PERRY GRAYSON
Musician and author PERRY GRAYSON was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1975, but his family relocated to LA during his early years. He lived in the San Fernando Valley, capital of the smut biz and setting of the flick Fast Times at Ridgemont High until 2006, and now resides with his wife Tanya, an entertainment industry veteran, in Sydney, the Land of Oz.
Perry’s pro music career took flight between 1997 and 2000 as guitarist and a main songwriter in metal band Destiny's End. With Destiny’s End, he recorded two albums on Metal Blade Records and embarked on a regional tour of Texas with labelmates Mercyful Fate and a full US tour with metal mavens Nevermore and Iced Earth. The US tour was followed by an appearance in front of tens of thousands of screaming metalheads at the illustrious Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany in '99 and a Euro tour with Sacred Steel, Wardog and Slough Feg. Next, Perry formed technical/progressive metal band Artisan, tackling both aggressive vocals and guitar from 2000-03. While in Artisan, Perry supported internationally renowned artists such as Arch Enemy (their first US tour), Strapping Young Lad, Cathedral, Engine, Hate Eternal, Nile, Zero Hour, Onward and others. Since 2002, Perry has fronted the loud, raw vintage heavy rock power trio Falcon as guitarist/vocalist with friend and collaborator Greg Lindstrom, co-founder of cult US metal legends Cirith Ungol. Towards the end of Perry’s tenure in Artisan (and simultaneous to Falcon) he played guitar for multinational metal project Isen Torr on the EP Mighty & Superior (Metal Supremacy/Shadow Kingdom Records – 2003 & 2008). Branching out further, he played bass for American heavy doom rockers Pale Divine on a European tour in 2005 with Place of Skulls (led by Pentagram guitarist Victor Griffin) and France’s Rising Dust. Perry’s latest musical forays in Australia have seen him jamming with members of ’70s legends Buffalo, performing at Utopia Records’ 30th Anniversary celebration and with Sydney stoner rockers Van in support of California’s Acid King and Earthless.
Perry’s pro music career took flight between 1997 and 2000 as guitarist and a main songwriter in metal band Destiny's End. With Destiny’s End, he recorded two albums on Metal Blade Records and embarked on a regional tour of Texas with labelmates Mercyful Fate and a full US tour with metal mavens Nevermore and Iced Earth. The US tour was followed by an appearance in front of tens of thousands of screaming metalheads at the illustrious Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany in '99 and a Euro tour with Sacred Steel, Wardog and Slough Feg. Next, Perry formed technical/progressive metal band Artisan, tackling both aggressive vocals and guitar from 2000-03. While in Artisan, Perry supported internationally renowned artists such as Arch Enemy (their first US tour), Strapping Young Lad, Cathedral, Engine, Hate Eternal, Nile, Zero Hour, Onward and others. Since 2002, Perry has fronted the loud, raw vintage heavy rock power trio Falcon as guitarist/vocalist with friend and collaborator Greg Lindstrom, co-founder of cult US metal legends Cirith Ungol. Towards the end of Perry’s tenure in Artisan (and simultaneous to Falcon) he played guitar for multinational metal project Isen Torr on the EP Mighty & Superior (Metal Supremacy/Shadow Kingdom Records – 2003 & 2008). Branching out further, he played bass for American heavy doom rockers Pale Divine on a European tour in 2005 with Place of Skulls (led by Pentagram guitarist Victor Griffin) and France’s Rising Dust. Perry’s latest musical forays in Australia have seen him jamming with members of ’70s legends Buffalo, performing at Utopia Records’ 30th Anniversary celebration and with Sydney stoner rockers Van in support of California’s Acid King and Earthless.
Aside from music, Perry’s passion is writing. His pop-culture expertise extends far beyond music to encompass vintage TV, film and literature. He was a staff writer for Metal Maniacs, one of the largest circulation heavy metal magazines, for over a decade. Since the early 1990s, Perry has contributed fiction, non-fiction, interviews, reviews and poetry to such mags and sites as The Scream Factory, Crypt of Cthulhu, Necrofile, Other Dimensions, Snakepit, Fungi, Al Azif, Emptywords.org (the official Death and Control Denied site), Slow Ride, Hellridemusic.com, Snap Pop!, Psychedelic Fanzine, The Black Dahlia in Hollywood.com, Heavymetalpower.com, Death TR and a host of others. He is often asked by rock and metal bands to pen liner notes and bios for websites and PR campaigns. Perry founded Tsathoggua Press in 1994 to publish pulp-era fantasy, horror and mystery and non-fiction works relating to vintage authors. Since 1995, Perry has edited three books by his fave author Frank Belknap Long, with heaps more in the works. A true-crime buff and lifelong devotee of American hardboiled literature, Perry often ventures out of the armchair, prowling deep into unsolved cold cases with abandon. His latest true-crime project, tentatively titled Dirty Deeds in L.A., focuses on wacky Hollyweird crimes of the 1940s, including the Black Dahlia Murder case. Dirty Deeds spills over into other decades and locales.
Perry is a frequent guest on mainstream and underground radio and TV, either being consulted as an expert or interviewed about his music, writing and publishing careers. Most recently Perry was interviewed on Sydney station fbi 94.5FM about his research into LA’s infamous Black Dahlia Murder case, on Greece’s Metal Hammer radio show about Falcon and on Freethought Radio regarding his liner notes to the Death album Individual Thought Patterns. One of Perry’s funniest radio outings was back in 1999 when he was on shock-jock the Nastyman’s show on L.A.’s KLSX 97.1FM (former SoCal home of Howard Stern). Perry is also an accomplished presenter and lecturer, having appeared on panels at conventions, film and music events in the US, Europe and Australia.
