Avoiding Mosh Pits with Greys

Right now, Toronto is arguably the North American hub for loud, strident guitar bands. From media darlings like Fucked Up and METZ, to noisy up-and-comers like Odonis Odonis and PUP, not to mention a Constantines reunion, the T-dot can rival any metropolis. Post-hardcore/grunge enthusiasts Greys, however, might just be the best of the bunch. Forming in 2011, the four-piece spent the last three years advancing their sound over as many EPs, leading up to this year's debut album, If Anything. Out via Buzz (Canada) and Carpark (U.S.), the album is set to turn plenty of heads, thanks to its heady mix of searing, fuzz-covered riffs, robust hooks and total cacophony that leaves you with an idea of what Nirvana could have been had they chosen Amphetamine Reptile over Sub Pop. They're destined to steal North By Northwest next week, where they play both Smiling Buddha (June 18) and the Horseshoe (June 20), before embarking on a month-long tour across the continent.

Noisey caught up with singer/guitarist Shehzaad Jiwani just before he checked out the latest Godzilla flick to discuss his musical heroes, trumping Grey's Anatomy in Google search results, standing out on a label's roster and his dad's sociopathic taste in movies.

Noisey: Last year you helped put out a free compilation featuring Toronto bands covering Nirvana's In Utero called Milkin' It. I hear a lot of Nirvana in your new album, If Anything. What type of impact did Nirvana have on you?
Shehzaad Jiwani: For me, personally, I was four when Nevermind came out, but my brother was 12. He was watching MuchMusic all the time: Coca-Cola Countdown, Electric Circus. At his age, he wasn't exactly going out at night, so he was around on Friday and Saturday nights. I looked up to him a lot and whatever he did. He listened to more hip-hop, but for some reason Nirvana and Metallica passed the bar to him. So I was allowed to like that stuff. When I was four, I remember watching those videos so much that one day I walked into my dad's office and grabbed his guitar and just smashed it. That's the kind of impact it had on me. I always had an above average interest in music because my brother and parents were avid music fans, but I also grew up at a time where music videos were your cultural currency. You'd go to school and talk about how exciting it was to see a band you liked on TV. I have very distinct memories of a lot of those bands and a lot of those videos, like many people my age do. I thought Dave Grohl was Canadian because he was on TV so much.

Fugazi seem to be another band that matters to Greys. The first song on the album is called "Guy Picciotto," after the co-frontman, who you call your hero. What does he mean to the band?
Nirvana and Fugazi are the main comparisons we get, along with Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes, which is fine. What does he mean or what does Fugazi mean to the band?

Well, you named the song after him. Unless you're more of a Rites of Spring fan.
[Laughs] Actually, I'm more of a fan of his production, like the stuff he produced by Blonde Redhead. No, not really. Well… I also really like the Blood Brothers record he did. I think it was their last one, Young Machetes. The song's not specifically about him, but the guys I look up to, the coolest people on earth, like Guy, Stephen Malkmus and Justin Trosper from Unwound. Dudes who are unassuming, rock star types. They're just people, and that's what the song is about. Going to a show and seeing this person who is just inhuman make these crazy sounds with his instrument, and be completely otherworldly and transform your world. And then what's even more shocking is that this person you put on the altar, lives down the street from you. And plays a guitar you can also buy from a store and also play with your friends. Everyone from bands I like are regular people. When you meet them and you have any ounce of superstar worship they get weirded out because they're not used to that. I'd be more excited to meet Clint Conley than I would be Axl Rose or something like that. And he'd be weirded out that I even know who he is. That's just how it is with the kind of music we make.

What's with the name of your song "Use Your Delusion"?
I have this ongoing list of song titles and I just pulled it out, but it fits with the lyrical content, which is wishing you were someone else. It was deliberately placed after "Guy Picciotto," which is starry-eyed. This song is about being detached by everything around you. But the title is just a riff on Use Your Illusion because I also kinda love Guns N' Roses. Terminator 2 came out around the same time as Nevermind, and that was the first movie I saw in theatres. That image of John Connor on his dirtbike listening to "You Could Be Mine" is honestly one of the defining moments of my life. [Laughs] That movie is the best. It's still awesome. I don't know what movie a four-year-old could like more… I guess a four-year-old shouldn't be watching that movie. A guy does get stabbed in the face with a knife-arm, which is pretty violent.

