Jerry Grimefeld confirms he’s the new vocalist – interview with Thy Art Is Murder

During Summer Breeze Open Air, we had the opportunity to chat with Jerry, Kevin and Andy from Thy Art Is Murder. And we received some incredible news about the lineup of the band…

So I’m here with the fantastic Thy Art Is Murder. How are you doing, guys?

Jerry Grimefeld: Good, thank you.

Kevin Butler: Fantastic.

Andy Marsh: Terrific.

Awesome. So Summer Breeze is the last festival that you’re playing in Europe. What’s the balance of this festival tour that you’re doing this year? Is it a positive balance or negative balance?

Andy Marsh: Great balance. Terrific balance. Very, very hot summer this year. The shows have been great, but they’ve been very hot, so it’s nice that it’s cooled down today for the last one, and that’s pretty much it.

Awesome. That’s good. So since you’re from Australia, do you see any particularly difference from Australian audiences and European audience and American audience?

Jerry Grimefeld: European audiences don’t understand me yet. [laughter] I’m working on it. There’s been a lot of travel, but I’ll figure it out soon.

Andy Marsh: There’s definitely cultural differences. Europeans are more open-minded. They go to the festival every year, and they watch all of the bands. In Australia, it’s very much that if they don’t like the band, then they won’t watch the band. So it’s a little bit different in that way. That’s why European summer festivals are so good, because all the bands are playing and everyone’s watching.

Kevin Butler: There’s also a lot more people at the European festivals. We don’t have anything comparable in Australia, so. The really, really small European festivals is our biggest ones in Australia. It’s really incredible. And over here, everyone gets drunk and has a good time, and at home, everyone gets drunk and fights each other.

Yeah, I remember seeing photos of Knotfest in Australia, but I think that’s quite big then. Maybe it’s bigger than this festival.

Andy Marsh: Nah. Maybe on a good year, 10,000 people.

Kevin Butler: And that’s as big as it gets in Australia, whereas that would be the smallest one we would play in Europe, so very, very different.

Andy Marsh: Yeah.

That’s awesome. So can you share with us what are the plans for the rest of 2026 for y’all, if you can say it, of course, other than rest, maybe?

Andy Marsh: Nothing. We’re going on vacation. Tomorrow.

Jerry Grimefeld: I like the sounds of that.

That’s cool. I mean, everybody needs to rest at some point.

Andy Marsh: Yeah. No, we just finished recording new music, so it will take another six months to a year to finish it. So we’re working on that.

Kevin Butler: Maybe there’ll be something soon.

Andy Marsh: Yeah, maybe there’ll be something soon. Maybe there’ll be something tonight.

Kevin Butler: Maybe there’ll be something on our stage before we play.

I will be obsessively scrolling now or refreshing your page every five minutes.

Andy Marsh: Oh, well, you should know then. We’re playing a new song on the PA tonight before we play, so you can have your first chance to listen to it. It won’t be released yet, though.

Kevin Butler: So everyone at Summer Breeze will get to hear our new song well before the rest of the world.

Andy Marsh: Yeah.

That’s fantastic.

Andy Marsh: So you better be there recording it on your phone.

Kevin Butler: Yeah, record it, leak it.

Andy Marsh: Put it on YouTube. Do whatever you want.

Kevin Butler: Upload it to LimeWire. [laughter] Put it on Spotify.

Andy Marsh: Make some money for a couple of weeks. It’s on us. Apple Music. Deezer. Tidal.

Jerry Grimefeld: You got this. I believe in you. It’s my first song, so it’s my gift to you as well.

I feel some pressure now.

Andy Marsh: Yeah. Yeah.

Kevin Butler: It’s a pretty good one, though.

Jerry Grimefeld: I’m very excited for this. It’s really heavy.

So do you remember one of the first or the first CD that you bought with your own money?

Andy Marsh: That’s hard.

Jerry Grimefeld: I stole my dad’s credit card, and I bought Hinder‘s album. You know the band?

Andy Marsh: Who is Hinder?

Jerry Grimefeld: You know the song– “Oh, thank you very much. Honey, why you calling me so late?” You know that one?

Andy Marsh: No. [laughter]

Jerry Grimefeld: “Well, my girl’s in the next room, sometimes i wish she was you. right now“. Dude, this is a phenomenon from my era, and I bought that whole album, and my dad flogged me for it. Who’s yours?

Andy Marsh: Yeah. No, I don’t. B-52‘s “Love Shack” on cassette. Yeah.

Kevin Butler: I think mine might have been “Americana”, by The Offspring, and it was on cassette too.

That’s also a great choice. So since you have a lot of themes in your songs and your lyrics, do you think that is the band a wake up call for the new generations?

Jerry Grimefeld: Absolutely. This band is my favourite band. I discovered them 15 years ago, and, hey, the lyrics helped me figure a lot of stuff out about the world. Guided me in a specific direction.

Kevin Butler: Is the new generation before the new generation?

Jerry Grimefeld: I am. Yeah, I am.

Andy Marsh: We were performing like a psyop, like a mind control operation, and 15 years later, we made him join the band with the lyrics we wrote 15 years ago.

Jerry Grimefeld: Yeah. It worked.

Andy Marsh: Yeah.

Jerry Grimefeld: I’ve been saying I’m on a mission from God, but I’m actually patient zero in MK Ultra, the reboot.

Kevin Butler: Being played.

So I know that you have a lot of experience in playing live shows, and you’ve done a lot of tours, both headliners and so forth. But if you had to compose your dream tour bill, who would you choose?

Andy Marsh: Tour, like tour lineup?

Yeah. Your dream tour lineup.

Kevin Butler: How many bands?

Three. Maximum four.

Andy Marsh: Three plus us?

Yeah, of course.

Andy Marsh: Shit. [laughter] Also depends if you want to have a fun time with the other bands.

Jerry Grimefeld: Yeah.

Andy Marsh: Or do you want to make a cool lineup? Because we’ve toured with so many of the bands, and some bands might not be perfect style-wise, but we’re really good friends with them. So this happens a lot.

Kevin Butler: We’ve been lucky enough to play with most of the bands we want to play with, which is really cool.

Jerry Grimefeld: Rage Against the Machine. [laughter]

All right. You’re pulling out the big guns.

Jerry Grimefeld: ASAP Rocky. Skepta. Us.

Kevin Butler: I’d do Skepta. Yeah.

Andy Marsh: I don’t know. I can’t pick. It’d be like Behemoth and Decapitated, maybe.

Jerry Grimefeld: We got to do a festival because I have– there’s too much going on. We listen to too much.

Kevin Butler: Yeah. Decapitated, Skepta. [laughter] Jimmy Eat World.

Andy Marsh: 1349, Drake also. Eminem.

Jerry Grimefeld: Fred again.

Andy Marsh: Yeah. Limp Bizkit.

Jerry Grimefeld: Limp Bizkit. Linkin Park. I need to see Linkin Park, bro.

Andy Marsh: Yeah. So I guess we’re going to do it.

So thank you so much, guys, for taking the time to do this interview. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers?

Jerry Grimefeld: Stay fresh, FCO.

Kevin Butler: Would you like to– would you like to plug anything?

Andy Marsh: Yeah.

Kevin Butler: Would you like to?

Jerry Grimefeld: I’m Jerry Grimefeld. I’m a rapper. Hailing from Australia. I speak grime. We’ve got a new single coming out soon, and then next month, and then the month after that. And I’m also in this band. [laughter]