Every new school year, University of Oregon students see which bands have returned, who has moved on from the scene and who has taken the next step toward becoming local legends. This year is marked by the homecoming of a Eugene favorite.
Put it in the headlines: Grasp is back.
Grasp’s sound is hard to place. It draws from a variety of genres and artists. From upright bassist Avishai Cohen to singer-songwriter and rocker Jeff Buckley, there is a wide range of influences in the band.
“I would have to describe it on a spectrum. If you put jazz and hard rock at the opposite ends of the spectrum the sounds just fall between them,” guitarist Gibsen Andresen said. “It’s hard to put a label on it, but I guess that’s something that we take pride in on a certain level.”
Grasp was unofficially founded around eight years ago by Andresen, vocalist and senior advertising major Dylan Squires and bassist Spencer Misfeldt. The three started out as friends writing songs together during their free fifth period in high school.
“I was 16, he was 15, I was in sophomore year of high school and we were just writing songs just to amuse ourselves really,” Anderson said. “It definitely was nothing serious on any level.”
Now after cycling through many members, band names and a variety of intermittent hiatuses, Grasp is back and ready to play live for the first time since 2022. The band lost founding member Misfeldt somewhere in that process and is coming back with a lineup including Isaac Luger on bass, Ryan Helms on Saxophone, Nate Wuethrich on drums and Lucas Carroll on rhythm guitar.
“We’ve watched all the kingdoms rise and fall. All the iterations of the scenes and the bands and everything, usually from afar,” Andresen said.
They came back from this recent two year hiatus with a lineup that they had never played live together before their Halloween show at local venue the Limelight.
With only nine days of practice as a group, Grasp had to go into overtime to get ready for their first gig back and their new members up to speed.
“Four days before we actually played the show, we had a rehearsal where we just played one of Gibsen’s songs, ‘Until Tomorrow,’ with such energy that I think everyone in the room knew this is possible,” Squires said. “We’re gonna do it, we see the end, the light at the end of the tunnel.”
As of now three songs released before their last hiatus are available for streaming on their Spotify page. The band has no plans to release more music anytime soon and is focusing on performing.
“Obviously that can shift really fast as we continue to write more songs all together,” Squires said. “It’s about the live experience, that’s what we’re chasing. Ryan, our saxophonist, had only ever played jazz gigs before our house show so he’s playing to people in suits sitting down. Getting thrusted into that environment, I could see the excitement on his face.”
While Eugene missed out on Grasp shows, Andresen said their hiatus was much needed to come back with a fresh perspective. Now with a full tank of gas the band says they plan to have their next show by the end of November.
Grasp is now faced with the challenge facing most Eugene bands: finding a place to play in the cold winter months.
“If people want to make a venue out of their pad and are down for some indoor shows, sacrifice their house for the greater good of the music scene, tell them to get at us,” Andresen said.
Andersen said the top priority is using the next few weeks to flesh out their setlist. Once that gets figured out, the newest iteration of Grasp is ready to light Eugene’s eyes and ears on fire.
“We just want to bring people together. A lot of people that come to house shows in Eugene might just be drunk college kids who are looking to party and we know that’s the case,” Squires said. “We want to give something memorable for the people that are out that night, and something that, when it’s all said and done, when they’re doing their homework, when they’re chilling the next day they think back like, ‘God damn. That took me somewhere.’”
