Ask Grey

The Grey FAQ

Older Grey Interviews

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You can submit questions by emailing them to askgrey@gmail.com

Grey questions answered:

You often list the Beatles, the Doors, Rush, and Yes as having a major influence on your music. What makes these groups stand out for you musically?

Grey: They all have sounds that are unique to themselves and the time at which they came about. Rush and Yes continue to play and evolve. They all have/had musicians that didn't worry to much about the norm of music or how it was being done and stuck to their own vision of their music.
Have any modern artists had an influence on your work more recently?

Grey: I don't listen to a lot of new music but I would say that the guitar sounds I hear with the White Stripes, not to mention their format and cool song constructions lyrically, have really blown me away.

You self-release your albums at this time with fairly wide
distribution. What do you see as the benefits of a record deal?

Grey: Getting the music out to more people and in turn having a wider audience. I would also love to put together a band and tour. Playing the songs live would allow them to change even more than they have from their inception.

What is the theme of your next project?

Grey: Ice.

What is your number one inspiration?

Grey: The idea of taking a simple few chords and lyrics and turning them into something big or equally small and in turn ending up with a better song.

Do you plan to have any live shows? A tour?

Grey: As stated above I would love to do that if I could get signed and be able to put together the right group of musicians.

What styles of music do you listen to other than rock? Do these have an influence on your sound?

Grey: I listen sometimes to classical music and I like to hear jazz guitarist like George Benson from time to time.

What do you think of the modern indie music scene? Has it had any
effect on your sound?

Grey: I think it is great to have people out there coming up with as much new cool stuff and putting things together in many different ways. I don't really spend a lot of time with new music other than my own so I would have to say any effect is minimal.

Who would be the ideal band to cover your music?

Grey: That's tough. I am not really sure. I would think that there could be many different ones depending on the song they chose to play. I have a lot of different moods going on in my songs.

What bands do you think your music sounds like the most?

Grey: Probably I have to say it would be not one band but a mixture of all of my influences which we mentioned some of at the beginning of the interview.

Do you have any favorite visual artists?

Grey: Yes, painters like Salvador Dali, Picasso, Duchamps, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Directors like Tarentino and Rodriguez.

In a prior interview, you mention enjoying the study of history. What is your favorite period in history?

Grey: Probably the Middles Ages in Europe. We come out of the Dark Ages and are heading into the Enlightenment.

Since opening Grey Havens Studios, you've become quite prolific in the number of albums you've released. What is the best thing about having your own studio?

Grey: Not having to worry about anybody's schedule if I want to work on something. Although right now the new Grey Haven's studio is being planned and I hope built before the end of the year. I have moved and am currently reduced to a small room.

Will you soon be recording other local musicians at Grey Havens?

Grey: As soon as the new studio is up and running I will.

You've collaborated with a number of talented local musicians. Do you
plan to incorporate other singers or songwriters in the future?

Grey: I hope having the new studio open and in a commercial way then that I will be recording and find others to bring to my projects as I see the need or where they could be valuable

What prompted you to re-record Colours and Rock & Pop?

Grey: I wanted to have a better quality to them and to be in more control of the mixes in the end.

Your music is often described on websites as psychedelic indie rock.
How would you best describe your sound to those who have not heard
your music before?

Grey: I usually just say that it's pop and rock. If it has things that make it psychedelic well I guess that's nice also. I usually don't sit down and think I am going to write a psychedelic song though. It just happens if it happens.

Why isn't Faded Colours available for download?

Grey: I don't know why. It should be though. I didn't know it wasn't. It is one of (rather two of) my most favorite CD's for the time frame it represents in my life.

What is your favorite part of the songwriting process?

Grey: The first time I get the lyrics and the music smoothed out and then at the very end when I hear the final mix finished.

Do your songs evolve a lot before we hear them, or are they pretty
much how you originally imagined them to be?

Grey: No they are never how I originally wrote them for the most part. Maybe a few of the acoustic based love songs are close to how they were written. However Peasant Town is almost completely how it was written in terms of the guitar and vocal. In fact I had to go back and listen to my tape recorder to write down what I sang and then with just a few touch ups it was written as is.

Your music is very poetic and often surreal. Do you have a favorite poet?

Grey: I like to twist and play with words. People like Neil Peart and Jim Morrison and Lennon-McCartney always made me think about their words. Also Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Blake of English poetry. And Baudelaire and Rimbaud of French poetry.

Words & Music contains more socially aware and political lyrics than your previous albums. What was the catalyst for this change?

Grey: Probably getting older and 9/11 happening and just a global shift in all.

Since 2001, the core of your collaborative group has been Jason and Mikey Harbour. How did you first decide to play music together?

Grey: I met Jason first and we started to work together for the Introducing Grey videos filmed in the summer of 2000. He brought in Mikey as a drummer and as they are brothers and do a lot of music together it just made sense and we all got along well and had a good time outside of music also.

How does living in Oklahoma influence your music?

Grey: I am not sure that it does. I don't write country music. I think music lies in the mind. There are the same relationships happening here as in any other place around the world. I guess I've written about the places I've been also around the world in many songs. Oklahoma has less in terms of landmarks or historical places that I would write about. Maybe another person would use it a lot; especially a country and western writer but I don't.

Your sound has changed with every album. For example, Rock & Pop
contains much harder rock songs than Words & Music which seems almost 1970s inspired. To what do you attribute this change?

Grey: The volume of drugs and drink I am using at the time. Just kidding I always take them separately. Okay so seriously I believe it to be the way I view the songs as a whole and sometimes I get started and then think well I'll try that instrument in this song also or I'll try that effect in this song also and in the end the whole CD sounds somewhat alike. I always start, in my mind, with the idea that I have a group of individual songs that I need to record.

"Story Book Love" and "All the Love in the World" are your most popular music videos. Why do you think that is?

Grey: Probably my acting. Just kidding again. I am sure it is the visual and musical coming together in a very cohesive way to form a single new thing that is a little of both, a "visical" I suppose you could call it.

You currently have a written recording journal. Would you ever do audio or video podcasts for your fans?

Grey: If I knew how to do that I certainly would. I find I have to keep reminding myself to do the journal so I'd have to put myself on a schedule so I'd remember, okay tonight is audio/video podcast night.