The Grey Governors’ eclectic and heavy rock sound brings together a wide palette of influences, ranging from progressive rock to blues, and even classical music. The Peoria-based group was formed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when keyboardist Sydney Meuth moved back home, and was invited to play music with her brother and guitarist Jack Meuth and drummer Jonas Rowell.
“I was standing in times square with my sister, and it was basically empty, and broadway was shut down at that point,” Sydney said, recounting her move back to Peoria, “we drove halfway and met my dad in Ohio, he took me home, and I was living with them, when Jack asked, ‘hey, do you wanna come play music with my people?’, and I said sure, and, here we are.”
Jack and Jonas had been playing together in other projects before forming Grey Governors, having met nearly five years ago. They played with several different lineups, before inviting Sydney to form the trio, where they began to search for their sound.
“Initially, it was anything kind of odd-time, weird,” Jack said, illustrating how the group’s direction was found through jam sessions, “it was like, take a bit of everything and try and turn it into this doomy, almost punk rock sound, and other stuff, like blues and other genres, to try to morph it into our sound.”
The group’s range of influences appear in their debut album, “Caterpillar,” released in 2021. The album’s five tracks showcase the group’s doomy, progressive rock and metal-inspired sound. One track sees the group cover the popular King Crimson song, “21st Century Schizoid Man,” re-imagined in the trio’s doom metal style. The album further blends doom metal with blues stylings in the track “Black Butterfly,” which features both Jack and Sydney sharing vocal duties.
“We start with a riff, and with ‘Black Butterfly,’ it started with a keyboard riff,” Jack said, talking about how the track was first conceived, “we wanted something basic, something stompy, something we could groove to.”
The band is currently working on writing their next release, where they hope to further expand their sound established on their debut release.
“If the E.P. is the ‘Caterpillar,’ then we want to go into the next stage,” Jack said, stating the group’s goals for their next album, “it’s a step-by-step process, and we really want to get better and better with each album.”
Sydney stated her goal of writing lyrics, which is to write songs that carry different meanings to each member of their audience.
“It’s been really cool to hear what people think each song’s about, and I think that reaches our goal entirely,” Sydney said, speaking to how the band wants the music to feel special for each listener, “music should be personal to each person, and writing multi-purpose lyrics has been really cool, because they might mean something different to each of us.”
To find details for future live shows and listen to their music, head to the Grey Governors’ site. The band is playing at the Twisted Spoke in Pekin at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 11.
