An Interview With - Grey Daze

On Thursday we took advantage of an incredible opportunity that was offered to us - the chance to interview Grey Daze, one of the first bands of alternative legend Chester Bennington. Embarking to the UK for the very first time in May on their #foryouchester tour, Josh sat down with Sean Dowdell, who founded the band alongside Chester in 1993, and Cris Hodges, who took up vocal duties when the band performed their first show in over 20 years in 2023.

Here's how the conversation went:

So why now for the UK?

Sean: We actually had a show scheduled in ‘95 to play Reading Festival, but for better or for worse our bass player discovered he had other priorities and we ended up missing that tour. Wanting to come full circle, once the albums came out and we decided to try to do this live, Cris pitched to the band “hey what about doing a tour in the UK” and we just sat down and talked about it. We have a singer now that has joined the band, that’s excited to tour, that can pull it off live and does a great job, and the band’s finally ready to take on the duties of playing live.

I saw that your first show back was you playing in front of 10,000 people - for your first show back after so long having that amount of impact and seeing that many people there supporting you, how was that for you and did it help you realise how many fans you had out there?

Cris: Stepping into the shoes first of all is enough to give one a heart attack. Doing this in front of 10,000 people for the first show on top of that is just mind-numbingly scary. But to kinda give you a background on how that happened, I met Grey Daze back in 2020 when the Amends record came out, and so we just stayed friends. They came out to some live shows I was doing in their local area and so they knew how I performed and we got along. It was October 2022 when they called me just to fly out, hang out, play a few songs and see what happens, making sure this is organic. So I flew out, we didn’t have any expectations, and we got in the rehearsal studio and played the music for the first time and it was beautiful, like the moment was beautiful and natural. So we just put it out there, do people want to see this live? And the response was overwhelmingly positive and the first show just happened to be at UFEST in Phoenix Arizona and it just happened to be in front of 10,000 people. We had about six months prior to the first initial meeting to prepare, to make sure that we’re honouring the legacy of Grey Daze, to make sure my voice and my character is appropriate for this project, and it all kind of came together and it was beautiful. That’s why we’re coming over to the UK to show you guys what we’ve been doing.

Sean: And then we got on stage and all of our in-ear monitors went out. Not to pat myself on the back here, but I had to play the entire set to nothing. It was horrible - but we pulled it off!

Clearly something went right.

Cris: I was shocked. The whole time I was up there, because I didn’t have ears either, I was singing without any sound. No sound. The whole time we were on stage I was just like “man I’m gonna hear about this”.

Sean: (Laughs) I think you were the least of the problems by the point. We all got off stage and looked at each other and just said you know what, for that to be our first show, to have as many problems and we did and to have the crowd respond the way they did was amazing. And you know the coolest thing is that we actually had… I want to say about seven hardcore fans that flew over from the UK. One that sticks in my mind is a mega fan Johnny Hill. They came over and they all stood in line and did the meet and greet and they were so gracious, and so into what we were doing that it just took all of the stuff that had not gone right for us and made us just kind of snap back to reality. Like these people just traveled halfway across the world to see us, we need to make sure that we are immersing ourselves in the moment, and we did. To Cris’ credit, it is damn scary to step out on a stage and have to sing when you can’t hear anything. We ended up pulling it off and we’re super excited to play in front of the UK crowd.

Grey Daze pictured in 1995

Your story has been one of support, not just from the fans but from other members of the industry and Chester’s family. It’s a journey that must’ve been difficult to go on, but how was it to have that support the whole way through?

Sean: I don’t think it came as a surprise honestly. We had good relationships with everybody during Chester’s life so that to me was kind of a natural progression. The family respect me and know that my intentions are solid so I think the easy thing for us was that none of us were trying to get rich or famous off of this. This was a play on making sure that the music got out there so that for one we could accomplish what we set out to do, that was first and foremost, and two so that the fans could hear the music and hear Chester, a part of Chester’s legacy that maybe they weren’t familiar with. Being that as our intention I think it made things honestly easier. It took a lot of time, and there were a lot of hurdles to jump over to make things line up correctly, but just making sure our intentions were on point, I think it made it easy to get there.

When you released the music it was clear the fans wanted it for it to do so well, and for you to now be able to come over to the UK it’s clear they want the legacy but they also want you guys. Cris, for you to take those reins and have such a positive impact from the start and for everyone to respond so well, are you excited to see if this journey continues and see what more you can do or do you want to keep the legacy going for a time and see what happens next?

Cris: That’s a really good question, just back to your earlier one first. I’m not surprised that the fans accepted the Grey Daze music, I am quite surprised that Grey Daze fans accepted me. This was a big surprise to me and it was a beautiful moment to see this happen. When we got together we said we’re not going to do anything that the fans don’t want, this is going to be fan dictated. We’re gonna play some shows, if the fans want it we’ll play it. If fans want some new music, we’ll put it down. It just so happens that we were on an interview with KCAL over here in Los Angeles and we just made mention that we were open to writing new music if fans wanted it, and that little snippet from that interview just blew up over here in the US, and people asked for it so we started writing new music. We’re currently sitting on some new material that quite possibly might be debuted in the UK.

Sean: It will be Cris. We’re definitely going to, we don’t have to tease him like that. The fans are going to be able to hear Cris with music that he wrote with the band, and that’s exciting for us. It was nerve-wracking for me, because we wrote such meaningful tracks with Chester who is no longer here. How was this going to happen in a way that was even comparable quality-wise with the new singer? That was scary, and to Cris’ credit he really came through and I think the fans are going to really be stoked when they hear the new tracks. Cris pulls it off and does a fantastic job and you get to hear him in his element, which I think is really special.

An early promo still of the group

I’m sure it’s going to be amazing to not only debut that for the first time, but also to a crowd you’ve never played to before. Just as a final question, is there anything that you’d like to say to your UK fans, the ones who’ve been waiting for you to come here as well as those who only discovered you recently?

Cris: I’ll just say this - thank you. Thank you for accepting this project, thank you for inviting us to the UK, and lastly, we’re not going to let you down.

Sean: I will second the thank you to the fans. We’re so grateful that the UK fans have been so accommodating and accepting of not only the music that we’ve done in the past but to bring us over with Cris. It’s really special for us. We’re going to be doing meet and greets at every single show, it’s really exciting to get in the mix and meet you guys.

A massive thank you to Sean and Cris for taking the time to speak with us, and we can't wait to cover the Manchester date of their upcoming tour later this year!