[new sampshire] Old Gray drops tears, not bombs (and a new album too)
OLD GRAY hail
from central New Hampshire, and the Internet. In just over a year, the trio have
amassed an international following of rabid, Tumblr-addicted emo kids, and are known for their heart-wrenching riffs and tear-jerking lyrics,
quickly becoming the most hyped band the state of granite has seen in a long time.
Heavier than La Dispute, more desperate than American Football, Everything I Let Go & Everything I Refuse
To will give you the good cry you’ve been craving for the past year. Maybe you
thought their last few albums were sloppy and poorly recorded, and those kids
can’t sing for shit or whatever. Throw everything you knew (or didn’t) about
this band out the window and listen to the newest, loudest, and heaviest
incarnation of Old Gray
“It was time we put out a record
that sounded good,” says vocalist Cameron Boucher. “Not just
musically good, but sonically good, it’s way more listenable. It’s also a lot easier
to play live and it’s a lot more fun.”
Starting off with their
soon-to-be-classic spoken word introduction, “359 Pine” sends the listener
slowly into what will in just 12 minutes become a pit of wallowing despair.
Boucher said that writing and performing songs on the new album have given him
an emotional outlet to express his innermost thoughts and feelings. The lyrics,
contributed by all members of the band, are all incredibly personal, which is
likely what makes listening and watching a performance such an intimate ordeal.
“I don’t really write about
experiences that are beyond me, I just like to write exactly how I’m feeling,”
Boucher adds. “So often times, I feel like people know more about me than I
know about me, and that’s weird to think about.”
The next two songs, “Resonance” and
“Winter ‘11” deal with self-affirmation and loneliness, almost reaching a point
of moving forward from depression and anxiety. The height of Old Gray's hopefulness comes out in “Winter ‘11” with the closing lines:
Today I am what I never was: I am truly
alone
Tomorrow I will be where I wish I were today
I won’t be afraid any more
And what social network complains
more about being lonely than any other? That’s right, it’s Tumblr! Move over
LiveJournal. Tumblr has become a popular place for bands to post their music
and news, but also allows them to get super personal with their fans by direct
communication. Old Gray has utilized the social network in a way that invites
fans into a circle beyond the intimacy of their recordings and shows. They’re
like your Internet friend that you swap inside jokes with and hope they send
you n00dz (it’s a Tumblr thing…). With the onslaught on emo fandom chasing at
the heels of Old Gray, Boucher has found it hard to find his place to vent
privately on the Internet.
“I used to have a livejournal and
blogspot and stuff - no one cared," says Boucher. "I could write however I felt and it was like
a diary for a 14-year-old emo kid, and I kind of want to use Tumblr to that
effect, but if I write something, like, ‘oh man, sad,’ now people care.”
Though
Boucher no longer has the comfort of a blog that no one cares about, it hasn’t affected
his ability to open up through his music and online journals. The closing track, “Six Years” is
easily the most emotional, kicking off with a particularly poignant sample from
the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks, and rapidly exploding into their loudest
song to date.
New Hampshire is a state whose
artists rarely gather a national or international following before moving
somewhere more populated. Old Gray’s Internet hype is nothing short of
phenomenal. Hopefully they’ll continue to rep the #livefreeordie lyfe before
the allure of actual music venues and a music community leads them to Boston or
elsewhere.