Grand Atlantic is an Australian rock band that manages to produce an immediate and engaging brand of modern rock, paying homage to the almost-lost art of songwriting while simultaneously sounding thoroughly modern and completely timeless. Grand Atlantic makes records the unfashionable way – carefully, thoughtfully, with no regard for fashion, demographics or marketing. The results are viscerally thrilling, thoroughly honest and at times, deeply moving. The band's unassuming approach to the business of music has delivered them a fervent fanbase around the globe, and allows them to tour internationally while (mostly) flying under the mainstream radar. Even the massive exposure of their 'Gossip Girl' track hasn't changed their focus or their approach to their music.
In March 2010, Grand Atlantic barnstormed across the US and Canada after invitations to showcase at SXSW and Canadian Music Week, following extensive touring of the album in Australia and a growing call from the US powerpop scene for the band to 'come on over'. The release of 'How We Survive' in the US in March 2010 prompted radio play on over 50 radio stations, a glut of media attention and placed them on a bunch of SXSW 'bands to watch' short lists. In July, the album was released in japan to coincide with the band playing a number of shows in Tokyo, Osaka and Mie – and Japanese radio and fans gave the band a rousing reception.
'… the songs also sound terrific, well-written and harboring to-the-point melodies that aim to grab you quick. Grand Atlantic has a sound along the lines of Carolina Liar or O.A.R., masterfully blending driving modern rock riffs with smart pop hooks and spot on harmonies…"(Bill's Music Forum, USA)
Tracks from their second album, 2009's 'How We Survive', were featured on music sites, blogs and internet radio stations everywhere from Belgium to Russia, USA to Japan, with the album enjoying extensive airplay on Australian and US radio and ending up on a number of the year's "best-of" lists. Recently, the band has bunkered down in an abandoned lunatic asylum near Dunedin (the home of Flying Nun) in New Zealand, under the steady hand of producer Dale Cotton (Die! Die! Die!, The Bats, Dimmer, Robert Scott) to create their as-yet untitled third long-player.
Their breakthrough album 'How We Survive' was a heady mix of sweet power-pop and muscular rock, wrapped in accessible, melodic three-minute packages. The new album is sheer psychedelic sophistication, its beating heart now urgent and undeniable while the band are content to let the music build and peak, unhurriedly and yet with tangible conviction. Intimate and inscrutable, these songs bend and fold, stretch out and explode, mutating the guitar-pop form into a psycho-geographical map where the band's headspace mimics the manic contours of the equally beautiful and punishing New Zealand countryside in which it was recorded…
March 2011 sees them return to the US for a repeat bout on both the East and West coasts, as well as SXSW again. Make them a priority to catch on this tour. Live, they're an unstoppable hurricane of passion and intensity, a high-energy rock tour-de-force… and with a new album on the way, Grand Atlantic
