Greta Van Fleet says arenas are the ‘right place’ for its brand of rock ‘n’ roll

It’s certainly been a productive decade for Greta Van Fleet since the quartet coalesced in Frankenmuth, Mich.

Since the 2013 addition of Danny Wagner on drums — joining twins Josh and Jake Kiszka and younger brother Sam Kiszka — the hard-rocking quartet has released three full-length albums (including this year’s “Starcatcher”) and a pair of EPs. It’s scored eight Top 10 Mainstream rock chart hits, including No. 1s such as “Highway Tune,” “Safari Song,” “When the Curtain Falls,” “You’re the One” and “My Way, Soon” — and won a Grammy Award in 2019 for Best Rock Album (“From the Fires”).

GVF also became an opening act of choice for Metallica, which Sam Kiszka acknowledges is a kind of “older brother” figure for his band.

Now based in Nashville, GVF has barely paused for breath or to take stock of what’s happened so far. The group recorded “Starcatcher,” which debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in July, with Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, who instilled a more compact song approach than on 2021′s expansive “The Battle at Garden’s Gate.” The tour, meanwhile, is the band’s biggest yes, taking GVF into arenas for pyrotechnic-laden rock spectacles. The band performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland.

Despite the dizzying pace, however, Sam Kiszka is smiling as we star-catch up with him via Zoom during a quick break at home…

Greta Van Fleet has seemed like a pretty natural arena band even when you were still playing smaller venues.

Kiszka: Yeah, we’ve had our eyes set on that for years. I love playing arenas; it just creates the correct sound for rock ‘n’ roll, or the type of rock ‘n’ roll music that we’re making. We hear playbacks and we’re like, “Yeah, that’s the way it’s supposed to sound.”

You’re playing a lot of “Starcatcher” in the shows. Were these songs conceived for live performance?

Kiszka: Not intentionally, but that’s certainly the way it worked out being that in that lot of it was (recorded) live in the studio, and so much so that most of what you hear is the first takes of what we were doing. So it was really a live-in-the-studio kind of album and it lends itself very well to the big stage. Obviously in the studio you have the opportunity to do all kinds of stuff, but live it’s just us four and there’s really not a whole lot we can add, parts-wise, or it starts to get really muddied up. We kind of have to pick the most important parts and play those, but in a way you don’t go, “Oh, I missed that part.”

Are fun things happening to the songs over the course of the tour and being modified like you describe?

Kiszka: We’re now at the point where it’s very intuitively and intrinsically connected, and we’re connected in the songs. We can rehearse and rehearse, but there’s something that being in front of a live audience really changes, and you can’t rehearse for that. You can’t’ rehearse for the energy that’s gonna be there, and that’s why the songs are different each night. They might be a little longer, a little shorter, a little faster, a little slower…I sound like Dr. Seuss now. (laughs)

What was the band shooting for with “Starcatcher?”

Kiszka: We were very happy to finally get back in the studio, especially with Dave because he was a real spark plug of inspiration. It was a very comfortable process. It was really more of an experiment than any of the other albums, because the concept was to get in the studio and be able to capture the most authentic, raw takes, which pretty much meant writing half the album in the studio so we weren’t’ overthinking it. We want to keep evolving the sound. We want to keep it interesting. It’s inherently Greta Van Fleet because it’s the four of us and its’ a certain aesthetic, but I think “Starcatcher” was a natural evolution into more textured, more visceral, more tangible — and then even psychedelic, aggressive rock ‘n’ roll stuff. So there’s those two dynamics at work there.

The song lengths are notably shorter on this than on “The Battle at Garden’s Gate.” Was that intentional?

Kiszka: Yeah, it’s much more to the point. I think we spent a lot of time in the writing process with the mindset of no filler stuff, just dynamics, excitement, riffs, melodies and sometimes textures. For example if you listen to “Indigo Streak,” it’s right to the point; it gives you the rock ‘n’ roll thing and then it tightens up, and then it takes you to the bridge and it goes somewhere else completely and then you’re back in the chorus and it’s out, and it’s really that easy to describe.

Is Greta Van Fleet where you imagined it would be, or wanted it to go, when you started the band?

Kiszka: In my opinion I think it’s matured along the way; if I listen to the old stuff I think, “Wow, we sound young.” So it feels like the band has evolved and has a lightly different perspective. This is a great time for us because this was the first time where we didn’t’ really have the exact blueprints of what we were doing to do. It just kind of reassures us that we can creatively move forward and be able to maintain the integrity of what Greta Van Fleet is and what Greta Van Fleet means and also create new stuff and know people will be on board with it.

Are there things the four of you would like to do outside of the band?

Kiszka: Yeah, certainly. I think there’s a lot of intrigue for everybody, but specifically Josh in the film world, more as a director. We’d all love to do a little bit of, like, film scoring and get into that world a little bit. Jake’s working on another musical project right now. I’d love to paint a little bit more, and I want to get into producing other artists like I did with Hannah Wicklund on her new album. So, yeah, there’s a lot of different ambitions going on there. The guys have a lot of different talents. We’re pretty hard core touring right now and we’re happy doing that, but someday I think there’ll be a time when we say, “Y’know what? Let’s take a year off from touring and delve into some other things.”

When the album was released Josh came out publicly as gay and described it as a weight off his shoulders. Was it a weight off the rest of you as well?

Kiszka: I’m not sure it’s comparable but I never really saw the reason for him to not be open. But it’s definitely his choice and definitely a great coming of age for him. When he said he was coming out I was like, “That’s really great,” and it did make me feel better. It’s like, “Great. That’s you. It’s you, and just be happy that the world knows who you are.” So I thought it was really great.

What’s ahead for the band?

Kiszka: I would tell you if I knew. (laughs) I just know we’re gonna keep touring intermittently throughout the rest of this year and next year and…who knows. I think we’re honestly kind of ready to jump back in the studio, so maybe at the end of the year we’ll start that conversation. We’re not tired of touring on (“Starcatcher”) and we’re still having a lot of fun, but when we go into show 60, 70, 80 it’ll be like, “I kinda want to do a new album.” So maybe at the end of the year we’ll start having that conversation.

What’s your guess about what the band’s next album might sound like?

Kiszka: We were considering doing a continuation of “Starcatcher” but it’s kind of hard to say what we would do to evolve that. I do think we would want to use the same approach because it was very natural and very easy. But we don’t want to get too comfortable in doing the same thing. I think live the live-in-the-studio thing is something we’ll do again, just ‘cause it’s so great at capturing the energy, but who knows. Maybe we’ll do a concept album — or is that supposed to be, like, album 10? (laughs)

Greta Van Fleet and Surf Curse perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, 1 Center St., Cleveland. 216-420-2000 or rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.