Interviews: GrayWeather

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Metalcore band, GrayWeather from the USA. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

Well, we were originally called Impulse at the start of the band and actually released our first LP through Stay Sick/Modern Empire music under that name.

While working on the second record, we were tossing around the idea of LP2 being called Gray Weather, but as time went on we decided to rebrand, and we quickly found our identity in GrayWeather.

The name comes from a track from guitar player Jared Michael’s old band Of Confidence.

The track was called Astoria, Oregon (Gray Weather), and that is where Of Confidence wrote their record.

Of Confidence member, Molly LaRue Woolsey often talked about those times as a fond memory.

Tragically Molly had passed in 2016, and Jared had always wanted to find the right way to honor her memory in his music. This felt like the right time and place to do so.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

Genre is a hard thing for us to nail down, as we ride the line of lots of different sounds like Progressive Metal, Active Rock, Metalcore, and more. It seems like since we have heavier music paired with strong melodic vocals, we seem to find ourselves compared to bands in the metalcore genre most.

We play and write the music that we enjoy as a group, and collectively write naturally. Genre was never at the forefront of our minds, it was always about forging a sound we found pride in.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Jake Mercer and Jared Michael have been playing music together since 2015.

Jared had met producer Mike Sahm in 2015, and in 2016 came to him about recording a record for the music Jake and Jared had been writing. Mike pushed them to start a new chapter in their music career and form a new band.

Mike then introduced the two to drummer Brandon Steptuat, and Impulse was formed. Mike decided to join the band as another guitar player.

While working on the debut record, Mike introduced everyone to bass player Ricky Orozco in 2017.

4. Each band member's favorite band?

Jake: Paramore

Ricky: Oceana

Mike: Tool

Jared: Northlane

Brandon: Tesseract

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Though there's a handful of artists we could all name that influence and inspire our sound, we find most of our creativity from other forms of art. Visual works like movies, anime, and stories are found in creative books, mostly in the sci-fi/future analog realm. A few works of art that greatly inspire our creativity would be the works of David Fincher, The Matrix, Dune, Blade Runner 2049, Tron, Possessor, Annihilation, and Neon Genesis: Evangelion.

6. Where was your last gig?

It's actually been a very long time since we last played live. It was in 2018, in Portland, OR with Cane Hill and Afterlife. We were still known as Impulse at the time.

7. Where would you like to act?

We’d love to play everywhere! Currently, our sights are set on the Whole US and Canada. The goal is to play internationally, especially Australia, Japan, and Argentina.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

There are so many artists we’d love to work with!

As for vocalists, Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox would be amazing to work with. Same with Vessel of Sleep Token, and Michael Lessard of The Contortionist.

We’d love to do any form of a collab with The Home Team.

Production with Tim Henson of Polyphia would be super fun and creatively pleasing.

We’d even love to see some remix/dance music work by artists like Phase One, Sullivan King, or Munk.

Our passion is in making music, so the idea of working with more people inspires us a lot.

9. Whom not?

We genuinely feel almost any artist brings a new perspective and creativity that broadens the sound and horizons of whatever piece is being worked on, so we don’t really have an answer for this!

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that?

No one in the band particularly has stage fright. Everyone has past experience playing music, we’re fairly seasoned musicians. Jared does prefer to wear a mask or face covering on stage for some form of theatrics, and helping him separate the person he is vs the performer he is.

If you’re new to performing and having issues with stage fright, it’s likely an issue that comes from being in your head too much. The best way to fix that is to avoid having your head involved as silly as that sounds. Keep performing often, and try playing week long runs of shows. Once your mind and body get in the groove of playing shows. Once you’ve done it enough, eventually it’ll be all natural reflexes. You’ll be in such a pattern of it your brain won’t think about it anymore. Like doing a job you’ve worked for years, you don’t think, just do.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

After discussing and trying to narrow it down to 3, we’ve concluded to Underoath, Deftones, and Tesseract.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

We haven’t had any weird experiences with fans. It’s pretty hard to weird us out, we’re all pretty unique people ourselves. The only thing we’d consider “weird” is something that might make someone uncomfortable, and that point kinda crosses weird.

13. What do you think of your fans?

We have the utmost love and respect for our fans. Their support means the world to all of us. For those fans who’ve been around since the Impulse days, we’re so excited to show you the new music and what the future has, thank you for sticking around.

14. What do you think of our site?

It’s great to see a publication using its reach and platforms to highlight smaller and upcoming artists. Keep it up!

15. Something to add?

Our debut single as GrayWeather “White Rabbit” will be streaming on all platforms on 1/13/22. It’s only the beginning of much more to come. Please join us on this journey.