Dion Lunadon, Steep Leans

Bassist, guitarist and band leader Dion Lunadon - best known as the bassist of A Place to Bury Strangers - has made his mark as a high-energy aggressive performer. Born Dion Palmer in Auckland, New Zealand, he studied piano as a child before taking up the guitar in his teen years. In his early days of activity, Lunadon played with a number of New Zealand bands, including The D4, True Lovers, The Snitches, Marty Sauce and The Source, Nothing at All! and The Rainy Days. He's also played bass and sung with The Scavengers at various reformation shows.


Steep Leans is the project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Gray Somers, developed in late 2012 after a death in the family caused Somers to pack up and leave everything behind. He went from Boston to Brooklyn, which consequently left him drifting, broke and alone. As the start of a solution, he sold his car and used the money to start the original recordings of Grips On Heat with Jonny Schenke (of Eaters, producer of Parquet Courts Light Up Gold Fame). In the summer of 2013, the band went back into the studio with engineer/producer Shaun Curran in Somerville, MA to begin recording what would become the finished version of the album. The recording process was a cathartic experience, and the record serves as a document of that. Early in 2016, the band relocated its base of operations to Philadelphia.