Peter De Wilde Rest in Peace...

On Tuesday the 20th of November, Peter De Wilde passed away after a 5 month battle with cancer. Peter was Greyn's guitar player and background singer. The members of Greyn will miss him badly. They are glad there was a time not so long ago that they got to see him almost every week at rehearsals and that they got to perform with him at numerous concerts. Peter was such a lovely person to make music with and to spend time with. We will think of him often, listen for him in Greyn's old songs and miss him ever so much. Rest in Peace Peter!

R.I.P GREYN 11 OCTOBER 2006! Goodbye and thanks from Greyn

GREYN SUPPORTS 0110 SEMTEX-DIGG-VLAS VEGAS EVENT IN KORTRIJK

Belgian magazines Semtex and Digg, and concert organisers Vlas Vegas team up to fight the growing intolerance, racism, negativism and all-round violence that surrounds us.

Inspired by the 0110 manifestations in Belgium's big cities, they have joined forces to create a festival of tolerance and diversity in downtown Kortrijk. Exactly one week before the elections they strongly advise people to vote responsible and tolerant.

They will always refuse to be part of a society that discriminates people based on origin, political conviction or religion. To find up-to-date information, promotional images and the festival's line-up, head over to the 0110 page on Vlas Vegas' website (in Dutch). It would be awesome if all bloggers, myspacers, messageboarders and website owners helped to spread these images and information throughout the open-minded blog & internet community.

Greyn is Belgian according to the BIB in Kortrijk - check out exhibit until the 2nd of June!

Apparently Greyn has made it into the "Belgian" music scene accoridng to the library in Kortrijk where a photo of me singing with Greyn's bass player Tom Deman in the background is hanging among many other photos of other Belgian bands! It was pretty funny to be at the BIB this past Saturday looking for CDs to borrow from their vast CD collection and to see my mulle hanging on a poster between the lovely faces of the better-knows Soulwax and Stijn. There I was on top of Mauro! On top of Tim Van whatever from Millionare and on top of Tom Barman from Deus! I wouldn't mind being between the fucking De Waele brothers and Stijn and on top of Mauro and the other guys. Not a bad dream... Anyway, check it out: Dit Is Belgisch from now until the 2nd of June (my birthday by the way ;-) - at the BIB in Kortrijk. For another related photo with a close-up view check out the 16 of May entry on my Face The Day with Heidi and Sarah site!

NEWSFLASH DATING FROM 23 APRIL 2006!!! GREYN’S GUITAR-PLAYER HAS BABY BOY!

Peter De Wilde, Greyn’s guitar-player and his wife Valerie had a baby on the 23rd of April. His name is Fré and he’s really cute! Check him out above with his mom and his dad! What instrument will he play in the Greyn coverband eventually we wonder? He looks like Peter so probably guitar. We’ll see! Congratulations to Peter and Valerie and family and welcome to the world Fré!
Check out Greyn's singer Sarah's blogsite for another photo posted on 05 May of Peter with Fré!

Check out Greyn and other band photos at photo exhibit at Bakerstreet before 30 April in Kortrijk now while you have a chance!

Above you can see a photo of an exhibit going on at Bakerstreet in Kortrijk.

As you can see, it's a photo exhibit of lots of bands, including Greyn and Zita Swoon.
I just love the fact that our shots are standing so close together! Yeah -- I know I am a loser for thinking these things matter because they don't but they do give me a kick! Go to Bakerstreet and check out this nice photo exhibit!
Here are the details from the site of the two women who took the photos:

Du 1er au 30 avril 2006 : Baker StreetSint-Janstraat, 15 - 8500 KORTRIJK (B) Tel : +32 (0)56 25 53 30
ouvert du mardi au vendredi de 12h à 19 h et le samedi et dimanche de 14h à 19h

Also check out my Face The Day site for other exhibit photo.

Greyn's drummer Filip Tanghe has another baby girl with Els. Her name is Oona. She was born on the 4th of March! Congratulations!

Check out Greyn's drummer Filip Tanghe and his partner Els with their new baby Oona born on Saturday the 4th of March!

Congratulations Filip and Els.

Next Greyn baby will come in a month or so from Greyn's guitar-player Peter De Wilde and his wife Valerie!

