When Grayscale sits down to chat, they are an hour out from their set at 8123 Festival, which is happening in Mesa, Arizona, and put on by their friends in The Maine. We’re wedged between the festival where attendees have been flocking into the desert in band tees to congregate over the weekend and a quilt show where the median age of visitors is assumed to be around 70. “There are worse places to be,” jokes Collin Walsh, the lead singer of the band. It’s one of those moments that would be hard to imagine when you decide to start a band over a decade ago with your best friends, but the sheer absurdity of the situation almost makes sense for them. “I’ll be able to say I bought a knit bandana at a quilt show in Arizona before our set,” laughs Andrew Kyne, lead guitarist.
It’s about two weeks before the release of their next album, The Hart, and it’s apparent both in listening to the songs and chatting with the band that it is a cathartic release of sorts. It’s the longest Collin, Andrew, guitarist Dallas and drummer Nick have taken to make an album since their debut, Adornment, in 2017, and is a juxtaposition of emotions and experiences the band has undergone since their third album, Umbra, released in 2021.
When first starting to record and release albums, it’s easy for bands to get caught up in perfection — ensuring every note is as refined as the next — but on their fourth release, Grayscale aimed to lean into the “tiny little things” that make them up as a band. “We’d grown bored and uninspired to the majority of music that was coming out,” explains Collin. “Everything sounded the same. Even to ourselves, everything we had been writing all started to sound the same, so we stripped it all down the studs. Back to the same basement we wrote songs in when we were 14. We reminded ourselves of why we fell in love with music as kids. The art and the craft of it. The struggle and the reward of it. The way we could speak to one another and connect in a room through it without words.”
With that, comes a moving collection of songs that are a snapshot into who this band is, at this very moment, flaws and all. The Hart serves as a journey into reckoning with hardship, working through difficult periods, and somehow finding your way through it. More than that, though, it’s an album that embraces the imperfections, stripping it back to how they wrote albums in their adolescence.
To celebrate the release of The Hart, 1883’s Editor Kelsey Barnes sits down with Collin, Andrew, and Nick of Grayscale to discuss the album, stripping it back to basics to write it, and more.
The Hart is your fourth album, you released your first back in 2017 — how would you describe the growth you’ve all had as a band between then and now?
Collin: I feel like we’ve grown so much as people, as individuals who have known each other since we were like 14 or 15 years old, and as musicians in so many ways. I feel like we’re the same kids we were, but we’ve grown so much musically as songwriters, and as people who love the art that we make and have been making. We’ve been touring since 2017, so I think so much has changed. But I think the core of the love we have for each other, the friendships we’ve had since we were kids, and the ethos of always putting the art first—following our instincts, pushing ourselves creatively, and never being satisfied just making the same record multiple times—those things have stayed exactly the same.
The Hart is returning to roots — going back to the same basement you wrote songs in when you guys were younger. How did stripping away all of the bells and whistles of being in a professional studio help shape the record and the writing of it?
Collin: We wrote a lot of it in that room, which, to be fair, we’ve written a lot of songs for all of our records in that room. I think the difference this time was that we spent so much more time with live instruments—amps, or even just in our headphones—physically playing outside of the computer, like, all together in a room at the same time. It was the way we worked before we had any means, any technology, or even Pro Tools—anything like that.
The main difference with this record compared to the previous ones was that the process was so simplified. It was much more rooted in literally playing live in a room together, you know? So when we went to record it, we did it in Los Angeles — in Pasadena, actually. And even then, the first thing we did was pull out all the amps into the live room and start recording these full takes live as a band. Then we could punch in what we wanted, but the baseline for all the songs on this record came from a live recording. “Not Afraid to Die,” the first single, especially stands out for that. All of the instrumentation on that track is from the same take.
I was listening to a podcast you did, and you talked about not wanting to lean too much into pre-made sounds. You leaned more into live performance. How did that influence the production?
Collin: Totally, yeah. I think there was this mindset—and you guys would agree—that it wasn’t about recording a standard guitar, sending it into the computer, and cycling through a hundred different presets. Instead, we sat with pedals, tweaked, and tuned things.
Andrew: Yeah, it was definitely more of an analog approach, especially with the guitar. It’s so easy to just set up the computer, pull up a plugin, record a thousand takes, and make it sound like everything else coming out right now. Instead, we worked with vintage amps, and a mess of pedals, and just plugged in and tried things. A lot of the time, those experiments with real gear inspired the sounds. Like, you might hit a wall creatively, and then you tweak a pedal in some weird way, and suddenly you’re like, “Oh, let’s chase that sound!” We did that a lot, and it was really cool. For example, when we were recording Not Afraid to Die, we did a few takes in the live room, and I remember being done with guitars, which felt so bizarre. We’re so used to going back and checking every inch of the guitars, retracking them, and making them “perfect.” But after those takes, Eric was like, “All right, guitars are done.” And I was like, “Wait…really?”
