Niagara Falls’ HONEYMOON SUITE debuted in 1984 with the Q107 radio contest winning cut “New Girl Now”, which lead to a record deal and a highly successful debut album. The band followed that up with further successful albums The Big Prize (1986, produced by Bruce Fairbairn), Racing After Midnight (1988, produced by Ted Templeman), and 1991’s Monsters Under The Bed (co-produced w/ Paul Northfield). Following that run it would be a decade before another HMS album, and another after that! But the end of this week sees the release of Honeymoon Suite’s brand new studio album ‘Alive‘.

In this conversation I talked to guitarist/songwriter Derry Grehan about making the new album Alive, as well as the recent remix & reissue of the Clifton Hill album, what else he’s up to, and some of the band’s he grew up on. HMS is one of the first band’s I saw live, and growing up near the Falls was well aware of them – they broke out big right away, drawing instant comparisons to Loverboy (who had a similar early success with their debut LP), but after that string of 3-4 albums I moved on to other things, and wasn’t aware most of these guys aren’t still in the Falls (or so close), so we began with that….

How’d you how’d you end up in Nashville?

Well, I’ve been in Illinois, Central Illinois for 20 years. I moved from Toronto, to Illinois, where I have my house there. And I recently, about six months ago got another place in Nashville with my daughter, who’s a singer-songwriter as well. So I’m kind of biding my time between two places because I love Nashville. And I’ve been kind of commuting back and forth for a long time here working with people. So we just decided to get 2 places. But I’m kind of down here a little more than I’m a back in Illinois and hoping to relocate here permanently.

So you must have a lot of other things on the go other than just a new Honeymoon Suite stuff coming out?

Well, I always find things to do. I do some co writing with a few people, once in a while and work with my daughter, and I’ve been working on a solo record. And this Honeymoon Suite thing is there, it keeps me pretty busy as well. So there’s always something to do.

So the new album ‘Alive’, that’s coming out – It’s kind of been in the works for a few years, right? Like there’s been a few singles out since 2019.

Yeah, it has taken good three years probably since we started it. Probably three years ago, Johnnie and I started but we went to Nashville, to meet with our producer Mike Krompass, who was down here at the time. I reached out to him, see if you’d be interested in working with us. And he was, and we went to his place and started writing songs. And he said I want to produce produce your album. So lots of trips back and forth. And then COVID hit in what 2022. So Mike, moved to England at that time. So we were going back and forth to his place, his studio in England doing stuff, but then COVID hit we couldn’t travel anymore, so I guess what I’m saying is just everything got pushed back, you know, then it took longer. You know, the way it was.

So did you guys have all the songs or all the songs at that time when you started? Or was this kind of still adding?

No, not right away. But we wrote, we had a fair amount of them, but we also wrote a few along the way and developed them over, you know, a year or two.

I saw you guys out in Port Colborne a couple of years ago. 2019. with David Wilcox, and I think the new track was on the radio at the time, but I don’t think you guys played it.

No, we hadn’t put the songs in the show. We’re really careful about putting new material in the show. Although we love it, you know, people are there to hear the hits. And like with this new album, or our singles are really doing well, so we’ll probably put out a new song or two in the set…

Can you tell me a bit about how you and Johnnie, obviously you guys live pretty far apart so how you guys collaborate and get things together?

Yeah, you know, we we’ve lived here he’s been up in your area and I’ve been in Illinois for 20 years, but it hasn’t impeded us at all, you know, John and I, it’s been a long time since we live together or lived in the same place. We just, you know you got the internet now and everything’s recorded digitally and Pro Tools and all that. So if I have an idea, I’ll just send files to him. And we send stuff back and forth by the Internet. Once in a while, of course, we see each other a lot when we’re touring. because all the band guys- we all live in different places. When we tour, we all go to an airport and then meet up in the city and we hang out for a couple of days. And then sometimes we’ll get together on the road and bang some things out.

Can you tell me a bit about the songs, the singles, you guys got out like ‘Find What You’re Looking For’ and ‘Tell Me What You Want’ – what they’re about, and what how you guys came up with some of the ideas?

‘Find What You’re Looking For’, that was the first one that we wrote with Mike, and that was one of the first songs we recorded and finished. Mike had a lot to do with that; Mike’s a great producer and the sound around it’s classic Honeymoon Suite, but he made it sound not dated, he gave it a kind of a modern sound to the production but without alienating you know, the real sound of the band. ‘Tell Me What You Want’ is a good example of that. It’s kind of different for us. We tried some new kind of production techniques and sounds and I think it’s a cool song. What’s it about? ‘Tell me what you want’ – It’s I guess, when you’re in a relationship, sometimes you just can’t figure that other person out, whether it’s your girlfriend, or boyfriend or whatever, it’s like, I don’t get you, man. Like, I’m doing everything for you to me, tell me what you want. You know, it can be that old struggle. And then ‘Find What You’re Looking For’ is a track that I’ve had for years actually, and it was called something else, but I always loved the the verse in that song it was so heavy, we just didn’t have a great chorus. So eventually, we worked on that with Mike and we did come up with a really good chorus for it. And if you listen to the lyric, it’s really cool and find what you’re looking for – Grabbing and and don’t don’t give up.

The new one is ‘Alive’, the title track and I was watching that today and 2 things – I like that it’s short and to the point, punchy; all the songs are easily memorable. And also, you guys still play the – like with the video, you still use the falls in the background and a lot of local scenery…

We decided to go back to Niagara Falls and do the video for that just as a kind of a nod to our past. And if you remember – one of the first videos we did was ‘Burning In Love’, in Niagara Falls. So it was fun to go back to that same location, walk around with a camera crew and watch people look at us funny. And put Johnnie back in Niagara Falls. So I think it was really cool.

