band interview

Greeley Estates

Interview by Kyle "Kore" Parsons
Tagged 2006 arizona bands emo emocore greeley estates post-hardcore screamo



You've been posting a lot of your new songs on websites. Were the reactions what you expected?
Ryan: Pretty much. We had an album leak on AbsolutePunk where we posted three songs a week for the last month until the whole album was up there. Just like anything you'd expect, there was the good and the bad. Some people say how they feel and they're not into it, but for the most part, our fans seem to be into it.

Do you ever take that criticism as constructive criticism, or do you just throw it out the window since that's to be expected?
Ryan: I don't know if we take it as constructive criticism, because we're proud of the album and it's… like, if they don't like it, then it's their problem. We wrote an album that we like, and obviously we hope that people like it, but if they don't like it, then good for them. It doesn't hurt our feelings.
Josh: Right, and we understand that going into it. We can't write a record everyone is going to love. Some people don't like [the greatest albums ever made] and look at them negatively.

I was checking your MySpace out, and you have over 47,000 friends. Do you guys check your own MySpace account?
Josh: Our guitar player, Dallas, and I are kind of the two main guys who check the MySpace account. A lot of bands that get to about our size [are not] able do it on their own, especially with touring and stuff. We've invested in ways to be able to stay connected from the road. While we're on tour, we can answer MySpace messages and make sure that we're still interactive with the fans through the internet. We take it very seriously, because when we did our very first tour ever, one of the main reasons kids were able to show up from the other side of the country is because we had made a strong presence online. We've tried to hang on to that as much as we can, so we can continue to grow.

What are your opinions on the whole “scenester” thing and how shows are kind of the cool thing to do now VS before, when there was a smaller group of music kids?
Ryan: Honestly, I think it's funny. We were talking about this the other day. Young kids are now asking for guitar stuff instead of sports stuff. Kids don't wear sports clothes anymore; they wear band shirts. It's a great thing, especially for musicians.

Do you think your audience has changed over the past couple years? Is your audience getting younger?
Ryan: Definitely. There are kids who have their parents wait for them outside of shows. That's rad. My parents would never let me go when I was like, ten. So, yeah, kids are definitely getting younger, especially for local shows. I know some kids would only go to really big shows with their parents, but now those kids are supporting local bands.

I've been to a few [Greeley Estates] shows before, how would you explain your own live performances?
Josh: I think we try really hard to bring the music from the stage to the crowd, and I think that's a very tricky thing to do. I can speak for Ryan and say he's a really rad frontman in the sense that Ryan's really good at taking the show from the stage and bringing into the faces of the crowd. We did a show today at Dana Hills High School, and they set up this little stage for us with caution tape and stuff that we were supposed to be playing behind and everything. After the first half song or so, Ryan pretty much crawled under the tape and was running around the school and doing the set while standing on cafeteria tables. I think that's a very important part of live shows: to make the people watching you feel like they're a part of it. We really strive for that, and it makes a big impression. Kids are there to be entertained, [but] anyone can stand on a stage and perform a song…
Ryan: Some of it's our appreciation for the people who show up to the shows; we want them to know that we appreciate them by having them involved. For all of us, the nights when the crowd is dead are the nights that are really difficult for all of us. Honestly, the crowd is everything.

How would you compare your new album to your recently released EP and your first full-length?
Josh: Between the three albums, the original album and the newest one are probably the most similar. The EP we put out between the two full-lengths was more or less about the opportunity for us to give something back to the core fans who had been waiting a long time to hear something new from us. At the time, we were doing a lot of touring and waiting for just the right record label to come around. During that transition period, we needed something that was a step between the two. We were able to... experiment with some new ideas. For the full-length, we got an opportunity to put together a new album that sticks together through the songs and more or less represents what we wanted to bring musically. In a lot of ways, the full-length from before, Outside of This, and the most recent full length, Far From the Lies, are really similar. A lot of the songs are a progression. They are very similar, but the production and the way Far From the Lies was written was definitely a step forward for us.

Where do you see Greeley Estates in two years?
Ryan: Just paying the bills, writing music, and touring!

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