Until recently, the town of Frankenmuth, Michigan [population approx 5,000] was known primarily for its quaint, tourist-oriented shtick.
“Most people know it as ‘Christmastown’, because apparently the largest Christmas store in the world is located there,” explains Danny Wagner. “But it’s also this little Bavarian-themed town, and all of the architecture has to meet Bavarian-themed requirements – even the McDonald’s. It’s quite the little cute tourist town, though.”
Then Greta Van Fleet came along. The rock band comprised of Wagner (who plays drums) and the three Kiszka brothers Josh and Jake (who are twins) and Sam have managed to put their hometown on the map for musical reasons, thanks to their bluesy hard rock sound and hits such as Highway Tune and When the Curtain Falls.
Their detractors have witheringly accused them of being little more than a “throwback” band, merely aping an older sound but offering nothing new.
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“I actually do take it as a compliment,” says the pleasant, laidback Wagner. A dedicated golfer when he’s not behind the drumkit – golf not being your average rock star’s customary extracurricular pursuit – you get the feeling that it would take a lot to rile him. “I’m a very optimistic person and very glass-half-full, so when I hear those things, I know in a certain sense they’re talking about the fashion and the music,” he concedes. “But from a foundational standpoint, I guess we are very throwback, because we were one of those bands that formed in a garage – and you don’t hear that a lot any more.” He shrugs. “We didn’t even really have lessons for our instruments.”
Wagner was a late addition to Greta Van Fleet (replacing original drummer Kyle Hauck in late 2013), who did indeed find their feet as a band in the garage of the Kiszka family home. Despite the naysayers, the band has already achieved enormous success, bagging their first Grammy less than two years after signing a record deal when their second EP, From the Fires, won Best Rock Album in 2019.
By that point, they had already released their full-length debut, 2018′s Anthem for the Peaceful Army, and were well on their way to stardom. Elton John professed his love for them and encouraged them to be more flamboyant in their stagecraft, costumery and sound; 2021′s The Battle at Garden’s Gate was bigger, louder and more vibrant than its predecessor. As guitarist Jake Kiszka put it at the time, it was an album intended to be both “big and unfuckwithable” and “cinematic and orgasmic”.
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Having built a wall of sound with The Battle at Garden’s Gate, the four-piece did a U-turn for their third album, Starcatcher. The album was recorded with producer Dan Cobb in Nashville, where the band members have made their home in recent years. Although they had agreed on the album’s overarching vision in advance, a lot of it was written off-the-cuff, with Cobb encouraging them to develop ideas they had jammed into fully-fledged songs. As always, firepower, riffage and the impressive vocals of frontman Josh Kiszka (who publicly came out as gay a few weeks after this interview) take precedence over lyrics; Greta Van Fleet have never been afraid to be frivolous, and there is even a song on the album, Sacred the Thread, about Josh’s love of jumpsuits.
Elsewhere they dabble in mysticism and spiritualism, on Meeting the Master and Frozen Light. Their visual aesthetic is important too – their recent videos have been enjoyably over-the-top affairs, although they occasionally edge perilously close to Spinal Tap territory.
“We kind of wanted to strip it back and go back to the fundamentals of us as a band when we first started recording,” explains Wagner. “When we first became a band – almost 10 years ago, now – we were limited musicians in a garage. And being limited almost allowed us to become more creative, because then you just had to take these little ideas and just expand and branch off from them, as opposed to having every resource at your fingertips. So we wanted to go into the studio and capture a lot of that magic by writing songs during the process; to allow it to explode right in front of us.”
There’s absolutely no denying that we grew up with classic rock, and Led Zeppelin is at the very top of our list, as far as creativity and execution goes
— Danny Wagner, Greta van Fleet
Recording in the legendary RCA Studio in Nashville also undoubtedly shaped how the album sounded, says Wagner.
