Photo by Adriana Alvarado
Interview by Lyric Beyerl
Recently, we had the opportunity to interview Floral Grey, an up and coming progressive hardcore band from New Jersey. We spoke about their music, the aspirations of the band, and some struggles brought about by the ongoing pandemic.
First of all, can you all introduce yourself? Who plays what?
Jay: I’m Jay Correnti, the lead vocalist.
Ron: I'm Ron and I play the bass guitar and do backup vocals.
Robin: I'm Robin, I play guitars sometimes.
Andrew: I’m Andrew Romanowski, I play drums.
Tony: I’m Tony. I play guitar and occasionally run noise through a pedalboard.
Where does your band name, Floral Grey, come from?
Jay: It came from months of deliberations over different names. If I recall correctly, it just ended up coming together from two different name combinations that we were tossing around towards the end of that deliberation.
Ron: My mom is a florist so I think that had something to do with it.
Robin: Honestly, the name came from a long round table discussion. We felt that we had outgrown our previous name due to lack of activity and us bringing a whole new sound. Floral Grey felt like a more mature and accurate depiction of our new sound.
Andrew: I think Tony came up with it. We were throwing name ideas back and forth for a minute and he combined a few together. We thought it fit the visual and sonic aesthetic we were going for.
Tony: I thought it sounded cool when two names we thought up were merged into Floral Grey. That’s all there was to the name.
What genre would you say defines your sound?
Jay: It’s hard to say. If I had to pick one I would have to go with progressive hardcore, but our own pretty variation.
Ron: I'm not sure what genre we are.
Robin: Most people would say it's scramz, I say it's musical introspective noise.
Andrew: We’re a blend of skramz, hardcore, and post-hardcore. Since that sounds pretentious, metal or hardcore kind of sums it up!
Tony: I can’t really say! We take from different genres like noise, hardcore, experimental music, and screamo.
How long have you been playing music?
Jay: I started doing vocals in late 2010 to early 2011, picked up the guitar and bass around summer 2013, and started producing and engineering music in late 2016 in early 2017.
Ron: I've been playing guitar for a few years now.
Robin: As a band, probably more than five or six years, as an individual close to 10.
Andrew: Most of us have been playing together in one way or another for about five years. Jay joined in around this time last year, but we were always playing shows together with our other bands. I've been drumming for around eight years.
Tony: Close to five years, going into six.
How did you meet? How long after that was the band formed?
Jay: I joined the band officially about a year ago while the rest of the guys had been grinding together for years already. We all knew each other from playing shows in our local scene while I was playing in other bands, so when they lost their original vocalist I offered to fill the spot until they could find a replacement; I ended up staying for the long haul.
Ron: I was a teen when I met most of the rest of the group. We played in a band called To Vanish Tomorrow.
Robin: When I first met Tony, our lead guitarist, I pushed him into the snow and jumped him along with some other friends. And they say violence doesn’t create long-lasting relationships. (laughs)
Andrew: I met Ron through a chance on Instagram when our old band, To Vanish Tomorrow was looking for a drummer, he just hit me up and I had no idea who he was. After ghosting me for like two months, he gave me some songs to learn and I was in the band by summer 2015.
What artists/musicians inspired you to pursue music?
Jay: That’s a tough one, but to narrow it down to three I would have to say Fall Out Boy, Underoath, and Kingdom of Giants. Specifically, they inspired me to want to be in a band over pursuing a solo music career of any kind.
Ron: I'm really into (Sandy) Alex G, Agnes Obel, and Bedroom right now.
Robin: In the early years of the band, it was 90% Green Day, even though we don’t sound like them or anything, I just loved their passion as musicians. More recently, however, one of my biggest, if not my biggest, inspirations is Frank Ocean.
Andrew: The Wiggles, Ozzy Osbourne, and NSYNC inspired me early in my life. Around the time I started playing drums, I was really into Green Day, Slipknot, and Blink-182; I would just play the Green Day Rock Band game on drums for hours each day for years leading up to my first lesson.
Tony: My father, unintentionally. Music is an art and culture my family embraces, so for me, it was only a matter of time till I picked up an instrument and explored the feelings of expression within the music.
Congratulations on your debut single being released a few days ago! What would you say was the hardest and or most interesting aspect of recording together?
Jay: The hardest part for me has to be writing lyrics over some of these crazy instrumentals. The multiple changing time signatures that occur in some of these songs have challenged me in ways I didn’t know were possible when it came time for me to write my own lyrics, but I feel like I’m a stronger writer now because of it.
Ron: The hardest part is getting a sound that satisfies everyone in the band. We work hard to make sure the music articulates the original vision when it was written.
Robin: The hardest part was probably having to redo all of the vocals [as well as] getting used to a new but more efficient workflow, understanding Jay's vocal style and outlook on life and music. A new vocalist changes a lot more than, say, a new guitar or bass player.
