Greta Van Fleet’s Sam Kiszka On Motown’s Influence, Why He Started Playing Bass, And Hobbies
In just five years, Greta Van Fleet — which consists of vocalist Josh Kiszka, guitarist Jake Kiszka, bassist Sam Kiszka and drummer Danny Wagner — has gone from a local Michigan band to a rock phenomenon. Signed to Lava Records, the quartet’s Black Smoke Rising has yielded two big radio singles over the last six months; “Highway Tune” went to #1 at mainstream rock radio. Last month, Greta Van Fleet won Best New Artist at the Loudwire Music Awards.
On the eve of the release of the From The Fires EP, Greta Van Fleet’s second release for Lava, I had the pleasure of speaking with bassist Sam Kiszka via phone. Below are a few questions from our chat. More on Sam and crew can be found online at www.gretavanfleet.com.
Did you start out as a bass player? Or did you play guitar before bass?
Sam Kiszka: Actually, I started as a bass player and I think that is a very interesting way to start… I think that the reason it doesn’t happen very often is because nobody says, “Oh, I want to be a bass player,” you know? (laughs) So that is definitely what happened with me, I was very inspired by the movement of Motown music foremost when I was 12 years old. My dad had an old bass lying around and I just so happened to be into Motown music. The first bassline I ever learned was “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and it’s still one of my favorite basslines of all time. James Jamerson, he’s is a monster.
Being from Michigan, I was about to ask if James Jamerson was your number one but you already answered that…
Sam Kiszka: Oh yeah, for sure he is. I learned the basics from Jamerson and he was an insane bass player. He used the weirdest modes and craziest lines, but he was fantastic. I am still learning from him. I started doing fills and stuff, very rock stuff when I started listening to Jack Bruce from Cream’s playing. He was definitely a huge influence for me as a bass player.
But then moving from bass to keys is an interesting step, because when you play keys you have two hands; one plays bass and one plays keys, generally. So I knew what was going on in the left hand, I just had to translate it to a keyboard, then I kind of learned my own style. Learning from guys like Billy Preston, Jimmy Smith, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, even Elton John. There is a very broad influence for keyboard. Then I moved to guitar because I decided, like acoustic bass is never louder, right? There is no way to bring out even a digital keyboard or a piano to the campfire, so that was inspiration for learning to play acoustic guitar.
Was it at all influenced by your brothers also being musicians that you started to play music?
Sam Kiszka: Yeah, definitely, 100 percent. I don’t think I would have started music if it weren’t for… Jake would always bring home a buddy from jazz band and they would play guitar and drum together… Josh would sometimes come down and sing and they would play some stuff and it was awesome. So I started learning bass a little bit, after a couple of weeks I started going out and playing with them, and that is how it all kind of started.
It looks like you are just going to be on the road non-stop for many months to come, but touring has a lot of downtime to it. When you are not busy on-stage or with media commitments, what do you like to do for fun?
Sam Kiszka: Well, actually that is a really good and pertinent question for right now, because we had the past three days off. Three days! So that was a little too much for us, but we love it, whether it is sitting around playing guitar, going swimming, going to the beach, going hiking, shopping around town… I think that when we have days off, what we like to do best is get some exercise for once.
Is swimming your exercise of choice?
Sam Kiszka: I would say hiking probably more so, because we get to see all these beautiful places. For example, right now I am looking out the window and we are going through the mountains of Southern California. It is absolutely stunning and beautiful, but we seldom get the chance to explore the area and really enjoy nature. I think all of us grew up loving nature, growing up with it, so it is an amazing opportunity when we are actually able to have time off, hiking through mountains. It is a beautiful thing, I would say that is what we love doing the most.
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Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."
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