Greta Van Fleet vocalist Josh Kiszka and bassist Sam Kiszka talked to Forbes about their recently released album ‘Starcatcher.’ Brothers and bandmates gave insight into their inspirations while bringing the album together. When the effect of the subconscious on songwriting came up, Josh mentioned an interaction between him and their producer Dave Cobb, and how it led to him taking walks to graveyards for inspiration:
“David said, ‘Why don’t you go over to this graveyard or that graveyard to write?’ [laughter] And I thought, ‘Okay, well that’s macabre but I’ll give that a shot.’ And so I would take walks, an hour here or there just to go sit in a graveyard somewhere and soak up the energy and let the environment drive the subconscious to, with very little parameters, arrive on a concept or an idea and communicate that.”
The vocalist also mentioned that he realises the effects of these walks on the album while re-listening:
“So I think in a lot of ways, I am hearing things now in the thematic aspects of the lyrics, what they’re getting at, that I didn’t when we were writing it or recording it. And so yeah, I think that probably did have some influence just like it probably did on a lot of the groups that have probably recorded in and around those parts.”
When it was asked to Kiszka brothers how it feels to listen to their album as a whole rather than first five songs, Josh answered:
“I think it really captures the essence of the moment and the time. And the same thing goes with the previous record. It really captures us at that moment. And I think lyrically it probably feels very congruent to you maybe. Like it all exists within this world, not only the influences that are coming in this three, four-month period but it really captures Greta Van Fleet and it really captures everything that’s going on in that moment.”
His brother and the band’s guitarist Sam Kiszka talked about Josh’s writing process in ‘Starcatcher’ in a recent interview:
“There were some more personal things that Josh kind of started writing about on this album, which I think is really interesting; because not only do I think he’s at his literary peak as a lyricist and as a writer, but also he’s taking some different perspectives, and he’s taking some of his own [perspectives] and they’re unique.”
The ‘personal things’ he mentioned could be referring to Josh’s IG post where he came out and vocalised his support for LGBTQ+ community. His caption wrote:
“These issues are especially close to my heart as I’ve been in a loving, same-sex relationship with my partner for the past 8 years. Those close to me are well aware, but it’s important to me to share publicly.”
You can listen to ‘Starcatcher’ here.