That must’ve felt so unnatural at first.
Andrew: Yeah, it did. I was kind of nervous about it because we hadn’t done it that way in so long. I wasn’t sure if it would actually feel finished. But, you know, you just trust the process and hope it’s all right.
Collin: Anything that needed to be punched in, we would, but there was such trust in the process. We came in really well-rehearsed and ready to approach it that way. And I think, when talking about the concept of the record, so much of it lyrically is about who we are, how we grew up, and why we are the way we are. It dives into adult issues, the challenges I’ve faced, and the ones we’ve faced together as friends. So much of our connection as people, being friends for so long, is that if I was going through something really hard, they were part of my life and part of that experience.
We also limited ourselves intentionally—two vintage amps, one drum set, and two synthesizers. That’s really all we allowed ourselves to work with. It was such a contrast to other studios we’ve been to, where there are endless options—hundreds of snare drums, dozens of synths, and an entire library in the computer. Instead, we said, “Here’s what we have, and we’re going to make this work.” Obviously, we had to tweak things within those tools to get the sounds we wanted, but it created a cohesive space that the entire record lives in. Limiting the tools forced us to use them better, which was a big part of the philosophy behind the record.
It’s also very ’70s—something we talk about all the time. We listen to so much classic rock from the ’70s and ’80s, and ’90s alt-rock too. Those influences have always been a big part of our band.
Andrew: I remember us even saying before we went into the studio, “Why don’t we just do it like our favourite bands did back in the day?” Like, why aren’t we doing that?
Collin: Honestly, I think the answer is that we weren’t good enough to do that with our earlier records. This process was a full-circle moment for us. It’s about being able to perform live takes that we’re okay with, imperfections and all, because they feel real. The feeling of the performance comes through, and it represents each individual player in the band, rather than being something overly polished. But to do that, you have to be really well-rehearsed so it doesn’t sound bad.
Andrew: Yeah, and what you were saying ties back to the growth we’ve had. It’s about being creatively confident. When you’re in that kind of process, you trust yourself more. Like, with the guitar parts, there were moments where I’d play a lead, and it’d be like, “That’s it. First take. That’s the one.” As we’ve grown as a band, we’ve built the confidence to trust those instincts more.
Leaning into trusting yourselves also means leaning into making mistakes, too!
Collin: Yeah. This is going to sound so stupid, and I’ll probably want you to cut this from the interview because I’m going to sound like a complete moron, but here it goes [laughs]. I imagine it’s like knitting. You can knit something, and it might have imperfections—you can see those imperfections, those little details that make it yours. Or you could just put the design into a machine and let it churn out something perfect, and the result would technically be the same. But it’s the imperfections, the care, and all those tiny little things that make it yours, you know? That was a big emphasis for us on this record.
No, actually, that makes a lot of sense.
Andrew: A quilt analogy? While we’re at a quilt festival? [Laughs]
Collin: “You know what our new album is about today? Quilts.” But yeah, that’s kind of the best way I can describe it. We’re really proud of this record. For example, I have this natural tendency to sing slightly behind the beat. I could go in and adjust it to make it perfectly on time, but it feels good the way it is. That’s what we sound like in our basement playing together. Those little artistic, natural things are what make us—a band that plays and sings songs.
Andrew: Exactly. It shows what it’s going to sound like when we play it. A band is the sum of the people playing, and their individuality shines through. The more stripped back and live the process is, the more you, as a player, come through. That’s what makes it special.
I wanted to ask about the title track, the opening track, which I really, really love because it’s purely instrumental. It sounds like a call to arms. What does that track represent and how does it sets the stage for the rest of the album?
Collin: I think the first full track on the album, “Kept Me Alive,” the single we put out, we knew as soon as we wrote it that it was probably going to be how the record opens. It’s very jarring and abrupt—it just jumps right into the song. When we were sitting in the studio, and we knew it would be first, there were a lot of string arrangements throughout a lot of the songs, like “Painting Over You,” which is a ballad at the end of the album. For that one, we had a full orchestra in Nashville—it was a whole thing, getting those parts written and tracked together. It was a really amazing experience. That string arrangement became this thread that ran through a lot of the songs. We felt like it was only fitting for the opening of this record to have some strings in it. It just felt like the right way to introduce what was coming.
Let’s talk about “Painting Over You.” What was it like writing and recording that song?
