Fresh off their first tour in Australia supporting Slowly Slowly, Philadelphia-based rock band Grayscale is already hitting the road again on a US tour in support of Mayday Parade. We caught up with the guys before their show at House of Blues Anaheim for exclusive portraits. Frontman Collin Walsh also sat down with First III No Flash to talk about their new record The Hart, going back to their roots, life on the road, and more for May’s digital cover story.
When Grayscale released The Hart earlier this year, it marked their first new album since 2021’s Umbra. Years of life experience and reflection poured into The Hart — it features something more raw, vulnerable and brutally honest in its writing. “I think this record, out of the four we have, is the most storytelling-oriented,” frontman Collin Walsh says.
“The first three records are more like, ‘Here’s this thing I’m going through.’ The Hart is touching on some of those earlier sentiments, reflecting on the storylines more as an adult, more matured to fruition and played out. They’re told in a little bit less of a poetic way like it was in the past, and more reflective about the emotions surrounding them now.” — Collin Walsh of Grayscale
This mindset also helped shape the process of how The Hart was made: “We spent the most time on this one just playing it live in a room together, like the bands we grew up listening to. Instead of cutting everything together on the computer, and getting it super clean and perfect, we just rehearsed and recorded the songs together as a band. With “Not Afraid To Die” especially, all the instrumentation was cut live, with vocals added later. That way of recording makes it feel more real, it has more rock elements and a raw energy to it, makes it feel like you’re in the room with us playing the songs,” says Walsh.
The stories on the record are all overwhelmingly personal, but there are a couple of outside influences for Walsh: “I think I just continue to take inspiration from artists like Bruce Springsteen. That open and honest storytelling has always stuck with me.” Other than that, the songs are mostly drawn from personal events and experiences. An example of this lies with “Don’t Leave Me In The Dark,” quoting something his mom would tell him when she was in a really hard place.
While the band’s roots are proudly American, The Hart also draws from their Irish roots, with the name, the feeling and imagery of the record representing where they came from and how they grew up: “Through this record, and through all of our discography, we tap into both our American and Irish roots. Songs like “Kept Me Alive” and “Not Afraid To Die” tap into some of the not-so-great aspects of how people are raised in our home city, the family dynamics, all that.” With the album covering themes like addiction, death, losing their religion and finding it again, they don’t shy away from touching upon the darker personal experiences, channeling all the personal pain with the sole purpose of making the most authentic and genuine art they could make.
Because of the very clear and soul-baring nature of the lyrics, every word cuts right to the bone from the first second on, and fans really seem to resonate with that. “I think the openness in the songs really stuck with people,” says Walsh. “There’s been an overwhelming response from fans saying how connected they feel to it.”
Since the release of the record in January, Grayscale finally made their way down under with a string of shows supporting Slowly Slowly. They are now on tour across the US with Mayday Parade. “Australia was amazing,” Walsh shares. “We’d been trying to go for a while, but COVID lockdowns messed it up. It was an incredible experience, we had the best time there as a band and as friends.”
In celebration of the Australian tour, they released a collaboration of “Kept Me Alive” with Slowly Slowly’s Ben Stewart — which a lot of the fans, both old and new, really seemed to love. “It was really cool to do that on their turf, and having new listeners discovering Grayscale that way,” says Walsh. Now back in the US, the band has joined Mayday Parade on their 20 year anniversary tour, and that crowd response has been just as enthusiastic. “There’s a lot of crossover with their fans and ours,” Walsh tells us. “The crowd response has been so fun every night, it has been amazing.”
When asked about which new songs in particular stand out, he answers: “People really seem to connect to “Through the Landslide” and “Dance With Your Ghost” live, and we’ve had such a good time playing those as well.” As for overlooked tracks on the new record that deserve a bit more attention, Walsh points to “Painting Over You”, tucked into the back half of the record and rarely played live, so far. “It’s one of my favorites,” he states.
When asked what he’d want someone to know about them and The Hart who hasn’t listened to Grayscale before, the charming frontman keeps it simple:
“We’re just a rock band from Philadelphia that loves rock and roll. We are really proud of who we are and where we’re from. And we love making music that we really care about, that’s really open and vulnerable and earnest, that hopefully gives people something they can hold onto and identify with.”
The sincerity throughout the music is what makes The Hart stand out even more than their previous work, somehow feeling like a big turning point for the band. Grayscale hasn’t so much reinvented themselves — they’ve just became more open and honest about themselves than ever before. The Hart is the culmination of their growth up until this point, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they keep rising to new heights in the future.
Grayscale will finally embark on their own headlining tour through Europe in November. When asked about moments that make them smile and think ‘this is why we do it’, Walsh is just as open and earnest in his answer, as they are in the music they make: “Seeing the fans come and sing the new words with us, telling us stories about how much the new record means to them and tattoos they already have of new lyrics or the album cover. All of that is just overwhelming and amazing, and it means so much to us.” If you’re in Europe, don’t miss out!
GALLERY: Grayscale at House of Blues in Anaheim (May 2025)
