The Greeting Committee

The Greeting Committee is vocalist Addie Sartino, guitarist Brandon Yangmi, bassist Pierce Turcotte, and drummer Austin Fraser. Hailing from Kansas City, MO, the four-piece band released their debut studio album This Is It in late 2018, a vibrant and fluid 12-track experience that holds much replay value. A year since then, they’ve released music videos and held a headlining tour in support of this new album, and most recently have released a short EP titled I’m Afraid I’m Not Angry, produced by Hippo Campus’ Jake Luppen. Sara was able to sit down with them and talk about their creative process, touring, and what the new year holds.

Photography by Emma Sophia Valles

Words by Emma Sophia Valles

Photo credits: Emma Valles

I know you guys have been a band for a while now, how has your music evolved in the past few years of being a band, touring, and releasing new music?

Addie: When we started the band it was a lot more like friends jamming out in the basement and then as it obviously became more of an intended career path, I think we started being a little bit more, like, methodic about the way that we do things—trying out new ideas and keeping it refreshing. I think we learned a lot about what we don’t want to do from recording our album, This Is It. That definitely shaped the way that our EP, I’m Afraid I’m Not Angry sounds.

Yeah! I was going to ask how your sounds developed because coming of age is a very central theme in your music.

Addie: Yeah, I think that just comes from the fact that I am at the age where you think about coming of age. But what I think is cool is that it is a very timeless concept. We actually have quite a few fans that are, you know, in their 30s to 50s. And it’s interesting hearing them say how much certain songs resonate with them. I was worried our music might be a little bit too directed at a certain age group? But that makes me happy. I like music that can be for anybody.

Fan response is definitely important. And how have you received that, either live or through the records?

Austin: Going into this last record, it felt a lot more premeditated. We really thought about what we wanted to do—not like that we were trying to manipulate how we want it to come off, but rather we thought about what we really wanted to accomplish and explore how we felt inside. So I felt going into this record—and I think we’re all on the same page—like, really wanting to do something that felt more mature, thought out, and premeditated. It was a bit more elaborate with sounds and textures and emotions. And it seems like the feedback that we got back from audiences has been what our intention was, which is really cool. It feels... it’s just a good affirmation to have back.

Addie: I think for this, it felt as if there was a lot of pressure (whether it was outside pressure from the label or fans or internal pressure from our expectations), with it being our first full-length record and considering where we were in our career. And I think that ended up coming out in This Is It. And so for as premeditated as I’m Afraid I’m Not Angry is, really it was us sitting and blocking out everybody who wasn’t the four of us. I think that’s really cool to experience and I think our fans noticed that in the music—that we were writing for ourselves.

Brandon: I think throughout our whole discography, we’ve like learned a lot in terms of like recording and audio engineering production.

Do you guys all do your own stuff [producing]?

Addie: Austin and Brandon really champion the demo-ing process so that flushes out a lot of ideas as far as like, the actual audio recording that goes out.

Pierce: Austin does a lot of mixing—like figuring out just where things we want to sit tonally, the spectrum of frequencies, and what we want each instrument to accomplish. It all is a way to convey emotion at the end of the day because we’ll still try to express that through like what she [Addie] tries to express through melodies and lyrics or what I try to do with guitar parts.

How does that play into like your whole creative process? Do you write music first or lyrics first, or is it just a mix of everything?

Austin: A lot of the time we sit down with an instrumental and from there I pull lyrics that I’ve already written. And then I base an idea around that. I can do it either way, but I have more fun writing once there’s a percussion element. I think that just like really can dictate the energy of a song. The way that I write with just an acoustic guitar is gonna be different than the way I’m writing when everyone is participating.

Addie: Together. It used to be very like, instrumental and then I would go home. Now I think for I’m Afraid Not Angry it was kind of like, I would leave the room with at least a line that I already knew was going to work for that song and they would run alongside each other, more so than they used to.

When you guys put out like videos, does that, how does that creative process intersect with the writing process?

Addie: [In regards to] almost all of our visual aspects, I like to know what I’m shooting for and it helps me to have a more complete picture. They’re in my head pretty much. The second I have lyrics is when I start conceptualizing things.

How does it work for everyone else?

Brandon: I just ignore it (laughs). Like obviously, I don’t want to work in the confines of having a clear immovable goal at the end of the day, especially with art and stuff, where everything has to be refined into one fluid idea. I don’t want to have too many slow songs, I don’t want to do too many like upbeat songs or anything like that. Just make the music and then at the end of the day, you can organize. But you don’t want to limit yourself right out the gate because it’s like telling yourself like, “All right, we can only paint with these three colors.” Why not just have the whole palette? And then at the end of the day, you can choose what you want to actually put out there.

