SECURITY, was the brainchild of 2 security guards, who needed a way to pass time on their un-supervised site. The project quickly evolved into a multi-influence sonic experience, that simply has to be heard to be beleived!

On a cold & rainy, in fact VERY rainy day in October 1988, two security
guards would meet for the first time at shift change, in a rustic,
dilapidated shack-or- "Security Office" as it was ambitiously titled.
Here, the humble beginnings of what would later become a lifetime
friendship & musical partnership between Dan Druff & Paul McGrannite were
forged. The site was a rather large, commercial trucking yard & the
security co. that Paul & Dan worked for held the contract for it's
protection.
Around 11:30 am, amidst a downpour, Paul Mcgrannite would arrive at the
site, for the first time & was to be trained on the sites security
proceedures by the veteran Dan. It was during a break in the training,
while huddled together in the security office/shack, a song came on the
radio, that sparked both of their attention, & the conversation quickly
turned to music. Both Dan & Paul quickly discovered that they had very
similar interests & tastes in music. Well, as they say one thing led to
another & before you knew it, Dan & Paul were writing music together.
At first, the songs were meant as a way to pass time, on the
unreasonably long shifts (12 hours) & the songs, mostly of a novelty nature,
dealing with the various aspects of being a Security Guard, were recorded on
ghetto blaster. IN the shack at work.
There was virtually NO supervision at this particular site, so Dan &
Paul were free to monkey about & record their songs with little toy
keyboards, that Paul began carting to work with him
The FIRST tape, appropriately titled: "The Master Key", was the first
collection of noises, thoughts & ramblings & the occasional song to be
assembled. It was also decided to come up with a NAME for the project &
since the songs were mostly about being a security guard, the name was
obvious. Security Guard.
The name might well have stuck, had it not been for Dan's bold venture
outside the Security Guard theme. The song: "Life In General" - Dan's take
on the subject, offered a brief glimpse into the vast song writing potential
of this surprisingly prolofic person. To counter, Paul offered his view in
a song he called: "Seek The Truth." The songs themselves, were of poor
fidelity, as they were recorded accoustically, using nothing more than a
ghetto blaster & Paul's toy keyboards.
The only saving grace of these early songs, was Dan's penchant for
comming up with catchy riffs, that inexplicably stuck in your head. A
classic example of this is: "Walk That Beat" Song # 1 in the long list of
Security songs. Although there was no mistaking the subject matter with
such a title, the main riff: Da-da-da-daa-da... stuck with you.
The name: "Security Guard" would stick through the first three tapes.
Although the fidelity improved little, you could hear the songwriting
improve with each tape, AND as each tape was recorded, there was less &
less thoughts & ramblings on each tape & more songs, as the two members
began to take their project more seriously.
By the time the FOURTH tape was recorded, it was decided the name:
"Security Guard" was too confining for the vast array of subject matter the
two were covering. With the completion of: Security IV, the "Guard" was
dropped from the title & the name of "Security" would carry on to the end.
In early 1990, the contract to patrol the truck yard that Dan & Paul had
recorded all their songs, was pulled. Suddenly, Security had no home. It
was at this point that Dan & Paul decided to plunge full-force into their
project & along with the purchase of a Korg M-1 keyboard & Fostex X-26, the
project was moved to Paul's rooming house in North Vancouver. Immediately
the fidelity began to improve as the recording metheod was now line-in &
multitracked.
Athough still a far cry from professional sounding, the songs WERE a step
up from the low-fi 2-track accoustic recordings of tapes past & the spectre
of multi-track recording would ultimately free the creative beast that was
Security.
It was late Summer 1990, when Dan came up with a song he envisioned
guitar on. Only problem was, neither Dan OR Paul played guitar. Enter Pete
Moss. Pete & Dan had played together in garage bands before & Dan suggested
Pete would be ideal for the part. Not only WAS Pete ideal, but his
personality fit in PERFECTLY with the sometimes bizzarre sense of humor of
the group. Pete made his memorable debut on: "Fallen Guards" on the Briefs
album & Security were now a three man act.
**GEEZ** These folks don't give you much space to do your bio now-do they?
For the FULL story on SECURITY, please visit their website:http://www.funender.com/music/bands/3854/.