After that you can expect three or 4 other new babies made by Sarah, Filip, Peter, Jan and Tom -- Greyn's upcoming "singles"! Can't wait for those.

For another photo of Oona among others, make sure to check out Sarah's other site with her friend Heidi

Come see Greyn Saturday the 25th of February at maison de la culture in Tournai at 19u

Hi Greyn watchers, listeners and wonderers:

This might be Greyn’s last gig for quite a while until our full-length CD comes out towards the end of the year, which is bound to lead to many more future gigs and to our unavoidable fame and then to our downward depressing descent into one-hit-wonders or cheesy has-beens!

Come see Greyn Saturday the 25th of February at maison de la culture in Tournai at 19u while we are still small, cheap and not-yet-spoiled by fame!

We’d love to have your support! Come a little earlier and check out another Kortrijk band : Rencontrez l’amour ! Come back Sunday and see Greyn’s singer Sarah’s favorite band Zita Swoon perform! Sarah is happy as can be just to see Greyn share the same poster with Zita Swoon! (indeed pathetic but true)

See below details for more info and click on over to the main site for details about all the bands that will play at the festival from Friday till Sunday.

For even more info and a new recipe movie (smash-in-your-face-carrot-cake) see : http://www.greyn.net

Pretty soon you’ll be invited to hear a few of the songs Greyn has been recording. Stay tuned for those !

See you Saturday we hope and remember to start saving money to buy Greyn’s CD at the end of the year – feel free to put aside Euro 0.05 per day from now until then and that should about cover it.

Thanking you for your eyes and ears,
Greyn’s singer Sarah
http://facethedaywithheidiandsarah.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/greynbelgium
http://greynwillplayforyou.blogspot.com/

http://www.maisonculturetournai.com/

Samedi all accès: 9 Euro (moins de 26 ans) et 11 Euro (prix plein)

TIMING D’Hiver Rock - Samedi 25
Portes : 16h00
Salle B
16h20
Lauréat Open Stage
17h00
Prise 2 son and the choco pop’s
17h40Skeil
18h20
Rencontrez l’amour
19h00
Greyn
19h40
Raspoutitsa
20h20
Two Star Hotel
21h00
PPZ 30
21h45
Experimental TBB
22h35
Major Deluxe
23h25
Punish Yourself
0h20Extinguish

Salle C
18h40 – 19h20 : Jigsaw
20h00 – 20h40 : Wahead
21h20 – 22h05 : Morning Red
22h45 – 23h35 : Vandal X
0h00 – 0h40 : Colonel Bastard

GREYN CONCERT 25 FEBRUARY 2006 AROUND 19U D'HIVER ROCK TOURNAI

CHECK IT OUT! ONE OF GREYN'S SINGERS GOALS WAS TO GET GREYN ON THE SAME POSTER AS ZITA SWOON! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! NEXT GOAL: FOR GREYN TO OPEN FOR ZITA SWOON! GOAL AFTER THAT: TO SING WITH STEF KAMIL CARLENS! AND AFTER THAT: TO HAVE STEF PRODUCE NEXT CD! A girl can dream, no?!


Here’s a link: http://www.maisonculturetournai.com/

Greyn hopes to see you there at around 19u on Saturday the 25th of February at D'hiver Rock in Tournai! We'll play a few new songs. Let us entertain you...

By the way - check out Greyn's website to see new recipe film about carrot cake! Great stuff and sort of healthy!

http://www.greyn.net

Thursday 29 December 2005: Greyn Rehearsals and new songs + Greyn gig coming up 25/02/06 in Tournai!

Next Greyn gig: Saturday the 25th of February at: Maison de la culture de Tournai / d'hiver rock festival
More details to follow when we have them. In the meantime, make sure to mark that date in your agendas and visit this site and http://www.greyn.net again later…

Now about new songs and rehearsals...

I just can’t keep this blog up at all! The Face The Day one is enough for me! Two blogs – that’s too much. So I’ll just check in here from time to time. In a perfect world, I’d be able to write a real and good journal about the daily musings of my band Greyn. That would be great – not for you, the one or maybe two people who might read this – but for me! It would be a good way to capture these years I am busy with Greyn. But life doesn’t allow time to have more than one or two hobbies! Being in the band is already enough! To find time to write about it just isn’t even an option at this point! So when I have time and want to record some thought about Greyn and what we are up to, I’ll use this site as a means to do that. When I have new Greyn photos, ditto.

