This past month I was able to schedule a Zoom call with Irish emo band, Greywind, to discuss their upcoming new album called Severed Heart City. The band has a sound similar to the style of My Chemical Romance, Jimmy Eat World, and Paramore, and their quickly catching on with audiences worldwide. I asked the band about timing the vinyl with the digital release, their writing process on some of the key singles released so far, and how they’re staying grounded given the viral success of so many of their music videos. If you’re enjoying the interview, please consider pre-ordering Severed Heart City here.
Thank you both for your time today! Your next album is called Severed Heart City, and it releases on January 16th. Why did your band feel it was important to time the digital release of the music with the physical/vinyl product as well?
Steph O’Sullivan: We’ve always been a band that want everything to feel like an event, from every song to every music video. We’ve always put so much effort into everything so when the vinyl got delayed, we were…
Paul O’Sullivan: Too much of perfectionists to not have it all at once. <Laughter>
Steph O’Sullivan: Yeah, we had some dark, serious calls that day when we found that <delay> out.
Paul O’Sullivan: Obviously, there’s other people that were like, “Oh, you could have just released it…” but we really just wanted this album release to be one big event.
Steph O’Sullivan: And thankfully, it’s worked in our favor, because ever since, in the last two months, our new songs have been going viral so it was meant to be. The reaction to everything we released so far has been absolutely incredible, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear the final songs on it.
That’s awesome. So I actually bought the last vinyl copy today, so it looks like the “band variant” is now sold out in your store. So that’s why!
Steph O’Sullivan: Thank you so much. We really appreciate that!
Sure thing! I love the single called “The Scarecrow.” Can you walk me through your guys’ writing process on that key song and dive into the meaning behind the lyrics?
Paul O’Sullivan: Basically, we had those chorus lyrics for a long time and we could never fit it into anything. “Your wounds are my wounds too.” and we were waiting for the perfect inspiration to appear to build around it
Steph O’Sullivan: And then one day, Paul was like, “Oh, I wrote this verse. I don’t know if it is good or not, but I’ll show you anyway.” And then he sang the first verse literally, how it is for me. And I was like, Are you joking? It worked so well. Before our debut album came out, we had that “your wounds are my wounds” melody so we’ve had it in your back pocket. It was like, it’s gonna be on album two somewhere. I had a lot of health problems in the past year so I think that’s what made everything for this song clock into place.
Paul O’Sullivan: That song is about watching someone you love suffer and their pain causing you pain. Everything we write is real. We live in the south of Ireland, Killarney and all of our songs just start with just the two of us acoustically at home. We just record rough acoustic ideas into voice memos, and we know if the song sounds good by a rough acoustic what it will end up being when we get into the studio and bring it to life. So yeah, that’s the way we work, and it’s worked for us so far.
Yeah, it’s a great song! I can’t wait to hear it in full when the new record comes out too. So, I understand you guys have been very active on social media, with a lot of videos that have gone viral, which is also good for your guys’ notoriety. Why do you feel it’s important to connect with fans through multiple modes of communication, whether it be the internet or in person?
Steph O’Sullivan: Growing up, I still remember when Dustin Kensrue from Thrice, or Adam Lazzara from Taking Back Sunday, replied to us doing a cover on Twitter when we were kids. I still remember that, or even queuing up in the pouring rain for Taking Back Sunday. So I think it’s so important to connect with your fans cause we understand how much it means.
