Greek Fire – ORIENTATION

By starrymag | December 10, 2018

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

A) Like most bands it’s a good combination and amalgam of all sorts of influence. And then you sprinkle on some sort of motivation. So, we all grew up in the 80’s and 90’s. So, there’s certainly 90’s influence in some of the guitar stuff. There’s a lot of 80’s influence in a lot of the vocal work.

It depends on the record. Not to sound too cliché, we try not to do the same record each time. There’s a lot of rock and roll hits – sort of Van Halen meets Smashing Pumpkins meets Genesis -type of vibe out there.

The new record that we have now, that’s coming out in February that you can pre-order, is a lot more 80s and sad song influenced stuff from the Genesis, the Peter Gabriel and the Phil Collins. Sort of the British vibes of that era. But it ranges – you can hear Smashing Pumpkins in it, you can hear some 90s Incubus-type things, Pearl Jam moments. All of that. But it’s a good combination of the skills and the different experiences that each of the musicians in the band bring to the table.

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

A) I’m all over the place! I’m deeply influenced by The Police, Boston, all the way up to Garth Brooks and Imogen Heap. Garth Brooks is the reason I’m in music. I saw a performance on HBO or something when I was just a kid and I turned to my dad and said, “I’m going to do that some day.” I’ve always been a massive Garth Brooks fan and still am.

But from him to a bunch of different 80’s groups: Peter Gabriel is a big influence and The Cranberries. Even as recent as Smashing Pumpkins and those types of bands in the 90’s, really helped shape where I was going with music.

As of late there’s a group called Mew from Denmark. Imogen Heap is in constant rotation for me and probably always will be. But I jump back and forth, I’m really kind of all over the place. Right now, I’m really into sad songs.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “The Ride.”

 

“The Ride” is the first song that Greek Fire ever wrote! It came together from a riff that had been done while touring on the road. I heard the riff and just started playing it in my basement and singing some things to it and the vocals just sort of came out.

It was really different from what our other bands at the time were doing. It was kind of like a freedom. It came together really quickly. I was a part in my life where I wasn’t sure where careers were heading, and a lot of my closest friends and family were going through career changes.

In a very lighthearted way, but using a couple biblical references throughout that record and throughout “The Ride,” I wanted to just be lighthearted but have a mysterious note of: “Hey man, life is awesome. We’re all extremely fortunate and rich when it comes to be where we are.” You know, very few of us are starving on this side of the world and tragic things happen and you might be out of a job or you might be stuck in a job you don’t like, but there’s so much positive and so much good to look at around you. So, like I said, it’s a very light-hearted and very rock n roll take on “Don’t worry, be happy.”

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) I think it’s the fun and the energy. It’s been a fan favorite for quite some time. It played really well on the record. All the songs on ORIENTATION that just came out were done really old school. The whole band was playing at the same time and we tracked a lot of it that way. Some of the vocal lines just kind of came because I hadn’t had them finished and then in the studio I was listening and Elvis Baskette, the guy who produced them, he was saying, “Just do the full song and see what happens.” And I think you can kind of pick up that fun, energy vibe.

The lyrics are obviously uplifting and can be interpreted pretty easily but it just has a good, nice, fun, sort of “keep it together and move on” energy. And I think that’s easily understood.

 

Q) How does the video for the track play into the message behind it?

A) The video for the track is perfect, it’s fun. I wanted to do a “Smells Like Teen Spirit” meets The Breakfast Club type of thing. I think we nailed it.

We got the dark sort of bummer school zone. We actually shot it in my old middle school and memories just flooded back about how bummed I was to be in algebra class. You have this teacher who’s preaching and trying to connect and trying to tell you what life is going to be. The kids aren’t really listening, until he connects with the kids and gives them something that they love and can go forward with.

Obviously, I could sit here and be artistic and talk about the depths of the messages within the video and how it connects to the song. But it is a fun sort of take on the lyrics of: “Don’t do something that you don’t love. Life is good, life Is energetic…Energy is up, hope is up and do what makes you happy, do what makes you dance. Do what’s fun.”

We did it in another high school gym as well, so we connected the themes of the band – the high energy, the reds, the yellows, the feelings of the song – with the sometimes feeling of gloom that you may have when you’re younger and you’re just not connecting to the world around you.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics? 

A) For me, it happens differently all the time. With Greek Fire we’ve done a couple different records a couple different ways. We’ve never done it the same way each time.

The first record was very jammed out and lyrics would sort of come in improv as we played music. So, it all kind of came at the same time. Sometimes one word would pop out that I felt was such a good word for the moment that we would design the rest of the music around that one word or line. Sometimes the music would then influence me to feel like, “Oh, this feels like this so I want to tell a story that matches the music.”

There’s been other times where almost all the music was done and then I wrote lyrics and melodies on top of it. There’s also been times where I’ve had full poems or lyric sets that were written and designed a song around that. It kind of just depends on what I have at the moment, who’s working faster or what feels best for what the bands wants to accomplish in a record.

