*The piece below has been revised for clarity. View the original published by Five Cent Sound on Jan. 10, 2022.
Happy people are so overrated.
The members of Greer, would likely agree with the aforementioned statement. Founded in 2018 in California’s sunny Orange County, this rag-tag gang of musicians now known collectively as Greer consists of Josiah Ziegler (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Seth Thomson (vocals and bass), Lucas Ovalle (drums), and Corbin Jacques (lead guitar).
The band received their initial limelight from Ovalle’s brother, filmmaker and former-viner Josh Ovalle, who posted one of the bands intimate sets to his YouTube channel in a since-deleted video entitled, “Introducing Greer.” Charming viewers with their playful banter and quirky melodies, the indie-rock quartet quickly gained traction online, with a devoted fan base begging them to release their music.
Despite only having been a band for three years, Greer’s discography is rich, consisting of their first EP, Lullaby for You and second EP, Happy People, released on November 5, 2021 via Epitaph Records. The latter project is Greer’s extensive review of love, nostalgia, and so-called ‘happy people’ — spoiler alert, it’s scathing.
Greer considers Happy People to be their first real release, as the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted their efforts as a band when it came to recording and touring together. By the time restrictions were lifted, fans were practically ravenous for new Greer material. Hearing the demand, the four musicians hit the studio.
“We’ve wanted to display our growth — something really different.” Thomson shares, “We’ve kind of been doing the same song for around two or three years and really needed to switch our sound up.”
Greer wrote the majority of their discography during the first year of being a band. The early releases mark their penchant for love songs, as evinced by the sweet sappiness of “Bittersweet,” “Song for Me” and “Aeroplane.”
Thomson asserts, “Our sound has finally started evolving; that’s what the EP is, the very start of that change.” Greer’s wistful melodies are a thing of the past, as the four have drastically altered both their thematic focus and overall sound. Happy People is loud, gritty and dissonant, emulating the themes of rage and lost love found within its lyrics.
“All the happy people say / (Love is everything) / But they don't say what's in between / (What's the in between?) / A bitter life that's full of hate / (And it's what you make)” Ziegler sings over rip-roaring guitars and crashing percussion in the title track of the EP, “Happy People,” proclaiming that love isn’t everything it’s chalked up to be.
While the band has strayed away from penning love songs, it hasn’t stopped them from providing commentary on the age-old feeling.Happy People explores stories of love from a different perspective, specifically the experience of letting go of love and the heartbreak that follows. While the EP’s four songs take an angstier and more vulnerable stance than their previous work, Greer shows no hesitation in tackling these complicated subjects head on, fully committing to the raw expression of their feelings.
While eager to explore this new thematic territory, it was not something that came to Greer easily. Thomson and Ziegler are the principle songwriters for the band and confess that some of the songs were just plain bad during their drafting phases. When writing songs — especially co-writing, as in Greer’s case — one has to be accept complete vulnerability to critique. The path to writing a good song can certainly be a long and arduous one, but like Josiah says, one must “fail and learn from it.”
“The only way you learn is by making a bunch of sh—t songs and falling on your face a bunch of times,” Thomson emphatically exclaims, “That’s most of art! That’s just how you learn.”
As the popularity of Happy People would suggest, Greer has the art of songwriting down pat.
Various fans were able to enjoy the fruits of the band’s labor in late October and early November of 2021, as Greer embarked on an abridged tour of the West Coast. Before the COVID-19 pandemic took the nation by storm, Greer had been touring, supporting The Flaming Lips and The Regrettes, cutting their teeth by opening for bands with large audiences. After not having played an in-person show for almost two years, the band was chomping at the bit to go back to touring life and make their long-awaited return to the stage.
This tour, however, came with much more responsibility for Greer, as they were headlining as opposed to opening for another band. Instead of playing for audiences who were waiting for the main act, Greer came to realize that they were the main act this time around. Thus, there was much more pressure for them to put on a good show for their eager audiences.
For Ziegler, a good show constitutes tight musicality on the part of the band, combined with good energy on the part of the audience. It takes two to tango, after all. “The shows where we hit both of those marks are bliss,” Ziegler shares. “But even if we just hit one of those goals, I’m really happy. It’s truly our shared energy with the crowd that matters.”
“It’s all about perspective. Even if you’re playing badly there’s a way to turn it into a personally good show,” Thomson asserts. “Sometimes it’s okay to focus your energy on having fun or laughing at yourself, instead of trying to play every note perfectly.”
If anything, Greer knows how to laugh at themselves. It doesn’t matter if they are on tour, recording or just hanging out — the sense of comradery within the band cannot go unnoticed. The four have practically grown up alongside one another, pushing through, as Ziegler calls it, those “crazy, formative years of you figuring out who you are as a person.” With that long history of kinship, it’s almost a no-brainer that inside jokes and laughter are infinite when the four are together. Adolescence is rarely a breeze, but Greer seems to be making their way through it in merry spirits.
“Without all the joking around and having fun, the music just wouldn’t be as good, for a fact,” Ziegler claims. “There was a time where there wasn’t as much of the element of ‘fun’ and we were not prevailing music-wise. In the grand scheme of things, fun is extremely important.”
The four friends have the most fun with one another — whether playing music or not — and that’s truly one of the reasons why Greer just works.
As cliché as it may sound, this is only the beginning for Greer. Seth wholeheartedly agrees as he says, “We’re going to keep going forever.” Their future ambitions as a band consist of “world peace,” “new iPhones” and of course, “tours, albums and friends along the way.” If one thing is for sure, in their 3 years of being a band, Greer has certainly made many, many Happy People.
Check out the full video interview with Greer here!
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