The Bard Interviews: Dear Boy- Part II
Bet you folks thought I completely forgot about my sit down with Ben Grey of Dear Boy. Well, I hadn’t. Life just got in my way but it’s the still first month of the new year and time to come out roaring. Also, Dear Boy is playing their first show if 2014 tonight at the Bootleg Bar. In case you were snoozing, you can find the first part of my interview here. Without further chatter…
A: Do you have a specific approach [to your music videos] because they are definitely unique.
B: Well, we got lucky that we got to work with Bailey Wynn. Who I will just say is my sister. We finished the record in 2012 but we didn’t want to release it because, it’s been my experience and just as a listener [that] I feel like once I have the mp3, or if somebody gives me the mp3 too easily it looses value. And at that time we had never played a show, no one knew who we were and it just was like, I don’t want it out there yet because there’s no audience for it. So, I discovered a new facet of a band’s creativity, which is going to be that visual presence and so we released these teasers with my sister. We had all this unused sound design we had all these ideas and we just want to start to make things and since there wasn’t a band there were no expectations and was like, well this is something I feel comfortable putting out and seeing how people respond to it. And so it started with a concept and from there it just sort of, I don’t know how to say … I don’t know. We knew what the aesthetic was and we knew what we were trying to go for and it was really easy. And having a collaborator like her, she’s so great that she would take small little ideas and turn it into these amazing things. I’m really thankful that we just had a chance to collaborate with her. It’s a big deal and I’m really proud of the videos.
A: Are there any special stories behind any of the songs? I know you have one that kind of pays tribute to Scarlet Grey. At least, that’s what it sounds like.
B: Yeah, actually. That’s interesting that you would pick up on that. The song “Green Eyes,” which is on the record, is kind of my… It was the first song written for this thing and it was just kind of a way of saying goodbye to all of that. I think you’re probably referencing another song now that I think about it. But, that song is actually just kind of a “Bon Voyage” but in a really positive way because it was such a positive experience. I’m just kind of not the same person musically or really just at all.
B: So, I think you’re probably referencing a newer song that says my name. Am I right?
A: Probably. I don’t remember the lyrics offhand. I think it goes, “I’m still Grey but I’m not the same.”
B: Yeah. That’s it. That’s a newer one. That song is called “American Gloom” and it will be going on whatever it is this new record becomes. That’s a personal one. I’ll probably keep that a secret.
A: OK. That’s fine. I know your songs definitely take a different… I don’t want to say a different approach but they’re sonically different than what I’m used to from you. But I like them. I’m not saying they are bad or anything. They’re just different.
B: Cool.
A: So I’m just wondering, what inspires it?
B: It’s genuinely the music that I listen to. I mean really my favorite music, my favorite types of music; it’s early 90’s British pop music. You know, post punk and it’s really kind of traditionally how Americans, like I said before, romanticize British music. Obviously I have this propensity for British music. It’s the stuff that I’ve been listening to for 10 years. The problem is that I started Scarlet Grey when I was really young and I didn’t think that it was going to be… that we were going to make a go of it. And it’s just a bunch of friends and I and we just made this fun active rock music and then we started playing and people started coming and then it was. I was in a weird position because I love the songs and I did have this fondness for the whole thing but it was like the more we did it, the further I would get away from what I really wanted to be writing. And not that I don’t, you know have love for those songs or the friends that I’ve made or the fans that we made and all that but this is the first chance I’ve had to really do what I really really wanted to do.
A: Mmmmhmmmmm
B: I know I threw a lot of reallys into that.
A: That’s ok. You’re from The Valley.
B: I’m from The Valley. A lot of reallys and a lot of likes.
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