In The Grey Ghost

Sat 6th Aug, 2005 in Features

Do you know which Australian band Luke Gower, bassist for Cog described as the ‘most energetic, truthful and talented young bands out?’ If you give up, the answer is central coast quintet, In The Grey.  With this celebrity endorsement, Fasterlouder spoke to In The Grey’s vocalist, Adam Byrne.

The ‘young’ band have had a busy couple of years touring this great land with numerous acts, do they have a favourite? “It would definitely have to be Cog. To play in front of their crowds was such an honour. Of course everyone is there to see Cog. To get noticed, we had to step up to the game. I think that tour made us as a live band.”

The band has recently released their debut album Innocence Is Running Out. “We really wanted to find a name that was relevant to the past year or so of touring.” The album comes with a limited edition DVD. On the DVD, guitarist Glenn Fraser said that they were no longer innocent and had something to prove.

Another description of the album, courtesy of guitarist Daniel Aird is ‘pure, hard hitting cock rock with a dash of beats.’ “I think he’s being sarcastic. That’s funny…Well minus the blast beats ‘cos we’re not heavy metal. I think compared to our previous work, it’s more mature.” The album is about the group and not ”...me singing about some girl in year ten and I broke up with her.”

Lachlan Mitchell produced the album and Adam says he made the band feel like they were recording for the first time. “We had the songs and he gives this little bit of fairy dust at the end. He makes great songs and gives it that bit more…It’s hard for a young band… Bands like…U2, say U2, blame it on Bono... They’ve got millions of dollars and Bono will go “oh yeah, I feel like doing vocals today.”

Whilst younger bands aren’t afforded such luxury, they may be less prone to becoming insular and less resistant to changes suggested. “Maybe that’s the reason why some bands, the more money they get and the bigger they get, their albums aren’t as good…Even Metallica say they can only go in (to record) for four hours a day and get therapy after. That’s not rock and roll…it’s terrible isn’t it?”

Something not terrible is a snippet from the band’s DVD showing them dancing like maniacs. “That’s a synthesizer and we were playing around and making techno songs and going crazy. It’s pretty funny, maybe that’s it, that’s the blast beats… We sort of take the shit out of each other. If anyone meets us they’ll find out we’re very approachable people and like to have fun.”

The recording process was fun but often scary during the parts recorded at The Sound Basement, which is next door to a morgue. “I was a bit scared because they told us this really crazy story. A guy called Oscar who works at (Studio) 301 brought in his little daughter. She ran off somewhere…and they’re running around the studio trying to find her. They find her and she’s just pointing at the corner of the room saying ‘Daddy, she’s crying.’ The little girl wants to go home and the others are confused as no one is there. Then she goes ‘Oh, it’s okay Daddy, she’s gone now.’ So everyone’s confused and the studio owner asks the morgue owner if they had brought in any young corpses lately. The guy says they had brought in one that morning. “Oscar’s little daughter had seen the little girl. And so we got told that and that’s the room we were doing the techno dancing.” They continued dancing with the lights out. “I lasted about a minute, I just bolted right out” (laughs).

Adam also found it difficult looking out the window with metal blinds. “I would take short glimpses up at the window ‘cos I thought someone would pull them down and look out. I’ve got a crazy imagination. Apparently the cool room of the morgue was literally on the other side of the wall, I could feel it, and the wall was freezing.”

The cold hand of death was close during recording and also affected the band’s personal lives when they lost two special people in their lives. See This World You Made has guest appearances by Flynn Gower (Cog) and Jamie Thomas (Brace) and is about the death of bassist Grant Matzen’s uncle. They wrote the song ”...as if we were him and what would you think of on your last day…You would go through your childhood and your kid’s lives to see this world you made. It’s sort of like a butterfly effect, every person that does pass away creates another thing, there is a reason for every person.”

Jennar is a song about a friend who also passed away. “He is a loved person, it was such a shock. It’s about him and just saying how much we do miss him and how much he did for us.”

Whilst Adam agrees that there are strong themes on the album, the messages are meant to be positive. Readers may be familiar with the first single Start The Year from the airplay on Triple J. It is a song about new years resolutions, those kept and broken. “You sort of have your resolutions but at the same time try to be yourself. I always say that every year, but I don’t keep them. At the end of the day, I am who I am. Why strive to be something you’re not? I know it’s good to try and be better but you should be happy with who you are.”

One should be happy with oneself, even if Adam’s band mate, Daniel is a self-proclaimed lurker at bakeries. He told people to buy their EP so they don’t have to hang around bakeries for old food. Adam went one better and said he’d give nightmares to those who don’t buy their album. “Just like whispers in their ears.” He demonstrates in an eerie tone, then adds “We’ll put you in the rehearsal studios and lock you in there and see you go ‘ARRGGHHH, ARRGGHHH!”

A living visitor the boys had in their studio was a fox. “We call our studio Fox Studios, now.” One night ”..we find out there’s a fox in there. I was freaked out, I bolted to the other side of the studio.” When Adam returned and someone tried to pick it up, he warned, “You’ll get rabies.” The warning did not stop the others “It was hectic but it was so funny. We were like ‘Get the camera, get the camera. We started feeding it so it keeps coming back for food every night. It was so random… out of nowhere, a fox pops up.”

The future appears bright for the boys and their visitor. They are about to embark on an extensive tour and have started writing again; their next album is already a goal to strive for.

At the moment though, Adam is content to leave us with some final words. “Buy the album or I’ll haunt you…no. To anyone who buys the album, thank you so much for the support and I hope to see everyone at the show soon.” Who knows, at their live show you may be greeted by something as random as a fox.

Check out the band when they play at a venue near you:

Thursday 25th August, ”NEXT” Opening – Gaelic Club, Sydney
Friday 26th August, Manly Fisho’s
Saturday 27th August, Caringbah Bizzo’s
Sunday 28th August, Newcastle Leagues Club, DAY: ALL AGES, NIGHT: OVER 18’s
Thursday 1st September, Collector Tavern
Wednesday 7th September, The Rev, Brisbane
Thursday 8th September, Byron Bay Youth Centre ALL AGES
Friday 9th September, Lions Den Cafe, Brisbane QLD ALL AGES
Sunday 11th September, Embassy Hotel, Penrith NSW
Thursday 15th September, Barwon Club, Geelong
Friday 16th September, Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne
Saturday 17th September, Enigma Bar, Adelaide
Thursday 22nd September, Sodens, Albury NSW
Friday 23rd September, Oxford Tavern, Wollongong
Saturday 24th September, The Green Room, Canberra
Thursday 6th October, Key Largo, Terrigal