Alternative Rock from Grumbeaux

Based in Colorado, independent artist Grumbeaux forms in a strange and compelling corner of alternative music. Built as an experimental studio project as opposed to a traditional touring band, it’s a space where songwriting can become something painstakingly constructed and endlessly layered. Grumbeaux can spend as much as half a year perfecting a single track, treating the studio not just as a place to record music but as a workspace for shaping an individual artistic vision.

That approach is reflected in a sound that avoids settling inside any one genre; folk-inflected material can sit alongside goth, prog, glam, psychedelic, punk and alternative rock, while the project’s darkly surreal and avant-garde songwriting creates a connective thread between seemingly disparate influences. Since first unveiling its sound in 2023 with the debut EP You’ve Been on My Mind, Grumbeaux has continued developing that identity through a string of singles released over the following three years.

Bringing us one of their recent releases, the 2025 single titled “Now Is Near” finds Grumbeaux stepping into an intriguing musical sphere. Written specifically for a documentary about the journey undertaken by Tim Z. Hernandez, the song is connected to a much larger story of memory, recognition and the determination to ensure that forgotten lives are not allowed to disappear completely. Tim spent more than a decade gathering material for two books, All They Will Call You and They Call You Back. The books recount the tales of passengers who died in what was, at the time, the worst airplane disaster in California’s history but these people were not named in newspapers, they were referred to simply as deportees.

Their story had already entered musical history through Woody Guthrie’s poem Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos), which was later set to music and recorded by major artists including Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and Dolly Parton. But despite the song’s enduring life, the identities of the people behind the tragedy remained unknown and no one had undertaken the work of discovering who they were. That changed through Tim’s painstaking search and over more than a decade, he followed leads until he located the passengers’ names and families and documented their stories.

What had once been reduced to a single impersonal word could now be connected to individual lives and histories and the impact of that work has extended beyond the books. A feature film is also in the works, alongside the documentary focusing on Tim’s personal journey and the process of undertaking this work and it’s within that documentary that “Now Is Near” finds its purpose. Tim wrote some lyrics for the project and asked Grumbeaux to turn them into a song, resulting in a track that becomes another artistic response to a story that has travelled across generations, moving from tragedy and anonymity towards recognition.

Wrapped up in a hazy alternative rock setting, the track forms with fuzzy guitar textures and the laid back crash of drums, forming an immersive arrangement capped by expressive vocal leads. Flowing with memorable melodic leads, the song glides with rousing vocal performance and intricate lead guitar notes propelled by the steady march of drums, progresses through moments of stripped back aesthetic and moments of anthemic rock energy, resulting in a powerful musical moment that’s original, engaging and highly affecting throughout.

It’s a super showcase of Grumbeaux’s unique sound and performance talent, shedding light on a meaningful theme to deliver an emotive musical moment. The song stands as a meeting of two creative processes between Tim’s decade-long search for forgotten identities and Grumbeaux’s approach to transforming ideas into sound and in “Now Is Near,” a story once reduced to anonymity becomes an emphatic act of remembrance.

Listen to Now Is Near below

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