This week, we caught up with Philly rock band Grayscale. We sat down with singer Collin Walsh and drummer Nick Veno to talk influences, their dream tour, and their first ever full length album.
Read our conversational Q&A with the band below:
BTS: How and when did you guys form?
Collin: We formed while we were in high school in 2011. The band was just kind of us jamming in my basement. I think we’ve been active since 2013 when we released Leaving.
BTS: What bands or artists inspired your sound?
Nick: I think as a band, Brand New, Basement, Jimmy Eat World. Those are common ground for us. We all come from different musical backgrounds, like I like a lot of 90s grunge stuff and Collin likes 90s alternative rock. Andy [Kyne, guitar] listens to a lot of metal too.
Collin: Derek [Parker, bass] listens to the hardest stuff on earth and Dallas [Molster, guitar/vocals] likes folk. For me personally, REM, Barenaked Ladies, and Better Than Erza, but everybody has their own taste.
BTS: You write songs that are personal and also therapeutic. Can you tell us about that?
Collin: I kind of always felt it was therapeutic because Dallas and I kind of came from broken families, and in the beginning Dallas and I would just hang out and write music. I just think not having the rooted family aspect, not wanting to hear your problems or issues, was just our way of turning that into lyrics and songs.
BTS: Who would you like to tour with? Unrealistically and realistic.
Collin: We were actually just talking about this recently too! I think I’ll let Nick explain it.
Nick: Yeah, it’s kind of all over the place! But I think we all agreed that Nirvana would be the headliner and we would be the opener.
Collin: We would open for our own dream tour!
Nick: Yeah, it would go us, then Jimmy Eat World, or no, wait. Us, Slipknot, Brand New, and Nirvana.
Collin: That would be our unrealistic dream tour. Realistically, it always changes, I mean we are good friends with the band Transit, so I think it would be cool to tour with Transit, um who else…
BTS: Maybe like another Philly band like the Wonder Years or something?
Collin: Yeah! I think that the bands we grew up listening to, like Transit, Fireworks, and The Wonder Years. We’ve actually played a show with all of them except The Wonder Years. Ironically that’s the only band from this area we haven’t gotten the chance [to play with] yet, but they seem like pretty cool guys. But Transit, Fireworks, and Man Overboard were bands we played with in the beginning stages.
BTS: What was the first concert you’ve attended?
Collin: Mine was Less Than Jake at The Note in West Chester, PA. Wait, no! I lied. It was Sum41 at The Note. Less Than Jake was my second show.
Nick: My first show was Green Day, The American Idiot Tour, at the Wachovia Center, which is now the Wells Fargo Center. I was in seventh grade.
If you guys could bring an musician back from the dead, who would it be?
Collin and Nick: Kurt Cobain
BTS: We had a feeling you would say that!
Collin: I think that stands for all the band. Except for Andrew, it would be Dimebag Darrell from Pantera.
BTS: You guys have an album called What We’re Missing that’s going to be released on February 12th. Would guys consider this your debut album?
Nick: Yeah I think so, we put out Leaving in 2013, but we did that ourselves. But What We’re Missing is on the label (Anchor Eighty Four Records). So yeah I would call it our debut.
BTS: Now for some fun and Philly based questions:
Current Song Obsession?
Collin: “Shade” by Boston Manor
Nick: “Your Clothes by Can’t Swim
Geno’s or Pat’s?
Collin: Dallas and I are for Geno’s, but there’s an equal divide.
A song you wished you wrote?
Nick: “Cherub Rock” by Smashing Pumpkins.
Collin: Definitely “Me vs Maradona vs Elvis” by Brand New.
Ocean City or Wildwood?
Collin: Neither to be honest! But our friend John, who just basically hangs around with us, he has a house in Wildwood. So that would be the spot we would go to.
BTS: Finally, to sum it up, what are your goals as a band for 2016?
Nick: I think a big one for us is to put together a real tour for like 3 or 4 weeks.
Collin: I think the issue would be that I’m the only one still in college. Because we’ve never actually toured full time or done a full US tour. That seems to be the goal for this year.
You can keep up with Grayscale on Facebook, Twitter, and their official website.
Interview and photographs done by BTS staff member Valerie McIntyre.
- Today in Music History: April 7 - April 7, 2023
- EP Review: Michigander’s It Will Never Be The Same - March 31, 2023
- Deep Dive: Spotify’s ALT NOW Playlist - March 30, 2023
