Influences: Greys

A love letter to the UK...

Canada has always had an obvious anglophone tendency.

A former British colony – the Union flag sat in their national flag until its 1965 re-design – Canada has grown and developed, while retaining a fond glimpse across the Atlantic.

Greys are perhaps more guilty of this than most. Sure, the Toronto group draw their influences from all over, but the band have a special fondness for British artists.

New album 'Outer Heaven' arrives on April 22nd, with the band recently sharing the incredible new cut 'Blown Out'.

Check out the video below, then find a few UK-centric Influences picked out by singer Shehzaad Jiwani after the jump.

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David Bowie – 'Diamond Dogs'

This was kind of our anthem during the recording of Outer Heaven. One of those moments where four friends all start singing along to the chorus of a song, for no reason, but it's hilarious and you keep doing it anyway. The guitar from Bowie's glam era was a huge influence on 'Blown Out' – there's a riff in the middle that's pretty heavily inspired by the riff from this song.

When he died, I distinctly remembered us walking home from the studio in Montreal after we'd finished recording, all four of us just yelling out the words in the middle of the street. I think everybody has a memory like that associated with one of Bowie's tunes.

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The Chemical Brothers – 'Setting Sun'

We wanted a song with a similarly devastating down beat as this song, and we ended up with 'If It's All The Same To You' (which kinda sounds more like 'Let Forever Be', when I think about it). Mike Rocha, our producer, had this idea to have a separate mic on the snare drum and run it through a guitar amp, instead of using your basic drum trigger, which gave it more of a low-tech electronic vibe. That widescreen feel of mid 90s records like this were major touchstones for our album. This is our junky, fuzzed out version of that.

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Portishead – 'We Carry On'

I can't think of a record I listened to over the course of writing 'Outer Heaven' more than Portishead's 'Third'. The way they craft complex melodies over bleak, atonal, John Carpenter-esque drones is equally baffling and exciting to me. We wanted to have a song that was droney but propulsive, dissonant but melodic, and cold but still dense, the way this song and 'Machine Gun' are. That song ended up being 'Sorcerer'.

Braeden and I both play drums on this song, which in a way was inspired by watching the video of Portishead performing this record in its entirety on repeat. Geoff Barrow, if you are reading this, please work on our next record with us.

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Swell Maps – 'The Helicopter Spies'

This band had a pretty major impact on our writing. Their willingness to pull the rug out from under the listener is hugely inspiring to me. This song is a great example of that, as it's easily their most catchy, anthemic chorus, yet has literal noise running through the entire tune, in total disharmony with the fantastic melody they seemingly crafted by accident.

People often think of post-punk as this cold, depressing genre full of serious Robert Smith types, but Swell Maps (and Wire, Gang Of Four and PiL) make it seem cheeky and fun. That's exactly the type of band we relate to – progressive, sure, but with a wry sense of humour about it.

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Talk Talk – 'The Rainbow'

Mark Hollis is a genius and the world still needs to know that. Spirit Of Eden, Laughing Stock and Hollis' solo record are all perfect albums. This band made us want to quiet down a lot. That distorted harmonica and the swells of noise in this song are referenced by us on 'Strange World'. When people think of 'post-rock', they usually think of bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Talk Talk are, retrospectively, a post-rock band that is more rooted in subtle, jazzy dynamics.

For a band to come out with a record like 'Spirit Of Eden' after the hugely successful 'Colour Of Spring' is the ultimate punk move, in my opinion.

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'Outer Heavens' is due to be released on April 22nd.

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