Greta Van Fleet‘s new album âThe Battle At Gardenâs Gateâ, is, in their own words, “unfuckwithable”.
Released earlier this month, the Michigan four-piece’s colossal second record was inspired by their time on the road and the tours that took them from their humble small-town roots in Michigan to arenas around the globe.
Exploring everything from how technology is causing people to be more detached from reality (âAge of The Machineâ), to how change is something inescapable and constant (âTrip The Light Fantasticâ), it’s resulted in their most mature and ambitious release yet.
We caught up with frontman Josh Kiszka and bassist Sam Kiszka from their new hometown of Nashville, to talk TikTok, Stanley Kubrick and what it’s like to release an album with its roots in travel to a world stuck in lockdown. Hereâs what we learned.
âThe Battle At Gardenâs Gateâ is their coming of age record
Greta Van Fleet have had a meteoric rise. Winning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album for 2017’s ‘From the Fires’, and with their debut album âAnthem of the Peaceful Armyâ topping the Billboard Rock charts, did their previous successes add any pressure?
âNot even a little. I think it’s because we felt like we were evolving, and getting too far in our own direction to have other people steering our ship for us,â explains Sam. âIt was really liberating. We knew exactly what we were going to do â we were gonna create an album that was big and unfuckwithable.â
Sam says theyâre no longer weighed down with previous influences. âYou canât really say anything about ‘The Battle At Gardenâs Gateâ that would draw negative comparisons, to say, Led Zeppelin. Itâs 110% Greta Van Fleet. In a lot of ways, itâs our âcoming of ageâ albumâ.
Rock and roll isnât dead
Earlier this year KISS’ Gene Simmons doubled down on his belief that ârock is dead”. Josh disagrees.
âMaybe the world of rock he remembers is dead,” he says. “I think rock and roll is a very elastic genre, a very eclectic genre. It seems like, every once in a while, a generation reinterprets what that is⊠you canât kill something that supersedes time. Itâs an attitude, a spirit and a celebration.â
Josh cites Florence and the Machine as a shining example of rockâs good health. Florence Welch’s band are also a dream collaboration for Greta Van Fleet. âThereâs something really unique and honest and raw they’re channeling. As far as their live performance is concerned, itâs a great live rock and roll act. I think we could create some good stuff togetherâ .
Stanley Kubrick was a major influence on ‘The Battle At Gardenâs Gateâ
Cinema had a huge influence on the band’s latest record, with Sam claiming ‘The Battle At Gardenâs Gateâ is âthe soundtrack to a film that just hasnât been made yet. The album itself is the movieâ.
âWe want to make something thatâs widescreenâ he explains. âThatâs our favourite stuff. Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, John Williams and everything in-betweenâ.
Stanley Kubrick in particular had a big influence, with Josh explaining: âI love that sort of obsessive symmetry in the lens. Thatâs kind of the visual of it, thinking of what the world was. And there were some science fiction elements to [the album].â
Socially distanced Greta Van Fleet shows could be coming soon
âWe had to postpone the album because the world changed overnight,â Josh explains of the record’s release. But while the album had to be delayed, it did allow the band to work on some extra tunes. âWe wanted to have a 12 song album, but with touring it looked like weâd only have time to fit in 10 tracks.â
The additional time off meant Greta Van Fleet were able to add âCaravelâ and âThe Barbariansâ to the record. âThose were written in 2020, we thought âyep, that belongs perfectly in the universe of this album!ââ says Josh.
Now, they’re raring to get these new songs on the road. âWeâve been playing the hell out of the album,â Josh enthuses. âWe feel pretty confident about it, everyoneâs playing every instrument with every limbâ. This time off has given them time to prepare the record for tour, as Sam explains: âIt is a very difficult album to transfer to the live settingâ.
Even so, we might witness their live rebirth sooner than we think. âI keep hearing a lot that this Fall weâre looking at possible [tour] stuff,â Sam says.
âBefore that weâre also looking at things that are socially distanced,â he adds, before Josh interjects: âGuys in suits are murmuring into each others’ ears pods!”
Theyâre too old for TikTok
One of the songs on the album, the gargantuan âAge of The Machineâ, looks at how we live in a âtechnological world that is rapidly becoming more and more technological,â says Josh.
The band members are self-proclaimed technophobes. âPhones, I loathe,â Josh says. When asked about video sharing app TikTok, Sam claims âfor the first time I feel old, I have no idea what this thing is!”
Josh feels as humans weâll never have technology fully figured out. âThe worldâs constantly changing, and people change with it, and then the technology changes along with thatâ. Which seems like a fine excuse to refuse to understand the sea shanty craze from the start of this year.
The post Five things we learned from our In Conversation video chat with Greta Van Fleet appeared first on NME.