JANUARY 8, 2003

HERE IS AN INTERVIEW WITH GRETA A BAND FROM LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA.

This Is Greta is the second album released by Greta on Mercury Records. Prior to the release of the new album This IS Greta into the market place, I caught up with the band and had a chance for a special chat. Here is how it went (As Seen Printed In Highwire Daze Magazine in October/November 1995).

With all that Greta has been through during the tour for your debut release No Biting, you seem to be in a good place with this new record This Is Greta. Explain what that good feeling is or at least explain where that place is for you now?

Josh Gordon (Bass) I think that there is a lot of stuff that is on our first album No Biting that points to what were doing now. Like the songs School On Fire, Jesus Crux and Sleepyhead. Now if you look on the new album This Is Greta, songs like Warm Disease and Rocking Chair fit in as well with the older material. Rocking Chair actually was going to originally be on No Biting. We just did not come up with a take we really liked of Rocking Chair at that time, so it did not get put onto No Biting. In This Is Greta we are just taking some more of those elements from No Biting along with our good and bad experiences and focusing a little bit more. One of those things about No Biting not exploding through the charts was we were like well “Fuck we can basically do anything any thing we want too.” We come from eclectic backgrounds. Even when we first got together we were talking about that our fourth album was going to be a country album. So we like all kinds of different music. The kind of stuff that we are now doing draws on our earliest influences like The Beatles, The Who and The Stones and kind of getting into that almost a whole vibe. This is what we were doing for a very long time. So the songs that we were bringing in , to record, for both No Biting but especially for This Is Greta kind of ended up, fitting in well. To what you are hearing on the two albums with lots of attention to the new sound on the new record.

Were you surprised as to what you came up with for new album This IS Greta music wise?

Kyle Baker (lead guitar) Surprised not really. We looked ourselves up into a room for about six months. We experimented. We wrote about 20 to 30 songs for the new record This IS Greta. There was just so much different kinds of stuff written to choose from. In fact in some of the packaging there is going to be a picture of all of the song titles actually about half of them were songs that we were working on. The other half of the other songs do not even have titles for them at all even now.

I heard a drum beat that was different at the end of your new song Stained. Is that one of those musical beginnings from one of those untitled songs that you are currently working on?

Scott Carneghi (drums and percussions) Listen to the bass drum closely and it will tell you that it comes from someone who is now dead that was big musically though.

Paul Plagens (lead vocalist and guitars) And it’s not Nirvana either.

(Still in question about the drum lick after the song Stained) Is it sort of a tribute to someone?

Josh Gordon: Not a real tribute actually, just us screwing around musically with the drums of all the instruments. But the music, from the band that this guy comes from, was absolutely incredible. (The band went into a small huddle on whether to tell me or not. This proves to me that Greta hasn’t lost it’s humor, that’s for sure.)

Josh Gordon: Well ok, it’s from the Queen song Another One Bites The Dust, of course by legendary Freddy Mercury.

There is a great little gem that is found at the end of the new album called Nothing At All. What is the meaning behind this really sensitive piece?

Josh Gordon: Actually, Paul wrote that song. It is a song about a friend of ours. This was a guy that who was the most wonderful person in the world and he died. It’s based upon how it affected both Paul and I. Our friend, whom is talked about in Nothing At All, used to play the theme song from the tv show Nanny And The Professor. Actually, during the No Biting sessions we recorded a great version, as well, that I wouldn’t mind letting out some time on a single or whatever.

Now that this album has finally been released, go out and play at least tracks Cal Cool, Silver Blue and About You and see if you aren’t blown away like I was when I first heard these songs. The record release party was held at the club Spaceland in Silver Lake.

Note: Since this interview the band has been broken up. They were probably the first to mix hard rock and fast punk together. This now has been discovered to be known as power pop that sometimes rocks. Mercury records here in the United States has also been goon for a while now too. Mercury records took chances but so did Greta. Greta was a really cool band from Los Angeles. The Lead vocalist used to dress in drag and perform too. This original interview was first seen in Highwire Daze in The 5th Anniversary Issue. I personally feel that this band had a few great songs but Mercury Records weren't behind them really. This band could of had a hit on there hands if they played them just a few times on KROQ.