After three or four years of relative inactivity, at least as far as Europe and the UK were concerned, Honeymoon Suite returned to the scene last year with the release of the excellent 'Feel It Again' anthology. With this in mind HardRockHouse.com caught up with guitarist Derry Grehan to find out a little more...

Hi Derry, firstly to start the interview off, would you care to introduce yourself and the other members of Honeymoon suite to the readers of HardRockHouse.com?

DG - I'm Derry Grehan. I am the lead guitarist and main songwriter with Honeymoon Suite. The current band lineup consists of original lead singer  Johnnie Dee, Peter Nunn on keyboards, Stan Mizcek on bass and Bret Carrigan on drums.

As a guitarist who were your personal heroes and influences growing up?

DG - I grew up listening to Ritchie Blackmore and Santana. Of course all lead guitarists must learn from the great ones, Clapton, Page and Hendrix. I'm also a big fan of Satriani, Van Haeln and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

What was your musical experience before forming Honeymoon Suite?

DG - I have been making records since I was 16. I recorded several albums with bands you never heard of but it led me eventually to honeymoon suite which was my first big break in the business.

How did you come to get together with Johnnie Dee in the first instance?

DG - Johnnie and I met through our manager who put us together when I was looking for a gig and Johnnie needed a guitar player.

Where did the name Honeymoon Suite come from?

DG - Johnnie and I come from Niagara Falls which is called the "honeymoon" capital of the world. I guess Johnnie thought it was a good idea at the time.

The band landed it's record deal after the track new girl now was included on home-grown talent contest, who's idea was it to enter the song?

DG - We wanted to get  a record deal anyway, we could so it was just another chance to get something happening and we finally got lucky.

You released your debut album back in 1984, some twenty two years later what are your thoughts on that record?

DG - It's a great 1st album. It has a great energy and the songs still stand up.

The follow up record, The Big Prize, was produced by  Bruce Fairburn and Bob Rock. How did this come about and was this before or after the teams massive success with Slippery When Wet?

DG - Bruce and Bob had approached us about producing the 2nd record as they had just come off from working with Loverboy. We had a meeting with Bruce and we hit it off right away so we decided to use him. His very next record was Bon Jovi.

The Big Prize, whilst a personnel a favourite, was never a big hit outside of Canada  -any thoughts why?

DG - The Big Prize actually did very well in the States. It just didn't go through the roof like  a say a Bon Jovi record and who knows why that happens. Its all timing I guess.

Why did Ray Coburn leave the band that record?

DG - Ray had some major issues with our management and thought he could do better on his own. He should have stayed, but you can't keep someone around who doesn't want to be there.

The 3rd album, 'Racing After Midnight' saw you hook up with another massive producer, this time Ted Templeman. What was it like working with him?

DG - The Ted Templeman thing was amazing for me cause I was a fan of a lot of his work and we became good friends.

I saw the band supporting Status Quo at Whitley Bay Icerink. What memories do you have of that tour, and was that your only UK trip? I also ssem to recall you played a TV special for a show called Meltdown, any chance of that footage ever seeing the light of day?

DG - Actually our first UK tour was with Saga. as for the TV show, I don't recall it, but if you can track down the footage, I'd love to see it.

After the Racing After Midnight album, the only constant members of the band were yourself Johnnie, why was this?

DG - Johnnie and I are the principle members of the band and, as long as we are together, the band goes on.

Next up was 'Monsters Under The Bed', a real grower of an album, As this was only ever available in Canade howow would describe the differences between 'Monsters' and your earlier work?

DG - Monsters marked the return of Ray to the band and a more mature style of writing between the 3 of us. It is a great record, not focused so much on hit "pop" singles. Uunfortunately, Warners commitment to the band was fading at that point and they only saw fit to release it in Canada.

There was then a long break between Monsters and Lemon Tongue/Dreamland  releases, any particular reason for this?

DG - The 90's was dominated for the most part by grunge and new metal and there was no place for our brand of melodic rock, so there was no point in doing a record during that time. We are now seeing a major resurgence of classic rock and the time is right for us to record again.

Although ostensibly the same record, there are huge differences between the Canadian released Lemon Tongue and Europe's Dreamland. Why the changes and how would you describe the differences as I've never heard Lemon Tongue?

DG -Frontiers records in Italy wanted to release a different album than just Lemon Tongue to cater to more of our core classic rock fans. Sso we provided them with several great  un-released tracks from the 90's that they combined with tracks from Lemon Tongue to make the "Dreamland" record

On the back of Dreamland you headed back to the UK for the Gods 2002 , as captured on the HMS live DVD. What are your memories of this show and why did take you so long to come back to Europe?

DG - We loved being back in England after so long and getting such a great response from the audience. We'd love to tour Europe more but its very expensive and the money and timing has to be right.

Honeymoon Suite has recently released the 'The Feel It Again' compilation, whose idea was the retrospective?

DG - The whole anthology project was spearheaded by a good friend of ours in England named Campbell Devine who wanted nothing more than to put together a great retro-spective collection of our music. We owe him a big super thanks as he probably worked the better part of 2 years pulling the whole thing together.

I believe that an accompanying DVD is being prepared and what can you tell us about it and which label will it be on?

DG - The new DVD is called  "Bed Of Nails", the Videography. It's an awesome package with all of our video's, bonus video's, live footage, interviews etc. it will be released in Canada on Warner music in Feb. 2007

So what's next for HMS and yourself?

DG - At the moment I am writing songs like crazy cause we are thinking about a new HMS album next year!

And finally, the standard HardRockHouse question, is there anything further you would like to mention that we haven't covered so far?

2DG - HMS fans may be in for a real treat soon as plans are in the works now for a re-union of the 5 original members for a tour next summer!

Many thanks to Derry for taking the time to speak with HRH. To find out more about Honeymoon Suite you can visit their website via the following link: www.honeymoonsuite.com. You can also read the HRH review of Feel It Again by clicking here