TMN STAFF
GreyMarket is a 2-piece electronic rock duo from Tampa, Florida. Featuring powerhouse drum work, soaring vocals, and blistering lead guitar riffs, the pair unapologetically offers up everything from bombastic rock anthems and epic orchestra-fused ballads to dancehall hip shakers and straight electronica. Far from being a one-trick studio pony, Mike Gargiulo (drums) and Cave McCoy (guitar, vocals) thrive in the stage light. Few other bands demonstrably claim to blend so many influences, not only of the musical variety but also the cinematic, into a set that can run the gamut from stripped-down blues to crunchy big beat synth tracks and everywhere in between.
They were always a strange band. They began as a result of a want ad that Mike and his then-bandmates had posted in the University of South Florida (USF) music department’s building, which Cave’s sister found. The ad was for a bassist; Cave answered it, and things went well. Mike was a loud Bronx-raised smooth-talking New York transplant, and Cave was an angsty nerd who had spent most of his former years living in Europe. But somehow, they ended up getting along and ended up finding more in common that they expected. Perhaps all the classic rock that close friends had insisted we listen to growing up; Led Zeppelin in particular. It’s more likely they both wanted a little bit of what the other one had, in terms of personality. Perhaps that’s why they’ve managed to stick together so long.
Over time, the two guitarists in the band left or moved, and the search for replacements became so frustrating that Cave took on the position, eventually doing the same thing for the role of singer and songwriter. At one point, they had actually resorted to asking people they’d pass on the street if they were singers. They both also started realizing that beyond finding a third musician, let alone a fourth or fifth, was going to be made exponentially more difficult by the easy chemistry the two of them had. Personal dynamics: when they work, don’t fuck with them. As soon as they could have physically managed it, they cut an EP as a “conventional” rock band, with Cave playing guitar and bass (and even a little Rhodes). Around that time, Cave started working at a recording studio called Zen Recording, sole assistant to an eccentric head engineer and musician, Steve Connelly, who ended up becoming a mentor for both and a longtime friend. It was at Zen Recording that their 2005 and 2007 releases were recorded, mixed, and mastered.
The decision to use electronics instead of additional members was the result of taking electronic music classes at the University of South Florida and deciding to combine the two projects. Cave had become tired of the lack of passion involved in a computer engineering bachelor’s program, so, on a lark, he took a course in the music department called “Introduction to Electronic Music”. He had been interested in electronica since experiencing the MOD (an early electronic music format that coupled MIDI and samples into a single small file) scene on the early Internet. That was amplified after hearing artists like The Prodigy and Orbital used in films like Event Horizon and Hackers, respectively. “Intro” proved riveting, so he took additional courses at SYCOM, USF’s Systems Complex for the Recording and Performing Arts, eventually obtaining a minor in electronic music. The courses involved focused on analog and digital synthesis and digital recording techniques. The professor teaching those courses became an invaluable mentor, Paul Reller, not only for understanding electronic music but composition in general.
“Sirens”, originally released on the 2007 album Dauntless and rearranged for 2010’s Dauntless Redux, was the first song to completely combine the rock and electronic sides of the band and was originally performed, in early form, at an SYCOM class concert. The 2008 album Some Orbits Will Never Decay became the first record built from the ground up to combine electronic and rock elements. This record was a huge step towards cementing the “sound” of the band and the tone of the music and lyrical content. It was followed in 2010 by Dauntless Redux, an attempt to use the lessons learned from 2008’sSOWND to create a final collection of the songs from the 2005 and 2007 releases that reflected the sound in the heads of the band, and a solid and complete catalog.
2012’s Dark Matter & Love Stories continued in much the same way, albeit with its own sonic signature. It was mature in some ways, experimental in others, and even somehow minimalist at times by comparison to SOWND. We tried throwing a lot of stuff against the wall, and when we put together a set of tracks out of what worked, it was pretty damned awesome. DMLS taught us not to be afraid to rethink our own box, even if we’d only just created it. 2016 sees the group revamping our entire production process to be even more independent. The Stress Kills is a record handled start-to-finish by the band, completely independently, purports the sound of a band truly comfortable with what its identity.