THE GREETING COMMITTEE SHARE LIFE-AFFIRMING LGBTQ ANTHEM ADA
WATCH THE OFFICIAL VIDEO HERE
NEW ALBUM DANDELION OUT 9/24
Kansas City-based alt-rock band The Greeting Committee premiere their new single Ada, a grippingly honest and life-affirming track that frontwoman Addie Sartino calls an anthem for all our LGBTQ friends and family and fans. Named for a trans woman the band befriended years ago, Ada marks the latest single from their upcoming sophomore album Dandelion, due out via Harvest Records on September 24. Go HERE to stream/download Ada, and pre-order Dandelion HERE.
The single arrives alongside a powerful visual directed by Ada Brumback and produced by Alison Claire Peck (Story School). The video depicts an an all too familiar narrative for many LGBTQ youth. By the end, the protagonist is joined by her community of allies while the line you are loved is repeated. Watch the video HERE.
Partly inspired by Sartino’s own experience in coming out (and by the story of a beloved Greeting Committee fan named Dakota), Ada wanders between tender narration and inner monologue, embedding its lyrics with essential yet bracing truths (It’s hard to be a woman, even harder to be somebody you’re not; A dead name don’t ring the same). In bringing the intensely poignant song to life, The Greeting Committee took great care to fully honor Ada’s emotional reality.
When we were writing that song, [Ada] took the time to go for a two-hour walk with me and tell me about being transgender and growing up in a small town, and what that felt like for her, Sartino recalls, noting that The Greeting Committee first met Ada back when she handled merch for the band.
Referring to the song’s namesake as one of the people who’s made The Greeting Committee who we are today, Sartino points out that Ada closely aligns with the band’s longtime mission of providing their audience with music that illuminates. I think it’s important to have a song like ‘Ada’ on our album, and it’s even more important to give Ada and Dakota the recognition they deserve, says Sartino. Because at the end of the day, I’m not transgender, that’s not my story to share. But I do have a voice and a platform, and to be able to use that platform to share these very personal stories is incredibly special. It’s something that we as a band don’t take lightly.
Like all of Dandelion, Ada was produced by Jennifer Decilveo (MARINA, FLETCHER, Bat for Lashes) and mixed by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala), who helped to assemble the track’s kinetic collage of sounds: thrashing percussion, bright squalls of synth, achingly delicate piano work. The song arrives as the follow-up to The Greeting Committee’s recent single Float Away, a July release praised by the likes Pop Matters (who noted that the bass steamrolls in static, angst-grunged; the drums are propulsive without feeling frenetic; and marimba keys twirl underneath it in a loop, like a haunted carousel all our minds seem to be stuck riding lately). Back in June, the band shared the first single from Dandelion: the gorgeously sprawling alt-pop epic Can I Leave Me Too?, hailed by Clash as a raw portrayal of post-break-up poignance, cloaked in indie pop reverb.
About The Greeting Committee
Made up of Addie Sartino, Brandon Yangmi, Pierce Turcotte, and Austin Fraser, The Greeting Committee have embraced a spirit of purposeful sharing since their formation in 2014. Founded soon after Sartino and Yangmi got their start playing open-mic nights in Kansas City, the band self-released their debut EP It’s Not All That Bad in 2015. Its lead single Hands Down quickly became a breakout hit, paving the way for The Greeting Committee’s signing to Harvest Records when they were all still in high school. After making their Harvest debut with the Meeting People Is Easy EP in 2017 and releasing their debut album This Is It in 2018, the band spent much of the next few years on the road, with sold-out headline shows in major markets such as Chicago, Austin, New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis. To date, they’ve toured with the likes of Bombay Bicycle Club, Tennis, Hippo Campus, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise and taken the stage at leading festivals like Lollapalooza and SXSW, in addition to delivering the I’m Afraid I’m Not Angry EP in late 2019 and appearing in Netflix’s To All the Boys: Always and Forever. The band’s second album Dandelion will be out on September 24 via Harvest Records.
For more information on The Greeting Committee visit Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and website.
