Young and hungry, Greta Van Fleet returns to Detroit as a rock-conquering hero

Brian McCollum | Detroit Free Press

Greta Van Fleet’s fast-blossoming success has already brought a generous share of milestones and memorable moments to the young Michigan band.

Now this week will deliver another crucial one: The hard-rock quartet will play three sold-out shows in an eagerly awaited homecoming run at the Fillmore Detroit.

The three-night stand comes as hype, attention and praise from high places continue to rain down on the young band, whose propulsive, searing sound has most commonly — if somewhat nearsightedly — garnered comparisons to Led Zeppelin.

“When we can come home and sell out three Fillmore (shows) and are told we could’ve done more — that’s a really humbling moment,” says the band’s Jake Kiszka. “That’s when it really hits home. You go: 'Wow, we’ve got that many people supporting and curious about what’s going on musically and what we’re up to?' That’s another of many moments that have been very surreal.”

Having broken onto the national radar last year with a pair of chart-topping rock hits (“Highway Tune” and “Safari Song”) and an eight-song EP (“From the Fires”), the newly signed Republic/Lava Records band hit 2018 with the wind at its back. Amid studio sessions with Detroit producers Al Sutton and Marlon Young, the group has played major fests such as Coachella, performed at Elton John’s Oscars party as his handpicked entertainment and is gearing up for European dates with Guns N’ Roses.

Greta Van Fleet — 22-year-old twin brothers Josh Kiszka (vocals) and Jake Kiszka (guitars), 19-year-old brother Sam Kiszka (bass) and 19-year-old drummer Danny Wagner — has attracted a generation-spanning audience of old-school rock heads and young enthusiasts, along with celebrity fans such as Robert Plant, Tom Hanks and Justin Bieber. Elsewhere, the foursome has been heralded as a potential savior, or at least forerunner, for a wider classic-rock revival — a slab of uninvited pressure the group seems content to take aboard.

The path has taken plenty of twists and turns since the day in April 2015 when a little-known, precocious teen rock band from Frankenmuth walked into Royal Oak’s Rustbelt Studios hoping to cut some tracks. The three brothers and their drummer pal had done little at that point besides jam around their hometown.

With guidance from Rustbelt owner Sutton and, eventually, his production partner Young, GVF began honing its sound and disciplining its approach. Things accelerated quickly in 2017: For the first time, the band hit the national touring circuit in earnest, just as it got swooped up by Lava Republic’s Jason Flom, the veteran A&R man best known around these parts for signing Kid Rock in the ‘90s.

For all the easy comparisons to bands of yore, day-to-day life for Greta is a far cry from grizzled ‘70s stereotypes: This is a band you’re more apt to find in an organic juice bar than a destroyed hotel room. Offstage, away from the roaring amps and mystical touches, they’re polite, well-spoken, thoughtful — four good family kids from Frankenmuth who are insightful enough to have made a personal pact that whatever music-biz drama the future may bring, they’ll never let band affairs come between them.

Even in the months since GVF closed out 2017 with a pair of sold-out Saint Andrew’s Hall dates, says Jake Kiszka, the band has sharpened its musical attack and beefed up its toolkit. At the Fillmore this week, fans will encounter a band locked into its mission — and continuing to probe creative boundaries.

Jake Kiszka, fresh off his cover appearance on Guitar Player magazine, talked with the Free Press ahead of the Detroit shows and the band’s 12-track debut album, which is now being mixed and is due later this year. (The conversation has been condensed and lightly edited.)

QUESTION: You hit the studio in January, and you’re just wrapping things up. How has the new music been shaping up?

ANSWER: It’s moved quite quickly. A lot of the material that’s been made over that period of time has actually evolved during the recording process, so a lot of songs have been written during that time. It’s a mixture of things we already had and things that are new.

Q: How would you distinguish it from the stuff we’ve all heard?

A: It’s a reflection of where we’re at. Musically, now it reflects of a lot of the chaos of the road, certainly, and moving around so much. And I think it’s also reflective of how we’ve evolved as musicians up to this point. It’s a bit more mature in a lot of senses.

Q: Talk about the band’s working relationship with Al (Sutton) and Marlon (Young). What are the key things they’ve brought to this process?

A: Especially 2½ years ago, when we first walked into Rustbelt and we wanted to work with Al, we weren’t studio musicians. We weren’t too familiar with that side of the world. Musically, there’s a very big contrast between being able to perform live and perform in the studio setting. I suppose over the last 2½ years, working with Al and Marlon — and even (co-producer) Herschel Boone — we’ve grown quite substantially as studio musicians.

Having them teach us that process was very important to us, and I think it will continue to be. It’s good to have a definitive direction — especially when it’s three brothers and their friend, and we’re all bickering and there can be a lack of organization at some points. (Laughs) So it’s good to have them to say, “Let’s focus on this,” and give a lot of direction to things like that.

Q: You mentioned the outside chaos that’s sprung up around you guys in recent months. How much time have you had to fiddle with the live show? Where have things gone since we saw you at Saint Andrew’s in December?

A: Now that we have more resources, the production value of everything has gone up. We’ve just gone through an entire lighting setup, a rig that we’ll be carrying on our summer tour with a crew. We’ve bumped that up. I think a lot of the actual performance value has gone up as well — we’ve done quite a bit of rehearsing and really had quite a bit of steady time since then on the road, and most importantly, we’ve grown musically. All of the values, when you take them into consideration, have gotten better. So that’s exciting. It’s fun.

