Grayscale - Sound In The Signals Interview
For those who aren’t familiar with your band can you tell me how you guys got together and what made you decide to start a band?
We formed this band after our band in high school broke up when multiple members left for college.Nick, Collin, and Dallas were all bandmates in the previous band, but Nick and Collin in particular took the initiative to form what eventually has turned into Grayscale. Collin contacted Derek and Andrew, having played in other projects with them, and everything just seemed to click. Dallas was actually the last addition to the band, and we’ve kept the same roster for about two years now. We basically started this band with the intention of taking our past experiences musically and learning from them. The mentality of this band is much more mature than any other project any of us have ever been a part of, and we make it a point to handle everything we do professionally.
You guys just released your new EP Leaving. Can you tell me a little about the recording and song writing process for the album?
Generally, we write the instrumentals as a band and Collin writes the lyrics. We wrote the songs for Leaving in Collin and Nick’s basementsduring the winter of 2011, and continually worked on themthrough the months leading up to the summer of 2012.During which, we booked time at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA with Will Yipand tracked the majority of Leaving. After tracking, we ended up spending extra time making sure everything sounded the way we wanted it too. We made an effort to not cut corners or “settle” for anything less than what we intended the album to sound like.We took awhile to release Leaving, but we feel that it was well worth the wait and everything turned out the way we intended.
The EP is packed full of really catchy well-written songs. A couple of my personal favorites are “Growing Pains” and “Dying Breed” I was wondering if you could talk about those two songs in particular and what the inspiration for them was?
Growing Pains was written one summer night before Collin had left for college. It’s kind of a nostalgic song about growing up in our hometown, Kennett Square, PA, and how things from then on would be different. Growing Pains is about not wanting to lift up your roots and start all over again. Although our particular instance was regarding college, we think a lot of people can relate to the song during any type of change. Whether it be a new job, moving, or just growing up in general.
Dying Breed is about growing out of a social circle and eventually realizing that you have completely ostracized yourself from everyone else. We’ve always been the“different”kids, and Dying Breed kind of reflects that.We look at this one kind of as a get back at the dickheads we went to highschool with. Dying Breed references the song “Secondary” by Brand New in the chorus, with the first line reading “Like Jesse said, I’m a dying breed”; referencing “Past the point of trying I’m a dying breed” in “Secondary”. Jesse Lacey, the singer of Brand New,is Collin’s biggest musical inspiration.These are two prominent themes found amongst the album.
I came across your album when someone posted the cover on Instagram and I was instantly blown away. It’s definitely one of the better pop/punk EP’s I’ve heard this year. How has the response to the EP been as far as the online response and from your fans so far?
- It’s been beyond what I think any of us expected. So many people have reached out to us to tell us they love the music, and I don’t think we could’ve asked for a better response. We’ve put so much effort into these songs and into this album as a whole; it’s really rewarding to know that so many people out there appreciate it and can connect with our music. It’s the reason why we do it, you know? We feel like we’ve really put something out there that is honest and that people all over can relate to.
I particularly like the artwork you guys used for the EP. Who did the artwork for it, what was it inspired by, and ultimately why did you choose to use it?
"Leaving" symbolizes change. In the artwork, the man is packing up and moving his things from his rural house to an apartment in the city. Although he is starting a new life somewhere completely new, he still is bring his roots with him, this is symbolizes by the roots hanging out of his briefcase that are replanted and surround him in his apartment. Also, we have been asked alot about the badger. The badger represents a bad omen that follows you everywhere you go. It represents the problems that you cannot get away from, no matter where you go or what you do. At the time we were writing the album, nick and Collin were leaving for school and the rest of us were moving into the city or starting something new. "Leaving" was written during a transitional phase in our lives.
You had the chance to team up with Property Of Zack and stream your album on the site. What was it like getting the opportunity to do that with the album and how did it come about to have his site stream it?
We actually had a connection to Zack Zarrillo through one of the guys on our management team who has been friends with him for a long time.Zack was generous enough to offer to stream the entire album on POZ, which was a really cool opportunity for us, being a new band with no real buzz or hype yet. The positive response from people who listened to it made it an even cooler experience for us, having complete strangers say that our music gave them chills and stuff. We’re beyond grateful to have had an opportunity like that so early on in our career.
I’m a big fan of vinyl and as of right now I think you guys have only released this digitally (am I right on that?) Is there any chance you might press Leaving on vinyl either yourselves or through a label?
As of now it’s actually available for both digital and physical purchase. We only have physical CD copies printed at the moment, but we have actually teased with the idea of pressing a short run vinyl. It’s a little too steep for us financially at the moment, but don’t be surprised if you see it on vinyl within the next year.We want to appeal to the indie kids too.
I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have any closing comments you’d like to make?
We’d just like to thank you for this opportunity to talk about the band and tell you a little piece of our story. We love talking and connecting with our fans, so we’d also like to thank anyone and everyone who cares about our band and about our music. It’s the reason why we do what we do and put so much effort into it.Things like this make it so worth it for us.
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