Small Stone Recordings Artist- Pale Grey Lore Interview is up
1. Tell us a bit about this fuzzy heavy doom kick ass project known as Pale Grey Lore. How did this Ohio force come to be?
Michael: My brother Adam and I first started playing music together about ten years ago, and what became Pale Grey Lore evolved out of that collaboration. I was already living in Columbus when Adam moved here in 2009 from our home state of Michigan. After playing bass for years, he’d acquired a drum kit which he started playing shortly before he moved. We lived together and jammed frequently during that period, experimenting with styles and tones and laying the groundwork for what was to come.
I got married in 2010 and a year later my wife and I moved up to Cleveland. However, I was still in grad school at OSU at the time, so I was commuting back and forth to Columbus and jamming with Adam fairly regularly. We had rented a room at the Dude Locker, a converted warehouse in Columbus where all kinds of bands practiced. That’s where we met Donovan, who would go on to join as our bass player in 2014 after his previous band broke up. By the time Donovan joined, I had finished school and finally had the time and energy to get more serious with the band. We started writing like crazy, and by the winter of 2015, we were ready to record our first album.
After our debut album’s initial self-release in June of 2016, we got picked up by Kozmik Artifactz imprint Oak Island Records for the vinyl release. We had met Xander through some mutual friends and he started coming to a lot of shows. One night after a gig in November of 2016, he expressed an interest in potentially joining up as our second guitarist, so I invited him to come jam. He immediately clicked with the rest of the band and officially joined shortly thereafter. The first gig we played with our finalized four-piece lineup was in February of 2017 and we’ve been going strong ever since.
2. How does your self titled album differ sonically and melodically from Eschatology?
M: When we first started recording, we originally planned to just do an EP. Once we got into the studio environment and things were going smoothly, we decided to just go for it and record everything we had. I ended up writing most of the additional guitar parts and vocal harmonies in the studio. That happened to some degree on Eschatology as well, but we knew from the start that we were going to be recording a full length and planned accordingly. The most important difference between the first album and Eschatology is the presence of Xander and his influence on the songwriting. In general our process is quite collaborative, and we trust each other to write parts for our respective instruments that will contribute to the song as a whole.
3. Maybe I'm nuts but I hear bands like Saigon Kick, Galactic Cowboys, Kings X , Lo Pan, Foo Fighters, Clutch and Monster Magnet in the new album Eschatology. What bands inspired you?
M: Being from Columbus, Lo-Pan has definitely been a big inspiration. It’s been great to see them work hard and ascend to the level they’re at now. They are super talented and also very good dudes. I can’t speak to some of the bands you mention, but for all of us 90s/00s stoner rock, metal, punk, and grunge are important influences for sure. Adam and I are also very into 60s/70s psychedelia, garage, krautrock, prog, and acid folk. More recently, we’ve dug into a lot of 80s goth and post-punk also. There is so much amazing music out there to discover.
4. Love the melodic poppy vocals with that heavy fuzzy low end. Was this a goal from day one of making new album?
M: Adam and I grew up on the Beatles and Black Sabbath in equal measure, so combining heavy riffs with strong vocal melodies is something that just kind of comes naturally to us. It was really this aspect that drove both Donovan and Xander to want to join up. They were fans of what we were initially doing and were obviously on the same wavelength, so we thought they could help us make our vision a reality--which of course they’ve done brilliantly.
5. The album cover must tell a part of the story on Eschatology. What is the theme of the album?
M: The cover illustration is by our friend Adam Eckley who plays in a killer band called Black Sire out of Dayton Ohio. It’s done in a Tarot-influenced style that reflects the narrative concept behind the album. In a nutshell, it’s the story of a planet not unlike our own in which a rapacious capitalist-class death cult intentionally brings about climate catastrophe and nuclear disaster in an attempt to fulfill a bizarre religious prophecy. The chaos and suffering wrought by these events attracts entropy-hungry cosmic horrors whose presence opens a dimensional rift, causing an ancient timeline to merge with the present. The result is that half the planet remains a post-apocalyptic wasteland while the other hemisphere is transformed into a vibrant wilderness. After the rift closes, strange stone towers appear in various locations around the globe, and small bands of human survivors eventually emerge from underground shelters to explore the surface. That’s pretty much where the story leaves off.
