Review Fix Exclusive: Grayscale’s Nick Veno Talks ‘Palette’ And More

February 22, 2016 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with Grayscale drummer Nick Veno, you discusses the band’s creative process behind their new track “Palette,” as well as their upcoming full-length debut, “What We’re Missing.”

About Grayscale:

Emerging quickly from the thriving Philadelphia punk scene, Grayscale has been at it since late 2011 building a strong reputation and gaining steam among fans and music lovers. Coming off of their successful Change EP release in April 2015, the band is now ready to unveil its latest and most complete collection of songs to date in their Anchor Eighty Four Records full-length debut, What We’re Missing.

Review Fix: What was your creative process for the new album?

Veno: We wrote the majority of the album at Dallas’s studio. We would demo out our ideas and send them to Gary Cioffi, our producer onWhat We’re Missing”, and take it from there. Once we actually got in the studio with Gary, we spent a lot of time fine tuning each part musically and lyrically until we were all certain that it was the best it could be.

Review Fix: How do you think the Change EP “changed” your lives musically?

Veno: We feel that we took a step forward in the maturity of our sound on the “Change EP” and on “What We’re Missing.” We aren’t writing straight pop punk songs about high school anymore. We write about deeper experiences, relationships, feelings… and our musicianship and creativity has greatly improved. We have much more of an alternative edge to our sound now than we did before. We’re very proud of the way the Change EP came out, and the fact that people responded as well as they did to those songs and the new WWM songs gives us a sense of validity – that people connect with our music now more so than before.

Review Fix: What bands have influenced you the most?

Veno: Our individual tastes are all over the place, but as a band collectively we look up to bands like Jimmy Eat World, Brand New, The Starting Line, and Led Zeppelin.

Review Fix: How was  “Palette” written? Is there a story behind it?

Veno: “Palette” was pretty straightforward to write, musically. We demoed the initial idea out at Dallas’s studio and then fine-tuned it at the studio. It was the lyrical content that was a little more complicated to write. I can’t speak as much on it, because Collin, Dallas, and Gary are really the ones who spent time working on the lyrics and melodies for that one.

Review Fix: What’s the Philly music scene like? How do you think it influences your sound?

Veno: Philly has such an incredible music community. There aren’t too many places like it. It doesn’t really influence our sound, but the people have certainly influenced us personally. The fans, the musicians, the promoters, the house shows… Philly really is a one-of-a-kind city, and we wouldn’t be where we are today with the support of the individuals within the community.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13915 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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