‘Float Away’ with The Greeting Committee
written by Alana Lopez
interviewed by Alana Lopez & Sydney Ling
Brandon’s Instagram The GC Band Instagram Spotify YouTube Website Twitter Facebook
A greeting can be more than one thing - the perfunctory “Hi, how are you?”, a t-shirt John Lennon once wore, or the intricate indie rock sound of Brandon Yangmi and his three bandmates. The Greeting Committee found its youthful emergence in 2014, after classes and during talent shows, at Blue Valley High School in Missouri. The four musicians comprise of guitarist Yangmi, alongside lead singer Addie Sartino, bassist Pierce Turcotte, and drummer Austin Fraser. Forming an unspoken intimacy from their formative years to early adulthood, the quartet has made music that capture emotions like falling madly in love, bittersweet youth, and more recently, floating away. The second single on their sophomore album, Dandelion, “Float Away” explores the feeling of being unravelled, an artistry Brandon Yangmi executes with edge and authenticity.
Introduce yourself!
My name is Brandon Yangmi and I play guitar in The Greeting Committee.
Has the inability to perform live over the past year affected how you view the line of work you're in?
To a certain degree, yes. I never thought that being able to play live shows wasn't an option for me. I'm sure that was the last thing on our minds that there was going to be a worldwide pandemic that made it impossible for entertainers to do their job to a certain degree. I will say that, not to be insensitive to the pandemic that went on, but it was nice and a way to unplug from going on tour. Touring is very hectic, and it has very high highs and very low lows. To be able to unplug from that world for a little bit and have stability, and being able to just focus on writing, creating an album, and focusing on art in that way was refreshing for me. It makes me eager to get back and play live shows again, even though it was a welcome break for me.
Float Away Artwork by Maya Fuhr
art direction by @hampton.w
modelled by @carzar36
make up by @makeuphair_mayra
assisted // wardrobe by @milandileo
@rodeoproduction
You have an upcoming release “Float Away.” What was the inspiration behind it?
“Float Away” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. I don't know if you guys are familiar with a band called Yo La Tengo. In their music I've noticed there’s mainly really keyboard bass. As the guitarist, I got super bored of trying to express myself on my instrument, and I wanted to start grabbing for different things or different sounds or textures that made me feel inspired. What they do is they use a lot of organs or elongated keyboard sounds, and then they put dance drum beats underneath them. There's something about that, it's so simple, but they did so well capturing a certain emotion for me. I don't want to say that we ripped off it, but “Float Away” was strongly inspired by Yo La Tengo and their style. We kind of blew it up into this big indie rock song.
I remember being really into the Radiohead rhythm section. The way that Phil Selway plays drums on one of those tracks. I don't know if people recognize it, but a lot of those Radiohead songs are like dance songs. There's a lot of rhythm and dancing. If you guys are fans of Radiohead at all, you always see Thom Yorke having like a spaz attack dancing to the songs on stage. They're very rhythmic dance songs. I was like, okay, maybe if we pull those types of drum beats and then put them under this Yo La Tengo type synthesizer sound, that it will make something musical.
What was the thinking behind the choice of making an animated music video for “Float Away” rather than the typical performance or narrative one?
That's a question that might be more for Addie. But, there was one video that we animated that was a smaller scale animation. Since we've done so much physical filming and stuff like that- we have around four different videos that we're going to be filming leading up to this - it was kind of nice to be like, “Alright, let's try a different approach to a video.” Animation seemed like a good route for us.
What kind of message did you want to convey with “Float Away”? And what do you want the audience to feel while listening to it? It is more about the visuals part, but if you kind of have an idea, how do you think that the visuals of the video capture those things in emotions?
To be completely honest, I haven't seen the complete final cut of the video but I've seen drafts of it along the way. I do think that in that music video, a point that is captured well by the artist is isolation and feeling alone, and trying to figure out this internal dialogue inside of you. There's only one character in the video and you don't see anybody else. It's just one person. That's what that song feels like to me.
