GVF’S EADG

ELEVEN QUESTIONS WITH GRETA VAN FLEET’S FLEET-FINGERED BASS MAN, SAM KISZKA

When you were starting out, you were able to grow and make mistakes without a lot of people seeing you. Is it harder to evolve now that you have so many eyes on you?

That’s a good question. There aren’t an overwhelming number of groups that really experiment on stage. I know I’ll try out different things live, just to get a reaction. We’ll write parts while jamming. We’ve established this communication between us that allows us to jump in any direction and ride it for a while, and then we can get back to whatever we were doing. We’ve done that since we played little clubs and bars. It’s a little different doing it in front of 100 people versus 10,000 people, but you can’t let the pressure get to you. People want spontaneity — from that, you get authenticity.

Your two brothers do the flashy stuff; Jake is the high-profile guitar guy, while Josh is the lead singer. Do you ever feel a little overlooked?

Oh, absolutely! But I have a very firm understanding of what I do in the band. As the bass player, I create the marriage between guitar and drums. It’s like I’m the thing that holds it together. Bass is a funny thing: You don’t realize it’s there, but you know when it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, I love attention. In the early days of the band, I used to get upset because nobody was paying attention to me. I think that caused me to develop a playing style that’s a cross between rhythm and lead. I think some of that comes from listening to Jack Bruce in Cream. He was probably my biggest inspiration for bass playing. That whole band was a good example of three musicians working together to create a sound.

Are there any new bass players you’ve been listening to?

Not particularly, but I’ve been realizing what an incredible bass player Stevie Wonder is.

He’s kind of an incredible everything. Talk about innate feel. Every musician should understand the importance of feel, but it especially applies to bassists. You can know all the notes and scales, which I don’t know [Laughs] … but there has {continued on page 60}

SAM KISZKA

to be something in your heart. It’s not in the head. You’re communicating through rhythm, which I suppose humans have been doing for thousands of years.

Was there anything about your sound you wanted to achieve that you didn’t get right earlier?

On this album, each song is very different and has its own personality, so there was extensive experimentation, and I was always asking, “What does this need?” For something mellow and acoustic driven, I wanted the bass to almost appear invisible. As a sound, I thought Motown. The strings had to be dead and muted so I could blend with the bass drum. Other times, when the song is really driving, I just crank up the amp and I get the tone I need. It was all on a song-by-song basis.

On “Caravel,” you double the main riff with Jake. Who generally comes up with an idea like that?

That kind of thing has always been there. It’s very effective to double a part because that’s riff rock ‘n’ roll. For a long time, if Jake dominated what was going on instrumentally, I wanted to do a counter melody to what he was doing. That didn’t always work out, though. It’s something of a crossroads, because I do like to jump around freely.

Are there any times when Jake says your playing is too busy?

All the time. [Laughs] But usually that’s just live. In the studio, it translates better when I pull back, which is a little bit hilarious because we really loaded these tracks up. We were trying for a very cinematic album. Here’s my thing: whenever I’m in doubt, I just watch Cream at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968. Most of the time they’re all soloing at the same time. It’s the most absurd sound, and it’s just to-die-for a rock ‘n’ roll. So it all depends. If Josh is singing, and obviously the vocals are the most important element, I always try to support his vocal. But when Jake’s taking a solo, I’ll sometimes go a little bit off the rails.

The credits list the whole band as equal songwriters, but are there any tracks on which you were the guiding force?

My baby is “The Barbarians.” It’s not a bass song, but I came up with the melody. We were in a cabin just waking up; we were getting our coffee on, and I was playing a Mellotron. Jake looked over and was like, “What’s that?” We wrote

the whole song that day. I’m pretty proud of that one. When everybody writes, it’s hard to get a word in. Everybody wants to play their own songs.

A bassist who plays the Mellotron. That’s very John Paul Jones.

It is. You know, a few years ago, it was “Led Zeppelin this, Led Zeppelin that.” That’s all people were talking about. For a long time, I felt like I couldn’t admit that John Paul Jones is perhaps the best rock ‘n’ roll bass player of all time. And I’m not going to lie — he’s what got me into playing bass. He’s the template. His tone and intelligence, the way he sat behind the bass drum. Everything he did was perfect. But I think we’re at the point now where we just don’t give a fuck what people say. Just always believe in what you’re doing, and unforgivingly be yourself.

Are you still using your Fender Precision Bass?

That’s my main bass, the Sea Foam

Green Precision Bass with the Jazz Bass neck. I learned how to play on my dad’s Fernandes P-Bass. One day, he decided I needed my own instrument, so I got a Mexican-made Jazz Bass, and that’s what I played for years. It came to a point, though, where we were going on our first real tour. One of our early producers, Marlon Young, gifted me a Precision Bass because my Jazz Bass was starting to fall apart. The way I play is so aggressive — I really dig into the strings — so it had to be a P-Bass. But I hated the neck because it was too wide, so I replaced it with the Jazz neck. That’s what I’ve been using ever since. I have a wonderful personal connection to it. As far as amps, it’s a Sunn 2000S with a 215 cabinet. John McBride, the owner of Blackbird Studios, gifted me that amplifier. It’s very crunchy; you barely turn it on and it’s the loudest fucking amp. But there was also a 300-watt Fender Bassman that I used for fuzz. It’s more of a punky kind of deal.

What kind of advice would you give to young bands hoping to be the next Greta Van Fleet?

Never stop playing. I hope I can communicate this in a non-cliché way, but the reason we’re able to play and write the way we do is because we’ve done it so much. I think that’s why you don’t see so many people coming out of the woodwork with great performances and great songs — they don’t put in the time. So that’s it: Never stop playing and always believe in yourself. It’s very important to do exactly what you want without listening to criticism from other people. Because nobody knows you’re doing it wrong if you don’t know what you’re doing. — Joe Bosso