Q) How much of hand do you have in the production of your music? 

A) That’s been different, too. We’ve done this so piecemeal…The first three songs that we did, we pretty much had and then we went in and worked with Elvis Baskette. He’s such a great guitar player and great musician that he totally got the vision immediately and just let us do our thing and helped with tones and fashioning things. He let us really freewheel. He just has a masterful ear and helped coach things.

There’s been other times when we worked with my good friend and bandmate John Feldmann and one song he said, “Yeah, that’s perfect. Do it like that.” And we co-produced it with him. There was another one where he said, “Yeah, the chorus sucks. Re-do it.” As much as it hurt, he was right. I re-did an entire song because I was dumping a chorus or adding another chorus. I had to re-write the entire song again. So, that was fully produced by John Feldmann.

And there’s another song that we fully produced ourselves and had the help of an engineer or co-produced with our good friend Matthew Amelung here in St. Louis. So, it really just depends on the song and where we’re going with the sound of the record and the overall shape and how we want it to feel. Sometimes we need more help on the production side than others.

It’s been great, this band has been an amazing breath of fresh air because the spirit of making a good record and art has come before anything else. It’s come before stress or worry about singles or success or fitting this mold or sounding like this band. So, it’s really given us the freedom to put egos aside and partner with different producers and engineers and ideas and see what happens. It’s really cool and very freeing.

 

Q) What can fans expect from a live Greek Fire performance?

A) Energy. It is pure energy and theatrical emotion. It’s a full-blown performance That’s a word that unfortunately I think has lost its luster a little bit or has been unfairly put on certain things. A band can go on stage and play songs but they’re not performing necessarily. The word performing should be a very powerful and meaningful word and I think it’s lost a little bit of that.

Greek Fire is all about performing. We will exhaust ourselves to emotionally tie ourselves to every note we’re playing, every instrument we’re using, and every song we’re singing. Every lyric, everything that goes into it – that went into that song – all of that emotion deserves to be seen and represented to the crowd in our live show. And we really focus on that and make sure that you’re getting all of us and all that was put into that song during those 4 minutes or 5 minutes or however long the song is.

Q) What songs off your new album ORIENTATION are you looking forward to performing live?

 

A) I absolutely love “Running Away” – it’s been one of my favorite songs since it’s been written. Most of the lyrics were written overseas and I have so many emotions connected to it. It’s about family for me. I love how it feels, we do that one acoustically a lot.

“The Ride” is super fun. I love telling the story of “One Girl.” “One Girl” is a really fun sort of Journey-type of song that takes you on a few different chapters, if you will, of a book. I like watching people see that type of song performed live because it’s not just a verse/chorus/verse/chorus type vibe. There’s a bit more to it. And these days younger fans aren’t getting that type of song. Not that it’s way out there, but when we perform that song or when we have in the past, it’s been fun to see people go on the ride with us.

 

Q) What do you hope listeners take away from listening to your new album as a whole?

A) That this band cares and that we really are just trying to represent life. And to motivate if that’s what you need, or to give you some comfort if that’s what you need. This band is just about making good, fun rock and roll music and hopefully covering the spectrum of emotions and experience that life can bring. I’m not trying to be better than this person or better than that. It’s all art to me.

I want the listener to get out whatever it is that they need to out of it. If you want to look deep, there’s a lot of depths to it that may not seem like it’s super deep. But I like to put tons and tons of layers in each song, from lyrics to tones. The whole band does that and has always done that. So, to those that like to dig really deep, I hope they enjoy that. I hope they see the treasure map that’s laid out and find the Easter eggs and enjoy the little stuff that’s done in there, because there’s a lot of detail.

 

Q) You also launched a PledgeMusic campaign for forthcoming album BROKEN. What made you decide to release the album this way?

 

A) Originally it was supposed to be LOST and then its follow up FOUND. When one of the songs for FOUND was coming together music-wise and everything, I just wasn’t found. The band wasn’t found in our life or any of that kind of stuff. So, all of the songs that were developing didn’t belong on a record called FOUND. So, the whole concept got expanded into a trilogy of LOST, BROKEN and then FOUND. And a lot of the songs for FOUND have been written, but what happened during that period with the band was BROKEN; songs representing an experience of being heartbroken or devastated or on your knees, so to speak.

But the band as a whole is always looking up and is always very optimistic. So, the whole record is from the perspective of devastation on your knees but looking up – looking to the next moment, looking to the light at the end of the tunnel.

