Spotlight: Grant Benziger's ‘Granite Chief'

When you go down a black diamond ski run called Granite Chief between your dad's legs when you're 4 years old, you might acquire a nickname after the run. When you're a Benziger from Sonoma Valley, you might just end up being a winemaker. For Grant Benziger, only the first one is true.

Known his whole life as the 'Granite Chief,' the younger Benziger didn't hear the call of the grapes, but he did hear the call of the wild – and the call of music, both of which he has managed to pair nicely with his new EP release simply called 'Granite Chief.'

The Glen Ellen native grew up next door to Jack London State Park and spent his youth traversing the trails and property, as well as reading London's books. With a place that powerful and spiritual immersed in your thoughts, it's bound to have an effect on how you see life.

The story for the lead track on the EP, 'Haunt You (Charmian),' came to him as he was showing his girlfriend around the park and telling her the story of Jack London. 'It was like the park spoke to me and the words to the song just came out,' said Benziger.

Benziger attributes his love for music to his older brother Buck, who would take him to shows in the underground scene for Bay Area rap, hip-hop and Sonoma Valley punk rock. His first punk show was seeing the Bodies at the Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma when he was just 8 years old, and he then off to explore other genres with his brother.

'Here I am this 8-year-old kid and my older brother is bringing me to shows. Probably not the thing to do to if you're trying to act cool, but I sure appreciated him letting me tag along,' remembered Benziger.

Soon he saw how all the genres all tied together with one another. 'You don't have to choose just one, you can like them all and that's OK,' he realized, and it was then that he knew music was what he wanted to do, forever.

His family was very supportive of his dream, and after a stint at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, he started playing in bands in Southern California, where he still lives today. His main act is the Curly Wolf, and the band plays what you would call 'honky-punk and psychobilly' along the lines of Hank Williams III, but there was more that Benziger wanted to say, and the new solo project allowed him to branch out from that style into a style that, well, sounds uniquely like him.

'Writing some of these songs and laying them down has been kind of scary, I've really put some of my soul out there,' Benziger describes how the songs came about. The music was all recorded at his house, with Benziger laying down most of the tracks and doing most of the writing as well, with his writing partner Jason Mater. He uses a mix of acoustic and electronic instruments, including his banjo, layered over beats with a slow, almost funk-like groove, with lots of back-and-forth vocals.

The project is strictly a studio one for now, but Benziger is making plans with others to bring the sounds to the live stage. 'I know we can do it' says Benziger, 'we just have to find the time to get to it.'

The EP can be purchased at iTunes, Spotify and Amazon. There is also rumor of an appearance by the Curly Wolf in the Valley in September of this year. For more about Benziger, point your browser to instagram.com/curlygrits.