Greg Dallas Interview
Q: Can you talk about your history as an artist/band?
A: For many years, I was focused solely on studying jazz. I majored in guitar performance while in college, so basically I was just practicing all the time, and composing a little bit too, but always in a jazz context. During that time, I always had an itch to write songs, but I was very preoccupied with jazz. Eventually, that itch turned into an absolute need, and I wrote the songs that you hear on The Storm. At the moment I find working on this kind of music much more rewarding than pursuing jazz, but I'm always going a bit back and forth! At first I wanted The Storm to be strictly a solo project, as in recording every single part myself, but eventually I realized it would best serve the music to bring some friends onto the project, so that's where Catey (lead vocals), Aaron (drums) and Joel (mix engineer) came in.
Q: What is your recording process like for The Storm?
A: I started recording The Storm when I lived in Brooklyn, NY, in 2018 and I finished it while living in St. Louis during the pandemic. For the longest time I lived in a total "jazz bubble” and didn't really know what was going on with popular music, but eventually I came across the music of Tame Impala and absolutely fell in love with it. Once I learned that Kevin Parker recorded all of those albums almost entirely by himself, I was inspired to try it out myself. One day I took a trip to Guitar Center and bought an SM57, a mic stand, a few other items and got started. At first I didn't even have a desk, so I had to set my laptop up on my bed and pull up a chair to record! As I got more into it, I improved my setup, though. Everything outside of Catey and Aaron was recorded with an SM57 mic or just DI. Catey and Aaron recorded their parts remotely, during the pandemic. The instrumental tracks were also recorded during the pandemic, while we were all locked down. At first, the instrumental tracks weren't meant to have anything to do with the lyrical tracks. I was just messing around, trying to pass time during lockdown. But as I listened back to them, it became clear that while it's not what I intended, they absolutely belonged with the lyrical tracks I began recording in 2018.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: Nearly every song starts off as just a chord. I go on an extensive search on the guitar looking for a chord that I love the sound of and resonates with me, and I build a song around it. Sometimes that chord is somewhere in the middle of the song, or sometime's it's right at the start. Once I have a solid base in the harmony, the next step is to write the melody and lyrics. Those usually both come at the same time, because I find they have a huge influence. Lyrics and melody are two sides of the same coin, and I think they should be treated as such. I like to work pretty slowly. I usually don't even start recording anything until I have an idea that I really like and think it's worth recording. I tend to work in bits and pieces and only occasionally will churn something out in one session. Typically I don't like to "grind" for long hours. The time it takes to write a song varies. Sometimes you just need to push yourself and finish, but other times it just needs to sit for a while. Sometimes it's hard to tell which path you should take. For example, writing and recording the track "Fallen" took a total of two years. I had to let it sit. "Forget" on the other hand, was fully written and recorded in just two hours. There was no need to wait, it just came out.
Q: Can you talk about your history as an artist/band?
A: For many years, I was focused solely on studying jazz. I majored in guitar performance while in college, so basically I was just practicing all the time, and composing a little bit too, but always in a jazz context. During that time, I always had an itch to write songs, but I was very preoccupied with jazz. Eventually, that itch turned into an absolute need, and I wrote the songs that you hear on The Storm. At the moment I find working on this kind of music much more rewarding than pursuing jazz, but I'm always going a bit back and forth! At first I wanted The Storm to be strictly a solo project, as in recording every single part myself, but eventually I realized it would best serve the music to bring some friends onto the project, so that's where Catey (lead vocals), Aaron (drums) and Joel (mix engineer) came in.
Q: What is your recording process like for The Storm?
