[5] He counts music artists Joy Division, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Manic Street Preachers, Pixies, Depeche Mode, Nick Drake, Thom Yorke, Placebo and authors Wallace Stevens and James Joyce amongst his influences.
[1][6][7][8][9] Greaney met drummer Fergal Matthews while studying at Belvedere College in Dublin, Ireland, forming a friendship due to their mutual love of Joy Division, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.
After Smith's departure, fellow student Hilary Woods, who had previously shared the stage with Greaney as part of a string quartet, was added as the band's bassist.
[5] Woods later described that the band's songwriting process stemmed from Greaney "coming in with the melody and lyrics and basically the three of us then evolve it into a JJ72 song".
[12] After saving their money, the band recorded demos and posted them to the offices of Select, Melody Maker, NME and BBC Radio 1 in the UK, which won them attention.
And that's why, at the time it was just like, this is meant to happen, you know?The band began playing new Greaney compositions "Formulae", "City" and "Brother Sleep" live during 2001 and recorded their second album with former Smashing Pumpkins producers Flood and Alan Moulder in early 2002.
[7] Despite Greaney's songwriting problems, the band began playing new songs live throughout 2003, including "Coming Home", "Everything", "Nothing in This World", "Maria", and "Rainfalls".
[6] Greaney played his first solo gigs during his time in JJ72 when logistical problems and injuries prevented the trio from performing as a full band.
[29] He performed solo acoustic at the first date of the 2001 NME Awards Tour at Glasgow QMU, due to Fergal Matthews suffering an injury after the previous night's gig at Derby University.
[31] Greaney embarked on his first solo tour in May 2007 (supporting Simple Kid in the UK)[32] and uploaded two new songs to his MySpace page, "Falling" and "Lost and Found".
[34] Greaney spent time recording at the Manic Street Preachers' Faster Studios in Cardiff with producer Dave Eringa in 2010[6] and the sessions yielded a new song, "Animal".
[6] Greaney and bassist Gavin Fox (ex-Idlewild, Turn and Vega4) had been friends for years and always talked about forming a band when their schedules allowed.
Rounding out the band with drummer Paul "Binzer" Brennan (Mundy, The Frames, Bell X1), the trio began writing material.
[8] Greaney achieved a childhood dream when Concerto for Constantine were picked to support the Smashing Pumpkins on the Dublin and Belfast dates of their Zeitgeist tour in February 2008.
[44] Greaney teamed up with Dublin band Cronin to record and release a cover of Gene Pitney's Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart in December 2013.