While drinking a carton of milk.
Exactly. Right after we saw that, my dad said to me, "Don't let your mom catch you drinking out of the milk carton." Because my dad is a sociopath, I guess. He was a terrible father, as far as that goes. He always used to make me watch horror movies because he watched all the kid movies with my brother. So I didn't get to watch Back To The Future or Goonies because he already saw them. He showed me Dawn Of The Dead when I was six or seven. He coerced me into watching it by saying stuff like, "Look, it's a comedy because he's wearing makeup." And then shortly after, a man's intestines get ripped out.

So the album isn't quite as heavy and aggressive as the EPs. Was that just intentional?
Well, it wasn't done on purpose. If you listen to all of the EPs in a row then listen to the record it sort of makes sense. We wrote the last 7" Drift in August 2012, and we wrote the album a year later in 2013, so we were able to flesh out our band and us as players and how we play with each other. Playing to the format with EPs you're limited to whatever time you have and want to make the hardest impact you can. Whereas on a full-length, A) you have more time, but B) you want to keep it interesting for a longer period of time. We didn't want to make it boring by making it heavy throughout. We wanted to pace it and we played with dynamics a lot more. As far as the songwriting goes, it's just where we're at. I can' imagine we'll write another record that sounds exactly like it. This is just a snapshot of where we were at the time.

What made you sign to Carpark for the U.S.?
Honestly, we only sent the record to two labels and that was one of them. We're really, really thrilled to be on this label. We were drawn to it because it's not a label that just has a certain genre attached to it. You don't hear Carpark and assume it's a certain thing, and that's what's interesting to us. Speedy Ortiz and Cloud Nothings are obviously the closest to us, but even then I don't think we have much with those bands. It was just cool. I love what they're doing, they're the nicest people. Speaking with them was such a delight. Our conversation with Todd Hyman was 30 minutes long, 20 of which was just talking about Slint because he grew up in Louisville. It was super organic, there was no song and dance, and immediately it felt comfortable.

I've noticed that Greys tend to get compared to METZ and Odonis Odonis, I think mostly because you're all from Toronto. Does that ever get frustrating?
No. I don't think there is a particular sound in Toronto like there was in Seattle. You can draw comparisons between us and METZ, but other than the noisy guitars, we approach songwriting in two completely different ways. And especially knowing those guys, it's a totally different process. We don't have a lot in common with other Toronto bands, save the loud guitars. Toronto is a pretty big mosaic of styles. I don't feel burdened with any comparisons to Toronto. Like us, Fucked Up and METZ, everyone brings us up because we're from Toronto but we don't have that much in common. It's not a bad thing though because those are two of the best bands in the world right now.

I read that you "fucking hate mosh pits." How often do you get them?
I don't think I ever said that, to be fair.

It was a direct quote.
Well, I don't know if I said exactly that. I just don't like being in them because I'm only five-foot-eight and 125 pounds, so I don't think it's comfortable. I am not so much of a Fugazi fan that I need to be all Ian MacKaye about it. But certainly when I see someone getting knocked around who don't want that, I see three or four people who are starting that shit and I will say something to them. Have fun though. I'd rather see people jumping around than standing there. It's just annoying when a hundred people are trying to enjoy the set and five dudes are stopping them from that.

Stagediving? Crowdsurfing?
I'm okay with that but we don't get a lot of it. We're not American Nightmare or anything like that. I think we jump into the crowd as much as they do.

Greys is a nuisance to Google. Grey's Anatomy comes up way too often. What keywords do you use to search your band name?
[Laughs] That's a really good question! I'd say "Greys band" or "Greys Toronto." I think we're moving on up. I believe we are number seven on the Greys Google search results now.

How offended are you if someone spells it Grays?
Oh, whatever. It happens a lot. I don't really care. People fuck up my name all the time. There's an article on BlogTo that called me Jazwald.

Just so you know, I Google "Greys" and you've jumped up to four. Congrats!
That's amazing! We're moving on up! That's great! Fourth!

Cam Lindsay is a writer living in Toronto who is on Twitter.

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