Growing Pains

Greye

Hannah Summer, unpredictable musical provocateur and fiery front person for Daytona Beach, FL indie powerhouse Greye, says that when she’s penning her lyrics, the imagery is always the most refined version of whatever obscure thought happens in her brain prior to her unleashing it on the page and later in live performance. Yet when her bandmates – drummer Ray Grimard, guitarist Jett Wolfe, bassist Josh Reid and keyboardist Kenn-e Williams - presented her the propulsive, blistering high octane tracks she turned via her deft turns of phrase into their latest mega-single “Growing Pains,” COVID era inspiration wasn’t hard to come by.

The singer/songwriter’s wild brain went there from the get go, laying it out in a personal yet universal way we can all relate to, and eventually sharing it via her otherworldly opening falsetto: “The world around me is fading at the edges/That prickling black is getting narrower, narrower…”

That’s a rough tough talk start for a song that ultimately drives towards helping us find optimism in the midst of the craziest, most anxiety ridden year ever. We’ve all been affected, impacted, messed and depressed, looking desperately for silver linings. But indie musicians, always busy as heck but often having to supplement their gig pay with day jobs, have been particularly roiled as indoor venues have chained the doors. Greye went from over seven years of gigging up and down the Atlantic Coast and throughout the Midwest, averaging 100 shows a year, to just a few local shows lately (after months of layoff) as Florida slowly eases restrictions. Fortunately, the band’s survived its own “Growing Pains” quite well, using their time to put the finishing touches on So Far So Good, their perfectly titled upcoming full-length album and follow up to Under the Weather in 2019.