Q&A: “Big Smile is Gay”: Greer’s Boldest Era Yet—Reinvention, Reflection, and the Road Ahead
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY JOY VILLANUEVA ☆
AFTER YEARS OF SILENCE — Greer has returned with their most daring project yet: Big Smile. From rediscovering their chemistry in Lucas’ garage to navigating their evolving sound, the band embraces change while staying true to their roots. Their previous EP, Happy People, was described by the band as the awkward puberty era of their music, while Big Smile is the deep dive into its emotional core.
In this interview, Josiah, Seth, Corbin, and Lucas reflect on the journey behind the album—the highs, the lows, and everything in between. But to truly understand their evolution, you’ll have to hear it for yourself.
Read below for Luna’s conversation with Greer about their growth, the making of Big Smile, and what’s next.
LUNA: After taking an indefinite hiatus in 2021, what was the moment that made you realize it was time to bring Greer back?
JOSIAH: I feel like there wasn’t really a definitive moment. It was more like, Okay, we need to make an album, especially since our contract permitted it, but there wasn’t a specific time frame. It wasn’t like the label was pressuring us to make an album. We just took some time off and felt like it was time to get moving again. Everyone was kind of dealing with their own stuff at the time.
SETH: It was a process, though. I think it was about closing some open wounds and feeling things out for a long period of time. It was both a waiting game and also a situation where we had to get to know each other again after being apart for so long. We knew that making an album was just the next step, and we were always going to do that. But there was just so much going on that we had to get through first, and that was a huge step for us. I think we were all a little afraid of doing it.
LUNA: With Big Smile, you’re both returning to your roots and pushing your sound forward. What new perspectives or experiences shaped the way you approached this album?
CORBIN: A lot had happened in our personal lives, and with the hiatus, we had just grown up in so many different ways. We were really young during the “Song For Me” era — we were basically babies. I was still in high school, and everyone else had just graduated. So, the difference between that time and finally having the courage to write an album was drastic. We couldn’t have been more different from who we were back then. A lot went into that transformation, and it definitely played a huge role in how we approached making music now.
SETH: A lot of the formative experiences in the band were about finding our sound and growing up together. So, the beginning of our band was kind of strange, and we had to rework how we made music to create this album. There were a lot of different influences and visions at play, but we just decided to say, “Screw it,” and put everyone’s ideas in one basket to see what happened when we mixed everything together. It’s been a huge shift from where we started, and it’s definitely been a weird and different journey, but that’s what’s made it exciting.
LUCAS: It was a very organic process. We just kind of went with the flow, like, “Let’s show each other what we have and see what we like.” If something clicked, we’d keep working on it. We didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into one specific sound, so it was more about letting everyone do their thing to some extent. Then, when we were in the studio with our producer Rob Schnapf, we focused on making everything cohesive. It was a balance of freedom and collaboration, and that’s what made it work.
LUNA: “Omnibus” sets the tone for Big Smile with its sense of revival and rebirth. With all of the songs in mind, how did you decide the order in which they would go in?
SETH: That was kind of the premonition—“Omnibus” first, “audio 77” last. Then we had everything in between, this weird mix. But I think we ended up thinking just to keep it a side A, side B, kind of vibe, where all of the really fast stuff is in the beginning half, and the weird, slow stuff in the second half. But it ended up being cohesive in a way, where we just started out as loud and crazy and chaotic as possible, and then it kind of slowly started to tame itself a little bit.
CORBIN: Part of the decision came from us shuffling the album on Spotify. We had a bunch of preliminary orders that just felt weird and awkward, especially fitting in some of the instrumental tracks, which felt a little cumbersome at times. It was hard because half of the record is clearly more on the pop-rock side, and the other half is more on the ballad, softer side. So it was really tough to bridge those two things, especially tone-wise, as they just didn’t really seem to connect.
One day, we were just dissatisfied with all the orders, so we decided to put it on shuffle to see if we could make any new connections. That ultimately helped us put together an order. It was about breaking up any pre-existing idea of how we thought the record should be structured, but the limitation of having “Omnibus” first and “audio 77” last was really helpful. We knew we couldn’t change that. We knew it had to start and finish the record.
LUNA: Reuniting in Lucas’ garage played a big role in rekindling your creative chemistry. How did returning to that space impact the songwriting process?