Paul O’Sullivan: I remember when we were kids, we did a cover of “Red Sky” by Thrice, and Dustin liked it on Twitter and we were like, “Oh my God!”. Yesterday we were on holiday in Florida, and flying back, I responded to hundreds and hundreds of comments cause it means so much to us. So when we see bands and artists complaining, “oh, I have to be an influencer now.” it makes us laugh cause you no you don’t…if you look at our social media, we’re just having fun posting clips of our songs around Ireland. We just have fun with it and luckily so many people have been discovering our music. We’ve been dropped by labels and management companies, and the songs that got us dropped ended up going viral afterwards and changed our lives. Our song “In Autumn” came out in 2017 and went viral in 2023. It’s all about being patient and believing in what you create. We’ve been creating this kind of music since day one and now it’s in fashion again, and we haven’t changed a thing. We grew up loving this music and used to check AbsolutePunk every day as kids. We grew up on that website discovering The Matches and so many <others> So it’s like cool to see that we haven’t had to change anything and the world has caught up with us. I remember getting bullied for being an emo.
Yeah, but now it’s back in again! I think yesterday was National Emo Day, too. <Laughter> Anyways, how does your band measure success?
Paul O’Sullivan: Our biggest dream was always to tour America. That’s where all our biggest inspirations are from, The Matches, My Chemical Romance, Mineral, Jimmy Eat World, Thrice…and luckily, we got to support Thrice a few years ago in London
Steph O’Sullivan: We’ve always had that connection to America and even got to record our debut album in Texas and our new album was recorded in Los Angeles.
Paul O’Sullivan: Before our music started going viral, we had around 3,000 followers on Instagram and 300 on Tiktok. We were just posting our songs like we normally do and then one day, we said, “this is what an Irish emo rock band sounds like” on a post, went to sleep, woke up, and had 10,000 new followers. And every day, for 10 days, we got 10,000 new followers daily, and we ended up getting over 100,000 on Instagram and 100,000 on TikTok. Even in this last week, we’ve got 60,000 new followers on Facebook from our new song “Waterfall” and we’re just sitting here feeling so grateful because there’s bands in meetings right now with labels saying “make your song go viral” being put under so much unfair pressure. We’ve been so patient and have been through a lot in our lives. Our band started from our uncle committing suicide, and it opened our eyes. We could never find any other musicians in our hometown to start a band with and if no one knows this, we’re siblings, so we just decided to not wait and just start a band without waiting.
Steph O’Sullivan: Yeah, we’re the only emos in town, so we couldn’t find any others! <Laughter> So our band has always been caused by darkness. And then we felt our dreams were coming true and then we got dropped by our management, label and agent all on the same day after releasing our debut album, Afterthoughts. The reaction online to the album was incredible and we were getting so many messages from fans of how our album helped them through so many dark times and then everything started to fall apart behind the scenes for us.
Paul O’Sullivan: I feel like everyone that heard the album at that time, pre-viralness, got it. Everyone that heard it understood it and got what we were creating except for our management, label and agent <Laughter> Fans could hear the pain in it. And then years later “In Autumn” went viral, and then Afterthoughts and multiple songs from that album. It was as if we re-released it, it was crazy.
Yeah, you can’t force it…
Steph O’Sullivan: Yeah, we just want to create music that we love, and we grew up listening to, but bring it in a modern, fresh way. I love when people get the nostalgic feeling, but also say how fresh and new it feels. I wanted to create a band that sounds like a mixture of like everything we love like Thrice meets MCR meets Jimmy Eat World. So when you listen to it, it gives you a feeling of bands you love but then we don’t necessarily sound like any of those.
No, it’s very unique…what you guys are doing.
Paul O’Sullivan: Thank you! But, yeah to answer your question, success is just as simple as a comment from a new fan discovering music. It means the world to us.
Yeah, and you guys are making so many connections, even if it’s online, or even if it’s just one other person coming up to a concert saying how your music changed their lives. It’s got to be amazing for you guys. So, the past year has been pretty trying, and we’re coming up on the end of it, with a constant news cycle of bad news and stuff like that going on. So how do you both stay grounded and keep your mental health in a good place, both on the road and at home?
Steph O’Sullivan: It’s tough. I feel very lucky cause we have each other. I feel like with Paul, we’re very opposite. I can be very emotional and then it’s just Paul laughing at everything telling me it’s okay.
