Deb Girnius is a singer, songwriter who combines a multitude of timeless musical elements to produce a completely personalized sound. Dedicated to exploring the endless variation which the roots of contemporary music has to offer, she is compared to a plethora of artists ranging from Buffy Sainte-Marie to Led Zeppelin.
"I thoroughly enjoy her songs...Girnius rules!"-Eric Bazilian, The Hooters' front man, songwriter and producer of talents such as Amanda Marshall, Joan Osbourne and Cyndi Lauper
"Here's a girl who's name is gonna be in lights some day." -Butch Hancock ("The Electric Cowboy") at the Kaw Valley Songwriters' Championship
"I've never heard a woman play like that. That funky rythm combined with that voice...she's unlike any female performer out there!"-Robin DiMaggio, drummer for greats such as Steve Vai and Prince
"My first guitar was a tennis racket." -Deb Girnius
Deb grew up a poor child in a small farm community called McLouth, Kansas. With a population of no more than 700, there was a world of silence to break and a few welcomed the prospect of somebody doing it. Having sung before she could say a complete sentence, playing the flute from the age of nine, impressing judges in state school competitions, little Debbie Girnius decided that she wanted to learn an instrument with which she could accompany her voice. The guitar had always fascinated her. An enthusiastic poet already, and with a dire need to escape from her reality as a somewhat misunderstood youth, she began to write songs before she could play them, notating the melodies onto staff paper, using her flute as a guide instrument. Living on a family budget which was below the national poverty line, Deb had to wait a few more years for her hard-laboring mother to earn enough cash for a guitar. Years passed and by the age of fourteen, Deb, finding it unbearable to wait any longer, took an old tennis racket which was purchased at a garage sale for a quarter, and drew stings on the handle using a black permanent marker. She then came across an old Mel Bay chord book lying at the bottom of a desk drawer and began practicing her grips on the racket. Upon seeing the sad evidence, her mother made a fateful proposition. They would rent a guitar for one month, and if Deb could play it within that time, she could keep the guitar, which would be paid for in installments. By the end of the month, she had learned some-teen chords and written ten songs. It was a new beginning.
Deb's first public performance took place in 1985 in a cozy college town called Lawrence, Kansas at the Kaw Valley Songwriters' Championship where she received an honorable mention despite being about 20 years junior to the majority of the 300 other songwriters in the contest. At this time, Girnius had only been playing guitar and writing songs for a few months, but she practiced for more than eight hours each day, teaching herself chords, inventing her own rythm techiques, and even skipping substantial amounts of school to write songs. Within a year, she proved to be quite prolific, and had already worked up a repertoire of more than 100 original compositions by the age of fifteen. She had penned more than 400 songs before she was eighteen, and in addition, wrote and scored a three-act musical, TheTriumph of King Jasper , and a scetch for orchestra which was based on one of her first ballads, "Shards of Glass". Her communicative and technical skills still needed significant honing, but she was on the brink of believing she could make a living at it some day. On the eve of her high school graduation, Deb was awarded a performing arts scholarship from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where she attended with a double major in theatrical voice and composition. It was, however, to be a brief academic career, as she would soon drop her studies in order to persue her continued infatuation with performing and writing songs. With no support system aside from her profound love for music and several hundred original songs under her arm, a teen-age Deb formed her first band in 1989. It was then the journey began.
Five tenacious years of leading bands, booking gigs, sending demos and various other relevant tasks had helped to establish a modest, yet loyal following in Lawrence. Meanwhile, she managed a 40-60 hour per week schedule doing low-paid assembly line work and the like to buy her bread. It was priceless training for the young hopeful, as she had learned to swallow her pride, toughen her skin and get down to business. In addition, she taught guitar and contemporary voice at the Treble Clef (a local music learning center). The experience was enriching, but she would have to relocate if she was going to quit her day job. And that's just what Deb did. In 1994, she packed her guitars and set off for Europe. A few more years of persistent networking, hundreds of bloody fingers, four broken guitars, three fat lips, a couple of nodules and one chipped tooth later, a fearless, yet humbler, tougher, yet kinder Deb emerged...and a new sound was born. The Girnius sound is inspired by a heavily male dominated list of pop icons. Legends such as Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Lynne, James Brown and Roger Waters are among them. Deb embraces the pioneering spirit of a time in songwriting which spawned evergreens, promoting the concept of creating an entirely new mood at the risk of breaking with convention. A confident live performer with up to 200 performances annually, she supports her dynamic voice with solidly man-handled guitar riffs. Her distinctive playing technique has earned her a place on stage and in the studio as a featured musician accompanying some of the greatest talents in the industry. And when Deb plays solo, It is not unusual for audience members to ask where the band is hiding. At times, peers have inquired what sort of drum machine she uses for her playback program. Playback program? Drum machine??? No, that's all Deb...her fist hits the body of the guitar to get the bass drum sound, and simultaniously, the mound of her palm slaps the neck and bridge in various places to get sharper and brighter percussive textures. It won't be said that she only goes around banging up guitars, although some guitar technicians may disagree. Alongside all the punch and fire, lies a cooling stream of finger-picked melancholic creaminess to sweeten the soup. The intimate contact She keeps with her audience leaves them with a feeling of having made a good friend. And the flexibility of Deb's voice is no illusion. She sports a four-octave-plus range, but likewise respects the microphone as the instrument that it is, consistantly aware by means of painfully aquired wisdom that projection and range are not necessarily equated with quality when standing behind a Sure-58 mic in a crowded venue. It is difficult to compare her voice to other female artists, as it is simply drenched with diversity, and often theatrical. It has the warmth of Billie Holiday, the clarity of K.D. Lang, the power of Aretha Franklin, the smoothness of a young Judy Garland, the phrasing of Shirley Bassey, the primal edge of Janis Joplin...one could continue. Currently residing in Norway, Deb enjoys a reputation of being among the most prolific and charismatic live acts in the country, and it's no wonder, as this self-made one-woman show now has more than twenty years of hands-on experience upon which to reflect. Her performances are celebrated by rave reviews throughout the nation. (See Press page to view a few selected quotes. A page dedicated to reviews is under construction.) Deb Girnius has participated in a number of Scandinavian record productions and has made several appearences on European television.
Deb's debut album, Working Woman is a collection of 13 original tracks in which she fleshes out some of her songs with a mixture of acoustic, electric and symphonic elements. Her second, Nice 'n' Rough, is an endevour to capture the sound of Deb live, and is a raw representation of her in concert. Both albums are available for download on most major music sites. Simply go to the Listen & Download page on this site to find the widget with a direct link to her music.