“It creates the correct sound for the type of rock ‘n’ roll music that we’re making”: Greta Van Fleet on performing in arenas

Greta Van Fleet’s Sam Kiszka has explained that playing in arenas creates the “correct sound” for the bands music, saying they prefer them to smaller venues.

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In an interview with Cleveland.com, the GVF bassist discusses the band’s current Starcatcher World Tour, which is taking them to some of the biggest arenas in the United States and Europe.

“We’ve had our eyes set on that for years,” Kiszka explains. “I love playing arenas; it just creates the correct sound for rock ‘n’ roll, or the type of rock ‘n’ roll music that we’re making. We hear playbacks and we’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s the way it’s supposed to sound.’”

The bassist is then asked whether live performance was in mind when the newest album Starcatcher was written and recorded.

“Not intentionally,” he admits, “but that’s certainly the way it worked out being that in that lot of it was [recorded] live in the studio, and so much so that most of what you hear is the first takes of what we were doing.”

“So it was really a live-in-the-studio kind of album and it lends itself very well to the big stage. Obviously, in the studio you have the opportunity to do all kinds of stuff, but live it’s just us four and there’s really not a whole lot we can add, parts-wise, or it starts to get really muddied up. We kind of have to pick the most important parts and play those, but in a way you don’t go, ‘Oh, I missed that part.’”

In other news, Greta Van Fleet – a band that’s commonly flagged for their Led Zeppelin-esque sound – recently revealed how they felt about being labelled as “derivative”.

“Early on we were being shot with arrows and stabbed in the back from every angle,” Kiszka said in response to being reminded of a time they were referred to as “derivative” and “vampiric” amongst other less favourable labels.

“But we’d meet people and they’d get where we were coming from,” said lead vocalist Josh Kiszka. “They’d understand how important it is for us to be part of the lineage.”

For more information about their world tour, you can head to Greta Van Fleet’s website.