“Even walking through the studio, on your way upstairs to the guitar closets, there are pictures all over the walls of bands like The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Elvis, Chet Atkins, all of these historic figures that we looked up to growing up,” he recalls. “We primarily grew up with vinyl and cassettes and CDs. We had a little bit of radio here and there, once we started riding the school bus, but other than that we kind of grew up learning our instruments to those older, classic artists. So to walk into a studio where so many of them had stood before us – it gave you quite the feeling.”
It sounds as if Greta Van Fleet have the world at their feet, even if the constant comparisons and accusations of aping the likes of Led Zeppelin remains something of a speedbump in their advancement. It’s a question that Wagner is clearly ready for.
“Y’know what, one of my favourite sayings is ‘Imitation is the best form of flattery’,” he says with a good-natured chuckle. “And that’s not to necessarily say that we’re intentionally trying to imitate – because that’s not what we’re trying to do, at all – but I understand that people have this natural inclination to just make comparisons with things; that’s just what we do. And there’s absolutely no denying that we grew up with classic rock, and Led Zeppelin is at the very top of our list, as far as creativity and execution goes. They just had this mystique to them. But I know that even though a lot of that criticism [toward Greta Van Fleet] tends to be negatively intended… I don’t know.”
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He pauses, sighing. “When rock‘n’roll was born, it was this almost angsty rebellion against music. People started turning their guitars up very loud and started dancing and moving their hips, and their parents hated it, and most of the population hated it. And that’s kind of what made it the genre that it is; that ‘freedom’ aspect. So if we didn’t have any of that commotion and chaos whirling around in the atmosphere when we started playing, I don’t think that it’d be rock‘n’roll.” He shrugs. “I think it’s incredible that there actually is a lot of backlash and talk, because at the very core of its existence, that’s what brought it to life. But overall, I think it’s a fantastic compliment, because [Led Zeppelin’s musicians] are some of the best that there ever were.”
It’s an interesting conversation, given the recent high-profile copyright infringement case against the likes of Ed Sheeran, who described the foundational chords of his song Thinking Out Loud and Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On as “common building blocks” that all artists should be free to use, without being accused of plagiarism.
Ultimately our main shared goal is to have the ability to tour the world, and continue to write music, and continue to reach more people and unify more people
— Danny Wagner, Greta van Fleet
“I do agree with that,” says Wagner, nodding. “I think music comes from a lot of different places. People always ask ‘How does it feel when you’re writing music?’ and I always say ‘I actually don’t know how it feels, because I’m just channelling something that came out of the ether’. You’re like the lightning rod that’s just channelling [it] and bringing it to life. And sometimes these ideas are subconscious, and you’ve never heard them before. And it’s never intentional: I highly doubt any artist has ever sat in a room and gone ‘Okay, how can we make this song sound exactly like that song?’ So Ed Sheeran is absolutely right – the foundation building blocks of writing a song tend to all start in the same place.”
In any case, the band are looking forward to taking Starcatcher on the road, including a stop-off in Dublin this November. After their last Irish gig, Wagner says, they took a few days off, invited their families over from Michigan, and rented a house an hour outside of Dublin for some r’n’r. He played golf at Portmarnock and they toured the Guinness Storehouse, walked along the Liffey and indulged in a few pints, too. There is no telling how long the band will last, or how long they’ll get to do the whole rock star thing. In the meantime, he says, they’re going to enjoy every moment.
‘Y’know, I don’t know we’ve ever given too much thought into the future, or of where we’re gonna be in general,” he says in his typically cheerful fashion. “But I think that has helped us live in the moment, when it comes to being able to create. It can definitely get overwhelming at times, but ultimately our main shared goal is to have the ability to tour the world, and continue to write music, and continue to reach more people and unify more people. And honestly, the fact that we have been able to do that on such a trajectory has been incredible. It’s overwhelming, but there’s still a sense of humbleness between us.”
He stops, thinking for a moment. “We didn’t expect to have a Grammy after the first album; that came as a bit of a surprise to all of us. But it happened,” he smiles, “and it just adds fuel to the fire.”
Starcatcher is released on July 21st. Greta Van Fleet play the 3Arena, Dublin on November 16th