Austin: But Addie, with her personality and the way she sees things, drags me to go a certain direction; and then there are ways where I pull her in different directions that she’s not comfortable with—and that’s how the dynamic of working with a group of people is.

Addie: I think it’s also important, understanding how each other works because like, knowing that to you, having a goal from the start is limiting, that’s different than me. To, me it’s like, a liberating feeling..

Has there been anything that's been like very hard for you to write about? You guys are so young and it’s also important to think about how you market yourself. How has that been?

Addie: I think the cool thing about the way that we’ve like, branded ourselves—and I say that and it sounds really sell-out-ish— but I think the nice thing about this project is that it’s always been...our mission to be as genuine and authentic as we can be. That means for me, being lyrically as honest as I can be. And I think what I liked about this was it had songs that I didn’t want my parents to hear. That was kinda how I knew I was doing something right. “Call In The Morning” is like, a very difficult song to sing at times, just because it’s about my fear of losing a loved one or a family member. A lot of those emotions are...very visceral in my life. Definitely, I’ve gone through things this year were like, I haven’t written about them yet cause it would be too painful. But eventually, it’ll happen. Yeah.

Brandon: I think even just for us though, Austin and I have talked about the lyrics on this EP, and how it’s the most we’ve resonated with any lyrics so far. I think with honesty comes with connection.

"The second I have lyrics is when I start conceptualizing things."

How has everything translated into live shows?

Addie: I have such a fun time watching these three sing along to certain lyrics to the new songs. I’m like, a fairly confident person, but the opinion that these three have of me is important to me. Obviously, I want to impress them. At the same time, we all trust each other to make mistakes and have off-nights. I always want to impress them more than anything just because I think so highly of them. I think it’s made touring really fun—it’s always fun playing new songs. It’s also been very different. We’ve normally been the fun band...and now there’s a song about suicide that makes everyone sit silently and it’s like, a very different energy. For me, that’s more difficult because it’s so much easier to be like, “Okay clap!” This is like, “Okay, listen to me really intently! Cry with me!”

Pierce: I love the instrumentation on it, that was completely different than anything we’ve done on previous songs.

Brandon: Yeah.

Pierce: But like, the week or two beforehand we just sat for eight hours a day, which we usually don’t.

Addie: I was not there for that. The boys put in all of that time to learn these instrumentals and play them live.

It’s easier to see people jumping and having fun. This is your last show, right?

Pierce: Yeah.

How do you guys feel?

Addie: Good! [laughs].

Austin: Happy to get away from the Hippo guys [Hippo Campus].

Addie: Yeah, they’re just really bizarre and

Austin: Jay’s not good at basketball...

Addie: And they’re all like dumb handsome. It’s so annoying.

Brandon: It’s cool to go out with musicians that have influenced you. Cause like, all of us listened to Hippo for a while. I’ve been listening ever since I was 15 years old, the goal was to go out with musicians that you like and be able to see what they do every night, how they interact with their audience. It’s like, one of the coolest masterclasses that you can have. You can’t learn that stuff in like a college classroom. So we’re very, very fortunate to go out with people like them.

Brandon: It’s just different for us because we’re switching around a lot in terms of instruments. Austin is playing keys on certain songs and then I’m playing a sampler on certain songs and he’s switching to my guitar. Other times, I’m switching with our other guitar player, Noah. We’re all moving around a lot and it’s just different instrumentation that we aren’t used to. And also, yeah, we’re used to performing the big interactive fun wildin’ in your face rock. Now we’re trying to understand how to convey emotion live, in subtle ways instead of trying to be big and wild. It’s cool to do that, but sometimes it feels like a cop-out because it’s harder to do the small subtle things and get that emotion across. And I think we’re learning that now with our live performances—we’ve only been doing it for a month. We’re still figuring it out. It feels like ages ago that we played Oxford, Mississippi at the very beginning of this tour, trying those songs the very first time.

Addie: Now I think we’re all learning how to like, enjoy that. It’s not instant gratification with those new songs like “Call In the Morning”, whereas while playing “Run for Your Money”, instantly I know people are enjoying that

Addie: And throwing in friendship on top of that. That’s very nice. I’ve been friends with Jake for a couple of years now, first seeing him in his element and then becoming friends with his family as well.

So last question. What's the future for you guys?

Addie: We’re going to start working on our second record. The first priority for 2020 is to get on that new record. That’s all I’m going to do. Is there anything else you guys would like to say? Thanks for talking to us, by the way!

Of course, of course!

Brandon: This stuff is surreal—it’s cool that people are curious and interested!

You guys are amazing and good luck with 2020! You guys are going to kill it.

Photo by Emma Sophia Valles