Grey Gallows is an upcoming dark wave duo hailing from Patras, Greece which formed in 2016. Their influences can be found in the broadest spectrum of 80s dark music. Recently they released their debut demo Mini LP ‘Beyond Reflections’.
Feel free to introduce Grey Gallows to our readers. How did you come to be?
First of all thanks for the invitation! Grey Gallows is a two member band from Patras, Greece and we were formed in the winter of 2016. First we became friends and after knowing each other and realizing that we both had the same taste in music, we decided to create this band. Grey Gallows were formed to express our feelings and thoughts through our music.
Which genre of music do you consider your work to be?
We believe that our music has facets from different sub genres of “dark” music but if we had to pick one, we would describe ourselves as a dark wave group.
Who are your influences musically?
We like bands like Clan Of Xymox, Sisters Of Mercy, The Cure but we also like newer bands like The Soft Moon, Lebanon Hanover, She Past Away etc. At this point we should mention that there have always been very creative bands in our country from the 80’s since now and we really like the Greek scene.
There is a noticeable revival of the dark 80’s music these days and specifically an increasing interest for post-punk, synth pop and dark wave. What is the reason for this, in your opinion?
We believe that the sound of 80’s was always very attractive. As far as these genres are concerned, there was always a larger audience abroad. There has been an evolution in this music through the past 3 decades (Gothic, Gothic metal etc.) The post-punk revival has started almost a decade now and this maybe has to do with the whole situation around the world with economical crisis, the rise of racism etc. When you must live in difficult conditions, your music cannot be “easy” or happy. In our country, these genres were always addressed to a very small audience and could described with the “underground” term. The last few years there has been a revival which we believe that started when more people discovered the Greek bands, like South Of No North, Film Noir, Yell-O-Yell etc. via internet.
The first album was called ‘Beyond Reflections‘. Tell us about it.
Well, most of the songs were ideas that had existed for a long time, until they took their final form the last four months. When we came together as a band, we worked these ideas and each one of us put his mark on each song. We could say that this album was a result of a collective work. The album was recorded in our home studio and a friend of ours, Ermis, helped us with the mastering. When the artwork and the logo, which designed by our friends Vasilis V. and Gerasimos K correspondingly, were ready, then we self financed this release in a cd format in 50 copies. We decided that our album will be for free from charge, only with the cost of shipping, if someone wanted to get it.
Tell us about your lyrics. Are they based on real experiences?
Some of the lyrics are inspired by real experiences indeed, which we have been through the last period of time. For example, ‘In My Time Of Sorrow‘ has to do with a serious an painful situation, that one of us had to undergo and try to overcome. We could say that ‘Inside A Coma‘, although it has no lyrics, as an intro song, reflects the same meaning. Other songs are based on a potential scenario, with a hero dealing with a painful inner struggle. These dramatic experiences, which everyone, us included, has or probably will suffer from in his lifetime, are reflected on ‘The Only One‘ and ‘Fading‘. ‘Pure Lust‘ on the other hand, is inspired by the liberating power of the voluntary surrender to whom you lust for. Finally, with the title itself ‘Beyond Reflections’, we wanted to comment that there’re subtle things in life, unseen or hidden, beyond the veils of logic and deep inside of us humans, which someone has to unravel in his life journey. At this point we want to say no more about it, because we want each listener to interpret our lyrics in his own way.
Which songs from ‘Beyond Reflections‘ would you pick out as your most representative of the Grey Gallows sound?
That’s difficult to answer because every song has its own meaning, even the intro ‘Inside A Coma‘. If we had to pick one, we would say that ‘Pure Lust‘ and ‘The Only One‘ are the most representative in this album, mainly for their aesthetic and sound. Of course, other people have said to us that they mostly prefer this or that song over the others and this has to do with the personal taste in music for sure.
Besides music, are you also influenced as musicians from other forms of art?
We are fond of everything dark and gloomy can inspire us, especially as far as literature, poetry, painting, theater or movies are concerned. Our influences can be as much as diverse, as the differences between the poems of the romantic Victorian era and the current minimal movement.
Do you embrace the opinion that great art is inspired by pain and suffering rather than joy and happiness?
Well, we cannot say for sure, because there is no possibility for us to know every artist’s feelings during the time of creation. One could say so but how about Bach‘s music for example? It’s quite difficult to assume that behind Bach’s compositions were constantly lurking pain, suffering and depression, don’t you think so? We can only speak for us and given that we can say that pain and suffering are indeed our inspiration, along with the strong will not to surrender completely and to be healed through this inner struggle of dark emotions. We see dark emotions, no matter depressing they are, as a chance for a better self-understanding, an everyday struggle, a voyage from darkness to light.
Future plans & goals?
As we have already said above, our first album ‘Beyond Reflections‘ has been recently released and we are planning to promote it. Everyone who is interested can contact us in our Facebook, Soundcloud, Bandcamp or YouTube page. Our album is for free, not the costs of shipping included. Also we are aiming to present this work live, somewhere in the near future. Furthermore we are currently working on our next full album, which we hope to be released somewhere in the months that will follow. As you can imagine, we are in a very creative period, as musicians and we surely aim to continue composing music and of course take the opportunity to perform our music live.
”…For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul..”
“Ode On Melancholy“
John Keats
Photo credits: Panos A.
Konstantinos Kourkounakis