Last night, Greyn’s rehearsal was pretty good as rehearsals go. Of course, one band member wasn’t there. It’s really rare to have all five of us there at any given time these days, which I find pretty frustrating in terms of the lack of momentum it causes and all – yet still, we do tend to accomplish good stuff no matter what so I guess it’s not really that big a deal if all 5 of us aren’t there. I just wish we all had more time for Greyn during rehearsal and at home alone with ourselves. But again, life doesn’t allow all that free time. I guess unless you are a professional musician, you just have to make do with the time you have!

Last night we made do. We worked on just one song. There was time to break the structure down and practice it and make lyrics for it and practice it again. I liked that experience. I think our reward for making that time will be a very good song. We have so many songs, well bits and pieces of songs really, floating around and unfinished. That’s not a big deal in itself. I just like the feeling of putting the finishing touches on something. It makes it easier to practice and to sing in my head and to learn it. It gives me a kick to have something nearly complete to play around with. It’s like at work if you have a thousand almost finished things you can be very distracted and stressed out. There’s nothing like the moment of satisfaction when you have completed a project or filed something once and for all or even just cleared up your desk or cleaned out your inbox. Completing a song is much the same to me. It allows me some motivating pride in something done well and pushes me on to the next good thing.

Greyn’s song styles are changing nowadays. We’re not so heavy on the drama and emotion anymore. My lyrics are so far away from my own experience for the most part that even my voice has changed from it. It’s not me singing anymore. It’s various characters. It feels that way. The words I’m using are about imaginary people and situations. Somehow that’s freeing up my vocals. It feels good to detach from myself that way. In some ways it feels even more creative this way. Starting from scratch instead of pulling something out from inside of me. So often I imagine myself a man in a song. I feel like a man when I sing it. There are two new songs now, however, that are about woman getting revenge on men. I have no idea where those ideas are coming from. One, called Loose, is about a whore and how she knows very well what she’s doing while the man is living in a fantasy world. Another song, called Unarmed, seems to be about a woman who has an obsessive guy coming after her who always fights with her and then plays the hero and probably beats her up then loves her then hits her again. These topics are nothing new and have nothing to do with me. In a way these songs are just easier and more obvious. The lyrics and topics are simplified. There’s another song called Armor about a man who fell in love with a crazy woman but didn’t know it at the time – the thing he fell in love with was her craziness until he realized it was craziness and not spark. Now he’s screwed because how do you stop being the caretaker when you love someone and know they might die without you but you have to save yourself in the meantime as you see yourself living only for them. There’s also a new song called Simon Says. That one is about something I experienced. But it’s become more of a story about someone else. It’s about going to a therapist every week for years and years and how while driving there you want to crash into trees on the road and how leaving there you want to avoid the trees and how learning to drive is like learning to live and how we all take orders all the time and need help to find direction. We’re also in the process of making another song which will be about Sundays. How Sundays can be so spooky and can send you into loneliness and existential thought. How you can almost stay in bed all day and never want to get up again. How you have to clean up and prepare for the week ahead? How every Sunday can be a new start or a tired end. How Sundays can be so sleepy. And about the things you see when you wake up – all the things you have. And how granny always said nothing was boring. Not even Sundays.

There are a bunch of other songs we’re also busy with – those are the bits and pieces ones. One is about wanting to be loved by an outsider but also wanting to keep the familiar love in your life—about wanting it all but knowing you have to make hard choices. About being spoiled and about human consumption. That one is called All You Can Eat. I cant remember the other songs we’re busy with. But we have lots of good ideas.

Now only to tie them together and finish them up. Can’t wait for that!

21 November: Check out photos from the Greyn gig at De Schaduw in Ardooie Saturday 19/11! Thanks Heidi!

For more photos see: http://facethedaywithheidiandsarah.blogspot.com/
and later: http://www.lomohomes.com/facetheday

COME SEE!!!! Shore Leave + Greyn + Nice'n'Haydee : Saturday 19 November at De Schaduw in Ardooie

Hi all you real and imagined Greyn fans and followers!