Do you guys have much of a hand in the album artwork or is that kind of brought in to you guys?

No, actually, Mike, our producer, he also has his own record label and his own team of people. They came up with the concept of the the guy on the front with the hat, cloud on his face. Mike actually presented that to us and and I was like, right away. I’m like ‘That’s great!’. Everybody thought that was cool. Say no more. You know. I like it, Yeah.

It’s a very different cover to me, you know. Like I love the ‘Clifton Hill’ cover with the classic shot of Clifton Hill from the bottom, and obviously the earlier covers, but yeah this is very different cover. It almost looks like something that I might expect from one of those prog bands or something but…

Yeah. Like Pink Floyd maybe a little bit. Yeah. But it’s very artsy and cool, but I think it goes with the music really well.

You also have the reissue of ‘Clifton Hill’ out(!?)

Well, that is a guy that we’ve been working with, actually does our merchandising called Greg Campbell. He’s run our web store for a long time. He does a lot of bigger bands. He’s done really well for us with our merch and our albums in Canada. He approached us and he’s just a fan of the band, and he always liked the Clifton Hill album. He has a relationship with a studio in Toronto; so he approached us with a proposal, he said ‘You know, I love the Clifton Hill album, would you guys be interested in re mixing it?’ And I said ‘for sure’ because the original one – It’s okay, but it could be better. So I gave him the tracks, the stems, and he mixed it and it’s amazing what they pulled out of there. You know, the engineer found tracks I forgot that I did. So I’m very happy with it.

Do you know where that picture came from? Was that just an archived photo on the cover?

Yeah, we actually..my wife and I did the artwork for that back then. Of course we call it ‘Clifton Hill‘ because we wanted something related to the Falls. And we actually got that from the Niagara Falls library, if I remember correctly. We found it in their archives looking for pictures of Clifton Hill, you know. And we asked them for permission to use it, and they did. So it was really cool because that’s the Clifton Hill that I remember growing up in the 70s. That’s what it looked like, it was really cool.

You said you’ve got a solo album you’re working on!?

Yes. So during COVID all us musicians had a lot of time on our hands, you know. So I would spend a lot of time in my studio just writing and playing guitar, which I do every day. And I started cataloging a lot of riffs and ideas. And a lot of things that I come up with weren’t really Honeymoon Suite they’re just more like heavier rock riffy kind of stuff. And it occurred to me that I would have probably enough to maybe do a little solo instrumental album, which I’ve always wanted to do, but I never had the time or the right tracks. So Yes – it’s almost finished, it’s going to be like 10 songs. It’s all guitar, no singing, just all instrumental. I’m playing everything on it, and I got some wicked drummers playing on the stuff, and some of it’s pretty heavy. And it’ll be coming out, probably in a couple of months.

Can I ask you what you grew up on listening to as far as bands. I know a lot of bands that came through and that but you know, you guys would have seen shows at Niagara Falls Convention Center and stuff like that back then, and in Buffalo.

For sure, well growing up in the Niagara Peninsula, like I grew up in St. Catharines. It actually was a great place because at that time in the 70s and early 80s – there’s so many bands playing in the clubs. You get all the cool bands from Toronto coming down – Triumph and Max Webster and all that. playing Uncle Sam’s you know locally and Montebello (Park) in St. Catharines. You’ve got these great recording bands coming down and then you had Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and the Aud in Buffalo, Niagara Falls Convention Center – these huge venues just like an hour away. And so every band you wanted to see came through. So where I grew up on man like Deep Purple was my band – Ritchie Blackmore. I saw them with at the Aud. I saw Kiss and Bowie and Blue Oyster Cult. It was great area, a great time and that’s where I saw a lot of my bands that I love, you know!?

That’s cool. Actually my second show I ever saw was 1984 when I saw you guys opening for April Wine at the Kingswood (Music Theater).

Wow, early days, Awesome!

I remember because Corey Hart, there was big sign up that Corey Hart had cancelled. but we didn’t know who was going to be the band until you guys came on. But I don’t think the album was out at that time, I think we just knew you guys from the Q107 contest.

Yeah, right. So that’s what happened. A lot of things were going moving really fast then, and I remember Corey had to cancel some shows. So they just called us up and asked us ‘do you guys want to drive eight hours down and open up for April Wine?’ Hell Yeah! You know, we would play anywhere and everywhere.

Did you keep a lot of stuff growing up – as far as albums and stuff, like buy a lot of stuff and still because I see the album like Clifton Hill came out on limited vinyl reissue and that as well.

Yeah, I wish I knew that vinyl was going to come back like it did man like I wish I kept my records. I had tons of them. But you know, moving from place to place – those damn things are heavy and I had milk cartons full of great records. I wish I’d kept them all but I gave them away or I traded them in, you know and now that I have a turntable and I’m back into vinyl, I’m rebuilding my my collection. So the only thing I kept was about 60 Purple albums. Is it Honeymoon Suite ones.

What’s your favorite Deep Purple albums?

Well, you know, Machine Head was a classic. And then the first one with Coverdale and Hughes – Burn, that’s another classic. Made In Japan, man wore that one out. Love that!

So Purple was your number one band grown up?, anything else as far as guitar players or favorite albums?

Well, sure, I mean, Ritchie Blackmore! Early Santana. Yeah. You know, Alice Cooper, Grand Funk. Anything that was rock and heavy I love.

LINKS:

https://honeymoonsuiteband.com

https://www.facebook.com/DerryGrehan1

Honeymoon Suite

https://www.facebook.com/RockinHrm