It had been many years since we released anything, and the music was done. We wanted to put it out there on PledgeMusic. We’d had a great experience there before with LOST because it give the band and fans and friends the chance opportunity to have an extra component to the friendship and to the relationship. You can order handwritten lyrics, a guitar or experiences like private parties likes we’re doing for BROKEN. That whole crowd-funding experience and doing it where you get exclusives is a completely perfect way to develop deeper relationships with the people that really care and really support you as an artist and you as a band. And PledgeMusic was perfect. We wanted the record to symbolically come out on Valentine’s Day. As we go, we’re doing exclusive videos and doing instant download tracks. Right now, if you pre-order the record you can get two songs off the record immediately, just for the people that have backed this record. Plus, there are all the other incentives from the party to vinyl bundles that we’re not going to have available anywhere else. It’s a fun way to do a record because you’re partnering with your fans.

 

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you? 

A) I love performing in our hometown in St. Louis. St. Louis and Chicago specifically have backed Greek Fire since 2009, since the very beginning when we first started talking about the band. They have supported this band from radio stations to local venues and record shops from day 1 in such a loving fashion. There’s so much camaraderie in these two cities with this band.

But we love performing pretty much anywhere, especially noting Japan. Japan is a very special place for us. All of Asia has been extremely loving to our band, especially since Big Hero 6 and the success of our single “Top Of The World.” Japan is special.

Australia has been very special and very supportive of our band.

But we haven’t had a bad show. Even a show we did in Toledo, Oh for seven people – it was fun. I’m sure they appreciate me climbing all over the bars and swinging from ceiling rafters.

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song?

A) Oh my goodness. You know, I would think that this one would be far in left field, but Sting is so awesome to me as a singer, as a writer, as a performer, as a collaborator. He just did a record with Shaggy and he just did a tour with Shaggy. So, I think maybe I’ve got a chance. I love him as a bass player. I just love Sting. I’d love to pick his ear and talk to him a little bit about The Police, song structure, this and that. I think I’d learn the most. Even if it was just a one song collaboration, I think I would pick Sting just because I would get more out of the experience for my life as a song writer than I even would on just trying to figure out a hit with Sting. And I have a similar vocal register, thank goodness, because I love singing his songs. I don’t know if you can hear it in his songs, but the way he took a weird vocal range and a weird register and even a weird tone and raspiness…He never sounds perfect, but he always sounds perfect. He always sounds like he’s off, but it always sounds perfect. You can’t really cover a Police song and make it sound like The Police because you’re not Sting.

Bono has that same vibe. I would love to collaborate with U2 in any way. It would be a dream come true. And Imogen Heap because the way that she approaches her songs is a pure artist. I mean PURE artists. She even does songs about weird concepts that people give her and that is pure talent meets pure art to me.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them?

 

A) I was listening to a group called MUNA. It’s a three-piece group out of LA. A good friend of mine was working their record. He works for a label and he turned me onto them. I think I was listening to it because it’s really sad stuff that’s developed around sad pop production. I haven’t seen them live but I really like their latest record.

I was listening to some of that 80’s horn revival stuff from The Midnight and Gunship and those kinds of things. I think they’re pretty fascinating takes on old 80’s sounds. Lots of Poison. Oh, and I revisited Incubus’ Make Yourself – that record is phenomenal front-to-back. I hadn’t listened to it in a while. I really enjoyed that.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) I think that’s an interesting question with a thousand answers. That’s almost a philosophical question.

I think it’s the best way for people to gain insight on the behind the scenes. I think that’s what people enjoy the most is seeing behind the scenes. I would’ve given anything to see how my favorite bands in the 80’s and 90’s were making records. It was pure magic and illusion to me to imagine what was happening when they made these records that I was listening to. So, any sort of behind the scenes thing, I think is really what connects the listener to the band the most through social media. Obviously, everybody has almost an illusion of access to the band, which sometimes is true and sometimes is not true at all.

For us it’s completely true, we run all of our own social media. We do every single bit of ourselves, with the exception of one or two things. So, it really is direct access to a lot of bands. But even the bigger bands that aren’t directly doing their stuff, they’re still leaking a whole bunch of behind the things and I think that’s the most beneficial thing to social media when it comes to bands. They get to share their art from different angles.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) Thank you. I’ve had no expectations as a human being or as an artist. I didn’t get into music to be famous or make money or anything like that. I just knew that I was so very influenced by the music that touched me and moved me as a kid. It was just my dream to be able to do something that would move somebody else or help somebody else like music helped me.

It’s an absolute blessing to even be able to do anything like I do – from the band to the radio to traveling the world. All I wanted to do – massive success to me – was be able to play and instrument or sing a song and be able to travel the world and do so. That was my only goal. The fact that that vision and goal has come to be because of people’s support – sometimes fleeting and sometimes completely undying support – everybody is so very much appreciated by me because they say like what are your goals in music and all that…Everything I’ve ever dreamed and then some has happened to me just by hitting a stage and having people sing a song back to me. I can do that, and I can die a happy man. I really can. So, I just want to say a huge thanks. It’s still very strange for me and still very surreal and humbling. I just want to work hard and provide for my family, and hope that I do something that’s pretty cool.

 

 

All Questions Answered By Moon Valjean