A new melody is strummed off the guitar as a beat is played on the drums. Members of The Grey Area endlessly work on finding a perfect balance for their new song. Lyrics are thrown around and riffs are bouncing off the walls. Powerful music shakes the floor. After everything was up in the air, it all fell into place, and a new song was found within the chaos.

The Grey Area was started last February after lead vocalist, senior Aidan Giroux, took the initiative to start the band with bass player, senior Ramon Humphreys, to explore a more serious route to music. Following the initial creation of the band, Texas State freshman Aaron Giroux and Headwaters senior Hendrix Cockard joined and quickly became vital members.

“I’ve always really liked rock music and metal music, and I thought it would be really fun to be in a band,” Aidan said. “I’ve always liked writing songs and Ramon and I used to do a lot of goofy raps on YouTube, and we thought ‘What if we actually took this seriously?’”

The Grey Area plays a variety of rock music styles, focusing on punk rock and metal. They play covers by bands that inspire them, such as Green Day, but prefer playing their original works.

“Playing covers shows that you’re talented, but it’s not as original,” Aidan said. “I still like playing covers, but I feel like playing originals is the best way for people to discover your band and connect with your band specifically.”

The band has one song released on Spotify, Stirred to Insanity, and are working on several projects. Their song Nightlife is currently in the recording process and will be released soon, as well as more music that will be released on their album Nuclear Winter.

“It’s a cool, contrasting-sounding name,” Aidan said. “Nuclear is super big and explosive, and winter is kind of laid back, cool, more sad than angry. I think it works well with the themes of the album because it talks a lot about depression and anger.”

When making new music, all four members of the band work on separate components for each song. Giroux writes the lyrics and vocal melodies, guitarists Aaron and Humphrey work on riffs, and drummer Cockard works on beats. Even though they work on different parts of each song, they eventually regroup and work together to create the final product.

“The best part about working with this band is the level of commitment everyone has,” Cockard said. “Everyone has similar short and long-term goals for the band that they’re willing to work to achieve, which is a lot more than I can say for some of the last few bands I’ve been in.”

The Grey Area was supposed to play its first gig at Austin High’s Monster Concert on October 21, but the show was canceled due to a fire. Now, the band is searching for another gig to break into the live music world.

“With Austin being the music capital of Texas, it’s kind of tricky to get a gig somewhere if you don’t have a lot of recognition,” Humphreys said. “The Austin High show was perfect because it was just high school bands that they were inviting. But downtown, you have to have at least some sort of credit before you can get into bars and stuff.”

By the end of this school year, all four members of The Grey Area will have graduated high school, which makes the band’s future uncertain. While they are all focused on short-term goals, they all have future aspirations for the band. Some members want to do music professionally, and others just want to keep playing music together.

“The ideal gig is Austin City Limits, but that is going to be a minute,” Humphreys said. “I don’t expect that to happen. That’s what Aidan wanted to do with the band, as well as just get it as popular as we can. That’s the main goal I would expect with any band.”

This story was originally published on The Dispatch on January 17, 2024.