Photographed by Elizabeth Miranda
If you have yet to hear about [The Greeting Committee](https://www.instagram.com/thegcband/?hl=en), prepare to fall in love. Consisting of close friends Addie Sartino (lead vocals), Brandon Yangmi (guitar), Pierce Turcotte (bass), and Austin Fraser (drums), the band came into fruition in Summer of 2014, while all the members were attending Blue Valley High School in Overland Park, Kansas City. After a successful first gig playing at the school talent show, they went on to sign to Harvest Records and re-released their debut EP, _It's Not All That Bad._
In describing the group, lead singer Addie states, “Our goal collectively is to make people feel less alone through our music, and to have them dance while they cry.” She then described their sound as “indie-rock, but with a little bit of groove to it.”
Fast forward to 2021, The Greeting Committee unleash their highly-anticipated sophomore album titled [_Dandelion_](https://thegcband.lnk.to/dandelionPR)_,_ produced by Jennifer Decilveo (MARINA, FLETCHER, Bat for Lashes). The project sees all four members returning to their roots, as evidenced in the grittiness from their earlier music. The project embodies the notion of life in freefall, as if you’re watching your life from the outside but not really living it — inspired directly by Addie’s real life breakup.
Of course, music would be her cure. Flaunt caught up with lead singer Addie via Zoom, who was posted in her hometown of Kansas City. Read below as we discuss how the band came to be, the talent show that changed their lives, what put them on, how Brandon picked their name, why their project is called _Dandelion,_ recording the “Make Out” video, synergy with Jennifer Decilveo, favorite songs, studio essentials, and playing pickleball.
On [_Dandelion_](https://thegcband.lnk.to/dandelionPR), the band touches on themes of life in freefall, as if you are watching your life from the outside and not actually living it. Leading up to the album, The Greeting Committee has released the singles “[Can I Leave Me Too?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYneLjyHgPs)”, “[Float Away](https://thegcband.lnk.to/floatawayPR)” and “[Ada](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5qi4FY5N7A).” Each single has been a glimpse into the Kansas City band’s maturation and vulnerability into topics previously untouched in their early work. _Dandelion_ is heavier, bolder and more expressive than anything the band has done to date.
**How is it over there in Kansas City?**
It’s good. The weather’s nice, kind of gloomy, fall weather. It’s been really hot here so I’ll take it. I’m happy to have it for a few days. I want the sun to come back out in a second, but I like it for now.
**How did The Greeting Committee all come together to form? You guys became friends back in high school.**
I don’t think we even had a ton of time to think about it. I knew I always wanted to do this for my life. We won the Blue Valley High School talent show, that was like “Oh, maybe we don’t suck.” So we made some more music and sold CDs around our school hallways. From there, “Hands Down '' blew up. We didn’t really think about it, we just did it.
**Were you guys practicing hard for the talent show? What were the prior days like?**
Yeah, we did practice a lot for that talent show. We only knew 2 songs, one song that we had written and the other was a Bombay Bicycle Club cover. I remember we practiced, we did the song we wrote which was called “Even If I Call.” We practiced that one extra hard. We got on stage and our drummer said “Are we playing the Bombay song?” I said “No, we’re playing our original song! It’s what we’ve been practicing extra hard, how do you not know this?” So, descriptive of us. \[laughs\]
**How did you get the name The Greeting Committee?**
Brandon, our guitarist, figured the name out. He was in English class and the word “greeting”’ was somewhere up on the wall. He liked that it was a warm and welcoming word, so he had that in his heart. He was watching a Beatles documentary and John Lennon is wearing a Greeting Committee shirt and he’s like “That’s it!”
**You guys have your sophomore album, _Dandelion_, out now. How are you feeling?**
Feeling really excited. Nobody’s said anything mean yet, so fingers crossed that it stays that way and that people are receiving it well. \[laughs\]
**Why “Dandelion”?**
I’m actually not a fan of title tracks being album names, just personally for myself, but that song and that word really captured the feeling of the album really well. Dandelions are these weeds, but a lot of the time you look at them like flowers. The “eh” flowers. I like that metaphor for the whole feeling throughout the album.
**How was working with Jennifer Decilveo? You guys are both female.**
Jen is awesome. Jen is badass for sure. It was really refreshing to be in a room with a female producer and not only her being a woman, but the fact that she’s a queer woman like myself. It was really nice to have that representation around because oftentimes I’m the only woman in the room, even though I know that’s not the accurate representation of women in music. She was great. She was really good at the balance of testing us on what we liked and what we didn’t like. If there was an idea I wasn’t comfortable with, she’d have me wait on it. She said “wait until the end of the week, see how you feel about it then.” There was a lot of growth that got to happen because she made that a warm suggestion, instead of “No, it has to stay” or “it goes right away.” There was a level of friendly challenge that I really enjoyed.