What I like to convey with a song, from what I get out of it, just speaking for myself, is being very genuine with yourself and your own self-expression. That's something that we try to do in all of our music the best we can. Sometimes you do it better than other times. This was a song that felt really genuine to all of us. It wasn't a song that we overthought much; it was the easiest song that we wrote on the album. We sat down, started playing the music, and it all came out. It wasn't overthinking. It just felt like a genuine stream of consciousness and self expression. I hope that's what people hear.
Were those feelings of isolation inspired by your experience in the pandemic?
I think it's a genuine feeling even outside the pandemic. Everyone has this feeling. I'm sure you guys have felt this feeling of isolation and just not being able to connect to people the way that you want, or there's some emotional barrier, or you're just not happy with yourself. I think that's something that we all felt and I know my band members have felt this. And that was pre-pandemic. Then, you take a whole pandemic and multiply it. It just goes crazy. I think in the middle of it, you just realize, Oh, wow, this is very real. Everyone's feeling it. I think it was an emotion everyone felt, but now it's just that much more intense? And it seems like things are easing up now for people and people are able to connect but, I would say I wasn't ready for the pandemic, but it amplified that feeling for all of us.
Do you have a favorite out of all the songs in your discography? And if so, what makes it a favorite of yours?
On the upcoming album, I really am fond of Float Away, and I'm very fond of the song that will come out once the album comes out called “How Long.” I think it's a really well executed song and to be honest, it's such a battle to write that type of song, and it was difficult the entire time. We were in LA recording that song. And I'm pulling my hair, there's no hair anymore, but I was pulling my hair out like, "Oh my god, is this going to turn out into something that we like?" Or, "Do we have to cut this off?" It ended up being one of my favorite songs on the album, so it has a warm spot in my heart.
From things that are released, two songs that stand out to me are first, “Hands Down,” which is our most popular song and opened a lot of doors for us. There's a gift to that song that keeps giving for us that I'm forever grateful for. It seems like people have a strong connection to that song and it kind of jumped-started our career. So that's my favorite. And then there's a song called “She's a Gun.” I love the recording of that song. It's so raw and angsty. There's something about that recording that's really captured on it. I think our most heavy punk sounding song and I have so many fond memories of playing that song live. I don't think there's a song that feels better to me in my hands and on the guitar than playing that song. That song feels amazing playing and it feels in your face and big and loud. It's just so much fun to be able to bust that out in front of an audience. Sometimes people think, this is too much and back away, which I kind of like, and then sometimes people are just really into the energy of it.
Brandon Yangmi shot by Elizabeth Miranda
When did you start getting into music and what seems like someone or something that inspired you to like get into guitar and music in general?
Man, I'm trying to think of what age I was wanting to get into music. I think around fifth or sixth grade. Do you guys know the movie “Drumline” with Nick Cannon? It's an older film. So I'm cheesy, I saw that film, I'm like, Damn, I want to play drums. And I started learning how to play drums. That was my start and it was around fifth grade I started learning how to play drums. That was kind of my foot in the door to music. I loved playing drums and it's still probably my favorite instrument to play. I think it's way more fun than guitar. You're just beating the crap out of stuff with drumsticks. The language of rhythm is universal, so I love that instrument.
Eventually, when I got to like middle school, I was playing with Austin Frazier, our drummer. We couldn't really do anything with both of us playing drums, so I'm like, Alright, one of us has to give and move an instrument. Then, I started playing guitar. I don't know if I'm super proud of it, but Blink-182 at the time, I was listening to them, being an angsty middle-schooler, and I was like, maybe I should pick up guitar. It didn't seem like those songs are the most complicated songs in the world. So I picked up guitar because of Tom DeLonge and started playing.
I slowly found more influences in the guitar world. Someone that really, really stood out to me was John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and his philosophy of music and how he sees music. That really pushed me into this like, Alright, this is something that I would want to do for a living. Just the way that he talks about music and his inspiration for music touched me in a way that molded my respect for music, to where I thought that music is something that you can take very seriously and you can dedicate your life to it.
