HORSE - Jim Grey + Josh Griffin
Uncaging the HORSE
Written by: Tom Wilson - Sense Music Media
Purveyors of intricate, sprawling prog-rock and top-notch facial hair, Brisbane powerhouse CALIGULA’S HORSE are about to be Uncaged, as part of one of the first major festivals of 2022. SENSE spoke to talented buggers (and disarmingly pleasant human beings) Jim Grey (vocals) and Josh Griffin (drums) about musical curveballs, influences, and, of course, ninjas …
[Note: What follows are two different interviews, conducted one after the other. They were asked the same questions.]
The Interview
I’ve been listening to a podcast about Daniel Johns, talking about the creation of Diorama, and how it went against everything that people expected of the band as artists. If you could throw a similar curveball at CALIGULA’S HORSE fans, what do you think you’d do?
Jim: Musically, we’ve already done a couple of those actually. I would say that Inertia and the Weapon of the Wall from In Contact, which was a totally spoken-word kind of thing … It was definitely hated by a large number of people. I feel like we have done that, and we’re probably going to keep doing that anyway.
Josh: [Laughs] I always feel like we do that every album. I always feel like we release every album, and we get so much love from the fans and the critics, except for these people going, “What the fuck is that?” That’s a tough [question] … I’d almost want to go, “Let’s go big and do our own 2112, by RUSH … I’d almost say do a Thom Yorke and do The Eraser … If I really wanted to troll fans, I’d just do a dubstep album … I take it back – the entire double concept album would be a drum solo … I’ll have everything. I’ll have timpani, I’ll have gong drums, and xylophones in there, and Jim can just watch. Jim’s only allowed to watch … He already understands that he might be the frontman and centre-stage, but I’m on the drum riser, and directly behind him … and above him. [Laughs]
Guitarist Adrian Goleby left the band earlier this year. His departure seemed very amicable for all involved. That’s a very boring story. Can we make up a cooler one? Maybe with some ninjas?
Jim: Yeah, OK. He stole my ninjas, who I employed to steal his boat. But as a prank, he stole my ninjas. That’s what happened. And it was rough, it was rough. I didn’t take it well, they didn’t take it well, and you don’t want to piss off a ninja.
Josh: I like the idea … Adrian is an animal lover. I’ve never met anyone who worships animals as much as he. He has an affinity with dogs in particular. I’ve never seen anything like it … They look at Adrian and think, “Friend! One of us!” I like the idea that he becomes crazy cat lady. Crazy cat or dog lady, you know? He retreats into the wilderness, he writes music, he makes videos, and film clips and animations, and the animals just keep multiplying, so that when you see him, his long hair is even more frazzled, and he’s just like, “Hey guys! Come and have some tea! Sorry it’s got cat hair in it.”
Or he just rips off his shirt and becomes a werewolf…
Josh: I mean, the dude is ripped anyway, so that actually all checks out, above the board. Either that, or he’ll go and steal everyone’s cats, and that’s why we had to part ways, because it was becoming a problem. We’re losing fans, because he just kept stealing everyone’s animals.
You read it here first people. What are some albums that shaped you as a musician, and why?
Josh: The first time I heard Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness by SMASHING PUMPKINS, it blew my little mind. I was raised on a diet of 80s glam rock and punk. Here’s me as a little kid with a double-sided cassette – one side was THE B-52s, the other side was THE CRAMPS, for god’s sake. That’s what I came from … GUNS ‘N’ ROSES, and then went through the grunge stage, and then along comes SMASHING PUMPKINS. His style was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It was this weird jazz fusion vibe with heavy rock. That was an incredible thing to hear. It seems cliché, but Scenes from a Memory by DREAM THEATER, just because that was my first DREAM THEATER album, and Portnoy’s playing is so enticing. You just want to rip everything off that he does because it’s so fun and so crazy … Nevermind … Dave Grohl’s gotta be on that. He’s gotta be up there. I’ve got memories of air drumming to most of that album when I was a little kid. Around the same era, [RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS] Blood Sugar Sex Magik was another real formative one for me.
Jim: I’m going to say primarily Grace by JEFF BUCKLEY. That was one that, to use the cliché, opened my eyes to a whole bunch of different approaches to songwriting and music, particularly his use of emotion in both the instrumentation, and also the vocal performance. Every single song on that album is loaded with emotion, and that’s the core of what I’m trying to get across in our music. I feel like that’s my role – to bring story and emotion to stuff … There were some turning points along the way. SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s Toxicity came at exactly the right time for me, where it was like, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you’ve got this crazy thing I’d never heard before, and I want to get on stage and do that, you know?
You guys are clearly bloody good musicians. How much time do you get to practice?
Jim: Not as much as I should! [Laughs] I sing every day, constantly, for my daughter, who’s nine months old. I think she’s going to sing before she speaks, because I basically communicate with little songs with her all the time … I’m keeping my voice alive and well through singing with it every day, but I don’t get to practice material anywhere near as often as I like. In the lead up to shows and things like that, getting back into rehearsal, we definitely will be, which will be awesome. It’s been something of a dry spell!
Josh: With a full-time job, it’s hard to find that balance. I’ll at least sit with a practice pad and a couple of sticks a couple of nights a week for an hour or two while I’m watching TV shows. That’s the best way to do it – put subtitles on and just do my exercises with it going on in the background. Kit time is usually once or twice a week. Nowhere near as much as I did in my early twenties, when that’s all you wanted to do. You had so much time, that’s what you dedicated it to.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing at Uncaged?
Josh: I’m actually really looking forward to seeing THE SUPERJESUS. I’m a little bit older than the other guys in the band, and that was right in my wheelhouse, in that time I was going through my real musical journey and discovering what I liked. I’m such a huge fan, such a huge fan, so it’s going to be really cool to see them rip it up live. Most of the bands on there! I’m so keen! My wife is really jealous of the fact that THE HARD-ONS are on the lineup, and now Tim Rogers is their frontman, and she is a card-carrying YOU AM I fan … I’m really keen to see what Tim fuckin’ Rogers does with THE HARD-ONS, man. That’s going to be great … I’m also really keen to see our boys in TWELVE FOOT NINJA. Those guys are great friends of ours, and they are hands-down one of the best bands in Australia, for sure.
Jim: I have mates on the lineup, so them. I mean, not even in terms of live performance. Like, the guys in CIRCLES are playing – a Melbourne band that we toured Europe with a couple of years back. We’ve been on a bus with them for five-plus weeks. I miss ‘em! I can’t wait to see TWELVE FOOT NINJA perform as well. We know those guys from way back, and it’s going to be awesome to see them. But from a pure awesome teenage nostalgia point of view, I’m hanging out for THE SUPERJESUS. I think that’s going to be awesome.
CALIGULA’S HORSE play the Uncaged Festival in Brisbane on the 22nd of January, Melbourne on the 29th, and Sydney on the 12th of February.