Denver six-piece rock outfit, The Green House Band is a melting pot of sound rooted in soul and Americana with an electric live performance, and their recently released self-titled EP is a direct reflection the the six distinct personalities in the band. Featuring five tracks that musically and lyrically speak of the band’s individual experiences living in New Orleans, Kansas City, Nashville, St. Louis, and Colorado, the EP is a testament to the band’s diversity and adaptability.
Although the band’s EP release show was cancelled due to COVID-19, they’re remaining resilient, reflecting on their spectacular performance in Aspen prior to the lockdown and looking toward the future. With the EP out now, we caught up with The Green House Band to talk about their influences, the writing process of the EP and much more. Read the interview now below.
Can you tell us a little bit about The Green House Band for anyone who might be hearing you guys for the first time?
The Green House Band plays an exciting brand of rock and roll that’s infused with soul and americana. The band’s lineup finalized in June 2019 with singer Marlee, guitarists Michael and Hayden, Matt on keys and vocals, bassist Tommy, and Joe behind the kit. We’ve built a really fun live show – something that people can dance and sing along to, and have sold out shows at Cervantes’ and Walnut Room.
You guys just celebrated the release of your new self-titled EP this month! Now that it’s out and you’ve had a little bit of time to reflect on it, what are some of your favorite things about the EP?
One of our favorite things about the EP is that you can really hear our energy and chemistry. The majority of the music was live tracked with all of us playing in the same room and feeding off each other. We also love that everyone is highlighted throughout the EP through shining vocal leads, keyboard and guitar solos, big and tight drum and bass fills, and layers of vocal harmonies. The EP was a big team effort and it shows that we had a lot of fun making it.
The songs on the EP speak to your individual experiences living in New Orleans, Kansas City, Nashville, St. Louis, and Colorado – how did you go about embodying these places and experiences in the songs?
Musical flavors from each of these places really make The Green House Band sound what it is: New Orleans soul mixed with Colorado folk, Americana from Nashville, St. Louis, and Kansas City. We interpret these sounds through a lens of rock and roll, and the more we played together and influenced each other, the more cohesive and signature our sound became. Lyrically Saint is about missing life in New Orleans: brass second lines, sprawling live oak trees, and how the sky turns a hazy shade of green at night. Uncle Steve Reed paints a picture of Joe’s uncle’s adventurous tales throughout the American South, and Little Boat talks about Matt’s experience of accepting yourself and moving forward in the beautifully simple Colorado way of life.
Were there any major goals you wanted to accomplish with the EP?
We wanted the band’s energy and dynamics to translate through recorded form. Brad Smalling at Evergroove Studio really helped us get there.
What would you like for fans to take away from the EP?
We obviously couldn’t have possibly planned for this timing on the release, but it has been great to hear people say that they are digging the music and that it’s made them happy right now. Music seems to be the one of the only things that make sense right now, so we hope people can find some comfort in ours.
Were there any challenges that you faced when working on the EP? What was the most rewarding part of the recording process?
Our songwriting is ever-changing, so I think the biggest challenge was locking our songs in place. The five songs on the EP grew a lot from when we first wrote them to when we recorded them, and they’ve changed since recording. We’re always rethinking song structure, transitions, harmonies, lyrics, and leads. It was kind of weird to make something permanent. The most rewarding part of the process is definitely getting to share our music with people, especially in a time when live shows aren’t an option.
COVID-19 has had a huge effect on the music industry, and I know you guys were personally affected by it, with the cancellation of your release show this month. While the industry is at a bit of a standstill, have you been doing anything musically or creatively to stay busy?
First and foremost our hearts go out to everyone affected by COVID-19, and everyone else in the Colorado live music scene who is hurting right now. While it’s a bummer we had to postpone our Cervantes’ show, I will say it’s a blessing that we got to play our last show in Aspen shortly before the lockdown. We played for almost 3 hours and left everything on the stage that night, and I think it left a good taste in everyone’s mouth. We do our best to roll with the punches and keep moving forward: We have been doing a lot of writing over the last month or so by sharing audio clips, are getting a lot of individual practice in, write lyrics together in Google docs, and FaceTime to have a beer together.
Do you have any other big plans for 2020?
It’s hard to put a timeline to things right now – but when everything is able to go back to normal we’ll be rescheduling our Cervantes’ date and are thinking of doing a live album and video at that show. Beyond that we’re going to keep making music and hope to get on the Denver festival circuit.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for talking with us about our music and giving us the opportunity to share it with your readers! We’d just like to add that we feel really grateful that we can still create and share music during this time and really look forward to getting back to the stage when it’s safe!
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