JOSIAH: We were originally in this rehearsal space, which was like ET hell for writing—literally a black hole. But then Lucas’s garage became the spot. It was more casual; we weren’t paying for time there, so we could go inside, play Smash, eat a snack, and then come back and keep writing. I think it was really the freedom of feeling like, “Oh, this isn’t necessarily a job.” Like, we weren’t on a strict clock. It didn’t feel like, “Okay, we have to get this done in three hours.” We could be there for as long as we wanted, and luckily for us, Lucas would have us.
LUCAS: It was just a friendlier environment to write and be creative. Our old practice space had been the place we tried to write for a long time, but it just felt like a box. It wasn’t good for us creatively, so we went back to our roots, to where we started. It felt better, we kept at it, and it worked out for us, which was really cool.
LUNA: Some of my favorite early tracks of yours—“Bye Bye Baby,” “Bittersweet,” and “Song for Me”—carry a spirit that feels present in this album but in a new way. How did you balance staying true to your signature sound while evolving as songwriters?
JOSIAH: We wanted to get rid of it. There were some songs that I felt like snuck in there that felt more reminiscent of the older sound, like “One in the Same” and “Mugwump.” “One in the Same” is a really old song, it was written close to that time. We wanted to get rid of that sound, though, especially with songs like “Bittersweet.” There’s a lot of hate for that song in the group. No shade to anybody, you know what I mean? Like, we made it, but I think we wanted to get as far away as possible, honestly.
LUNA: Was there any fear of fans potentially not liking the new sound in terms of Big Smile?
SETH: Yeah, we’re definitely still pretty fearful of that for sure, but I think we had to go through that a little bit, you know? We made an album that is so different from stuff that people who listen to us would really want to hear.
JOSIAH: But if you think about it, at the time that we made those songs, we listened to it and were like, “Oh, lit, we feel good about this,” and then put it out, and that’s how we feel about this too. So, hopefully, real recognizes real.
SETH: I just think that a lot of people within the music sphere and who’ve been listening to music, especially in the indie genre for as long as we have, have probably developed a lot as well. Either in the same direction as us or in a drastically different direction. I think we’re just hoping that it comes naturally and that people—like our fans—might relate to that and appreciate the kind of stuff we’re doing now as well. But of course, no shade to our old stuff. Those songs did us well.
LUNA: You entered the process with over 200 songs. What guided your decisions in narrowing them down to the final 13? Were there any tracks that were particularly hard to cut?
JOSIAH: By the time we got to the studio, we had about 15 solid songs picked out. During the studio process, we ended up cutting a couple—either because they didn’t fit the vibe or the timeline, but we still have them for future projects. Leading up to the studio, we were slowly narrowing things down over the course of the year. A few older songs even came together in the last couple of weeks before we went in, which was a nice surprise. It was definitely a process, but by the time we got to recording, we had a clear direction. We kind of started to freak out a little bit right before we booked the studio time. We were like, “Oh f*ck, we need to get our sh*t together.” So we started pulling from old stuff or songs from a few months before that we had kind of given up on and reworking them. But by the time we went into the studio, we pretty much knew, “Okay, here are our 15 songs. Let’s try to narrow it down to 12 or 13.”
SETH: It’s so funny how “1994” was like the most recent song we made, the last-minute addition to the roster, and then “Franken” was also the last one we added, but it ended up being the longest song out of all of them that’s been in our rotation. That song has been killed and brought back like four times already. Its original name wasn’t even “Franken.”
JOSIAH: It was just like finding old sh*t and being like, “Oh, this works with this other riff we have,” and just putting things together. That’s what we did with “Had Enough.” Corbin was like, “Oh, remember this old hook I had?” because we were looking for a hook for that verse on the song, and it worked perfectly.
LUNA: Looking back at Lullaby for You and Happy People, what do you hope listeners take away from this new era?
JOSIAH: Have fun. Be you. The album is almost, like, sporadic. It’s all over the place. It’s like a variety album. I pray there’s something for everybody on this album because I feel like there is. You’ve got freaky sh*t on there, pop sh*t, and even real soft, depressing stuff. That was just all of our different vibes combined on the album. So my hope is that there’s something for everybody, at least. I feel like we were on a vibe with Lullaby for You, then Happy People gave into the beast for a second…It was a weird era. Then we were like, “Okay, let’s pump the brakes for a second,” and now we finally have this, which is back to a good vibe.
