Q&A: The Greeting Committee Celebrates Growth in Reminiscent Single “Hopscotch”

Q&AMusic

Dec 12

☆ By Britt Astrid Alphson ☆

TO GROW OUT OF CHILDHOOD IS TO GIFT YOURSELF — the autonomy to look back at it with clarity. The Greeting Committee, a force within the indie music scene, are both scathing and softhearted when reviewing the experiences of their prior selves. Their latest single, “Hopscotch,” critiques the parts of youth we can all identify with: pretending to like certain bands in the hopes of gaining approval; tamping down our genuine selves to cut the risk of not being accepted.

Occasional synths and swelling guitar melodies keep the song sweet — it’s a single you can cry to while dancing. Lyricist Addie Sartino sings to the kid she once was with revelatory abandon, supported by guitarists Noah Spencer and Pierce Turcotte, with Micah Ritchie on drums.

It’s said that falling in love can incite a second childhood of sorts: everything new again, everything simple. “Anything But You,” a glimmering love song released shortly after “Hopscotch,” diverts from the complications of playground games and teenage malaise, instead speaking to the pureness of an adult love. Kissing in taxis, dancing at parties, missing someone when they’re standing right in front of you.

This Kansas City band has found widespread success since the release of their Meeting People Is Easy EP in 2017, touring with alternative-indie giants such as Bombay Bicycle Club, Tennis, Hippo Campus, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise. The group’s willingness to self-examine through their lyricism, coupled with a devoted fanbase, fosters a live show environment in which concert-goers are provided the safety to coalesce in their shared struggles and shared joys.

The Greeting Committee will be touring both US coasts on their “To Feel Alright Again Tour” this fall and are currently working on their next project. Read below to learn more about their journey.

LUNA: How did you all meet and form as a band?

TURCOTTE: Addie and I met in high school to play in the talent show together and haven’t stopped since! I’ve known Noah since high school through other bands around town and brought him on as a touring member in 2018. Micah has been with us since 2021 and he and Noah played music in college together. We all live in Kansas City now.

LUNA: Do you feel that, as you age and grow older, you’re drawn to writing about different themes or different experiences than you did when you were starting out as a group?

TURCOTTE: Addie and I talk about general themes for albums quite a bit. Life experiences have definitely pushed us to write certain themes and we write differently than when we did when we first started. I think I’m Afraid I’m Not Angry and Dandelion are pretty good examples, and the writing contrasts quite a bit with This Is It and our earlier songs. We’re really proud of Dandelion, but it was sort of grueling writing that album and felt more like an attempt to artistically go beyond our previous work. That album was definitely a product of life and world events at the time, but going into writing a third album, Addie and I are interested in having fun writing music again.

LUNA: What does your writing process entail?

TURCOTTE: Our writing process has been different for every album. For Dandelion, band members would sort of switch off leading a song. Someone would bring in a built-up musical idea and the four of us would all work on the idea together while Addie wrote the lyrics. Recently, our writing process has entailed me building up demos (including bass, drums, guitar, etc.) and sending to Addie until she finds one that inspires her to write lyrics to. I think I had a collection of a dozen or so song ideas together (by no means full ideas) by the time Addie started writing for “Hopscotch.” All of this was done in my bedroom with all the various pieces of gear I’ve collected, and it’s been really fun! I can write music pretty maniacally sometimes and I like to move pretty quickly. I try not to spend more than a couple days on a song before sending it to Addie.

LUNA: Many of your songs deal with coming-of-age themes such as loss of innocence, the changes we experience as we move through life, and so on. Do you feel as if writing music is a way for you to process these emotions? Is it cathartic in a way?

TURCOTTE: Mostly speaking for Addie, I don’t think she uses writing to explicitly deal with those life experiences. Talking with friends and going to therapy is great for that. However, I do think that when we are in writing mode, those life experiences will trickle out and make her think about them in a whole new way. For example, “Hopscotch” is a reflection on the changes we’ve gone through as a band this last year, though it probably wasn’t initially intended as that. I don’t think Addie goes into writing lyrics thinking about what traumatic life event to sing about this time. Some songs probably feel coming-of-age because that’s just who she is in that moment of writing.

LUNA: Who is your dream artist or artists to collaborate with?

TURCOTTE: When it comes to TGC music, we’ve talked a lot about COIN. We work quite a bit with Jake Luppen from Hippo Campus as well. In general, I know Addie and I have become a lot more open to working with other artists, big and small, whether or not it’s for TGC music.

LUNA: For your new single “Hopscotch,” what were your main intentions in writing this song?

TURCOTTE: There weren’t a lot of intentions in writing “Hopscotch.” It was sort of just a product of a batch of songs we were writing this summer. I mainly just wanted to get a head start on writing for our third album because that stuff already creeps on me (laughs). With our tour in November and December, we saw an opportunity to put “Hopscotch” in front of people. While “Hopscotch” won’t be attached to our third album, it felt like a good time to put out some music and maybe attract some new fans.

LUNA: What is the core feeling you hope listeners experience after seeing you on your upcoming “To Feel Alright Again Tour”? What is the space you’re trying to cultivate through your live shows?

TURCOTTE: These shows are going to automatically feel a little different. We’re going from being a five-piece band to a four-piece. I’ve also been diligently working at home to program lighting alongside our show. We’re trying some new things to upgrade the general production and sound of our shows. If anything, I think this is the most consistent and professional-sounding we’ve ever been, which is [as] good for the people watching us perform as it is for us and not overexerting ourselves. I think through all that change and switching around of band members, I want to prove to people that we are stronger than ever. What hasn’t changed, though, is that we’re still trying to foster a safe space for people while trying to hype people up (even if Addie has to bully you a little bit to do so). To Feel Alright is a reference to our song “Ten,” which feels like a nice way to close out the Dandelion album touring cycle.

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