RAP
Gravity Kills exploded onto the St. Louis
music scene in 1995 and the world soonafter.
It all started when the first song they ever
wrote was placed on the St.Louis alternative
station KPNT's Best of St. Louis compilation
Point Essential Volume 1. The pulsating
"Guilty" became the stand out and quickly
shot up the stations chart to No. 1, becoming
the most requested song of 1995.
Gravity Kills is a non-traditional rock band whose members don't limit
themselves to playing or writing on one instrument. Aided by owning
their own studio, Gravity Kills sees their music as a complex mosaic
of organized noise derived from the manipulation of imperfect
instruments, environmental artifacts and rhythmic deconstructions.
Production scientist John Fryer (NIN, Cocteau Twins) was brought on
board to mix the album. Kurt Kerns (bass/drums), Matt Dudenhoeffer
(guitar), and Douglas Firley (electronics) have been writing and
performing around Missouri in various guitar bands since the mid
80's. Shortly after moving to St. Louis, the three decided to write and
record a song for the KPNT collection, starting only 4 days before
submissions were due. Two days into writing what would become
"Guilty", the former vocalist backed out. After being turned down by
every vocalist they had ever worked with, Kurt, Matt and Doug called
upon Jeff Scheel (vocals), Kurt's cousin and long time friend to the
three. Jeff, a Dallas techno rock veteran, flew up on the third day to
write and cut the vocals in six hours. "Guilty" was mixed on the final
day and turned in with only 30 minutes to spare.
In the short time since inking the recording contract, Gravity Kills has
landed songs in three blockbuster movie soundtracks. Mortal Kombat,
the now platinum soundtrack, contains a demo version of "Goodbye",
while "Guilty" can be found on the Original Motion Picture soundtrack
for Seven and "Blame" in Escape From LA. The groundbreaking, and
now oft-copied videos for Guilty and Enough were directed by Rocky
Morton, creator of Max Headroom. Gravity Kills spent 1996 and 1997
touring the world with the Sex Pistols, Skunk Anasie, Sister Machine
Gun, Republica, The Nixons, and more. They are currently working on
the follow-up to their Gravity Kills album, one of the most successful
debut albums of 1996. The band also contributed a song to the
current Beggars Banquet Gary Numan tribute album.
Specially-Priced Album-Length EP
Features 60+ Minutes Of Diverse
Re-interpretations By Top Mixers
And Musicians.
MANIPULATed is an album-length,
EP-priced collection of remixes.
The 13-track disc features
revamped versions of five tracks
from the band's highly successful
self-titled debut. The likes of P.M.
Dawn, Al Jourgensen of Ministry,
Lords Of Acid, Mark Saunders,
Martin Atkins and others were
recruited to pull Gravity Kills into
the territories of pop, trip-hop,
metal, techno and dance while
retaining the integrity of the
individual songs.
