Corbin (guitar) - Josiah (vocals) - Lucas (drums) - Seth (bass)

Greer have come a long way in a short amount of time. The Orange County rock quartet’s second EP release in the last 18 months, Happy People, is four tracks packed with killer riffs and air-tight songwriting that suggest a band well beyond their years in the best way, while also possessing an unmistakable youthful exuberance. A follow-up to last year’s Lullaby For You EP, Happy People represents a leap forward in Greer’s sound and offers a tantalizing peek into what these four musicians will be capable of in the years to come. 

The band formed in the fall of 2018 after bassist Seth met drummer Lucas at a show the former played in a previous band with guitarist Corbin: “I found out that he played drums and I told him that I wanted to form a band,” Seth remembers. “I was super excited about it.” With Corbin and lead singer Josiah joining the fold, Greer was born and the group built a quick following after playing their first official show at famed Los Angeles venue The Smell.  

A few buzz-building singles followed; after the band signed to Epitaph, they hit the studio with legendary producer Rob Schnapf to record the five songs on Lullaby For You—an expansive and breezy collection of tunes recalling classic-era indie rock and carrying a distinctively wistful air. After its release, Greer got back to work on writing for what would become Happy People—in Corbin’s words, “Experimenting with all the directions we wanted to go as a band. It was such a transitory period that a lot of stuff we wrote didn’t make it to this record. Sometimes we beat our heads against the wall, other times we threw songs away that we initially liked.” 

 After productive demoing, they got in the studio with studio vet John Congleton to lay down the spiky, full-bodied four tracks that make up Happy People. “That was an amazing experience,” Corbin beams while discussing the experience. “He’s a really cool and great guy, and working with him was a great learning experience because he works fast, so we had to learn to work with that. He brought out things that were inside of us but that we weren’t comfortable exploring.” 

Bearing the mark of classic power-pop acts like Elvis Costello and Big Star, the thematic bent of Happy People was partially borne out from the COVID-19 pandemic but is packed with truisms that are relatable at any point in time. The crunchy melodies of the title track is, in Seth’s words, “a self-reflection on bitterness and resentment, and trying to become a better person out of it. I’ve struggled with feeling easily angered by a lot of things, especially given what we experienced in quarantine, so writing this song was a therapeutic experience.”  

There’s the skyscraping chorus of “Way Out,” and the winding riffs of “Little Echo,” which have origins in the band’s past while looking towards their future. “I came up with the original riff so long ago and kept it in my back pocket,” Lucas explains. As time went on, I messed with it more, and after playing it with Seth we formed more of the song. Eventually, with the whole band’s influences, it became the song it is. The song is about romanticizing the past and feeling guilty about who you are now. Why couldn’t I have been who I was before? You waste time being regretful.” 

 “We kept having these little echoes of anxiety about living up to the past,” Seth continues. “It’s something we struggle with daily. Can we ever make people excited again? It’s a big thing for us.” One thing’s for sure after hearing Happy People: Greer will have no trouble exciting their listeners for years to come.