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March 24th 2008

The band has been in the studio practicing and working on a new and rejuvenated set, looking forward to gigging in May and releasing new songs. George Logan has recently joined the band on drums, giving graystar a tighter and more dynamic edge that will enhance the band’s live sound. We’ve had our fair share of bass players since our beginnings, and we now have a new prospect who is bringing a real drive to the songs. We practiced with Bruno for the first time just last week, and we’re looking forward to the next practice and the new sound that is coming from this band. It’s great to hear the songs sounding fresh and different.

“I Disappear” will hopefully be part of this new set mentioned earlier, as well as some new material that we’ll be releasing through the year. One song that may be released very soon is “Breathe”, which will be produced by Rick Scott, as well as a reworking of “Out Of The Darkness” as part of the EP scheduled for May. It’ll be cool to showcase these tracks at the IPO Festival in Liverpool in May.

13th February 2008

Thanks very much to Dave Monks of BBC Radio Merseyside for having us on his show, it was great to play a live session on air. Thanks also to Tim Dyer for playing superb keys and giving new impressions of older songs, especially the Philip Glass style of piano in “Freaks” which gave it a really different feel. It was a enjoyable weekend back in Liverpool.

“I Disappear” is now in the very capable hands of Rick Scott whose other productions of graystar tracks have been at the forefront of the band’s drive into national and regional radio. It’s a song all about dynamics, of Glass-style piano arpeggios that have found their way into a variety of contemporary alternative and indie artists, including David Bowie, Brian Eno and Bjork. I walked around with it in my head for 3 months, but I’m sure it will be quite different from how it sounded internally, as songs always do.

We are also working towards some quality gigs in late Spring, perhaps starting off with the IPO and Soundcity Festivals in Liverpool in May. We hope also to release an EP of 3 songs in late March, all going well. Check back for updates.

Thanks for reading!

8th January 2008

It was interesting to come across the transcript of the Damon Albarn interview on Radio 4 recently, in which he stated: “We need to dismantle very significant parts of our culture and really re-examine them. I suppose you start with the celebrity thing.”

He added: “There’s just so many things I would alter. I think for a start you have to get rid of things like ‘The X Factor’ immediately.”

Albarn obviously sees himself as a musician first and his own celebrity as secondary if he believes that “we should get rid of 99% of the media”, a criticism that got widespread news coverage last week. I think I understand his point, however overstated it may be, but I don’t see an end to the media’s addiction to celebrity no matter how trivial TV programmes and magazines become. Great music, though, will always remain, and that’s the positive and most important belief to cling to in these X Factor times.

5th November 2007

We were very glad to hear from Dave Monks last weekend and appear on his show, and its especially encouraging to have Liverpool DJs supporting the band and the new album. The continued interest from BBC DJs makes us believe that there is a place out there for the music, that DJs out there are looking for great new music regardless of its trendiness or hype. We are also very grateful from the support we’ve had from our Myspace friends, and we’re glad to have made some new friends on the site.

The next song in this blog series of B-Sides is an original solo version of the song “Life Support”, the B-Side to the single released in March 2005. Stripped down, it is a very different song to the album track, which was called “Majestic, mysterious and menacing” and “you can almost see the audience quietly weeping into their Kronenbourg in some neglected Parisian café..”

Life Support Solo

22nd October 2007

This week we have another song in our “B-sides and rarities” blog, an idea created so that previously unreleased tracks could be heard on this site. Last week a live, full-band version of “Free” was the song of the week, and this week it is a very different track produced as a solo project at home in 2004.
I had just read a great book called “My Cousin Rachel” and looking back I realise the song was inspired by the novel’s protagonist. Still, I think that the book was only part of the reason for writing the song, for much of the reason was my own.

There will be a brand new song up very soon on the Myspace page, so keep an eye out by checking back when you can. I hope to play it for the first time at The Free Candy Sessions gig at the Liquid gig in Glasgow on November 23rd, hope you can make it.
Everything

15th October 2007

Thanks to everyone for their response to the free album promotion, we are sending the cds out to you all this week. Its great to get feedback and support, and if you keep an eye on the website we may do another giveaway soon.

Continuing with more ‘B-sides and rarities’, songs that were not on the album but that are maybe worth a listen, we have a live version of “Free”, recorded in the spring of 2005. This was the first time the song was recorded after playing it live for about a year, based on the original song that was written in two halves, the first part in 1994 and the second in 2003. It was written for Stefano Gianotta, a good friend who died tragically at the age of 27, who was a talented musician, artist and writer. The original song was a very melancholic affair, a solo production with soaring strings at its end. This version has more energy and dynamic feel, and captures the song played live many times over the years. Click on the image below which will take you to where the song is:

8th October 2007

To mark the playing of ‘Cry No More’ on mainstream radio, we thought we’d give some free cds away this week. All you have to do is send us an email with yiour address and you’ll get one in the post, or otherwise you can make a donation by clicking the album cover on the mp3 page that will send you to Paypal.