Shore Leave + Greyn + Nice'n'Haydee

2 concerten + party in de Cultuurkapel De Schaduw, Wezestraat 32 te Ardooie

Datum: Zaterdag, 19/11/2005 at 20:30

Prijs: 7 Euro (at the door); 5 Euro V.V.K.

Greyn has a gig coming up at Cultuurkapel De Schaduw in Ardooie on Saturday the 19th of November. Put it in your agendas now all you busy people!

Not only will you get to see Greyn but also another band: Shore Leave. Check out Greyn’s lovely keyboard player on guitar and banjo in that band.

As an extra treat, there will be an after-party with Nice ‘n’ Haydee playing music you can all shake your arses and swing your hips to!

Below you can have all the details in Dutch if you’d like to read on…

Also check out the following links to know more about Greyn, De Schaduw and about Greyn’s singer Sarah and DJ Haydee’s daily photo adventures and stupidities:

http://www.greyn.net/
(check Greyn’s site frequently in November for a new recipe movie for the Greyn members’ much-beloved carrot cake!)

http://www.deschaduw.net/
(also mark in your agendas that Greyn’s bass-player’s other band Brillantine performs there the night before on 18/11)

http://facethedaywithheidiandsarah.blogspot.com/
(hate them or love them or don’t pay them any attention at all, these gals can’t stop taking photos of themselves and maybe you if they catch you…)

Details in Dutch:

Muzikaal tapte Shore Leave in eerste instantie uit het vaatje van de singer-songwriter. Lichtende voorbeelden waren uiteraard Bob Dylan, Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt en vele anderen. Sinds de tweede demo (opgenomen in februari 2004) en vooral daarna is de klemtoon echter veranderd. Er wordt van het pad van het verhalen vertellen afgeweken, zonder het echter volledig te verlaten. Het resultaat is een vernieuwende kijk op harmonieën en een authentiek geluid. zang, gitaar, banjo: Merlijn Landuy t/ Gitaren, banja, bas, zang: Jan Dhaene / Violen, zang: Mathijs Bertel

Greyn speelt muziek om in het oor te houden, ergens op het kruispunt van pop en rock. Geen hapklare brokjes hitvoer, maar songs met weerhaakjes, drijvend op een donkere onderstroom. De spilfiguur van deze formatie is Sarah Markewich. Ze groeide op in New York, maar vond haar thuis in het West-Vlaamse Kortrijk. Met de kracht van de punkfolkie Ani Difranco en de nuances van Nathalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs) brengt haar stem u in het unieke geluid van Greyn, de groep wil de wereld niet veranderen, noch verbeteren. Hun missie is spelen en muziek maken die dankzij de humor in klank en beeld toch licht te verteren valt. Zang: Sarah Markewich / Elektrische en akoestische gitaar: Peter De Wilde / Basgitaar en contrabas: Tom Deman / drums: Filip Tanghe / Keyboards: Jan Dhaene
http://www.greyn.net/

Nice'n'Haydee (Fiesta Mestiza, De Kreun, AB, The Wharehouse,....). Dit Kortrijkse duo draait dansbare muziek en etnische muziek uit alle continenten. Met open blik voor nieuwe muziek laten ze u dansen op swingende mestizo en latin, pompende new-fanfare en Balkan, Aziatische, Afrikaanse, Jamaicaanse en Arabische grooves... Voor deze gelegenheid gaan ze vooral rock'n'roll!

Prijs: 7 Euro at the door; 5 Euro V.V.K.
V.V.K.: Café OPCD Ardooie – ‘t Walhalla – Roeselare; Cultuurkapel De Schaduw: 0479.80.94.82; Tinck – Brugge 070.22.50.05

24 September 2005: Is a band a band if it's not playing music? I think I know the sound of one hand clapping and a tree falling in the forest....

Howdy anybody reading this. I sing in a band called Greyn in Belgium and a while back I had a blog about Greyn in which I kept track of all the gigs we were doing and photos we had made and details that I wanted to keep as a sort of journal. Why online? I don't know why to be honest. This is the world today I guess and I am not a very private person I suppose and any singer of a rock band likes an audience for sure and and and... There are many reasons and no reason at all.
I just like to write and go on and on about nothing and everything. Like I am doing now.

