Review Fix Exclusive: Richard Grace Talks Tumbler’s ‘You Said’

Review Fix chats with Tumbler’s Richard Grace, who discusses the band’s origin, debut album “You Said” and hopes for the future.

The trio of Harry and Richard Grace and Dave Needham are hard to describe, but that’s never a bad thing when it comes to music. Thanks to poetically-solid lyrics, catchy guitar riffs and Harry Needham’s eccentric, but beautiful voice, Tumbler has something special here in “You Said.” Because of their ability to drastically change their sound, but still maintain a smooth lyrical base, Tumbler’s “You Said,” is an album for not only lovers of folk and hipster tunes, but anyone that wants sound with real depth.

Review Fix: Can you discuss how the band got together?

Richard Grace: Tumbler’s roots lie in music written over the years and played together in crowded kitchen concerts where guitars are everywhere and everyone knows the chords – songs that were written as self-expression and sometimes just for fun but never to tour or sell. Last year Harry started taking the music seriously, writing his own stuff and developing as a performer. The way these things happen, Dave came along at just the right time and the whole thing just came together.

Review Fix: The album has so many flavors. How did you guys put this all together?

Grace: There is so much material written and played together over the years. Some songs are just fun to play and sing together, while others are maybe more reflective and tell a story and work better as kind of mood-capturing camp fire songs. Genre isn’t something we’ve ever really considered – songs either work or they don’t. Over the years the ones that don’t work get forgotten about, so time is a great judge! The album ended up capturing something of the spectrum.

Review Fix: What’s the story behind Bueller? How was it written?

Grace: It’s been brilliant to see Harry start to develop his own voice as a songwriter, both musically and lyrically. Bueller arrived just over a year ago, after we started working with Dave. The song tells the true story of Harry screwing up big time, getting on the wrong train, realising and leaping off at the last minute but leaving his bag behind, so getting stranded with no ticket and no money, and ending up being rescued and taken in by a girl called Lexi. The song came together in the weeks afterwards, written on acoustic guitar. It was a happy disaster, it gave Harry a great song and a wonderful girlfriend. They’ve been together ever since.

Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?

Grace: I guess every band is special. What makes Tumbler different I think is first the depth of material available – a lifetime of music written from the heart with no ambitions or agenda at all. The other thing that’s different is Dave – a guy with a rare combination of musical and technical ability to turn songs into records. Best of all, it seems to have just come together effortlessly. Working together is easy and fun. If there are artistic differences it tends to be about the chocolate biscuits.

Review Fix: How do you want this album to be remembered?

Grace: It would be kind of special if the album was remembered as something that was enjoyed and added a bit of happiness to the world.

Review Fix: What are some acts that have had an influence on this album?

Grace: I grew up inspired by guys like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen – there’s a directness and honesty about their songwriting that I think carries through to some of the current-day acts that the lads and I listen to together these days – people like Ben Howard, Ed Sheeran, Jake Bugg etc. But mostly I think there’s the important idea that a great song is a great song, regardless of time or genre. We can get a great buzz out of singing Sinatra’s ‘Come Fly With Me’ or Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’ or playing the guitar bit while singing Guns N’ Roses ‘Sweet Child of Mine’. We’ve even had fun playing and singing John Lee Hooker together. I guess happy times with music is the overriding influence.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the band?

Grace: The music we’ve shared together over the years has meant a lot to us, and maybe it belongs in the public domain. The only way to find out is to put it out and see. Once it’s out there the music will determine whether there’s an audience. If there is, maybe we can build on it.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Grace: We’re already working on the next album – there is a whole catalogue of existing material to develop and play with, and Harry has some great new songs to add. For anyone who likes the first album, it would be fun to get them involved and play an interactive role as album two takes shape.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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