Formula Indie Sessions – Interview with Gravel N Bones
Gravel N Bones is dark outlaw country with a raw, southern edge. The sound blends traditional country storytelling with gritty rhythms and a stripped-down, honest delivery. It sits between country and southern rock, built on simple instrumentation, hard-worn vocals, and songs about life, loss, and consequence.
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My earliest memory connected to music goes back to when I was really young, way before I understood genres or what any of it meant. My dad had this big home stereo with an 8-track player, and even though he wasn’t a country fan at all, he loved music. I remember him putting on the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, and the Eagles while he was working around the house. Those sounds filled the whole place. I didn’t know who any of those bands were at the time, but I remember the feeling of it. The atmosphere it created stuck with me.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
My passion for creating music didn’t actually start with music at all. It started with books. I always loved reading because it let me escape the everyday routine and disappear into other worlds. I could be anywhere and anyone just by turning a page. Over time that love of stories pushed me toward writing my own. It felt natural to try and create the same kind of feeling I got when I read something that hit home.
Eventually that love of writing turned into a love of songwriting. It gave me a new way to tell stories, only now I could add emotion and rhythm to the words. So in my case, I didn’t begin with some deep connection to an instrument. I began with a connection to storytelling. You could say the pen was my first instrument. The music came later, when I realized those stories sounded better sung than just sitting in a notebook.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
The Damned Still Ride is a story driven album that continues the world I started building on Saga of the Damned. I wanted to do something different, instead of just putting out a collection of songs, I wanted to build a world that feels almost like a comic book you can hear. If you listen to the tracks on Saga of the Damned and The Damned Still Ride in order it tells a story. I’ve had these characters, places, and ideas in my head for years, and this project gave me a way to bring them to life in a bigger way.
The new album picks up right where the last one left off. It follows the same cursed rider and the towns and people tied to him. Every track is another chapter in the story, and each song fills in more of the world around him. It is dark, it is gritty, and it leans into that mix of Western, folklore, and supernatural that I’ve always been drawn to.
For me, this album is about taking the stories I’ve carried around in my head and letting them breathe. It is part music, part storytelling, and part visual world building. That’s what makes it exciting. It feels less like an album and more like a long-running graphic novel series.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
I usually describe it as country hard rock. It has the backbone of country in the storytelling and the way the lyrics are built, but the guitars hit harder and the overall sound has a lot more weight to it. It is not polished pop country and it is not straight metal either. It sits in that middle ground where you get twang, grit, and big, heavy moments all in the same song.
If someone has never heard it, I tell them to expect dark, story driven songs that feel like a Western film in their head, but powered by rock energy. It is country at its core, but with a harder edge.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you have to trust your own direction. There are a lot of voices out there telling you what you should sound like or what will get attention, but chasing all that just pulls you away from what makes your music yours. The moment I stopped worrying about fitting in and focused on creating the kind of songs that felt honest to me, everything changed.
Sticking to your own vision isn’t always the easiest path, but it is the one that keeps you going. When you create something that you genuinely believe in, you feel connected to it in a way that lasts. If people connect with it too, that is great. If they don’t, you still made something that came from a real place, and that is what gives you the drive to keep moving forward.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
For me, everything starts with a pen and a notebook. That is still my main instrument. My songs are built around storytelling, so I always begin by figuring out the story I want to tell and shaping it into a song format. Once the words are there and the direction feels clear, the rest tends to fall into place. The melodies, the mood, the structure, all of that grows out of the writing.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
I’ll be honest, I don’t really keep up with a lot of indie music. I grew up on older rock and country, and most of what I listen to now is either classic stuff or whatever helps me get into the mood for writing. That said, I do enjoy discovering new artists when people send them my way. I pay more attention to the feeling of a song than the genre or the label behind it. If it has a good story or a strong atmosphere, I’m in. So even though I’m not plugged into the indie scene day to day, I’m always open to finding something new that hits me the right way.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
My personal experiences shape my music in a different way than people might expect. I’m not writing about my life literally, but the emotions underneath the stories come from places I’ve been. I’ve worked hard, gone through rough times, lost things, and had to push forward whether I felt ready or not. That kind of life leaves you with a certain way of seeing the world, and that point of view ends up in my writing.
Even when the songs dive into darker themes or supernatural elements, the heart of it comes from real feelings. The frustration in Fields of Quiet Dust, the loss in Ashes in the Morning, the vengeance running through The Damned Still Ride, all of that comes from trying to capture the weight of real human moments inside a bigger, more dramatic story.
I write the world the way I feel it: messy, heavy, complicated, and full of choices that aren’t always simple. My personal experiences don’t dictate the plot, but they definitely shape the tone, the attitude, and the way the characters react to the world around them.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I hope people feel something real when they hear my songs. The stories might take place in a darker world, but the emotions underneath them are things everyone understands. Loss, grit, determination, the weight of choices, the need to stand up even when everything around you falls apart. I’m not trying to preach or push a message. I just want the listener to step into the world for a few minutes and feel that mix of struggle and strength that runs through it.
If someone listens and walks away thinking about their own battles or their own moments of getting back up, that means a lot. And if someone simply enjoys the ride and the storytelling, that matters too.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
The most important lesson music has taught me is to never give up. Creative work can be tough and unpredictable, but if you keep pushing and keep showing up, you eventually find your voice and your direction. Persistence matters more than anything else.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
For me, the dream is less about a specific famous venue and more about the right kind of setting. I would love to play a darker, roots-driven festival or a desert-style outdoor show where heavier country rock and storytelling really fit the atmosphere. A place where people come for mood, grit, and stories, not radio singles.
If I had to sum it up, my dream “venue” is a night set on a big outdoor stage, somewhere dusty and open, with a crowd that actually wants to lean into the darker side of country and rock. That kind of environment feels a lot more honest for the music I make than a polished mainstream festival.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
I would pick Johnny Cash.
He had a way of telling dark, honest stories without losing the humanity in them. That balance is something I really respect. A lot of my music leans into the shadows and the weight of what people carry, and he was a master at that long before anybody called it “dark” anything.
Working with him would not be about trying to outdo what he did. It would be about learning how he approached a story, how he decided what to say and what to leave unsaid, and how he carried that kind of presence in something as simple as a vocal line. I feel like a collaboration with him would’ve not only fit the kind of world I write in, it probably would’ve change how I look at songwriting forever.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
Website:
https://gravelnbones.com/
Official Merch Store:
https://merch.gravelnbones.com/
Spotify Artist:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1qJQE5EXwZ8tg7sUJRsnEd
YouTube – Official Artist Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@GravelNBones
YouTube Music – Artist Channel:
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCLWxRmA-NzAH4ZYxYy6FmsA
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
Looking ahead, my dream is to keep building the world I’ve started. I don’t just see these albums as music. I see them as chapters in a much bigger story. I want to create more visuals, more videos, and more connected albums that expand the universe behind the songs. If I can, I want to take it even further and eventually turn it into a full graphic novel style project that blends music, storytelling, and art into one experience.
I don’t need fame or huge stages. What I want is a loyal group of listeners who enjoy stepping into this dark world with me, album after album. As long as I can keep creating, keep improving, and keep telling stories that feel alive, that is the future I’m aiming for.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I hope people see that none of this is really about me. It’s about the stories. That has always been the heart of it. I’m just trying to take the worlds and characters in my head and turn them into music that someone out there might connect with. If listeners discover anything about me along the way, I hope it’s simply that I care about the craft and I put real effort into bringing these stories to life. I’m not trying to be the focus. I just want to make something people can enjoy and maybe get lost in for a little while.
