With red-raw third album, Starcatcher, rated as the old-soul Michigan rockers’ best, Jake Kiszka reflects on banning stacks from the studio, shaking off those Zeppelin comparisons, and the “warfare” with his sibling bandmates back in the family garage
Back in 2018, when Robert Plant was asked which of modern rock’s hot tips he rated, the former Led Zeppelin frontman paid the ultimate backhanded compliment. “There’s aband in Detroit called Greta Van Fleet. Beautiful little singer –and he borrowed it from someone Iknow very well. They are ‘Led Zeppelin I’…”
It was a line the rock press would parrot ad infinitum –however reductive it seemed to one of the genre’s best young exponents. True, when Michigan twins Josh (vocals) and Jake Kiszka (guitar), along with kid brother Sam (bass), founded Greta in their family garage a half-decade earlier, there was no denying the DNA of classic rock’s galacticos in their riff-and-shriek sound. But none of the siblings denied the influence, and the comparison certainly didn’t hurt: 2017’s From The Fires EP won the Grammy for Best Rock Album, while both 2018’s Anthem Of The Peaceful Army and 2021’s The Battle At Garden’s Gate were glorious interlopers amid the committee-penned pop of the Billboard Top 10.
And as Jake reminds us today, with third album, Starcatcher –a record that intentionally prized spit over polish –Greta has put distance between themselves and their 70s touchstones, with guitar work that roams beyond Page’s shadow.
You wanted a more ‘garage’ sound for Starcatcher. What was the appeal?
“I think it had to do with spontaneity. In the past, we would usually go out somewhere remote and write in the middle of the woods or in the mountains. And we would typically overdo the demos. They started sounding like a record by the time we got out of there, and sometimes it’s impossible to replicate that initial excitement. With Starcatcher, by design, we would go directly into the studio with basic concepts and just catch the songs as they would fall. So it was birth by fire.”
What are your memories of coming up in the family garage with Josh and Sam?
“Warfare [laughs]. It wasn’t all quiet on the western front, I can tell you that. We got a lot of sparring out then. I can look more fondly upon it now –it’s somewhat romantic. Iremember being a kid playing my first guitar in that garage, and dreaming about the bigger picture and what that might look like. I think that’s what we wanted to do with this record –go back and capture that essence. It’s a very live record, for that reason, y’know? There’s maybe more simplicity within the writing, but in terms of playing guitar live, I think it takes more attitude to pull it off.”
