An Inside Look At Your Next Favorite Band, The Greeting Committee
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An Inside Look At Your Next Favorite Band, The Greeting Committee

We're anxiously awaiting their first full-length album, coming soon.

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An Inside Look At Your Next Favorite Band, The Greeting Committee
Brandon Arlington

What's better than an incredibly talented 20-year-old full of life, spunk, a side of angst, and bursting energy ready to take the music industry by storm? Four of them.

The Greeting Committee, an indie pop band from Kansas City, Missouri, is comprised of members Addie Sartino, Brandon Yangmi, Austin Fraser, and Pierce Turcotte currently on tour with Jukebox The Ghost, anxiously awaiting the release of their first full-length album.

I got the pleasure and privilege of sitting down with Addie at their show in Austin at Mohawk to ask her a few questions about the band, songwriting, and what it's like touring.

“So, where did your band name come from?"

Addie: “Brandon came up with our band name and it's from a John Lennon t-shirt. So, John Lennon had friends who would visit him in the studio, and he would call them 'the greeting committee' so as a gift one day they brought him a shirt and there's a picture of him holding it open like you can see it peeking through his jacket. That's pretty much where it came from."

“Did you always know you wanted to be a musician?"

Addie: “I wanted to be a ninja, then I wanted to be a rock star, so yes. And I'm actually taking Taekwondo now because I want to be able to be both.To fulfill my first-grade dreams. I'm a green belt, we'll see how it goes, but yeah!"

“It's like the nerdiest thing ever, there's like a bunch of nine-year-olds in the class with me, they all make fun of me for not being flexible enough… they'll like me one day"

I personally relate to this on all levels because I so desperately want to be a ballerina but I haven't begun in any way at all, so I also would be prancing around with a bunch of nine-year-olds. Let us all take to heart Addie's enthusiastic, “That's the point! I don't want to start acting like I'm old, I'm only 20, so I'm just gonna go do it."

“When did all of you guys meet each other?"

Addie: “High School. So Brandon (guitar) and Austin (drums) grew up together, they've been best friends since they were like five or maybe earlier. Brandon's mom and my mom tried to set us up together… no… so we just became best friends and started playing music that way and so we formed this band, the two of us, because I played music by myself and I knew that I didn't want to be on stage by myself anymore it just wasn't fun, so I called him up one summer and said let's make this band and we made the band!"

“So who or what is y'all's biggest inspiration?"

Addie: “We all have our own individual inspirations but as a band, I think we really like Bombay Bicycle Club, The Strokes are a big influence in our lives, I think those are the two major ones. Vampire Weekend, we really like them, it totally rotates, we've been a band for three years so each year I think has shown a different collective inspiration if you will."

“If you could be in any other band, alive or dead, what would you choose?"

Addie: “Oh my god that's so hard! *long pause* I feel like being in the Black Eyed Peas would be really fun, like, Fergie is such a badass that I would love that!"

“What is your favorite song that you've written?"

Addie" I would say, we have a song called 'Elise' and that's the most special song to me because it's about my girlfriend who I love very dearly, so I would say probably that song. Or, there's a line in our song 'Make It Right' that I really like and it goes, 'nothing's quite as nice from the passenger side,' and that's just kind of about being in control of your own life and wanting to take the wheel and all that."

“What is the best and worst part about being on tour?"

Addie: “The worst part is definitely missing out on things at home or missing people. The best part is that I am a homebody, and it forces me to travel and go do new things, and I think it's made me grow as a person a lot, and getting to meet new people is so fun. Like, we would never meet if I wasn't in this band and that's really cool that we get to meet!"

“Do you have a specific lyric writing process?"

Addie: “Honestly no. I'll just be sitting somewhere, maybe I'll watch a movie or read a book or just look at something and get an idea. I have this thing where I like to write lyrics where it's like if you pulled a line out and made it a tweet, that'd be a really deep tweet. Which is so stupid and like, millennial of me to say but that's it."

“Do the guys ever contribute?"

Addie: “No they're not lyricists but they do like 99% of the instrumental, so they pull their weight for sure!"

“What is y'all's biggest goal as a band right now?"

Addie: “Right now, I know personally we have a venue called The Midland in Kansas City that's about 3,000 capacity, I would love to go on tour and play venues of theatres like that, and be able to sell them out, and I would LOVE to come home one day and sell that out. I think that would be kind of my 'we made it' moment."

Addie is a full-fledged rock star in the making! The Greeting Committee topped off the night with a killer set list featuring their new single '17' and a surprise song from their new album.

Check out their website to get tickets to their upcoming shows here, and listen to all their AMAZING songs (personal fave is Hands Down) on Spotify right here.

Rock on forever, and get ready to see The Greeting Committee headlining before we know it!

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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