The one other influence for me is a band called Bombay Bicycle Club. In middle school as well, I started listening to their first album and that album really spoke to how I felt at that time, dealing with anxiety and relationships, but in a very mature way. It didn't feel like it was pandering to young people - even though I was a young teen at the time, I strongly related to it. It was that album specifically that was a big inspiration for me of how I started playing guitar, the way that they don't do stuff down the middle. I don't know if you guys know much about guitars but they don't do normal chord voicings. They do very jazz-sounding chords and interesting voicings on their instruments, and then incorporate that into their indie rock style. This was a breath of fresh air for me, and it inspired me to pull that aesthetic from them. It really informed me as a songwriter and gave me the confidence to be in a band and be a songwriter.
“I only try to make the best art I can and be genuine with what I make…That's what it is: whatever comes out, I don't have to fit this mold or have to fit this narrative.”
Your bio on the website says that the band really creates intimate music with intricate melodies. The description also states that the debut album is more of a coming-of-age album and the follow up is based on maturity. How do you guys decide on what themes you want to delve into for new music?
This is where Addie and I, the lead singer, differ. I think for her, she knows a narrative that she wants to tell as we're doing the album. The first album was a coming-of-age job when we were young. I was 17 or 18 when we recorded it. Those songs were written when I was 16 or 17 years old, so it was very coming-of-age and it seemed fitting for us. Going through those moves of being in high school and graduating high school and thinking what's the next step heavily bled into her lyrics. With the EP, it did feel like a big growth of maturity for us. I thought of that in our songwriting and recording process with the sounds and textures that we use in our music.
For me, writing music came pretty naturally. I don't give a lot of thought to what narrative or message I'm trying to tell at the time. I only try to make the best art I can and be genuine with what I make. That means showing up every day, taking my inspiration, and trying to make the best and accurate representation of how I feel at the moment. That's what it is: whatever comes out, I don't have to fit this mold or have to fit this narrative. Sometimes you see the album come together as you go and it makes sense. You write a couple songs and then you go, that song actually fits with this song, this song fits with that. Over time, this collection of songs really work well together. It almost writes itself. It just kind of pieces itself together. Eventually it comes out. Somehow it all lands together.
Do you and Addie, or the entire group in general, have challenges trying to combine your different styles? Everyone has a lot of different inspirations, how difficult is it to combine all those inspirations to create new music?
It can be very difficult. On the narrative side of things, I don't tell Addie what I think the narrative should be. I think as a lyricist, there shouldn't be too many cooks in the kitchen. I don't want to water down her experience being like, Oh, you know, I don't think you should write about that, you should write about this instead. That's not genuine to her and it's her voice that she's putting out there, so I think it's important that she's genuine and really does feel what she is saying. Being honest and genuine in your music is the most important thing. We do differ on writing styles, and the type of music that we want to make sonically. That's difficult. I usually like something more raw, or edgy, whatever that means. But someone might like a more clean and poppy sound. It's interesting.
That's a part of being in a band or being in the creative process with other people. I could go make music on my own, right? I can go play whatever and record everything, but it's not going to be The Greeting Committee, it's going to be me. What makes The Greeting Committee is everyone coming in, and butting heads in a healthy way, sometimes not always the most healthy way, but butting heads and getting in this fusion of everyone's influences and tastes. Our life experiences and how we approach things makes our music, for better or worse, The Greeting Committee. I think this upcoming album is probably the most collaborative, with everyone voicing their opinions and getting their influences on the album, which I'm excited about.
“I could go make music on my own, right? I can go play whatever and record everything, but it's not going to be The Greeting Committee, it's going to be me.”
What was the inspiration behind the name 'The Greeting Committee'?
Band names are hard. You think of band names and a lot of them suck. I'm trying to remember our first band name. I think it was Motion Picture. It was named after a Radiohead song. We had to do a band name for a school talent show, because we needed to put a name on a poster. Motion Picture was the placeholder.
I wanted something warm, and inviting. I kept thinking of the word "greeting". I always thought it was like "nice to meet you". Something seemed nice and warm about it and I kept seeing it everywhere. It was just one of those things… we kind of mention it in a song where it's about seeing Addie’s ex girlfriend's car everywhere. Once you buy a new car or something like that, you're like, Oh my gosh, there's a Nissan Altima on every corner now. Like me after shaving my head. I'm like, there's bald people everywhere now.