SETH: It felt like Happy People was our awkward puberty and Big Smile was exploring all the emotions of the rest of it. There’s just so much to think about, you know? It’s a lot to process—two whole years of hiatus, exploring our music and ourselves. I feel like, especially with “Omnibus,” it really captures that for me. It’s like the entire two years of us being apart, and also those two years prior to that when we were just touring Happy People. It was this huge, incomprehensible wall of confusion and chaos happening internally for each of us, and we couldn’t figure out how to express it to each other. Part of making the album was learning how to communicate that, and learning how to navigate through this overwhelming, crazy void of emotions and stuff that you can’t understand. There was definitely something cathartic about writing together again and talking to each other about it though. Communication is key—definitely a big thing I learned from this album.
LUNA: Your first post-hiatus tour kicks off in May. How does it feel to be hitting the road again? What can fans expect from the live shows this time around?
LUCAS: I’m really excited to see everyone. We haven’t toured in a long, long time, and it’ll be interesting. I feel like with Happy People, we would play it live and see the reactions. But for Big Smile, we never really played it live, so I’m curious to see people’s reactions to different songs and what they think. I get lots of cool clothing on tour—like glasses and trucker hats and stuff like that. I’m excited for my new wardrobe.
JOSIAH: I feel like now that our audience is older, they can probably drink. They’re probably gonna have more fun than any other tour we’ve had, because now they can be drunk for it. The LA shows and the New York shows, those are gonna be crazy. We’re definitely gonna have some fun.
SETH: I’m really excited to figure out how to make all these songs sound awesome in a live setting. I think everyone’s just getting ready for that.
LUNA: Now that you’ve gone through this transformative period and released a full-length album, what’s next for Greer?
JOSIAH: Christmas. I don't know, I guess just focusing on touring for now. The world is our oyster.
SETH: I don’t think we’ve even thought that far ahead since we’ve been so focused on Big Smile and promoting it. We literally just got our first day off—well, our first weekend off. Being stuck in a box for a couple of days really messed with our mental states.
LUNA: Speaking of, you stayed in a glass box next to the Heaven by Marc Jacobs store in the two days leading up to the album release. How did you handle things like bathroom breaks, and what was the whole experience like for you?
SETH: Buckets. Three buckets—one for poop, one for blood in case of injuries, and one for donations. We also asked some fans who came to the glass to volunteer and help us empty them in the back. There was a little dumpster and sewage setup for everything, so it was all taken care of.
CORBIN: You’d be surprised how many people were willing to empty the buckets for us—they were actually really excited about it. It was honestly the strangest part and probably the most uncomfortable. They were just down bad enough to want to do it.
LUNA: You performed the album live when it dropped, still being in the box. How did that go?
CORBIN: I performed in seven-inch heels for the first time, and it was really hard. My feet hurt so bad, and I almost fell so many times, but it was worth it. I thought it was a cool experience.
SETH: It was fun regardless of how we did. I think it wasn’t really about putting on a perfect show. It was more like, we’re playing in a box for free on the street in the middle of LA, and that’s kind of cool. I mean, we obviously tried our hardest, of course, but there’s only so much you can do when you’re playing behind a glass window and trying to get your sound to go outside.
JOSIAH: It was hard not to hear the audience. I couldn’t hear them through the glass, so after we finished a song, I didn’t like it because I was like, F*ck, we must’ve played really bad because no one’s cheering, but then I’d look outside and see that they were cheering, I just couldn’t hear them. It was weird.
LUNA: If Big Smile was one of the “Let Dogs Wear Wigs.” dogs, which one would it be and why?
JOSIAH: He would be the red one with the Mohawk, because he has those red spikes, and that’s the most iconic one. He would totally be that dog, and he’d be queening out all the time. Big Smile is gay, by the way.
SETH: He has a crazy side, and your first impression is, “What the hell, this dog has a red, crazy dyed Mohawk, that’s wild.” But once you analyze his character and posture, he’s calm and collected, almost eloquent in a heroic way. He also has a punk ethos and a gentle demeanor.
LUNA: Is there anything else you’d like to share with Luna? Any words to your fans or about the upcoming shows?
SETH: Keep queening out and never let go of the green electricity.
JOSIAH: We love you, please buy tickets to our tour. That’s our tea for the girls.
