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Today, we are very excited to bring you the full stream of Goodness Greyness Me's debut album!

Goodness Greyness Me is the solo project of Dan Kiener, a veteran UK musician who has toured the world as live sound engineer for acts like The Gaslight Anthem, ¡Forward, Russia!, Thumpers, and Brian Fallon And The Crowes. After the breakup of his previous band Magpies & Vagabonds in 2015, Dan commenced preliminary work on what would become his debut solo album. After working on it for over a year, his self-titled debut will finally be out this Friday. We talked to Dan about the album so read on or immediately jump to the stream below... up to you!

PRT: You have been working towards the release of your album for over a year now. What’s it like to have it finally come out in a couple of days?

Dan: Maybe this sounds pessimistic, but… it’s a relief. There are things about it that I could have changed, tweaked, edited, remixed or re-recorded, but when I gave myself a release date I knew that those would all just become things I would learn to live with. It’s a good feeling, in many ways it stopped me second-guessing myself.

PRT: Where did the idea of doing a solo project come from?

Dan: Necessity, to be honest. My old band broke up and I didn’t really have a creative outlet. For a while I didn’t want or need one, then I realized I was missing something and wanted to make a record for myself. I couldn’t find a drummer so I just started doing the whole thing on my own. It’s actually easier to change direction or scrap something and start over when you’re a solo act, you’re only beholden to yourself.

PRT: The album will be out on Friday the 13th… isn’t that kinda asking for problems?

Dan: Nah, it makes me feel like more Marilyn Manson. You need only look at me to know that Marilyn Manson and I are prrrrretty much the same person. We have a lot in common, our lives and careers have had very similar trajectories.

PRT: The lyrics deal with your anxiety and self-doubt, but there’s plenty of self-deprecating humour and poppy hooks. What is it about that juxtaposition that appeals to you?

Dan: To be honest, I don’t know. I think I wanted to make an upbeat and uplifting record so that’s where the musical element came from. The lyrics came about because I don’t feel like I have the wisdom or authority to sing about anything else; I’m not a particularly intelligent or informed human, but I guess I’m in a better position than anyone to talk about my stupid brain and what I’m going through.

In terms of actual juxtaposition of positive and negative, whenever I see or hear something like that in other people’s art then it always seems to resonate more and always seems to last longer. Humour in darkness or (darkness in humour) can be sickening or enlightening and I think allows audiences to have a much more complex emotional response to whatever they’re seeing or hearing. My record isn’t comparable to his work in the slightest, but when David Lynch combines the ridiculous with the distressing in Twin Peaks or Mulholland Drive or something… it’s really haunting, I find. You question what you’re seeing much more because it’s less linear and even when it’s truly surreal it’s much more akin to real life than something that only affords you a binary emotional response.

PRT: The songs on the album don’t exactly sound like a solo project… how will you go about recreating them in a live setting?
 
Dan: This is the ultimate question, because I honestly have no idea. In my head there’s an idea involving me and about three other musicians and a computer, but bringing that to life is a bit of a way off. For now I’m reinterpreting the songs acoustically and hoping that it works enough to get the message across.