Thanks a lot for visiting the brand new GRETLE web site - revised from the flintband.com web site! We have received numorous questions regarding the name change of the band so we thought we would take a minute to explain what happened.
When we chose the name FLiNT there were no bands that had the name legally trademarked. Our mistake was (listen up kids) that we did not trademark the name either! We put off registering the name with the US Patent and Trademark Office until this past March when we did a trademark search. We found that the band name flint had been registered as a trademark in the summer of 2001 by none other than Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad fame. It seems that in 1979 there was an obscure band named flint that he was associated with. They released one album that flopped and flint was never heard from again. There is probably a planned re-issue of this album which explains why Mr. Farner chose to re-trademark the name. At any rate, it made the name FLiNT no longer an option for our band.
We had no choice but to search for a new name. Brandi came up with the idea of calling the band GRETLE, and we all agreed that the name sounds great - so we went with it. We now exclusively own the name GRETLE along with it's corespronding unique URL gretle.com which makes life a lot easier for those out there searching the web for us. In the past an internet search for flint would pull up about 5,000,000 entries. Now locating us as GRETLE should be much easier. Besides that, GRETLE sounds a lot cooler than FLiNT. And before you ask...YES the paperwork is in process to have the band name GRETLE legally trademarked so that no one else can grab it.
Thanks a lot for your interest in our band and hopefully we'll see you soon!
GRETLE has agreed in principle to have their forthcoming debut CD released on the independent label Sonic Sorbet. The label is owned in partnership by Bill Cuomo and Beeb Birtles. Cuomo is a legendary session keyboardist and producer best known for his work on classics by Kim Carnes (Bette Davis Eyes ), Whitesnake (Here I Go Again ), and REO Speedwagon (Can't Fight This Feeling ) to name just a few. Birtles was a founding member of the classic 70's and 80's group Little River Band. GRETLE is excited about the possibilities and looking forward to a great working relationship with Sonic Sorbet.
All five songs on the privately released self titled CD ("MONKEY", "FREEFALL", "CHARITY", "LOST IN THOUGHT" AND "LULLABY") will be included on the forthcoming release as well as 5 or 6 new songs and familiar favorites. Working titles are "HEARTBEAT", "RED", "BALLERINA IN A BOX", "COME WHATEVER" as well as some currently untitled numbers. Production duties will once again be handled by veteran producer Craig Krampf. Krampf is a multi-platinum producer as well as drummer who is best known for his work on Melissa Etheridge's self-titled debut, Steve Perry's STREET TALK , The Motels' ALL FOR ONE , Son Volts DROWN , The Church's UNDER THE MILKY WAY, amongst many others. Krampf has been in the business for well over thirty years and GRETLE is honored to work with such a great talent and equally great guy. A late summer/early fall release date is being targeted, but it has to be great before we release it!
The last show at the Outer Limit on March 6th went great! Filling in on drums at the last minute and doing an amazing job was Rollum Haas from the band The Features. He played great and GRETLE would like to once again extend our thanks to Rollum and everyone who came out! It was fun!
Also congratulations to Guy Roberts, who played drums for us the last 9 months. Guy is currently on the road with Fusebox who just released their major label debut CD!
That's all for now! Please check back soon for more GRETLE news!
Thanks and we'll see you soon!