Sergey Lisin of Early Grey

Early Grey – is a hard rock band formed by Moscow songwriter and guitar player Sergey “Grey” Lisin in 2016. In the same year band has recorded their debut album “Secrets of the Heart”, that received a lot of positive reviews around the world. In July of 2017 the band released their second full-length album “Rock for Life” and then the 3rd one “Bound For Glory” in 2019.

The sound of Early Grey music is based on combination of heavy guitar riffs, powerful drums and beautiful and catchy melodies. Combining with the strong but lyrical vocals it ensures that once you hear any song of Early Grey, you will be whistling it for a very long time.

Band members used to say that all you need to know about Early Grey is that the most important member of this band is not the singer or guitar player or anybody else. The most important is a melody.

Who or What inspired you to pursue a career in music?

I’m probably going to be very trite to say that this was The Beatles, but it is so. After them, I became interested in other music bands - various British and American classical rock bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and many others. But it was the Beatles who were the first to really hook me. You’ve probably heard from many musicians this overused hackneyed phrase that “I saw this and realized that this is what I want to do”. Well, I can say with full confidence that this is absolutely true, this is exactly what happened to me:)

How has your music evolved since you first began performing/songwriting?

I started writing music quite early. I remember I wrote my first songs when I was 13 years old. Of course, it was mostly very primitive and rubbish stuff, but something worthy was already there. For example, one of the songs written in those years will be included in my next album. But I would like to believe that since then my songwriting skills have grown :)

But if we talk about musical evolution and progress, it has a kind of cyclical nature for me. When you first get into something new - some new sound or a new way of composing songs and work in this direction for some time. Then you get bored of it, you switch to something new and so on in a circle. I’ve probably already gone through 5 or 6 such “paradigm shifts” and so far there is no end to this process. So my music doesn’t really evolve. It’s more like a phoenix - it burns to the ground in order to then be resurrected in some completely other form.

I’m sure you have shared the stage with a lot of tal- ented artists/celebrities along the way. Would you share 1 or 2 of your favorite stories with us?

We have never had any concerts with this particular band - we are a studio-only project. And studio life, unfortunately, is one of the boring things in the world. First you come up with songs for a few weeks, then you spend even more time in the studio recording them. Then you realize that everything you did is complete garbage, you redo it several times to get a miserable record at the exit for at most 45-50 min- utes. Isn’t it mournful? :)

If you were forced to choose only one, which emotion, more than any other drives you to stay in this tough business? Is it joy, anger, desire, passion or pride and why?

I think it’s lust. A lust to create something new, to share it with others. And this is one of the most pow- erful feelings in the world - like an instantly addictive drug. So kids, don’t do drugs! Become musicians and then you won’t need any drugs anymore :)

Which ingredient do you think makes you special and unique as an artist in an industry overflowing with new talent and ideas?

Melodies. Simple, bright and catchy melodies. This is perhaps the only thing that clearly dominates in our music and which, unfortunately, is lacking in a large number of talents and musicians around today. I’ve always said that the most important member of Early Grey is not the vocalist, guitarist or anyone else. The most important - is the melodies. So if you missed the feeling when you’re listening to a song for the first time and automatically start singing along from the second chorus, then Early Grey is the band for you.

What has been your biggest challenge as a performing artist? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?

My biggest challenge has always been to try to get people interested in my music who have never been interested in this kind of music before. You know, there are, for example, fans of hip-hop, rap and other “music” genres. I always wanted to show these peo- ple that there is another world; melodic and beautiful. But so far, all my attempts, unfortunately, have not been successful. But this is absolutely no reason to stop, so one day, trust me - you will hear the stories like “I used to listen to rap, and then one day I heard Early Grey...” all around :)

A common phrase in the industry is, “you must suffer for your art.” Do you agree with this statement? If so, how have you suffered for your art?

Absolutely. My creative process is usually 50% of complete crap, 49% of self-loathing and self-dissatisfaction and only 1% of really cool stuff. And if this 1% was not worth the other 99, I would never have become involved in music in my life. So yes, there is a lot of pain in making new music, but the result is worth it.

And when things go really bad, there’s another common phrase that comes to rescue in especially poignant moments. It’s the quote of the famous journalist and music critic Lester Bangs (who wrote for Rolling Stone and many other magazines in the 70s) - it says that the first mistake of any artist is to think that it (art) is serious. So when you feel completely worthless, just remember that this is just a game, and you will feel a little better :)

How do you feel the internet has impacted the music business?

Oh, I’m afraid that now many of my fellow musicians will not like my answer to this question, but in my opinion the Internet has shown the real value and price of music. And as we all were surprised at one time with the appearance of various streaming services (and some are still surprised), its value turned out to be not at all high. In the 70-80-90’s you would pay $10-15 for a record and listen to it to the core, because there weren’t many alternatives. Today, you pay $10 per month to listen to all the music that has ever been created and is being created today. And in my opinion, such a low cost of music today is precisely due to the Internet, which showed us that there are many-many talented musicians besides those shown on TV. So there is a choice. Well, the more a product is offered, the lower its price. So to summarize, I think the internet has had about the same impact on the music business as a water plumbing to a village in a desert, where people used to pay huge money for plain drinking water. It just destroyed this industry to the core, but it made people happier.

Sergey “Grey” Lisin from ‘Early Grey’ band

https://www.reverbnation.com/earlygreyband