Interview: For The Music Magazine, March 2005:

Recently I had an opportunity to talk with one of the members of Security about their music & their lives.
The following is an over-the-phone interview I conducted with keyboardist Paul Mcgrannite
who was kind enough to take some time out to talk to us.

Brad Thomas: "I just recently heard some of your material. The first word that comes to mind is diverse."

Paul McGrannite:"I guess you could say that-yes"

Brad Thomas:"Why is that?"

Paul McGrannite:"I guess it's because of the diversity of the personalities & musical influences between the 3 of us.
That-and we never worked for any kind of record label, so we never had any pressures to conform to the flavors of the month.
We were free to explore our own creativity."

Brad Thomas:"Do you think that freedom may have limited you in some ways?"

Paul McGrannite:"It depends on what you mean by limited. On one hand - we had no restrictions so there was freedom in that.
On the other, because we had our fingers in so many pies, so-to-speak we never really concentrated on one particular
genre, so maybe we didn't fit into one particular mould."

Brad Thomas:"I also heard you recorded some 400 songs in 10 years. Is that right?"

Paul McGrannite"13 years actually, & the number is something like 430. Our singer Dan would know for sure.
He was the statistician for us. He kept accurate charts of each of the songs."

Brad Thomas:"13 years excuse me. 400 songs seems like alot for a group that wasn't a full time band.
Were you not weekend warriors with full time jobs?"

Paul McGrannite:"Yes we all had full time jobs."

Brad Thomas:"Then how did you find the time to record so many songs?"

Paul McGrannite:"The numbers can be a bit misleading. When Dan & I first started,
we recorded these silly little one-off songs on a tape recorder in our security
office that we both worked at. It was a way to pass time on these ridiculous
12 hour shifts they had us do where there really wasn't much else to do except
sit & watch the time pass by, so sometimes a song would be written & recorded
in a matter of minutes. I remember one time I came to releive Dan on shift
& he had 3 songs recorded."

Brad Thomas:"This was where you were both security guards then?"

Paul McGrannite:"That's right. We worked for this small time security compamy that had no supervision
and we took full advantage of it. I mean we were both just a couple of kooky kids then & I guess
the idea of professional responsibillity hadn't yet been fully instilled in us."

Brad Thomas:"How old were you?"

Paul McGrannite:"You had to ask that didn't you.[laughs] I was 19 & Dan was something like 25."

Brad Thomas:"Like you said, just a couple of kooky kids."

Paul McGrannite:"Yes, 1988. It's hard to beleive it was so long ago."

Brad Thomas:"I heard your first song Walk That Beat - which sounded pretty cheesy
& then I heard some of your later material & that sounded completely different.
How does a band go from something so cheesy to something so polished sounding?"

Paul McGrannite:"Well you have to take into account that those songs from the early
days were more like garage band tapes. It was literally taking a portable keyboard
& miking it with a ghetto & singing at the same time. By the mid 1990's we had
gone from ghetto, to 4-track, to 8-track & had amassed a bit of outboard gear
so naturally, as you change your recording medium, the sound will change."

Brad Thomas:"You said earlier that you never worked for a record label. Was that by design?"

Paul McGrannite:"You mean did we want it that way?"

Brad Thomas:"Yes. In other words, did you purposely not pursue any kind of record deal."

Paul McGrannite:"We often discussed taking the big plunge, but always would be
brought back down to earth when we realized that it would probably mean
losing some of our creative control, as well as having to meet some record company's
deadline. We would sometimes get really high on a song & constantly had to remind
ourselves that this was just for fun & any record deal might take some of that
element away from us."

Brad Thomas:"So it was really all about the music in the end then."

Paul McGrannite:"Exactly."

Brad Thomas:"Another thing that struck me is some of the things you wrote about.
My wife listened to Father Said & she said it brought her to tears, so I listened
and it was quite moving. Was that based on personal experience?"

