{"id":3608,"date":"2010-10-22T14:29:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T22:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=3608"},"modified":"2010-10-22T14:29:57","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T22:29:57","slug":"gimme-five-chas-mckeown-of-gray-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2010\/10\/gimme-five-chas-mckeown-of-gray-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Gimme Five! Chas McKeown of Gray Young"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3697\" title=\"gray young\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung-60x80.jpg 60w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung.jpg 453w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>To get bogged down in the genre semantics of describing Raleigh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reverbnation.com\/grayyoung\">Gray Young<\/a> is to miss the point entirely.\u00c2\u00a0 Guitarist\/lead-singer Chas McKeown, bassist Dan Grinder, and drummer Jeff Dopko don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to be in it for the genre tags or the sound alike comparisons or even to explain the origin of their band name.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in it for the music and weird and wonderful ways it builds around their dynamic interplay.<\/p>\n<p>Fusing all manner of distortion and rhythm and texture, this trio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ambitious instrumentality results in songs that build and release with a certain moody elegance that captivates.\u00c2\u00a0 With one record (2009\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>Firmament<\/em>) on the books a brand new release to celebrate (2010\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <a href=\"http:\/\/307knoxrecords.com\/art_grayyoung.html\"><em>Staysail<\/em><\/a>), the band\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just tapping into their potential. \u00c2\u00a0But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just take my word for it, catch Gray Young live (at the release party for <em>Staysail)<\/em> this Saturday, October 23<sup>rd<\/sup> at <a href=\"http:\/\/the-pour-house.com\/events.php\">The Pour House<\/a>, where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be joined by their friends Free Electric State and Invasion.<\/p>\n<p>And now just five old questions for the guitar man of Gray Young:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. If your band were a book, what would it be?<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/staysail.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3698\" title=\"stay sail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/staysail-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nif our band were a book it would probably be a dynamic and melodramatic  screenplay that would also be available as a book on tape.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. What happened at the very first Gray Young show?<\/strong><br \/>\nour first shows were pretty awful.\u00c2\u00a0 but i wouldn&#8217;t trade them for  anything.\u00c2\u00a0 we learned so much from playing horribly to empty rooms.\u00c2\u00a0  it&#8217;s not the desired situation,\u00c2\u00a0 but it taught us so much about  ourselves and our band.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0i feel like if you can play to empty rooms\u00c2\u00a0then  you can do anything as a band.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0it&#8217;s also made us very appreciative of  anyone who has any interest in our band.\u00c2\u00a0 it&#8217;s hard to take your fans  for granted after playing to nobody.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Describe the approach you took in making the new record.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung_at_slims.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3696\" title=\"gray young\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung_at_slims-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"144\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung_at_slims-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung_at_slims-360x239.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung_at_slims-120x80.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/grayyoung_at_slims.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/><\/a><\/strong>i don&#8217;t think we have much of a cognizant approach in general with the  band,\u00c2\u00a0 but for this record and the last one we have recorded live as a  band and used that as the core of the recording.\u00c2\u00a0 so far we have just  liked the idea of no matter what else happens with the record,\u00c2\u00a0 the  feeling of the band playing will be there at the center.\u00c2\u00a0 with staysail there are more instruments and\u00c2\u00a0approaches\u00c2\u00a0at play&#8230;i definitely think we  didn&#8217;t make a firmament part two.\u00c2\u00a0 we aren&#8217;t interested in repeating  ourselves.\u00c2\u00a0 at the same time i don&#8217;t think we over think it either.\u00c2\u00a0 i  think the best approach is to not really have too much of one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Who\/what might be a few inspirations or influences that would really surprise people?<\/strong><br \/>\nsimple things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (how \u00e2\u20ac\u2122d that turn out?)<\/strong><br \/>\nwhen i was a kid i dreamed of being in a band.\u00c2\u00a0 that&#8217;s honestly the  dream i remember having as\u00c2\u00a0a child and it has never gone away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n<p>Wander to <a href=\"http:\/\/the-pour-house.com\/events.php\">The Pour House<\/a> this Saturday, October 23rd to help Gray Young celebrate their CD release. And, by all means, give Chas a high  five when you see him!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To get bogged down in the genre semantics of describing Raleigh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gray Young is to miss the point entirely.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[311],"class_list":["post-3608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","tag-gimme-five"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3608"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3704,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions\/3704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}