Michigan rock quartet Greta Van Fleet released its first single, “Highway Tune,” in March and by September, it had topped Billboard’s mainstream rock charts.
No one saw that coming.
Nor what followed when the young group set out on its maiden headlining tour in the waning days of summer: Every small club they booked into across the country including Tucson’s The Rock sold out, forcing the promoters to find bigger venues.
Their Tucson show on Wednesday, Nov. 1, was moved to the much larger Rialto Theatre downtown; apparently that might not be big enough. The Rialto show was sold out weeks ago.
“That happens to a lot of larger bands that are already established, but to see that happening to us, in my mind, it’s still like we’re very fresh and unrecognizable at this point,” said drummer Daniel Wagner. “It definitely blows my mind. I honestly think we’ve just played our cards right and there’s something big waiting to happen yet. I think it’s just going so well. Yes, it’s very surprising.”
Wagner said “Highway Tune” was actually one of the first songs the band wrote after forming five years ago. The Kiszka twins — Jacob on guitar and Joshua on lead vocals — started the neoclassic rock band with kid brother Samuel, a classmate of Wagner. The twins were 16 at the time and their brother was 13; Wagner joined 18 months into the venture when he was a freshman in high school.
“At the end of middle school, 12, 13, I got to know Sam and he was one of the only one of my classmates who shared my passion for music,” said Wagner, who remembers asking his parents if he could join a band. They thought it was a hobby until their son told them his first gig was in a bar.
“Then it got more interesting,“ recalled Wagner, 18. “They were like ‘Yeah, if they let you in. No problem’.”
Weeks before he and the younger Kiszka, 18, were set to finish high school last May, Greta Van Fleet was tapped as an opening act for The Struts.
“I missed I think 12 days of school, which made it very difficult,” Wagner said, but he kept up on his homework and graduated.
“My teachers were so nice and so willing to help out in any way that they could and it was very humbling to hear that they respected what we were doing,” he said.
Greta Van Fleet — which takes its name from a woman who lives in the band members’ tiny hometown of Frankenmuth, Michigan — put “Highway Tune” on the shelf until they landed their Republic Records contract earlier this year and recorded it on their debut EP “Black Smoke Rising,” which came out April 21.
The song was released a couple weeks before the EP and quickly found favor on rock radio. It doesn’t try to mask the band’s classic rock influences — wailing Led Zeppelin-esque vocals, scorching metal guitar and flashes of 1990s grunge with a slight hint of pop-punk. Wagner said they knew the song was pretty solid; audiences had been receptive during live performances. But they had no expectations that it would become this big, this fast.
“We never anticipated this making it on the charts and the ratings that it is right now. That’s just exceeding our expectations,” said Wagner, who joined Greta Van Fleet 18 months after the band formed.
But while “Highway Tune” is an ideal introduction, Wagner said it hardly defines the band.
“There are a lot of elements to our music that’s yet to be seen,” he said. “There’s a lot of folk, a lot of blues, a lot of soul. I’m hoping to hear a lot of that in our upcoming releases.”
Greta Van Fleet will release its second EP in November — possibly in time for Wednesday’s Tucson show. Expect to hear a preview from the Rialto stage, said Wagner.
“We definitely enjoy our live shows because it is so different but at the same time still (maintains) the image that we’re going for,” Wagner said. “The image we’re really going for is a lot of positive energy, a lot of positive qualities to the music that make people want to listen to the music in its entirety. And our live shows definitely help out in that aspect because it’s personable at that point.”
