The Greeting Committee:

COVID, Community, and Dandelion

By Bailey Meyers

On Friday, The Greeting Committee released their sophomore album, Dandelion. Taking a journey from heartbreak and internal turmoil, through grief, to self-assurance and acceptance, the album wraps the listener in waves of nostalgia that wash the world in sepia tones. Dandelion has an intimate quality; something not just discernable by lyrics but also as a result of the slight imperfections in its home-recorded instrumentals. Standout track, “Ada,” an ode to the experience of a trans woman, cuts deep while exalting the community of The Greeting Committee.

I had the pleasure of speaking with the frontwoman of the band, Addie Sartino, as well as two of her bandmates, Brandon Yangmi and Pierce Turcotte on the creation of Dandelion. When I asked about the process of making the album, the bandmates agreed that COVID-19 had been, in the words of Addie, “a blessing in disguise.” Although the pandemic has been tough on everyone, Brandon shared that it allowed for a fruitful change in their process. “We wanted to be mindful of people in our life, and of COVID in general, so we decided we were going to go quarantine together at my parents’ lake house, and we lived with each other for two weeks.” Much of the lyrics and demos heard on Dandelion were written and recorded during this time.

At the lake house, the band focused on music and worked together to bring their collective vision to life. Brandon reminisced, “Something about being in that really domestic life of waking up, working together, cooking dinner together, then playing cards, just talking to end the night-- something about that really set the tone for the creative process for this album that I thought was really nice.” Maybe domesticity, maybe camaraderie, Dandelion is imbued with the recollected feeling of a late-summer lake retreat. As the album floats through hazy remembrances and even the crunchy, bouncy, track, “Make Out,” it intimately elicits the feeling of good memories despite their face-value sadness like a crumpled polaroid of a lost lover.

Still, a lot of TGC’s collaborative work had to be handled remotely. Despite this, the band remained optimistic and took the challenge as an opportunity for each member to hone their craft individually. Pierce told me, “There were some times that were tough for all of us, but it helped to push our sound in a new direction.” That new direction certainly shows through in Dandelion, which adds new elements to The Greeting Committee’s alt-rock sound through self-made distortion, synths, and even the removal of instruments on tracks like “Ten,” which employs solely piano as accompaniment.

While TGC experimented with their instrumentation, Addie was inspired to experiment with her lyrics. Addie explained that “Make Out” was out of her comfort zone, as it was about a fling and seemed superficial, and she is more attuned to candidly writing about very real, big emotions that take up the room. “Make Out,” although it is more carefree than the other tracks on the album, is a step in a new direction for TGC; one where Addie indulges in the fuzzy, drunk, and playful post-breakup process of forgetting in addition to the emotional ruminations that fill the album.

Community is central to The Greeting Committee. As a Kansas City band signed while the artists were still turning 16, they have grown up with their fans, who play a central part in the life of the band. All the members reminisced on playing shows for crowds, shouting out the fans they would interact with, and Addie cited feeling a loss of identity when COVID struck due to their absence.

As a member of the queer community as well, Addie reflected on the emergence of LGBTQ+ themes in TGC’s music: “I don’t think that I was ever intentional about bringing out LGBTQ+ themes in our music, I just live as a queer woman so that’s what happened. I didn’t realize the importance until I had fans start to thank us for using same-sex pronouns in our love songs.”

The community surrounding TGC was built up partly thanks to the realness of Addie’s lyrics. Pierce added, “It was really fun to see Addie connect these people… and seeing these people we meet on tour, and seeing their voices lifted and highlighting their community. It makes the TGC community more tangible.”

More than this though, the track “Ada” is Addie’s decision to highlight the trans community and give voice to those living through the trans experience. Ada, the person, is a friend of TGC and their point person on merch. Addie explained, “Getting together to work to (give) our fanbase the best merch we can, Ada and I bonded and when it came time to write the lyrics to the instrumentation that Brandon, Pierce, and Austin had created, I knew I wanted to go to Ada.” More than parroting a narrative or attempting to be lauded with brownie points, Addie took time to go on lengthy walks with Ada to better understand her experience and make sure she was conveying it effectively. What resulted was a beautiful music video release, starring Ada, that provides a striking visual accompaniment to the song’s intimate narrative of struggle.

Addie sings, “If God had a favorite, I wouldn’t be it,” and “But a dead name don’t ring the same,” capturing parts of Ada’s experience, as well as lines like “Promise me tomorrow / you are loved,” as reassurance and in support of Ada and the trans community. At the end of the video, Ada is pulled from the water by friends and allies, showing the strength in community.

Dandelion, TGC’s most recent album, gives listeners an experience that can be deeply cathartic. It is a place to cry (“Can I Leave Me Too”) and a place to forget (“Make Out”). It cycles through emotions of grief and sadness, working towards acceptance. In creating this album, TGC knits their community closer after the hardship of COVID-19 and 2020, providing repose. Addie lifts voices within the dual communities of The Greeting Committee and the queer space, and The Greeting Committee has created an album that is sonically and emotionally tactile, bringing the listener to a place where they can experience their own struggles and emotions through Addie’s voice.

You can stream The Greeting Committee’s Dandelion by following the link below!

Valley

Rhys