Paul McGrannite:"One thing about Dan Druff. He really has a gift for song writing.
No, that song was hatched purely out of the imagination of Dan, although he has
always shared a deep relationship with his father I'm sure he used
him for some of the inspiration."

Brad Thomas:"Was he the song writer for the group?"

Paul McGrannite:"He wrote alot of the songs. Probably most of them, but Pete Moss our guitarist
& myself also wrote some songs. That probably accounts for some of our diversity."

Brad Thomas:"Tell me about Pete. There seems to be so little background on him."

Paul McGrannite:"Well Pete I think single-handedly may have injected an additional 5 years of life
into us. Pete came around at a time when Dan & I had recorded so many keyboard based
songs & were beginning to run out of ideas & also having spent so much time together
-were beginning to get just a little too familliar with each other & there was a little
tension built up I think because of that. Thankfully Dan brought Pete in & he was just
the shot in the arm we needed."

Brad Thomas:"He fit right in."

Paul McGrannite:"Like a glove. I mean, we couldn't have asked for a better fit.
Not only as a musician, but his personality was just as wacky as Dan or mine."

Brad Thomas:"So then how did the 3 of you get together on the same page then
when it came to writing songs?"

Paul McGrannite:"Well at the outset both Pete & I knew that if we had a song that needed lyrics
Dan was the man. We both took great comfort in that, because neither one of us
we completely comfortable in writing lyrics & it was so nice to come up with a song & to
be able to hand it over to Dan & know he would write something that chances were
you knew you would like."

Brad Thomas:"Were all your songs written like that from then on?"

Paul McGrannite:"Oh no. I mean, Dan would write lyrics if we couldn't come up with anything
but often Pete & I would write lyrics when we felt comfortable. Sometimes the 3 of us
would collaborate on songs."

Brad Thomas:"So the songwriting duties were spread around then?"

Paul McGrannite:"If you could call it duties. I know myself, sometimes when I would write
lyrics it was quite rewarding."

Brad Thomas:"13 years is a long time for any band. 2 part question:
A:Were there any major disagreements/spats that stand out? &
B:What led to the final break up of the band?"

Paul McGrannite:"Well like all bands throughout history I'm sure, yes we had our share of scraps
in fact our very existence as a group was threatened by a couple of them,
but I think we knew we had something special so we always made up & ultimately we began to
learn the signs of when a break was needed. It was all a growing process really.
Not just as a group, but as people as well."

Brad Thomas:"So why did you break up?"

Paul McGrannite:"We didn't actually break up. That always sounds like a high school soap opera analogy.
What had happened was that after 13 years we felt we had accomplished all we could
and we all went our seperate ways. It was a very amicable parting & we all are still good friends."

Brad Thomas:"You know I have to ask this then. Is there any chance of a reunion down the road?"

Paul McGrannite:"There's always a chance. The door is never closed. I'll be honest,
there's no immediate plans for it, but you never can tell what the future holds.

Brad Thomas:"Paul Thank you for sharing your time with us."

Paul McGrannite:"My pleasure Brad. Thank you."

**Brads interview appears in this months For The Music magazine.**

SECURITY - Discography.
ALBUM: RELEASED:

1. The Master Key 1988
2. Southern Biff 1989
3. Back To The Shack 1989
4. Security IV 1989
5. Classic 1989-90
6. Live Sounds From P.M.T.I. * 1989-90
7. Obscurities * 1989-90
8. Blanket 1989-90
9. Personal Limit 1990
10. Briefs 1990
11. ALERT 1991
12. (10) 1991
13. Death,Taxes & Tommy Hunter 1992
14. Stuff The Pants 1992
15. In The Vain Of Always Something 1992
16. The Changing Of The Guard 1993
17. Circularelli 1993
18. Kill 1994
19. Undercover 1995
20. Bytes 1995
21. Muffins,Berries,Snappy’s & Cakes 1996
22. (20) 1996
23. Pilgrimage To IGA 1996
24. The Call Of The Trouser Duck 1997
25. Dogs 1998
26. Maturity 1999
27. Comalimbo 1999
28. 2000/2001 2001


* - no singles released