Band Of The Week #315 - Greywind
This week's Band of the Week is Irish brother-sister duo Greywind - who have just released their new album 'Severed Heart City'.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Sam Guaiana (Neck Deep, Silverstein, Holding Absence), ‘Severed Heart City’ wears Greywind’s classic emo influences firmly on its metaphorical sleeve. It’s no surprise to hear that they’re inspired by emo pop originators like Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, with the duo’s flair for the dramatic and knack for an earworm melody resulting in an album filled to the rafters with anthems. These are songs you can imagine ringing out from the biggest of stages and being sung back at the band by rapt audiences the world over. Envelop yourself in Greywind’s ‘Severed Heart City’.
“Severed Heart City is an extended allegory for the stages of trauma, and one’s inner struggle to find resolution,” say Steph and Paul. “There are many roads that lead to the heart of this broken city, but there is only one bridge out – one of acceptance and hope. Our band was created after the suicide of our uncle and since then we’ve been on an intense journey of achieving some of our biggest dreams to then having everything ripped away from us. Severed Heart City is a place where it’s ok to be sad, depressed and feel like the whole world is against you but it’s also a place where you make sure none of those things ever make you give up on yourself or your dreams. Only you can save yourself.”
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Greywind, how are you? So your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?.
We’re great, thank you! We’ve been living with these songs for so long so it feels surreal and so exciting to finally have these songs out in the world.
It is called 'Severed Heart City' – what is the meaning behind that?
Severed Heart City is an extended allegory for the stages of trauma and the inner struggle to find resolution. It’s a place where it’s okay to feel sad, depressed or like the whole world is against you but it’s also a reminder to never let those feelings make you give up on yourself or your dreams.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
We recorded the album in LA with producer Sam Guaiana. Usually second albums are supposed to be stressful but we had such an incredible, stress-free time making this record. We wanted to create our dream album and we did exactly that.
I remember early in the recording process we were eating tacos across from the studio, talking about our influences like Fall Out Boy and then, no joke, Pete Wentz randomly appeared and walked past us on the street. We’re taking that as a good luck sign for this album.
What are the key influences behind the album?
We’re inspired by so many things, from where we live, to the music we grew up listening to. Our influences range from post-rock to classic emo. We grew up on listening to bands like The Matches, My Chemical Romance, Mineral, Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy, Thrice, Blink and Caspian. We wanted to create a cinematic album that feels like a culmination of everything that shaped us into who we are today.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Kill Bill! This album is about surviving trauma and sometimes on the way to doing that, you’ve gotta get some revenge. I think it would be the perfect soundtrack and I can already imagine a fight scene with “I.K.A.M.F.” playing. If Tarantino is reading this and wants to give us a call, we’re down.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
It changes all the time but right now “Your wounds are my wounds too” from The Scarecrow is probably my favourite lyric on the album. It captures the idea of shared pain which sits at the heart of this album.
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
Touring! We’ve got a lot of exciting things happening behind the scenes right now and we can’t wait to play these new songs around the world.