Andrew: The hardest aspect was really writing the song. We worked on it constantly from 2017 to when it was tracked officially in 2019-2020. We didn’t know what we were doing when it came to writing songs (and probably still don’t) so we kept editing in between shows and other demos, perhaps a bit too much.
Another two songs we'll be releasing have been with us in one way or another for five years. You keep comparing this vague idea of what you want a song to sound like, but because you don't know what that is yet, you either keep tinkering with one idea until you like it or keep writing more and more songs until you have a collection you like.
Tony: The most interesting aspect of it was how we were able to capture such a raw sound. I wanted it to sound the exact way we sound live.
COVID-19 has certainly taken its toll on nearly everyone worldwide, but has negatively impacted the music industry especially. As a smaller/local band, have there been any major setbacks? How have you been holding up?
Jay: When it came to recording the album, I think we only pushed back one recording session about a month at the beginning of April when COVID-19 was more mysterious. Besides that, the lockdown actually started about a month after we decided to go on a hiatus from live shows to focus on the album.
The guys had also been working on this new material for two years before I came along, so the songs were mostly done. We do most of the production ourselves so we haven’t had to work on anyone else’s schedule but our own; we’ve been pretty lucky, all things considered.
Ron: COVID-19 has significantly assisted in recording the record for us. (laughs) We'd probably be [a completely different] band had it not been for COVID-19.
Robin: In a weird way, the pandemic helped us more than it hurt us. Not to say it didn’t affect us negatively, but the positives have definitely helped.
It gave us the much-needed break from shows and rehearsing and allowed us to focus more on the recording process. With Floral Grey, I think it's safe to say that without the pandemic we would’ve still been To Vanish Tomorrow, for better or worse. That said, we do miss playing shows and hanging with our friends in the scene and other bands quite a lot.
Andrew: It’s funny because, while many other bands might say the pandemic set them back, we’ve been working on this album for about four years and are finally putting it out. Aside from shows and COVID-19 restrictions, I think we still would be putting the music out around now anyway.
Tony: It’s difficult...we of course don’t see each other as much. There have been setbacks but, surprisingly, this has been the most focused we’ve been on the recording aspect of the band.
When concerts start up again, what can we expect from you guys? What would be your dream line-up?
Jay: Hopefully once venues start setting up shows again we can hit the ground running and set up our first real tour along the east coast. It’s hard to nail down the perfect dream line-up, but I think if we ever got to share the stage with Underoath, Dance Gavin Dance, or Portrayal of Guilt, we would all be happy campers.
Ron: It would be cool to open for Sandy Alex G.
Robin: We’re not quite sure since this whole pandemic made us realize we probably don’t need to play as many shows as we used to. We’ll probably be focusing more on our online presence. That said, personally, I’d love to play a show with Chon, not because we’d complement each other but just because I love those guys.
Andrew: We’re definitely gonna play shows as soon as we can. We all miss it dearly.
I just wanna play with our friends in Entierralos again. Absolute dream tour for me would be with Touché Amoré and Daughters.
Tony: Would love to branch out and perform with abstract artists of other genres. I don’t have a dream line-up, but I have certain artists in mind that would be an honor to perform with, ranging from Portrayal of Guilt to MIKE.
As a new band, what is your end goal? An achievement you'd like to accomplish together?
Jay: I’d like to see people really connect with the music the same way I did when I first joined the band. These songs are some of the most emotional, raw, and intricate songs I have ever heard or had the chance been a part of and I hope everyone who listens can feel that in the music.
Ron: We want to make chill music that surprises people.
Robin: Make music we enjoy and have fun doing so! I no longer care for fame or fortune, even though it’d be awesome to be able to live off our art. Truth is, I just want to make something I’ll be proud of.
Andrew: Tour the US together and reach a lot of people from all over.
Tony: With Floral Grey, I hope to portray the idea of beauty within confusion. The idea of melody within noise is to parallel the harmony within doubt, anger, grief, and confusion that one faces during their life due to any circumstance.
The purest form of expression is sometimes the most visceral reaction a human being can have out of frustration, and there’s something beautiful about being conscious or in touch with one’s inner feelings. Our goal is for that message to connect with others.
Is there anything else you'd like to add and or would like the readers to know?
Jay: "Scarlet" is just the beginning. We have a full EP we’re wrapping up on and we can’t wait to show it off!
Ron: Remember to always eat healthily! It affects the body and mind.
Robin: Fuck COVID-19, and normalize being sarcastic dickheads to your friends.
Andrew: We’re pacing ourselves putting out this new material. We’re sitting on and putting the finishing touches on a full records’ worth of content, gearing up to release it all.
Tony: It’s never too late to get into something.
Big thanks to Floral Grey for taking the time to talk with us! We can't wait to see what's next for them after such a strong start.
You can support the band by streaming their debut single "Scarlet" everywhere you listen to music (read our review of it here) and following them on Twitter @FloralGreyNJ. If you enjoyed this interview and/or have an artist you'd like to see us talk to next, feel free to tweet us @lgndsoftmrw!
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