**Why is it important for you to work with women?**
Just because so oftentimes, the music scene is dominated by men. There’s a lot of great men out there, but there’s also a lot of great women and they deserve to have their name out more.
**You’re the only female in the band, so how does that feel?**
Yeah, exactly. I don’t think I knew the impact that had on me until we got older, being the only woman. I’m really lucky, almost all of our extended team is women. It’s men in the band, but our manager is a woman, our creative director is a woman, our label president is a woman, our agent is a woman, so it’s awesome.
**How does it feel to be signed so early?**
\[sighs\] Gosh, that was very surreal. Even now, I haven’t fully digested that and it’s been 7 years. When you’re 15, 16 and your dream comes true, it’s hard to let that reality sink in.
**What are your favorite songs on the record and why?**
I gravitate towards other songs, but when I actually listen to the album, “Bird Hall” is my favorite. It’s the one that I want to go back and listen to over and over again. It’s also the one that has the lyrics I’m the most proud of, so I’m going to go with “Bird Hall.”
**Why are you the most proud of those lyrics?**
They’re really raw and honest, but also clever. For me, I like to have a witty sense in my music and reference other things in pop culture that I like. “Bird Hall” does that.
**What inspired you guys to land at this concept of dandelions? It’s definitely very relatable.**
It was so undeniable that that’s where I was in my personal life. That really seeped through early on in our songwriting process. I really like identifying themes early on in the writing process. My bandmates find that limiting at times for themselves, so it’s this fun, kept secret I’ve learned to have. They’ll start to see it as the songs come into play. They put it together, then I reaffirm what they’re starting to smell.
**What was the creative vision behind the “Make Out” video?**
That was our guitarist Brandon. His girlfriend Kelly is this wicked, funny, incredibly intelligent girl. She and Brandon came up with that idea, mostly Kelly, to have Brandon be an off-brand Jeff Besos getting turned on by all of these wrestling audience members. It’s goofy because the song is goofy and the song was brought in by Brandon. When it came time to give it a music video I turned to him, whereas I typically heavily lead things. I let him take the reins on it and that’s what came out. \[laughs\]
**What’s your favorite visual that you guys have done?**
“Float Away” from this album is really cool, because the artist Kezia is someone I’m a fan of. I have her art on my bedroom wall anyways, so that was cool to get her to hop on board. The animation is cool in general.
**What’s one thing you want fans to get from _Dandelion_?**
My goal in our music is always that people leave feeling heard, related to, and they feel less alone. For _Dandelion,_ I am expecting and hoping there are plenty of other — despite whatever age you are — humans who have felt or do feel the way I feel right now. That’s that free-fall sort of “where do I go from here?” feeling. That we can all grow together and come out of it together.
**You guys have over 74 million global streams, toured with a ton of people. What do your fans love you for?**
Oh gosh, it’s insane, and again surreal. I’m really grateful for all of that and it’s 100% because of our fans. I hope they feel as excited as we are and they feel as a part of it as I think they are. Our fans hopefully love us for that, for the fact that we care so deeply about them.
**3 things you need in the studio at all times?**
For this specific album, it was Trader Joe’s dried mango slices, they were so good. A film camera, had to have that. And those Cuties clementines. They had them in the studio and we demolished them.
**What are you most excited for going back on tour? How was it diving in your hazmat suit?**
That was super funny. It was really hot inside that hazmat suit, I was dying. I ripped it off as soon as I got off stage. I’m just excited to see people again, to connect with everyone. It’s like missing old friends when you don’t get to tour, so I’m excited to be reunited.
**Any goals for yourselves as a band?**
Yeah, always getting more people on board. Feeling a part of this and loving it is always great. Reaching more people with our album, then having those people turn into people who listen at home to people who come listen live.
**What do you guys like to do when you’re not doing music?**
Oh my gosh, that’s so hard because it’s all these kids that made a band because they love music so much, we had to find new hobbies. I really like playing pickleball right now.
**I don’t even know what that is.**
It’s like a combination of tennis and ping-pong, but it’s very trendy in Kansas City and I know other cities as well. It’s really fun. It's a really easy sport for everyone to pick up, even if you’re not super athletic. I’m not some all-star, but I can play it. \[laughs\] I really love playing pickleball. I love spending time with my friends. I have a puppy that I really love to snuggle with and take care of, so that keeps my hands full.
**I have a puppy too!**
What’s his name?
[**Slim.**](https://www.instagram.com/therealslimshihtzu/) **What’s yours?**
My dog’s name is Clementine. \[laughs\]
**Anything else you want to let the people know?**
Thank you for listening to us. Thank you for caring about us. To you, thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
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