Fifty shades of Grey Shack

It’s hard not to expect loud when this awesome foursome is around. It’s all about pumping up anything and everything from the decibel level to your adrenaline count  for Grey Shack, a hard rock outfit from Chennai that’s bred on the likes of greats like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.

Just back from an exciting tour of Austria where they performed at The European Bike Week as Harley-Davidson’s band of the year, Grey Shack is gearing up for a new season with some interesting new material.

Grey Shack is Rohan Sen on vocals, Vikram Vivekanand on guitar, Conrad Simmons on bass and Ramkumar Kanakarajan on the drums. Introducing the band in their own style, “Grey Shack is an everyplace/every person band we’re beach-friendly, bar-friendly, pet-friendly, festival-friendly, zombie-friendly and, most definitely, road-friendly!  And we plan to keep exploring our sound and our act until any zombie shall lay stake to our claim!”

Like most bands which started in college, Grey Shack’s first-ever “gig” was a city-wide competition organised by The Unwind Centre, Chennai, in September, 2007. “We were two weeks old when we won that competition.

Since then, we knew we had something good going on. Now, including a two-year sabbatical where we had to split for various reasons like further studies and career, and a few line-up changes later, we released our debut album Step Outside in 2012,” explains Rohan.

Grey Shack’s done the whole nine yards of the live circuit, having performed at Hard Rock Cafes across the country, at college festivals in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru, at the MAD Festival last year, and the Octoberfest this year, to name a few.

Last year they won the Mumbai leg of the Harley Rock Riders Tour, winning the chance to perform at The European Bike Week at Faaker See, Austria, in October this year.

Sharing their Austria experience, Vikram, one of the founding members of the band says, “It was an amazing experience performing at the Bike Week and the kind of response we got for our music just blew us away.

However, the most memorable moment was to meet Deborah Bonham, the daughter of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Given how much we’re influenced by Led Zeppelin’s music, it was awesome to hear how much she loved us!”

Vikram talks about their new material, interestingly titled The Soundgarden Sessions. The first single from this venture called Country Song was released this April, and has been a hit on every live stage it got played on.

“The Soundgarden Sessions is the result of some very spontaneous ideas we had in the practice studio. The new sound is raw, a lot more organic, and a lot more energetic. So making and performing them live is an absolute treat for the band,” shares Vikram as the quartet signs off.