Greg Keys & Co Blow the Walls Down on Latest Release "Why Can't It Be You"
BUZZ LA- Aug 10, 2020
- 4 min read
Greg Keys & Co are a Charleston New-Wave Alternative band who just saw the release of their latest Extended Play, "Why Can't It Be You."
It's one of those danceable records that delivers a staggering punch in the way its soft-rock contemporary flexing curves give unmatched character to this band. Within a few minutes, the title track "Why Can It Be You," comes off as jubilant and radio-eager, interweaving quickly between a blazing rock production and melodic up swingings of energy.
With a magnetic backbeat, a fully glazed-out electric bass, hardcore guitar storms, and vocals from the superlatively compelling Greg Keys himself, the definitively trendy band has taken their flash of contemporary cleanliness and mixed it together between their new-wave sheen; creating something reminiscent of modern music's most addicting. The topline melody in "Why Can't It Be You" is most prominent here though, presenting as consummate and eye-popping, while producing a potency that's hard to shake off.
"Why Can't It Be You" is the extended play's centerpiece and this year's peak in his songwriting performance, stating it himself in a press release saying, "it's probably some of my best songwriting to date." The track makes you feel comfortable headbanging in the shower as the song's enormous guitar squalls echo ghosts of rock's ancestors. Ultimately, it digs out new territory in the stewy amalgamation of new-wave American music. Greg Keys takes the head role in full command of their magnetism, tieing the whole piece together with his meticulous construction of the addictive and unforgettable topline melody. Here, Greg turns on a dime from tragic lines about the fine lines of a break-up to a world-shattering chorus: "Taking up my time, time spent just feeling, feeling about it, all I need is you." As the flow simmers down, Greg shapeshifts from a grand proclamation to a short-edge stanza between each prevailing chorus, with whistling harmonies evaporating in the mix's atmospheres. It's a fleshly song that transforms into an enormously impactful statement for the band as a whole: we're here, we're rising, and you don't wanna sleep on us.
What's the most exciting milestone you've reach recently as a band who is up and coming in the southern-east parts of the states?
Our most exciting milestone as of late has just been the ability to perform again. It seems small but 2020 has been full of obstacles for everyone, so just having the chance to get in front of our fans again and start performing in some way, shape, or form has been a blessing. To go from packing out crowds to the entire country shutting down for months on end really got us appreciating the little things.
If you were to relate this song's writing experience to three different emotions, which would you choose and why?
The song "Why Can't It Be You" can be summed up by the words Heartbreak, Challenge, and then Hope. It's about a man feeling like his whole world is falling apart/crashing in, but he wouldn't be telling this story if he thought the cause was lost. There is strength even in his weakness, and he just wanted his person to see that he desires to evolve into a better version of himself, to become the man he needs to be.
How did you manage to mesh together so well as a band in a genre that pulls from ear to ear with a creative edge and individual flair?
We came together for this EP in the smoothest way possible. It's best not to sit down and just say "Ok, we are going to do Pop Rock music", but instead just start creating it and find out what it becomes later on. We could have been a bluegrass band and we would have run with it just like we are now. We allowed our sound to come organically and I think from that it made us more than these bands aiming to write pop songs, we became the band that made their own songs that just so happened to be pop-friendly.
What has been the most challenging experience about the EP's release, it's recording process?
The biggest challenge for us was marketing the EP once we finished it up. The recording process was fairly easy because we had all the free time granted to us by the pandemic so we had time to make adjustments and fine-tune every piece of the puzzle. But once we finished the song, we had to take a different approach on marketing because we can't have a big release show, we can't go out and perform the song right away, so instead, we have to step into this virtual world and try and still provide a similar level of entertainment even from home.
What are you most looking forward to expressing to your audience through the release and highlight of this single?
Through the release of these 4 songs, we are transitioning and allowing our fans to see us become a true Pop Rock group. To give them enough diversification in the tracks that allows them to see all the directions our style of music can go, but then to reel them into the final approach of what we have planned. We wanted to give people something real to hold on to, at least until the album drops sometime late 2020/early 2021.