I just kept seeing greeting everywhere. One day, I was watching a John Lennon documentary. I'm a huge Beatles fan, my all-time favorite band. He had worn a shirt that said "greeting committee" on it. I felt that the search was over. I pitched it to the rest of the band, and they were like, whatever, fine, we need a name. I think they all hated it. Then, we just got stuck with that name and got too deep into it where I was like, Alright, that's what it is. Now, we're not changing it. I still think it's a good name. I like it.
A big break for the band was being featured in the final installment of the 'To All the Boys' trilogy. In an interview, you were mentioned by your bandmate, Pierce, to be the most skeptical. What initially pushed you off of the idea?
You guys did research and caught up on my other bandmates. I didn't know he said that. That's funny. There's a part of me that's a bit annoying with not wanting to compromise on things, or wanting to be some sort of purist, even though that could hurt us. When Netflix approached us, they said, We want you guys to cover another person's song in the movie. Something about that felt like, Well, if they really wanted us, they would ask us to do our own music. Maybe this is not a good fit and I'm okay with passing on this. I wasn't really super thrilled about the idea of it. It just felt a little bit like compromising on what I believed in.
Then, my band and manager sat me down to talk to me like, Hey, this is a really good opportunity and we'd be dumb to pass this up. When we thought about this more, eventually, I came around. When we heard the version of the song they sent us, I thought they just wanted us to do that version, but I really didn't connect with that version. It didn't feel like an accurate representation of us, and I don't want to spend my life putting out stuff I don't connect with. I always want to be genuine in everything that I do. But they gave us free rein and told us, you guys go into a studio, we'll pay for it and you guys just record the version that you want to record. We went in, the whole song was recorded in a day, and we sent it out. It felt like a genuine version and interpretation of the song, even though it's not our song, so that made me feel better and they liked it. They ended up using a lot of our music in the movie that I wasn't really expecting. At the time, I thought they just wanted us to do the cover, so it ended up being great. I was super happy with it. Before, I had never seen the movies, so I didn't really know what to expect. Then I saw the first one and I was like, I'm invested, I want to see the rest of the movies now. It was a cool experience and I don't regret making that choice. I think it was smart of us to do. I was just being bitter and annoying, but it ended up being great.
Could you go into more detail about the experience of the overall process of that?
It was a very quick process. We got a message from whoever was doing the music, or talent for the movie from Netflix and they reached out to our manager. I think they were quickly looking for bands. It was pretty much like, Hey, here's the song in the movie that we want you guys to cover, you have a week to decide and send us a song.
So we went through it, back and forth and eventually decided that we wanted to do it. We went home because we were in a writing session somewhere else, recorded the song in a day, and sent it out. They said yes and a couple days later, we were in New York on the set. It was that quick of a "go go go go go,” like if you want to do this, let's do it.
We sent it, they said, “Yes, come,” and then we flew all the way out there. We got fitted and everything for clothes one day, and then the next day we're actually on the set. I haven't been on movie sets before, and I don't know if you guys have been on movie sets before but, especially in New York, it was a wild place. It was like you're getting dressed in one of these trailers on the street. They're like, Alright, do you guys want to go to catering? It would be great if we get some food, we're hungry. Cool, get in this cab, and they just send you to the other side of the city, blocks and blocks away. You just walk into this huge catering room. This is the weirdest setup for a movie. The sets spread out over miles and miles. It was cool, we eventually got to the set the night of shooting, and then we just set up on the rooftop, everyone was super nice. I do have to give a shout out to, the girl that plays Lara Jean's best friend in the movie, Madeleine Arthur. She was so sweet. She was so nice to us; She would sit there and talk to us in between takes. I think after that shoot, I saw her posting about our band and what a sweetheart. Shout out to her. She was amazing. Everyone on the set was super nice. It was a really cool experience and I'm very grateful because not a lot of people get to do something like that. I was grateful that they asked us to do that.
The Greeting Committee was first formed in the mid 2010s. Does the time you guys have spent growing together and maturing together form a sort of unspoken, unspoken intimacy between you guys? And if so, is it possible to hear it and how you perform and create music together?
