Greywind: "You need to do what you want, you only live once"

Greywind seem like a fairy tale. After years of dreaming, looking up at others and trying to find their way, the brother and sister duo from Killarney,...

Greywind seem like a fairy tale. After years of dreaming, looking up at others and trying to find their way, the brother and sister duo from Killarney, Ireland uploaded their first finished song to SoundCloud one evening. The track, still very much a demo, got played on BBC Radio One courtesy of Zane Lowe and the offers started rolling in. The pair didn't expect anything - "we were just posting the song for ourselves" - but next thing they knew, they were in Texas with Jason Perry working on their debut album. Taking just ten songs with them, Greywind don't waste time on the unnecessary. "We're not a band who'll write sixty songs and narrow it down, if we like something, we stick with it." With the finished record in their back pocket, 2016 saw them hit the stage for the first time. By the end of it, they'd played sixteen full band shows with every single one, from Slam Dunk to supporting Moose Blood, Young Guns and Thrice, mattering. "It doesn't make sense that our thirteenth and fourteenth shows were at Reading & Leeds. I think about that every day, and it doesn't make sense to me," admits Steph. "But I'll take it." Debut album ‘Afterthoughts' is every bit as fantastical as the band's story so far. Bold colours, wide eyes taking everything in and a sense of glorious escape underpin the vibrant positivity and constant sense of marvel that Greywind dance under. Today Steph O' Sullivan isn't speaking from a picturesque cottage in the clearing of a wood, but home is surrounded by mountains, lakes and, down the road, a castle. "It does look a bit like a Disney movie here, which I like," she beams. Despite the abundance of picturesque surroundings, for two kids who grew up idolising the likes of My Chemical Romance and Thrice, it wasn't ideal. Killarney, I love you, but you're bringing me down. The nearest city, Cork, is an hour and a half away while Dublin, the closest thing the pair have to a nearby scene, is a four-hour drive. It's why Greywind is just Paul and Steph. "We struggled for so long to find other band members. Eventually, we just decided to do it ourselves. "We always had bones of songs, but because we never had the full band, we never finished them. That was what was holding us back; that's why we always wanted a band so bad because we felt like we couldn't finish a song because we didn't have a drummer or whatever. We just always had that mindset. As soon as we stopped depending on other people though it all fell into place and ‘Afterthoughts' was born."

Not waiting for someone else to swoop in and save them, Greywind's fairytale is more about empowerment and self-determination than heroes and princes. ‘Afterthoughts' also runs much deeper than its primary coloured shine suggests. With their mum a singing teacher and their dad playing Ozzy Osbourne and Thin Lizzy in the house, Greywind grew up surrounded by music. Paul, the older brother, discovered the likes of Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World for himself before introducing them to his sister. "We've always got on, we have fought over stupid things, but he's always been my best friend. We've always had the same interests and taste in music growing up, so we'd go to shows together." It still works like that today, but My Chemical Romance, that was all Steph. "I remember watching TV, and the ‘Famous Last Words' video came on, and I lost my mind. It was so amazing; that guy is so cool and dramatic, and I became obsessed." One play of ‘Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge' later and it was settled. "I want to do this. That's what I want to be." From that moment on, music and performing were all the pair wanted to do. ‘Afterthoughts' represents that. It's about "wanting escapism and just getting out and doing what you want, no matter the situation. We live in a tiny town with no music scene, but we've done so much. The past year has been completely surreal. The stuff we've done, I still can't believe it when I think about it. We've managed to do it because we believe in ourselves. We just did it." The band may be all sunshine and smiles, but ‘Afterthoughts' is more Grimm. ‘Desolate' is inspired by The Smashing Pumpkins' ‘Today', cutting tragic lyrics with musical pops while ‘Forest Ablaze' lights the gasoline. "That's our anthem. That one is full-on ‘I don't care what people think, just do it.' Do what you want and don't care about whoever judges you. Get rid of all the demons that haunt your mind, just do what you love." As detached and idealistic as the landscape of ‘Afterthoughts' seems, its stories are grounded in reality. It's an album that allows Paul and Steph to make sense of the world around them and lays the foundations for something more positive. "'In Autumn' is one of the songs that when we got back, I couldn't listen to it because it would make me too sad. Our uncle committed suicide in 2010, and that woke us up. It made us realise that you need to do what you want because you only live once. That's what inspired ‘Afterthoughts' and ‘In Autumn' is about that. ‘We swore in autumn's wake; we carry ourselves out'. That song is the song that means the most to me on the album." Elsewhere, ‘The Lake' is a true story about someone who drowned near their house and their friend couldn't save him. "He was with him at the time; he turned around, but he was gone." The night the pair found out that their friend's cousin had drowned; they wrote the chorus to the song as a way of dealing with it. It wasn't written for the album, ‘Afterthoughts' was still a long way off, but it was written to process the emotions. That sense of exploration, discovery and peace can be felt throughout Greywind's debut.

"Don't wait for other people. You can only save yourself."

"We knew we loved the calm and the storm chorus, we always said we needed to be a band that's beautiful and epic. We always had that in mind before we even wrote together. ‘Imagine being in a band like that', we used to say before we'd ever written a song. When some bands start out, they don't know what they are, and they experiment, but we went into it knowing what we were and what we wanted to be." Anything less than a full-length would be selling Greywind and their world short. "We know what we are so let's just introduce ourselves to the world with an album. I remember when Paul showed me the verse of ‘Afterthoughts' - written in twenty minutes - we worked on it and it just came together. This is the sound we've always talked about. We've done it. Not that we thought anyone would ever hear that song. Now, though, I'm so proud that when I listen to the album, we achieved what we wanted to do." Each song on ‘Afterthoughts' comes with its own piece of artwork. "When you listen to the songs, we want you to escape into our world." The band's logo, a flaming rose as a fuse into a can of gasoline, captures the dark but beautiful potency. It's a fully realised world, but Greywind aren't staying in one place for long. Sat on the record for two years, the band already have rough ideas for album two. "We know the theme of it; we know what we want to do. We know what direction we're going to go. It'll be Greywind, but obviously, we've grown up a lot more now. One of favourite Greywind songs is on album two, so I'm excited for that." Determined and with a constantly growing vision, Greywind are the heroes of their story. "Don't wait for other people. You can only save yourself. People will always have opinions on what you do and judge you but don't focus on that, just believe in yourself. You're in charge of your own destiny, as cheesy as it sounds, that's what life is. That's what I found; that's what Paul found. If you want something, do it. Instead of regret, just do what you love. That's what ‘Afterthoughts' is about. Bad things happen, but you can escape. There is a light at the end of the tunnel."Greywind's debut album 'Afterthoughts' is out now.

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Greywind: "You need to do what you want, you only live once"

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