The band are also raising donations to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Grayscale have premiered the video for the live version of deeply personal track Tommy’s Song, filmed at the TLA in their native Philadelphia. Tommy’s Song was written for singer Collin Walsh’s cousin, Thomas Patrick Walsh, who took his own life last April. Tommy was just 20 years old.
The song is told from Collin’s perspective of the event itself and the grief experienced thereafter. It was an incredibly difficult track for the vocalist to write — both vocally and lyrically. It was so difficult and emotionally gut-wrenching, in fact, that he doubted that he would be able to use any of the vocal takes. The band and its producer soldiered on and ended up using these raw, unfiltered moments on the final track, adding to its depth, emotional heft, and character.
“It was challenging for us to write a song in a way that we felt captured the impact of the situation appropriately,” the band says. “Tommy’s Song was written with the help of our friend, Skylar Patzer, who beautifully performed the piano track on this song, and also featured a choir singing the reprise and carrying the song through its grandiose ending.”
Grayscale continues, “The first (and possibly last) time we performed this song live was on 5 October 2019 at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA, on our first ever headline tour. We only wanted to perform this song the way it was intended to be realized, which was with a full gospel choir. The 1,100+ crowd sang with the choir in tandem, ‘I heard Gospels singing in my head’ to close out our most memorable show to date. The performance was exactly how we pictured it — beautiful and conclusive.”
The moment is now being shared with all of Grayscale’s fans and beyond.
“Today, we wanted to share with you the impact of this song,” the band says. “We captured Tommy’s Song live on camera so that you can watch and feel what it was like that night, and to show you how this story has affected not just Collin and the band, but every single person in the room that night.”
The band has set up a donation link alongside the video for The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Donations will be live for a week, after which Grayscale will reveal the total sum raised.
The money will be used to fund AFSP mental health and suicide prevention programs implemented in schools, communities, and workplaces nationwide; to allocate resources to the AFSP Public Policy team to effectively pass suicide prevention policies at the state and federal levels, and to offer resources and personal support to survivors of suicide loss.
Grayscale will embark on a headline tour with support from Hot Mulligan, WSTR, and LURK this winter. The tour kicks off 24 January in Wilmington, Delaware, and runs through 27 February in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
High Fives & Stage Dives 