Click Interview with Grey Gallows: ‘Gigs Are The Best Way To Share Your Energy And Feelings With People’
Grey Gallows is a Greek duo hailing from Patras. The band is driven by Konstantin (vocals & keys) and Dionisis (guitar, bass & keys). They this year released their fourth full-length album “Strangers” which also is the second one released by Cold Transmission Records. The band take us back to the darkest hours of Dark-Wave and Post-Punk while adding a personal touch on top of the composition. “Strangers” deals about different themes which can be summarized to human psyche, love, pain, alienation, and the redemption of the individual, concerning social issues that plague the modern era. I got in touch with Konstantin to know a bit more about this cool formation.
(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: Grey Gallows is now active for a couple of years. How did the band saw the daylight and what do you consider as your main accomplishments so far?
Dionisis: We formed as a band in 2016 when I moved to live in Patras and met Konstantin. We became close friends and as we understood that we shared the same taste in music, we decided that we would like to make our own band and express ourselves.
I believe that signing with a label like Cold Transmission and be given the opportunity to perform abroad and especially at WGT is something that we didn’t expect back then and that makes us really proud.
Q: I think your music sounds obviously 80s Dark-Wave / Post-Punk inspired with something extra on top which makes me think to an imaginary hybrid between The Sisters Of Mercy and She Passed Away. Does this description fits to your own perception of sound and what have been the main sources of inspiration?
Konstantin: Well, this is an interesting description, we definitely love The Sisters Of Mercy and we have high respect for She Past Away. We are obviously into 80s Dark-Wave / Post-Punk, listening all those great bands of the past, such as The Cure, Joy Division and Deine Lakaien, but we also like more recent bands, like Lebannon Hanover.
Τhe latest years, being on Cold Transmission, I think that we have been influenced by its distinctive sound and musical approach in general.
Q: You already released several albums but especially both last productions released by Cold Transmission Music give you a wider exposure. How do you analyze the evolution of the band and what’s the impact to be signed on a leading label of the Dark-Wave / Post-Punk scene?
Konstantin: Signing to Cold Transmission gave us both the artistic freedom to express ourselves musically without limits and, on the other hand, to have the chance to reach a broader audience, especially in Germany and central Europe. So, being on a label as supportive as Cold Transmission, is very benefic for us.
We share with Suzy and Andreas our music ideas, discuss the evolution of the band which resulted in friendship. Moreover we are now family, we belong to the Cold Transmission family and we are very happy and proud of it.
Q: Tell us a bit more about your new album “Strangers”. How did this album saw the daylight and what did you try to express by its lyrical themes?
Konstantin: Some of the songs, for example “Strangers”, were written during the pandemic, so in one aspect they reflect a state of sentimental and social isolation we found ourselves being into those days.
Musically, we tried to evolve our sound, combining a traditional Dark-Wave sound with Cold-Wave and experimenting with more Electronic elements than our previous albums.
Of course we had the honor to have two great female singers in two songs, Kriistal Ann from Paradox Obscur and Irini Tiniakou from Incirrina, a fact that we believe gave a different kind of emotional approach to our songs.
Lats but no least, we had the opportunity to work again with Nick ‘TheMute’ Chalntoupis, our sound engineer, who gave to ‘’Strangers’’ its distinctive sound.
Q: I experienced “Strangers” as your most accomplished and best work to date. Do you think the last album is always the best one? Do you handle specific criteria and/or references when it comes to composition and production?
Dionisis : For Grey Gallows I think that this is true. “Strangers” is our most complete work until now in terms of composition and production. We tried to add more elements in our sound and explore more genres and so we loved that we were able to do different things in each song of this album.
We try in every release, to have let’s say a ‘pallet’ of songs that shows our influences and in “Strangers” we experimented more so that we could broaden our musical horizons.
Q: I noticed you last year also released a live EP/mini-album featuring five songs. How important are live shows to you -and especially after the lockdowns all over Europe? How do you look back at WGT you played this year?
Dionisis: These songs were recorded during the last lockdown for a stream event and later on we came up with the idea to release it as EP.
It was a strange and hard era during the covid for every musician and for their fans also, because gigs are the best way to share your energy and feelings with people who support you and listen to your music.
WGT was an amazing experience and I would say that it was the best gig we had until now. The feedback that we got and the support during the show was something that we really hadn’t expected so we couldn’t be happier. It was a really memorable experience.
Q: What comes next for Grey Gallows?
Dionisis: We are currently working on some new songs for our next album, this is our fuel that keeps us evolving and moving forward.
Furthermore, we have scheduled some live gigs for September, we are a band who loves playing live. In one of those we are supporting the mighty Covenant in Athens on December, along with our friend Night In Athens. So we would like to thank you for this interview, it was a real pleasure and honor for us.
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