Collin: That’s one of my favourites.
It’s beautiful. My notes on it read “the strings are beautiful”
Collin: Thank you, that means a lot. I lost somebody in my life, and I was in a tough place. I remember it was the summer, and I was talking to my mom. She had mentioned needing her spare room painted, and I was like, “Cool, I need something to do to take my mind off things.” I was dealing with someone no longer being in my life, and it was difficult. So I decided to help her paint the room. The first day, I did all the prep work—taping things off, getting everything lined up—and I was thinking, “This is the worst part.”
But then, when I started painting, the coat of paint disappeared as I went, and I just sat there and started thinking about the concept of “painting over you.” I think that was when I really came up with the concept. I didn’t finish painting the room. It’s still sitting half-painted. My mom even sent me a picture of it—this shitty half-painted room. I could send you the picture. It was this intention of not wanting to think about this thing anymore. I didn’t want to make sense of it or be critical. I didn’t want to be artistic about it. This will sound so narcissistic, but I couldn’t get away from it at all. But I just found myself in the midst of this concept and then went home.
Did you write it quickly after that?
Collin: Yeah, I think I just wrote in my journal the general concept of the permanence of painting over something, but at the same time, it’s not permanent because it’s just behind the coat of paint. It was a failed attempt to distract myself from something.
“Some Kind of Magic” I really, really love as well, one that I immediately gravitated towards. But I wanted to ask you guys about that one in particular. It’s quite peppy.
Collin: Why don’t you take this one, Nick? [Laughs] Or are you just here for vibes?
Nick: I’m just here for friendship [laughs].
Collin: “Some Kind of Magic” is the fastest song. It actually was faster. It was ridiculous. I remember someone saying, “We were listening to a lot of 80s, and The Cure was one of the bands we were listening to. This sounds like—” I think the phrase was literally, “This sounds like The Cure on a coke binge.” We were like, “It sounds like The Cure on cocaine.” So we decided it was too much, and brought it down a few lines.
Just a few less lines of cocaine [laughs].
Collin: Yeah, where we landed was two lines worth of cocaine—pure inspiration, obviously [laughs]. Prior to that, it was five lines, and it was literally ridiculous. We brought it down. I don’t know what the tempo was. It was crazy. It was hard to play.
I was gonna say, it’d probably be difficult to play live if it were that fast.
Collin: I think that’s a good thing to diagnose, like, our first record, “Adornment,” had strings in it, and our second record, “Nella Vita,” had more pop production, like synthesizers and things like that. Then “Umbra,” our third record, had more theatrical elements, like choirs and bigger string parts, with more synth stabs—more Beatles-inspired, stabby-type stuff. But for this one, I feel like we were like, “We are a rock band that has synths in it.” It’s not just for the sake of pop production with synths; it’s like, “We’re a rock band with synths.” And then, “Not Afraid to Die,” we have synths there, too, which are very melodic. Some of the inspiration for “Some Kind of Magic” came from the 80s with these big, unapologetic 80s synth hits.
Andrew: Yeah, and a lot of the larger synth lead parts are actually just guitar anyway. There are synths and things, but a lot of those stabs came from a mess of pedals. You have a hundred pedals, and you play the guitar, and it sounds nothing like a guitar. We found some really cool sounds that fit that big, bright 80s stab sound with huge reverb tails. It’s definitely the most 80s song on the record, for sure. We had guitar sounds inspired by that for sure.
Clovers represent, like, hope, faith, love, and luck. Are those, like, the through line? Do you think through the album, those kinds of themes?
Collin: I think the clover has just been something we’ve gone with as a representation of our band and who we are. I think the intention of the album art was this dramatic representation of a rock band that this image encompasses. I think the record, truthfully, is fairly dark across the board. I think it was the most open and vulnerable I’ve ever been lyrically for any record we’ve done.
I think it’s more so about my first sort of dealing with actual difficulty in life — actual mental difficulty. Some of the songs are like the start of that, some of them are in the midst of it, and some of them are about feeling like overcoming it. I feel like “Through the Landslide” is a song, for example, that’s one of my favourites. It’s very much me feeling, “I’m in the middle of this difficult thing, and I’m starting to get through it, but I need help through it.” “Some Kind of Magic” is a little bit more like, “I’ve overcome this thing, and there’s this excitement again.” I would say just it’s about being in the midst of dealing with, bargaining with, and overcoming struggle and the challenges of life.
Do you see this album as a chapter ending or a chapter opening up for you guys?