A: I started recording The Storm when I lived in Brooklyn, NY, in 2018 and I finished it while living in St. Louis during the pandemic. For the longest time I lived in a total "jazz bubble” and didn't really know what was going on with popular music, but eventually I came across the music of Tame Impala and absolutely fell in love with it. Once I learned that Kevin Parker recorded all of those albums almost entirely by himself, I was inspired to try it out myself. One day I took a trip to Guitar Center and bought an SM57, a mic stand, a few other items and got started. At first I didn't even have a desk, so I had to set my laptop up on my bed and pull up a chair to record! As I got more into it, I improved my setup, though. Everything outside of Catey and Aaron was recorded with an SM57 mic or just DI. Catey and Aaron recorded their parts remotely, during the pandemic. The instrumental tracks were also recorded during the pandemic, while we were all locked down. At first, the instrumental tracks weren't meant to have anything to do with the lyrical tracks. I was just messing around, trying to pass time during lockdown. But as I listened back to them, it became clear that while it's not what I intended, they absolutely belonged with the lyrical tracks I began recording in 2018.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: Nearly every song starts off as just a chord. I go on an extensive search on the guitar looking for a chord that I love the sound of and resonates with me, and I build a song around it. Sometimes that chord is somewhere in the middle of the song, or sometime's it's right at the start. Once I have a solid base in the harmony, the next step is to write the melody and lyrics. Those usually both come at the same time, because I find they have a huge influence. Lyrics and melody are two sides of the same coin, and I think they should be treated as such. I like to work pretty slowly. I usually don't even start recording anything until I have an idea that I really like and think it's worth recording. I tend to work in bits and pieces and only occasionally will churn something out in one session. Typically I don't like to "grind" for long hours. The time it takes to write a song varies. Sometimes you just need to push yourself and finish, but other times it just needs to sit for a while. Sometimes it's hard to tell which path you should take. For example, writing and recording the track "Fallen" took a total of two years. I had to let it sit. "Forget" on the other hand, was fully written and recorded in just two hours. There was no need to wait, it just came out.
Q: What are some of the themes that are touched upon your release The Storm?
A: The Storm's main theme is heartbreak. I wrote most of the music in the wake of a really tough breakup. That's basically what pushed me to write songs at all. I needed a new way to let my emotions out. Just playing and practicing guitar wasn't enough. I went into the songwriting process with the awareness that there is no shortage of breakup songs out there, so I tried my best to come at it from a different angle and also stay true to my feelings and experience. I called the record The Storm because it was born of two very emotionally tumultuous situations: a break up and the pandemic. Like I said before, at first I didn't plan for all the songs to work together, but it began to make sense when I realized they came from a place of loneliness and distress.
Q: Have you started playing shows now that the pandemic is almost over?
A: No shows scheduled at the moment. Just playing some freelance jazz gigs here in St. Louis!
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: There is more on the way! I just finished recording an ambient album with my good friend and huge musical inspiration to me, Jan Esbra, of Jade Collective (check them out! I believe they were featured on this site at one point as a top album!). In addition to that, I'm releasing an electronic music EP in the coming months, and I have plans to record another album along similar lines as The Storm.
A: The Storm's main theme is heartbreak. I wrote most of the music in the wake of a really tough breakup. That's basically what pushed me to write songs at all. I needed a new way to let my emotions out. Just playing and practicing guitar wasn't enough. I went into the songwriting process with the awareness that there is no shortage of breakup songs out there, so I tried my best to come at it from a different angle and also stay true to my feelings and experience. I called the record The Storm because it was born of two very emotionally tumultuous situations: a break up and the pandemic. Like I said before, at first I didn't plan for all the songs to work together, but it began to make sense when I realized they came from a place of loneliness and distress.
Q: Have you started playing shows now that the pandemic is almost over?
A: No shows scheduled at the moment. Just playing some freelance jazz gigs here in St. Louis!
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: There is more on the way! I just finished recording an ambient album with my good friend and huge musical inspiration to me, Jan Esbra, of Jade Collective (check them out! I believe they were featured on this site at one point as a top album!). In addition to that, I'm releasing an electronic music EP in the coming months, and I have plans to record another album along similar lines as The Storm.