I think its great that radiohead are releasing their album online for free, a quite revoltionary act for a band of such magnitude and influence. It could have some fundamental effects on the way music is distributed in the future, cutting out the record companies which have always historically stood between the artsit and listener. The big labels have already had to change and adapt their role in the industry since the explosion of downloads on the internet; now they have to consider the frightening possibility of influential bands following radiohead’s lead and offering free music direct to their fans.

This week you can listen to the original version of the song “Higher” which is on the album ‘A Million Pieces’. It was recorded in 2003 as a solo project, and is quite different to the final album song:
Higher free download

25th September 2007

Finally “A Million Pieces” has been made, the official copy, produced with the kind technical guidance of Mervyn Futter at A1 cds
Its great to see the high quality end product of an album that has taken a number of years to make, mostly because we needed at least 6 months to play the songs live before attempting to record them. I’m sure many bands have felt, after touring for a while off the back of a new album, that they could record the album better after playing the songs every night for 6 months than the “just-out-of-the-studio” copy. On saying that, releasing albums every 4 or 5 years could frustrate the most patient of fans.
As for this album, there were some songs that were not developed that I always thought worthy of the album, so I’ve been working on the idea that an album of these songs could be put together and released in 2008: a mix of old and new, songs that have been floating around for a number of years. Homeless songs, as it were, and I think it could be a pretty cool project.
“A Million Pieces” is being passed out to reviewers, djs and musical “gurus” and I hope they will see the work that went into this cd, the attempt to follow a particular musical ethos in the face of the dominant “new wave” indie scene that has been so prevalent everywhere. Music and fashion go hand in hand, but I always hope that there is enough scope in the indie scene for a variety of sound, the appreciation of something different and the work that goes on to achieve it. Maybe these days, people don’t believe that music can cause “revolutions” or aspire to a “brave new world”. But at least it shouldn’t just be a “soma” pill, a quick release to forget what’s worth singing about.

13th August 2007

GRAYSTAR – A MILLION PIECES

Sometimes I feel that there is just too much music. I could spend all year on myspace.com or youtube.com and still not hear and see all the tracks and videos that are available. There are thousands of new bands and it is hard to keep up with what is happening. As many of the new bands have little to offer, it is a privilege to come across a band which looks good, plays well and performs highly original songs.

Such a band is the Edinburgh-based Graystar, although they are making Liverpool their second home as they have played the Cavern three times this year and also performed live on BBC Radio Merseyside. All the songs on ‘A Million Pieces’ are written by their lead vocalist, Dominic James. Each of them works in its own right and they combine to give the CD an idyllic, coherent feel. As luck would have it, I was playing the CD while reading the recently published, full-length version of the SF classic, ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ and I thought, ‘This sounds like the soundtrack.’ I know the Man from Mars doesn’t have feelings but ‘Cry No More’ has that space age feel about it and so does ‘Satellites’, especially with its lyrics about radiation pulses.

‘A Million Pieces’ is no quickie album as the tracks have been recorded over the last four years and some of these songs, ‘Life Support’, ‘More Or Less’ and ‘Free’, have been released as singles. Graystar has been gathering attention for their work, being nominated as one of the best unsigned bands in Scotland and also making the indie charts. The fact that they have topped the MP3 Top 100 charts three times surely means that sooner rather than later, they will have a killer hit single.

Although the band is highly original, it is a joy to pick up on their many references. It is surely no coincidence that the opening words of the album, “How does it feel?” echo Bob Dylan’s most famous song, ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. The whimsical feel of ‘Satellites’ reminds of the Beach Boys around the time they recorded ‘Holland’. The opening piano notes on ‘Free’ are a reference to ‘Imagine’ and there is something about the softer side of Neil Young about the track. At different times, I heard the Scissor Sisters, David Gray and Oasis, but again, they share similar references.

The arrangements are spot on as is the production from Dominic and Rick Scott. ‘Cry No More’ is my favourite as I love the way that the different parts, especially Neil Hartley’s drums, enhance what is already a very sensitive song. All the band – Craig Finnie (lead guitar), Tim Dyer (keyboards) and Mark Taylor and John Reynolds (bass) – shine on the album, but they know that they are working to the greater good. At the time of writing, Graystar is a three-piece with Dominic, Craig and Neil.

Graystar knows what it is doing and ‘A Million Pieces’ is a wonderfully soothing and evocative album. I was going to write that Graystar has no gimmicks, but maybe it has. The gimmick is that the band performs excellent songs that are well sung and well played. Just how many other bands do that?

Spencer Leigh
Presenter, BBC Radio Merseyside
August 2007

26th July 2007

After a month of practice with a new wireless system, we are doing our first gig as a 3 piece backed up with laptop at the Barfly, Glasgow on Saturday.
Its a complete change to gig wireless on stage, especially after 3 years as a 5 piece; we expect it all to sound very different on stage. It takes time to get used to playing to click track, and it has taken time to work on the redevelopment of the core sound that we are looking for. The most important aspect is that we do sound different in the way we want to, and go on to a new level as an indie band that is looking to continually progress.
We have 2 new songs that have been made since the change in the band in May: ‘Out of the Darkness’ and “If’, which add something completely different to the set. We hope you can catch us live at one of our upcoming gigs in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Liverpool, and in the meantime please check out our new song online