Greta Van Fleet is four young musicians - twin brothers Josh (vocals) and Jake Kiszka (guitar), both 22, younger brother Sam (bass/keys, 20), and longtime family friend Danny Wagner (drums, 20).  All are from the tiny Michigan hamlet of Frankenmuth known for its family-style chicken dinners and the world’s largest Christmas store.  All four were raised on their parents’ extensive vinyl collections which helped give birth to the music they make today:  a high-energy hybrid of rock’n’roll, blues and soul.  

 

Since the March 2017 release of "Highway Tune," the band's first single that claimed the #1 spot at Rock Radio for five consecutive weeks, the four members of Greta Van Fleet have achieved three more #1 rock singles (“Safari Song,” “When The Curtain Falls,” and “You’re the One”).  The group has also been on a wild ride of sold-out concerts around the world, racked up tens of millions of YouTube video plays and audio streams, received glowing accolades from iconic artists like Elton John, Dave Grohl, Joe Satriani, and Billy Corgan, and recorded two #1 EPs.  The band's debut album Anthem of the Peaceful Army (10-19-18), entered Billboard's Top Album Sales and Top Rock Albums charts at #1, and at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart.  On December 7, 2018, the band awoke to find they had received four Grammy nominations - Best New Artist, Best Rock Song (“Black Smoke Rising”), Best Rock Performance (“Highway Tune”), and Best Rock Album (From The Fires EP), which the band took home.  Greta Van Fleet has made two late-night television appearances:  “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (7/26/18), and “Saturday Night Live” (1/19/19).  Most importantly, Greta Van Fleet has been building an extraordinary connection with its fans.

 

Greta Van Fleet’s shared message with their music is to spread “peace, love, and unity,” and their collective goal is to have people walk out of their live shows feeling invigorated, energized and exhilarated, and to take that feeling out into the world.

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About Sam Kiszka • 20 years old • plays bass, keys:

Sam Kiszka is self-taught, starting when he was 12.  His father played bass, so supplied hands-on tutoring, and Sam spent a lot of time at the University of YouTube.  Like many other self-taught musicians, Sam has invested hours and hours watching his favorite musicians (James Jamerson was a big influence) on performance music videos, listening to their recordings, and practicing to perfect their riffs and style - and then evolved his own style.  His all-time favorite composer is Bach who he cites for his being “an amazing bass player with melodies second to none."

 

Sam gets bored fairly easily, and when he does, he picks up a new instrument to learn to play.  In addition to bass, he is self-taught on guitar, drums, mandolin, keyboards, Hammond M103 organ, harmonica, ukulele, a little saxophone and is going to pick up the autoharp.

 

(Sam plays a Hammond Sk2 organ on the road.)

 

About Jake Kiszka • 22 years old • plays guitar

Jake and his brothers were raised in a very free and creative environment that included a father who was a musician who had a variety of musical instruments in the house.  He also had a very challenging way of “teaching” Jake to play guitar. As a kid, Jake started out with a cheap plastic guitar, but was outgrowing it so asked his dad for a better one.  He dad told him he would first have to learn to play Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” and Hendrix’s “Wild Thing” on the plastic guitar before he would consider getting Jake a better guitar.  So Jake did, and was rewarded with a red Fender Squier.  When he felt he’d outgrown that, his dad challenged him again - this time he would have to learn Hendrix’s version of “Hey Joe,” “Smoke On the Water,” and “Sunshire of Your Love," and on and on and on.  Jake mastered them all and was rewarded with better and better guitars.  Heavy guitar influences include Hendrix, Elmore James, Pete Townsend and Woody Guthrie.

 

About Josh Kiszka • 22 years old • vocals

Being a singer in a rock’n’roll band was the last thing that Josh ever thought he’d be.  Josh studied theatre in school, he was in school plays, and was involved in local community musical theatre.  He primarily considers himself a writer, someone who loves to tell stories, which answers his being the band’s lyricist  He writes, shoots and directs videos, and gets into editing them as well.  He certainly LOVES to sing in Greta Van Fleet, but he’s definitely got one foot firmly in the theatre.  His heroes comprise an interesting “hat trick” - Hunter S.Thompson, Andy Kaufman and Stanley Kubrick.

 

About Danny Wagner ª 20 years old • plays drums

As a kid, Danny took guitar lessons for three years, then also learned to play piano, mandolin and ukelele, and played the French horn and trumpet in his school band for six years.  Drumming didn’t come along until his cousin moved out of town and couldn’t take his drum set, so Danny claimed it.  Like Sam and many other self-taught musicians, Danny studied at the University of YouTube, analyzing the chops of his favorite musicians (Buddy Rich and John Bonham were big influences) on performance music videos, listening to their recordings, all of which led to Danny carving out his own performance style.  And when Danny plays his heavy hitting, machine gun drum riffs, it’s obvious that he’s exorcising some demons on the kit.