I appreciate that question. We've grown up together. I've known Austin ever since I was born, we've grown up together. Addie I've known since I was 14 years old. Same thing with Pierce. We've been co-workers living in a van, sleeping on top of each other in hotel rooms for seven or eight years now. Those are really formative years of your life. I went from being 14 or 15 to being 22 now. There's a lot of growing and maturing during that time of figuring out what it is to be a mature person, and what responsibilities it takes to run a business and a band together. There is this type of bond that is really hard to describe.
The best way I can describe it, and this is in no way disrespectful to people that have served in the military, because I don't compare being in a band as being in the military or anything like that, but what it feels like is war buddies. You've gone into war and did something with these people, so you have this deep connection that you don't have with anybody else. I don't have it with my girlfriend or my mom and dad or anyone else. It's something that's very unique to the people that went on the road and have toured together for months, sleeping in vans together, sleeping on the grounds of airports and playing on those stages. Having good nights, bad nights, very high highs, very low lows. There's a lot of emotion that goes on in this type of work environment. No disrespect to anyone working in the service industry, but it's not the same as Starbucks, clocking in, doing your job and leaving. There is a connection there, but there's something different about having to live with each other and doing something intimate like music as well and trying to be creative like that. There is such a bond that happens, so we have grown with each other and seen each other mature and share those experiences.
I like to think that because of how deep our bond is, it comes out in our music, and it comes out in our live performances. I don't fully know, because I'm in the middle of it, what it looks like to other people, but I do think if you change out any member of the band, and put in someone new, it would change that dynamic. You'd have to figure out how to speak that language with them or figure out what that relationship is. This includes writing music and being on stage. So I believe that when we put all of those experiences, and everything we've done together really comes out. There is this deep bond connection, and it's in the music and in the performances.
“I like to think that because of how deep our bond is, it comes out in our music, and it comes out in our live performances. “
Shot by Elizabeth Miranda
What's next for you and The Greeting Committee?
Next thing, rolling out this album. For me, and, I think I can speak for everybody else in the band, this is my most proud project that we've done. I think it's a jump in a different direction for us. We'll see how people react to it. It felt genuine to me front to back. It's just the four of us. There was no label or anybody that was in our ear telling us what to do. Every decision that was made with the music, even if it's not exactly what I want, or what Addie wants or Pierce or Austin, was some type of version that the four of us wanted as a group. There were no outside voices. I'm really proud of that, whatever this album is.
The next steps are releasing this album and seeing how the world reacts to it and seeing if people like it. If we're privileged enough, to go on the road and play it for people and people to show up. I think that's the big thing of just seeing what happens with this album out in the world. After that, I imagine it would be going and writing more music. I'm always grateful for the opportunity to do this type of stuff. I know not everyone gets the opportunity. Every time we do an album, it's always like, please, please give me another shot at doing this, again, I want to do this again. Hopefully I can do it better. I'm hoping that's what's down the road is that we're given the opportunity to make another album again, and keep working with each other.
If you can listen to one song for the rest of your life. What would it be and why?
I will say what I've been obsessed with lately is IGOR, you know that Tyler the Creator album? I have been obsessed with that album front to back. Tyler released his new album and I thought it was good, but then I never really got into IGOR and I started listening to it and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is amazing. If I had to choose a song, it would be “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles. I think that might be my all-time favorite song. Do you guys know what your song would be? That's a hard question.
Alana: I always go with Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac. It's not on Rumors. It was on a B-Side which is a crime. It's incredible. It's really good.
Brandon: I just saved it on my phone. I'm gonna listen to it after this. What about you?
Sydney: Honestly, I feel like I'd probably take an hour to decide. But I'd say a song by Lorde or Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Brandon: Nice, that's a good choice. Madi, since you're here, do you have a song?
Madi Florence (The GC’S Publicist): Oh man, it's not gonna be like a cool legacy act but I do think that the one song that without fail gets me hyped and in the mood is Old School by Metronomy. Almost every year, that is my number one played song on Spotify and I'm not sick of it.
Video graphics hand-drawn and animated by Kezia Gabriella