Unsigned Act Of The Week: Interview with The Greeting Committee

Newcastle six-piece, The Greeting Committee, deliver trippy, psychedelic indie with shades of Brit Pop and bluesy rock. Following the release of their debut single, and their first UK headline tour, they are soon to release new EP ‘Island’ on local label – Push Puzzle Records. Mari caught up with Jon Corbett from the band to find out more…

So, who are The Greeting Committee?

The Greeting Committee are six little boys from Newcastle who got together because they were the getting together type and decided to form something close to what you would call a band.

How long have you been together as a band? And how did you all meet?

We’ve all been solid chums for a long time so putting the band together was actually pretty easy. We all knew each other from other bands we were playing in throughout the city. John Cardill and I were in a post punk band called The Ballarats and when that ran its course we decided to get into the studio and form a completely new sound. The original intention was to record and produce everything ourselves then egotistically cherry pick the finest musicians known to man to play our Christ like majesty. In the end we got together with some old friends who were available, got what we were trying to do and could play extremely well. I think they now tell us what to do.
Your debut EP ‘Island’ is out this winter – What can listeners expect from this?

Island is a collection of songs we’ve been playing live for around year but lay dormant in demo form before we were set free in a ‘proper’ studio thanks to the label. Originally it was meant to be a fairly stripped back lo fi affair but when we were given all of these new toys in the studio we threw everything at it. And in true GC form the opening track, Island, has approximately 14,000 different tracks on it. So the overall sound is rather grand and righteous, trippy and anthemic. Some would call it indie or neo-psychedelic. To us it just sounds like us and where our minds were at around that time.

You have been compared to the likes of The Verve and The Byrds… Who are your main musical influences? Are you all into the same music?

Well we certainly love both of those bands. Particularly early Verve and the beautiful harmony arrangements the Byrds offered. The good thing about us is that we all have similar tastes in music and a shared love of the Beatles and all things 1960s but we also have our own unique tastes which adds to the overall sound and vibe. We all have a central starting point and then other influences are thrown into the mix. For example, our keys player is a nut case for New Order and Brian Eno, so when you start with a song that’s in the same ball park as say The Rolling Stones, or something from the Delta Blues, or the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and you add some delicate Eno-esque string arrangements it can take things in a completely new direction and is fun to produce. The song or working idea we start of with always sounds completely different in the end.

Is it just one of you that writes all the songs or is it a more collaborative effort?

To be completely honest, the original intention before we even had a name for the band or any members, was to develop a fascist dictator type model where JC and I wrote all of the songs together and dished them out to whoever it was in the band to learn. As it happens, we now write all of the songs together on the whole. I might have seen something on the news that’s pissed me off and I’ll scribble down some angry lyrics and have a rough melody, and Sean will refine it and develop a chorus and then JC just so happens to have this amazing piece of music that fits perfectly. There’s no set method with us. It develops organically – whatever the fuck that means – which keeps things interesting and original.

What has been your highlight of being in a band so far?

Just being in a band. I love it and it’s a massive part of my life. I’ve been in a band since I was 16 donned in shit cheap secondhand psychedelic shirts and dreaming of supporting my heroes and making albums. We all love being in the studio and creating something that no human has done before. It’s influenced by other things of course, but it’s all ours and we’re proud of our music and it means a lot to all of us. We’ve all gone through the shit together and make music together to recover. That’s what it’s all about for us. It’s a form of therapy set to the backdrop of a hovel studio in Byker laced with empty whisky bottles and all kinds of unspeakables.

What are your hopes for the EP? Do you have a particular goal that you’d like to reach by a certain time?

I’d like to be the first band to play on the moon, for sure. But that may take a while, so in the mean time we hope to prick the ears of the nation with Island, hit the road in the New Year and swiftly follow Island up with another release. We already have the songs in place for that and will be back in the studio very soon to smash them. If none of us have died before then and are able to communicate with each other on some basic level, we should have an album ready and primed in 2014. How the fuck is it nearly 2014 already by the way? Someone needs to slow this shit down.

I’ve heard that your keyboardist survives on a diet of vodka, energy drinks and Greggs’ steak slices… Is this true, or just wild rumour? And if so, how is this working out for you?!

Yeah, that’s pretty much true. He’s a very odd man with a very unstable diet and mind set but it seems to work for him. He’s always got a lady so he must be doing something right. He’s laid off the steak bakes a bit but his new passion is mackerel. It’s worked wonders for his skin I have to say. He looks gorgeous. He came into the studio once, presumably in an advanced state of mental paralysis, with a bag full of steak bakes. There must have been at least 30 of of the fuckers. He said it was a treat for the lads but no-one liked them apart from me and him. I had five from memory and the rest probably still reside in the room. Proper rock ‘n’ roll.

What are you listening to a lot of at the moment? Are there any new bands that you like the sound of?

There’s some great local music kicking around at the moment and the likes of Symphonic Pictures and The Heavy Jets are well worth a listen. Nadine Shah’s new album is amazing and is set to take over the world. She reminds me of a young PJ Harvey and it’s great to see a local girl do well. My most played on the iPod at the moment consists of Reflektor by Arcade Fire, BRMC’s latest album, Deerhunter, The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Steve Mason’s (The Beta Band) new record, which is amazing. We’re supporting him on November 9th at Warehouse 34 in Newcastle and we can’t wait. We’re all massive fans of The Beta Band.

Will those of us down south in London be able to catch you live any time soon?

Absolutely. We visited the Barfly in Camden and Water Rats on the last tour and will be down to play for our southern friends in the New Year. Keep tabs on our Facebook page for details.

Thanks so much for answering my questions! Is there anything else that you’d like to add about The Greeting Committee?

Eat plenty of steak bakes and watch those roads.

If you ,too, are based up in the North-East, you’d be crazy to miss The Greeting Committee’s unique and raucous live set at Warehouse 34 in Newcastle on 9th November… 

Mari Lane

Mari Lane

Editor, London. Likes: Kathleen Hanna, 6Music, live music in the sunshine. Dislikes: Sexism, pineapples, the misuse of apostrophes.