The big moments in the life of a young band are fairly easy to capture: signing the record deal, hitting the studio for the first time, hearing the debut single on the radio for the first time.

But the moment that can make the most impact frequently comes when no one’s watching, when the interview tape isn’t rolling, and when the stage’s lights have dimmed for the night.

It’s the moment the realization sets in that people are listening...really listening...to what you have to say.

“What’s been cool is that as people have been hearing the music, we’ve received some really cool feedback from people who have been encouraged by it,” says Grey Holiday vocalist/pianist/songwriter Matthew Minor. “I never really thought about the fact that people would be moved, so it’s been really exciting to have them respond well.”

Minor, together with bandmates Steven Bedingfield (guitars), R.T. Bodet (bass) and Joshua Fenoglio (drums), find themselves up to the challenge of working within the paradigm of modern music, with a lush, frenetic, Brit-pop influenced sound underpinning their Texas roots.

The Essential Records band also knows the factors involved in the industry side of their endeavors, with its debut recording, The Glorious Revolution, containing seven tracks and tons of band-created video content, with the promise of more and frequent releases per the iTunes-driven edicts of the current marketplace.

But it’s that recognition of the influence words can have on an audience that both gives them pause and makes them want to work even harder.

“It actually is a frightening realization, to think that as a musician you have some sort of sway with people,” Minor says.

Fenoglio adds, “I think it’s also an encouraging factor, because when you write something down on paper that’s a reflection of your life, like pointing out that you need to stop being so selfish, or you need to start seeing God in things, people may respond to it, and you have to mean it. You can’t be a hypocrite.”

That impact is being felt via Grey Holiday’s successful, first radio single, “Let Go,” and a very simple message that so frequently gets cast aside in a day and age where we’re encouraged to be in constant motion. “People keep telling us personal experiences about how they needed to let go of something; it just applies to so many things,” Minor says. “For me, it was songwriting. For somebody else, it might be about hanging onto a fear they have. What we’d like people to take away from it is the idea that God has a plan for you, if you’ll only just step out of the way.”

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