Greta Van Fleet’s Danny Wagner on His Band’s Quick Rise to Stardom—and the Backlash
Photo by Travis Shinn
Greta Van Fleet was formed in Frankenmuth, Mich.—a quaint Bavarian-inspired town best known for it’s year-round “CHRISTmas Wonderland”—in 2012, at a time when each of its four members (Josh Kiszka, Jake Kiszka, Sam Kiszka and Danny Wagner) were teenagers in high school. Despite releasing a handful of tracks, many of which are no longer available, the band’s professional career as musicians didn’t truly take off until five years later when they signed with Lava Records in 2017. When it took off, however, it did so like a rocket.
Home of Lorde, Jessie J and Black Veil Brides, a quick navigation to the Lava Records website reveals the label’s current rising stars. Out of alphabetical order and placed at the top left of Lava’s artists page are the four Michiganders. After signing with Lava, the year saw a slew of sold-out North American tour dates and one iconic night opening for fellow mitten-native Bob Seger. The release of two EPs within the span of months, Black Smoke Rising and From The Fires, saw the band with two No. 1 Billboard Mainstream Rock charting hits (“Highway Tune” and “Safari Song,” both of which were released as singles as well.)
Venturing into 2018, the band’s resumé continued to expand with a personally requested performance at Elton John’s Academy Awards party and a debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Further, in August they were chosen as Apple Music’s first “Up Next” featured artist, just a little over a year after first being featured on the platform as the “New Artist of the Week.”
While the band’s success may seem to have come out of nowhere, its four members are working hard to attain it. Still, when you ask a group of classic-rock super fans—the demographic one might expect to be wholeheartedly in support of Greta—you’re likely to get a mixed bag of responses in return, ranging from “a complete revival” to “entirely too derivative” all the way to a scathing 1.6 review on Pitchfork.
Usually, these responses hinge on the comparisons to Led Zeppelin that have followed the band, something that was stems in part from lead singer Josh’s Plant-ian howl that’s certainly channeling something.
“When we started this whole thing, it was definitely not on our radars because we grew up in this small town with radio as our source of music,” said Wagner, drummer for the group. “There was a lot of classic rock on the radio and a lot of old music and a lot of different types of music. I think it just comes down to the songwriting. We all kind of share that in common. I think we all have a lot of similar influences going back even further than the ’70s and the ’60s.”
While the obvious similarities brings criticism, the band has handled it all in stride. In part, this could be because it also brings in a wide age demographic and, from that, a special kind of fan relationship—one between parent, having aged with the genre, and child, first exploring rock ’n’ roll.
“We attracted a lot of the older crowd at first because of the style, the execution, the fact that all of our instruments are plugged in… It catered to a lot of them. A lot of these parents brought their children to the shows, and that was their first experience—having been brought by the parent,” said Wagner. “I think that’s such a unique relationship between a child and a parent because when you look at rock ’n’ roll back then, it was definitely a youthful cause. The parents weren’t so much into it… It really just goes to show that music does bring every single person together.”
Unlike the bands of the ’70s and the debauchery-filled decade against which they are compared, however, Greta is certainly more radio-friendly for younger viewers overall, both on stage and off. They’ve got the sound, sure, but the scandal? For four young guys ranging in age from 19 to 22, they instead have a shocking lack of scandal.