Southern California-bred alt-rock band, Greer just celebrated the release of their debut EP, Lullaby For You this month via Epitaph. The five-song project serves as the perfect taste-test for those hearing the band for the first time and transforms moments of profound heartache and romantic angst into massively catchy pop songs with Greer’s summery melodies and charismatic energy.
Although they are a relatively young band – having formed in 2018 – Greer have gained momentum with their spectacular songwriting and unguarded sincerity. With Lullaby For You, the band had the chance to hone in on their sound and discover what makes them tick, and the five resulting songs lay the groundwork for their future. Listen to Lullaby For You and read what the band had to say about the writing process and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the release below.
Prelude Press: You guys just released your debut EP, Lullaby For You this month! What are you most excited for fans to hear on the EP?
Greer: We are really excited to finally add to our repertoire! We’ve had only two songs out for the longest time, and have been super anxious to release new material, and to show how we’ve grown as a band and evolved sonically. We couldn’t be more grateful for the dedication and loyalty our fans have shown us within the past year, and hope people resonate with our new stuff just as much as the old.
It being your debut EP and some of the first music that many people may hear from you, was there anything in particular that you wanted to accomplish with the EP? Did you have any major goals in mind when you first started working on it?
Aside from wanting to refine and learn more about our craft, I think we really wanted, and still want, to explore and figure out our identity as a band and start to establish that. We still have a lot to discover and learn about ourselves but hopefully these songs embody some of that exploration and set some sort of groundwork. Another major goal was definitely to show some all-around maturity in performance, production, and song writing in comparison to the two songs we had out. At the time, we were such a young, fresh, fetus of a band when we first recorded Song for Me/Bittersweet at a friend’s house in a room no bigger than a closet, and a whole lot has changed since then on both a personal and musical level, and hopefully the E.P. somewhat reflects that.
How do you feel you’ve grown as a band with the writing and recording of Lullaby For You? Did you learn any lessons when working on the EP?
We have grown so much from the time songs were conceived till the point when we received the final masters of each track. So much has contributed to that like touring and working with Brett Gurewitz on the songs before heading into the studio, and of course the studio was really the pinnacle of learning for us. Touring really helped us grow closer as a band and get so much tighter as well. We had barely played any shows before we left for tour, we weren’t even in the double digits. Touring allowed us to really absorb those songs, but at the same time increased our impatience with wanting to record them and get them out. Before recording we also got to work with Brett on the songs, and he really helped us flush them out and refine them. We learned so much from him and it was such a great experience, he really helped take our visions for the songs and fine tune that raw energy. Working with Rob Schnapf was definitely game changing, even life changing, for us. From the beginning we bonded so well, in so many ways, in humor, in music taste, it was such an amazing experience. On top of that, he is insanely knowledgeable and talented at what he does and taught us so much. He was also very patient and kind mannered with us, all of which made the process go so smoothly. From him we learned even more about how fine tune our craft, and a lot about how the recording process works. Most importantly we learned about collaboration and getting what we want from our songs. It was really helpful for us to have someone we could trust with our vision and simultaneously meld their vision with ours and have that turn out as a cohesive product.
What was the most rewarding part of the recording process? The most challenging?
The most rewarding part was definitely the drive home, getting to hear all of the rough mixes of the songs and listening to them in the car, and just getting to admire and appreciate the fact that we were able to do that. The most challenging part was a bit different for each of us, but definitely the aspect of having to be vulnerable with our creations, whether it be individual parts or performances or even the songs themselves, it was a new experience to us, and naturally it came with its ups and downs.
We really hope the songs convey a bit of the evolution and exploration that’s been going on with as a band from the time we released the prior two songs. We also hope to convey some sort of emotion or interpretation, subjective to the listener, and to really grow that connection between us as the musicians and the listener.
2020 has obviously been a difficult year in the music industry with the pandemic affecting tours and album releases. For you guys in particular, this postponed your spring tour, but despite this, you guys have still remained busy, releasing new music and starting your “Greercast” series. How were you forced to reevaluate how you were going to do things moving into the EP release?
After having the tour pushed back, we really had to reevaluate our entire plan for the EP release. The entire EP release was centered around touring and we were depending on the tour for practicing the EP songs as well as working on new ones. So we had to adapt quickly, and thanks to our solid management team, we collectively decided taking a step back and focusing on new songs, while still retaining a strong social media presence, was the best option for us. It was hard for us to take this approach, due to the fact we’ve been on a rollercoaster pace since the release of our first single “Song for Me”. But we adapted; we found ourselves a new practice space and have been utilizing this excess of time as an opportunity to work hard rather than a time to relax and wait.
Tell us a little bit about the “Greercast” series. You’ve been going strong for a couple of months now and have had some great guests. What inspired you to start this up?
As the COVID pandemic became prevalent, we realized our connection with fans would greatly suffer, especially after the tour was postponed. This was a big worry for us. We wanted to find new ways to connect with fans through social media, but we wanted it to be interesting enough where anyone could watch. Eventually we stumbled upon the idea to do a podcast. We thought it’d be a great way for fans to see our personality, either as guests or through answering questions, and felt having guests would make it more interesting for people who aren’t fans of us. Overall, we were very happy with the way Greercast turned out, and intend to continue it throughout the pandemic.
I know it’s a little hard to have definitive plans at the moment, but what are you looking forward to in the next few months or year as a band? Do you have any big goals or plans?
As of now, we don’t have much planed for the coming months. Our main goal now is to focus on new music and keep writing. We’re excited to tour, but that is more of a long term goal at this point. Overall, we don’t want to overwhelm ourselves too much, but want to work hard on the few things we’re focusing on right now.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Hi mom!!!!
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