6. How did you come to work with Small Stone? How has that partnership been to this point?
M: Right after we finished the recording we started looking around for labels to work with. We had a few solid leads and were weighing our options when Jeff Martin from Lo-Pan reached out and asked if we had any interest in working with their former label, Small Stone. Jeff said they were looking to sign a new band and offered to send them our material. Luckily, Scott was impressed with our stuff and after talking with him, we decided to go ahead and sign with Small Stone. The label has been very supportive and great to work with so far. If you would have told me ten years ago that we’d end up signing with a legendary indie label like Small Stone, I’d have thought you were crazy, but here we are!
7. In five words to someone about to listen to Pale Grey Lore for the first time describe the band.
M: Heavy, hooky, gloomy, and euphoric
8. Live vs Studio how does the band differ and do you enjoy one over the other?
M: We enjoy both! There are somewhat different (though overlapping) skill sets involved in each activity, and they each present their own unique challenges. For us, the first step is making sure that what we’re playing sounds good live so that once we get in the studio we can capture that magic. But the studio environment is something that has become an increasingly important part of our approach to composition, especially since Xander joined the band. It allows for additional layering that adds real depth to the songs, letting us build upon what we do live and dial in the precise tones, textures, and atmospheres we envision for each track.
9. What bands are currently impressing the members of Pale Grey Lore?
M: As far as newer artists go, I’ve been spinning a lot of Chelsea Wolfe, Torche, Uncle Acid, and Howling Giant. Xander’s been really into Black Mountain, Turn Me On Deadman, and A Deer A Horse. Adam has been spinning Metz, Battles, and Equip. Donovan’s currently digging Windhand, Big Business, and Suffering Praying Hands.
10. I have to ask where did the name come from and what do you want it to expose to the world about this band?
M: The band name comes from an essay written in the mid 1950s by Ohio-born philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine (who, incidentally, was the father of guitarist Robert Quine). It was something I read in grad school and when I came across that phrase I thought it might make an interesting band name. Adam thought so too, so we went with it. I think it’s pretty cool that our name references something from an obscure corner of the humanities that had personal significance for me. It’s just one more layer of complexity and meaning that fans can dig into if they want.
11. Would you call this doom metal or is it so much more as I'm going to say "Before the Fall" is a kick ass doom song gentlemen!!!
M: There’s a good amount of Sabbathian DNA in our sound, if that’s what you mean. I’m not interested in debating essentialist gatekeepers who seek to police the boundaries of various genres, but I think “doom” is a totally apt term to (at least partially) describe what we are up to. “Before the Fall” is definitely one of the doomier tracks on the record and people have really responded well to it.
12. If you could or are going to make a proper video off of Eschatology which would it be and why?
M: As a matter of fact, we already do have a proper video for “The Rift” up on our YouTube channel. Our own Xander Roseberry is the director. Definitely check it out and subscribe to our channel so you get notifications. We are hoping to put out another video or two shortly, so stay tuned!
13. Do the members of Pale Grey Lore have other projects that you would like to talk about or is this the band that matters?
M: We’ve all played in various bands for years prior to this project, but Pale Grey Lore has definitely been the most serious and the one we're most proud of. As of right now, Pale Grey Lore is the primary project for all four band members.
14. How does image and visuals help an underground band in 2019?
M: As a band, music obviously should come first, but it’s also important to develop a coherent visual style and overall aesthetic, from your album art to your stage presence. For us, it’s less about being over the top or larger than life, and more about being authentic and honest in our expression.
15. Are you fans of the digital age (podcasts, YouTube, bandcamp, blogs etc.)?
M: The internet makes it possible for so many people who wouldn’t otherwise have had any access to our music to hear it and become fans. That totally rules. But technology can be a double-edged sword, especially when narrow-minded techies want to “move fast and break things” without sufficiently thinking through the potential consequences. The algorithm-driven, inhuman hellscape of the modern music industry and streaming services flattens culture, undermines creativity, and fails to adequately compensate the vast majority of working artists. Podcasts, videos, blogs, and similar content can be great, but the monopolized platform infrastructure of the late capitalist internet is unfair, undemocratic, and unsustainable. Artists shouldn’t have to pay extra for “boosted posts” just to reach people who already follow their page, for example.
16. Vinyl vs Cassette which are the media you enjoy most in 2019?
M: I am personally in favor of all the formats, but for me, vinyl is the most crucial and best sounding format given the kind of rock music we are interested in making. Cassettes are cool too though, and I would not be opposed to putting some out in the future so long as there’s a demand for them.
17. Thanks for the time any closing words here.
M: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about our music and share it with more people. Keep up the great work!
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