Q: You continue to step up to bigger and bigger venues. How does that figure into your approach to a performance? You’re playing to a lot more faces, a lot more spaces.

A: It feels as though the larger the audience becomes, the more you have to be able to give yourself. You have to cover a lot more space. You have to try to connect with absolutely everybody even in larger venues. You have to look to the very back and see those faces. You have to put out quite a bit more to cover the space.

Q: Journalism-related question: Should we be calling you guys “a Detroit band” at this point? “A Michigan band”?

A: We work out of Detroit mainly. We would like to consider Detroit our home, too. We’d like to think of ourselves first and foremost as Michigan, always — we’re people who grew up in Michigan. Our families live all over the (state). So we’ve seen a whole lot of it.

We work primarily out of Detroit, so one could classify us that way. Detroit rock, man — it’s coming back.

Q: You guys have had a bunch of these celebrity run-ins lately. I know Tom Hanks popped into the studio down in Nashville. There was the Bieber Instagram cameo, the Elton John event. What have you taken from these encounters?

A: What’s satisfying is always their appreciation for your work. It always surprises me that you have these moments where people come in and you’ve studied all their work growing up, it’s been a part of your childhood and your life — like Tom Hanks, for instance. You never thought that you’d be sitting in the studio and he’d come and in and sit down and listen to a few songs and go, "Bitchin’!" ... This is some great shit!’ (Laughs). He’s loving it, and you’re sitting there going, "Whoa." That’s been the most enjoyable part of that. I can relish in the fact that they enjoy what we’re putting out — that not only do they hear the music, they have an appreciation for it. Those are some of the greatest moments.

Even for someone like Justin Bieber to come along for Coachella to watch our show and meet us after, but then to also come see us at our own show that week in L.A. We’re grateful for that appreciation.

Q: Did (vocalist) Josh have any particular reaction to Robert Plant’s comments? (The Led Zeppelin singer enthused about Greta Van Fleet in a March interview.) He really zeroed in on Josh’s voice while talking you guys up.

A: Yeah, it was another one of those moments — it’s (gratifying) when someone like that, someone of the legend of Robert Plant, says something like that. Josh was pretty elated about it. (Laughs)

I mean, people can say this or that about what we’re doing (in terms of Led Zeppelin imitation). But when you have praises from the man himself, it kind of puts an ease to things. And I think he really appreciated Robert saying that about him. So yeah, he’s very happy about that.

Q: There’s been so much media, so much buzz. Are you feeling any pressure building, a sense there’s something you’ve got to live up to now?

A: Oh yeah. It’s good. I suppose that comes off naturally in the album — you can hear the period of time we’re in, where we’re at musically, where we’re at emotionally. A lot of that’s just imprinted on the album. You’ll be able to hear all those different things. It’s really cool.

But yeah, there is a pressure. There’s not a bad pressure. It’s a good pressure. You feel like there’s a lot of work to be done, and there’s a lot to accomplish. So much to do in so little time — that sort of pressure, in a good sense.

Q: I always like talking to artists who are at the stage you're in right at this very moment. Because it’s only going to happen once in your career. There may be a million other milestones and achievements ahead, but this thing — this first rush of energy and acclaim — is never going to happen again. Is it something you guys are conscious of, to take care that you’re soaking it in and not taking anything for granted?

A: It definitely is. There’s so much going on all the time that it’s very difficult to cognitively process some things. So when we get home from the studio or are done with a show — and it’s always very late at night — we all start talking about it, trying to process it, when we’re finally just alone.

And that’s another great thing. It’s exciting and it’s not something to be taken for granted. We’re very humbled by the fact that we’ve had this sort of reception.

Q: I’ve been told that you three brothers made a vow at one point that you’d never let the band come between you. So, no Kinks or Oasis situation for you — you’d always make sure the family bond comes first.

A: We’re very aware that we have each other. A large part of that and our ability to stay grounded — and even with Danny — the priority to each other comes first over anything any kind of discrepancy. I suppose that was a vow of some sort, where we agreed to stay humble towards each other and not rip each other apart.

Q: Are there any new sources of inspiration you can point to, stuff you guys have been listening to?

A: We’ve been listening to quite a bit of Fleet Foxes recently. And there’s a guitarist, Leo Kottke, that I’ve been listening to who’s been quite an inspiration. He’s a slide player.

First Aid Kit and Fleet Foxes both played Coachella. We’d been listening to them quite a bit and tried to see them. We’re big fans of those two bands. A lot of folk recently.

Q: As a guitar player, how do you see your skills as having grown over, say, the past year, as you’ve logged more and more time on the road?

A: That’s something you’re never too conscious of. As s a musician, doing anything, you don’t always know how far you’ve come in a certain period of time. When we get in the studio with Al and Marlon, those are people that are more aware of where you WERE at, and where you’re at now. I remember Marlon telling me, “Man, as a guitarist, you’ve come a very, very long way in the last year.” That’s where they can make me feel really good.

And then there are other things you are more conscious of, like what you’re playing and how you’re growing as a guitarist with your own voice, in a sense. (For example), when I’m writing licks: It’s very much like a language, and there’s a dialect. There’s a certain thing, and you have to write your own way of speaking. And that’s been a large focus of mine. I’ve been writing licks and putting things together that I’ve created, trying to have more of my own language. A lot of that has come a long way consciously. And my playing has come a long way unconsciously. I suppose there’s two sides to it.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

Greta Van Fleet

With Dorothy

Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday

Fillmore Detroit

2115 Woodward

313-961-5451

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