With a new year on the horizon, a Bronx family rock band called Graveshift has made a resolution for success.
The band, which is made up of two brothers and two sisters from Wakefield, recently scored a hit with their song “Resolution”. Since then the band has been featured in national music forums and magazines, and will soon be playing on late night variety shows.
“It’s going to be a snowball from here on out,” said Eric Graves, who is the band manager and father of the four children. “We’ve been a local band in the Bronx for a while, just practicing and writing songs. Now we’ve got our stuff on iTunes and it’s been popping.”
The quartet is made up of 13-year-old singer, Jonah; 15-year-old drummer, Joshua; 17-year-old guitarist, Alexis; and 21-year-old, Erica Graves, who backs the group up on bass.
After appearing on Good Day New York, and being featured in an article in the national music forum, Global Grind, the group has agreed to play at the State of the Borough address in February, and according to Graves, the band is also in talks to perform for both Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and MTV’s Wild ‘N Out show.
Since starting about six years ago, the band has seen steady success. The four members have written dozens of songs, performed for hundreds of fans and taped music videos. One of the highlight of their careers so far was performing for former President Bill Clinton at a concert to benefit his foundation’s Millennium Network in September. What made the performance particularly special was that the former president specifically requested the band play as he sat on stage with them.
“It was really cool. He missed the first performance, so he invited us on stage at the end of the show,” said lead singer, Jonah. “I always thought we would get some where someday, but I never through we’d get this far, this soon. Lately things have been really progressing.”
The group formed when Graves noticed his two sons were spending entirely too much time playing video games. Instead of yelling about it, he bought a drum set and the kids naturally gravitated towards making music.
According to Graves, the four fought over the drum set until he bought the guitars for his girls.
“Everyone landed in their own place,” Jonah said. “I tried everything out, but when I started singing it came out naturally and it came out good, so I made singing my instrument.”
The group’s sound is more Justin Bieber than Jackson Five, and Jonah lists some of the bands influences as Paramore, Stevie Wonder, Good Charlotte, Michael Jackson and Tayler Swift. Unlike the Jacksons though, the Graveshift members write all their own music and play all their instruments as well, Graves said.
“If someone said the next American band is four kids from the Bronx, you would think rap or hip hop, but it’s actually rock and pop,” Eric said. “They compare the group to things they’ve already seen, but there hasn’t been a group like this before.”
While the group’s name comes partially from the family name, and partially from the late night shift their father used to work, the band’s name means something else for the members.