Paul O’Sullivan: When we get dropped by someone, it’s the end of the world for Steph. But I’m like, yes, drop me again! <Laughter> I feel like, luckily, that’s how we’ve got through really difficult times because of each other, we have that sibling bond. A thing I always do to make life better is to always have something to look forward to. Even if it’s just your favorite TV show has a new episode this weekend. That’s how I’ve always got through life
It sounds like a roller coaster of emotions!
Paul O’Sullivan: Yeah, and that’s why, I feel like, if everything was great all the time, you would just be a robot, right?
Steph O’Sullivan: So, yeah, we just weather the storm, and there will be many more great times and there’ll be bad times. But yeah, we just, we just get on with it and face it.
Well, that’s great advice for people to follow. Having something to look forward to, even the little things. Where did you find most of your inspiration for not only the music, but also the lyrics, in Severed Heart City?
Paul O’Sullivan: We live in such a cinematic place in the south of Ireland. There’s beautiful castles, mountains and lakes. We’ve always had this vision for our music. If you look at our artwork for all our records, for our debut album, Afterthoughts, the opening line to the record is “I’m swept onto rocks”, and we wanted it to be like the listener arriving into our world. And if you look at the artwork, it’s a silhouette figure standing there after being swept onto rocks. And then for the follow up, the Antidote EP, you can see the silhouette figure again outside of the forest and there’s a bridge into the city, and now you are in the city, and this is Severed Heart City. So we’ve had this vision for a long time.
Steph O’Sullivan: We’re very much perfectionists, and we overthink everything. But some people don’t even notice. We have Easter Eggs hidden in videos that came out, from five years ago, that still people haven’t found. And I think we’ve always wanted to create our own world that people can escape into. Severed Heart City is basically what we went through in the last few years after being dropped to losing family members to health issues It’s a lot of all of that pain. But then it has the positive of, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Cliche, but it’s true.
Paul O’Sullivan: Severed Heart City is a place where it’s okay to not be okay. We’ve felt like we were trapped in a coma for so long, so “Cope in the coma” is our way of saying never give up and just fight through it.
Paul O’Sullivan: We wanted to make a record that sounds like an emo movie soundtrack. We put so much effort into everything from lyrics to visuals to artwork to social media. But we try our best to have fun with it all. Life is supposed to be fun. We got to tour the US for the first time last year, and we feel so grateful.
Steph O’Sullivan: When everything was ripped away from us so suddenly previously, every time we get an opportunity, we’re like, we need to enjoy it.
Paul O’Sullivan: Yeah, we can’t wait to play all these new songs live next year for the first time, and even getting to the US again next year…we’re excited for what’s to come.
So, the last question I have for you guys, this has been a lot of fun by the way, but what do you hope fans of your bands will keep in mind when they hear Severed Heart City for the first time in full this January 16, from front to back?
Steph O’Sullivan: Like Paul said earlier, that it’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to have days where you don’t want to get out of bed. I’ve been there. Paul’s been there, and it does get better. It does. And with Severed Heart City, I hope when you listen to it, you feel comfort, and you feel like it’s a hug. If we’re your favorite band, or if you just are a casual listener we hope you listen to it and you’re like, “Oh, damn, she’s going through what I’m going through right now. And I thought she’s living her dream.” Everyone struggles. It’s okay to be sad.
Paul O’Sullivan:I just want people to step into our world for 30 minutes and hopefully love it. We’ve hidden so many lyrical easter eggs from our entire discography in there and we put in so much effort, and had so much fun creating it. And I just hope that people enjoy it, and can hear how much love we put into it. There’s so much heart in it.
That’s awesome. The record sounds great to my ears from the first few songs that I’ve heard, and I can’t wait to hear the rest!
Steph O’Sullivan: Thank you for getting the vinyl as well!
Of course! Happy to help you out, and when you guys come back to the states, I’ll try to make it to a show! It was so nice connecting with you guys, and enjoy the rest of your day.
Greywind: You too!