Collin: That’s a great question. I would say it’s opening. It’s the record where we look back and feel the most confident as musicians and in our sound. We spent the most time articulating all the choices. Every lyric, every sound, every song was the most thought out. We spent the longest time thinking about it visually, what it means to us, what it represents. It’s the most authentic record we’ve ever made, down to the core, in every choice that was made and every song we chose. So it feels like a beginning, like an era. I hate the term “era,” but it is a pretty impactful one for the band.
Was there a specific moment or song that made you realize, “We’re now heading in the direction of making a new album”?
Collin: I think it was “Not Afraid to Die.”
There is an “album version” of the song which, if I’m not mistaken, sounds slightly different.
Collin: Yeah, the album version is a bit different. The single version has been out for over a year now. It was literally a live recording all at the same time in the room. The album version is the same song, but mixed a bit differently, more in line with the rest of the tracks. We recorded it first and then went back to finish the record, and we were so happy with how it sounded but decided to nudge it just 10% more to make it more cohesive with everything else. Really, it was just that the drums are a bit louder.
Andrew: Yeah, we wrote so much before that song. We were kind of searching, just writing anything we could. There were country songs, classic rock songs, all sorts of things. Then we hit on that one and were like, “That’s what we want to chase.” 100%.
As storytellers, when you think back to when you were all 14, is there a specific movie, fairy tale, or book that made you want to lean into writing or storytelling?
Collin: I just read a lot of poetry. I love poetry. I wouldn’t say there was a specific book or poem that inspired me. It wasn’t like I had one particular influence, but I think a love for poetry and self-expression was what sparked it. I’ve always found it easier to express myself in writing. I had a hard time articulating my emotions verbally for a long time, so writing was an outlet. Songwriting, too, like the rawness in Bruce Springsteen, Third Eye Blind, and Bob Dylan’s work. It was about telling a story, and I always connected to that. For this record, it’s a little less colourful like poetry and more direct. A song like “My Sleep” is a good example—it’s a story from start to finish, and it’s not pretty or dressed up, just a raw narrative.
Andrew: I feel like I’ve seen people writing in studios with a movie playing, and it kind of inspires you. For me, there are movies I watch and then go write something that feels connected to that world, like The Goonies. I watched it recently, and I remember writing a guitar part that kind of sounded like it. There’s a part in the movie where they’re in the caves, and there’s this old 80s synth part. I realized later that the guitar part I wrote sounded almost exactly like that, even though it was unintentional.
Spots in Philly—where should people go to eat? I love Philly, I have dreams of the pizza there.
Andrew: There’s a place called L’Angolo. It’s a small Italian restaurant in South Philly. It’s way smaller than this room—from the wall to that table. It’s amazing, BYOB, all super fresh Italian food. It’s crazy good, and it’s not expensive, which is crazy because you expect to pay a lot at nice Italian places. But I went, and I got an appetizer, an entrée, and felt like a king for about 50 bucks. I was like, are you joking? It’s the best Italian food. I’ve gone back again and again—it’s so good. The portions are crazy, and the veal ravioli I had was unbelievable. It was a dish I’d never experienced before. It was like that moment when you taste something and think, “I don’t think I’ve ever had this before.”
Collin: The pizza in Philly is way better. Where do you go for pizza?
Not by Philly but I went to a place near Wilkes-Barre called Ricci‘s that had sweet sauce. It was life-changing for me.
Andrew: It’s the water. They literally send East Coast water to the West Coast to make pizza taste like it does back here.
Collin: As for the obvious Philly things, people always ask about cheesesteaks, and those are great. But I think the roast pork sandwich is just as popular. If I could give someone one tip, there’s a place in South Philly called John’s Roast Pork. Get one cheesesteak and one roast pork sandwich, and split them with a friend. That’s the best of both worlds.
Andrew: Yeah, and Sahadi’s is out of control. They do all kinds of homemade hummus and stuff. They had a 40-day aged steak that was incredible. It was unreal.
If you could manifest something for the band this year, what would it be? I know you’re touring with Mayday Parade, which is awesome.
Andrew: Japan — I would love to go there. Everyone I’ve talked to who’s been there says it’s the coolest experience. They don’t want to leave. Before Japan, though, Australia and New Zealand have always been bucket list items for me. I want to go to the Shire, do the whole thing.
Collin: I don’t know, we’ve kind of done everything I’ve wanted. This year, we’re going to Australia, which is a first for us, and I’ve always wanted to go. We’re just friends who love music, so everything’s been a blessing. It’s been great. Happy to be here at 8123 Festival and at a quilt festival, our new album is out so soon. No complaints.
Grayscale’s fourth album The Hart is out January 31st.
Interview Kelsey Barnes
Photography Keenan Reed