So I sing in this band Greyn but the odd thing is I have hardly sung at all lately. Feels like months. My band just doesn't rehearse a lot these days for lots of different reasons and I miss it badly. It's my favorite hobby and I hate to be without it. And it makes me wonder if a band is a band when it's not making or playing music.

The thing with a lot of bands and people in bands is that can't just be in one band, they feel the need to explore all sorts of opportunities and be in lots of bands. A lot of musicians are multi-instrument-users. Makes perfect sense that if a person can play drums, bass and guitar, for example, that they want to do one with one band and play the other instruments in other bands.

For the first time, I am finding that I too want to challenge myself that way and look for other opportunities and other bands to sing and perform with. I just can't figure out if it's because my own band Greyn is like one hand clapping right now or because I want to test myself more and see what I am capable of.

So who knows, maybe these pages will go from being Greyn pages to being pages about Greyn and some other band I'm playing in in the future. I sort of hope so. I can get really frustrated by my perception of people dividing their attentions so much and not giving their 100% to every musical project they are busy with -- but instead giving what seems like 30% here, 20% there, maybe 50% over there. I just can't imagine that you can devote yourself totally to more than one band unless you are a professional musician earning your living that way with plenty of time and energy for music alone. When you have a family and a job and friends and obligations and a band, I just can't figure out how you can juggle so many bands or even two at one moment.

But I want to find out. Maybe I am missing something. Maybe there is something more out there for me musically. I want a challenge. I hope something good comes up.

Now back to Greyn. When you have 5 people in a band it can be so hard to all find time to just meet for rehearsal! That's what I feel Greyn is struggling with right now: lack of time to do anything good and worked out. Things do go in waves! Of that, I am certainly aware. There was a time when we were rehearsing a lot and gigging every weekend and now we are not. Maybe that's why it feels so unsatisfying now. Maybe I just miss it. I miss making songs and performing.

It's also damn hard to make new songs now and that's what we are committed to doing. I sadly don't play an instrument so though i can make melodies and lyrics when we aren't rehearsing, i surely can't make a whole song structure or anything close. I think if we met more regularly as a complete band, we'd have time to jam and to work little ideas that each of us has out better. Our guitar-player came last week with some little ideas, which was great of him. I hope I can do that too soon. I just want to see Greyn working ideas out together. I long for that.

Greyn has a gig at De Schaduw in Ardooie on Saturday the 19th of November with our keyboard-player's band Shoreleave as the opener and my best Belgian buddy Heidi and her boyfriend DJ-ing after Greyn's gig. I can't wait. Having concerts always forces a band into some action. I can't wait till that action begins again! I really hope the two new songs we are working on right now are ready to play that night so we can at least get some good stuff done and test the waters with it! For more information about that upcoming greyn gig, check out http://www.greyn.net

My next blog entry will be about the gigs I saw in Berlin. I'm also going to put links of bands that I want to advertise for whatever reason and I'm going to try to work out this template a little better. If and when time allows of course. These days I prefer to be busy with the Heidi and Sarah Face The Day blog because it's fun and beacuse until Greyn comes out of hibernation or until I find myself another band to sing in as well or other singing projects to work on, well, I won't have a lot to say about my own music or Greyn's.

Here I make it official: If anybody in Belgium happens to read this and is looking for a female Rock singer who comes from New York and can write lyrics and front a band, contact me!!!! I'm not one-bit shy and I have a big mouth and if I love something I advertise the hell out of it, take Greyn for example! In the Kortrijk/Gent/ Brugge region is best. If you want to hear my voice, go to my band Greyn's website and click on "disco" and then on the 4 song titles. Better yet, come see Greyn live on the 19th of November at De Schaduw in Ardooie.

Once again -- the sound of one-hand clapping and a tree falling in the forest -- nobody can hear me and nobody is listening...Why would they be? I wonder. Maybe i should talk about sneezing or belly-button lint or some strange fetish thing so that people will actually enter this site and read it!

Goodnight!

This is Greyn now: more to come later...