No matter how many people are in JJ’s Bohemia on Tuesday night, Greenland Is Melting will walk offstage exhausted.
“At any live show, energy is the most important thing,” said Will Dueease, the bassist for the Florida folk/punkgrass trio. “You can find the most talented player, but if he just stands there and plays guitar, it can be pretty lackluster.
“After years of playing shows to just three people, we’ve figured out a way to just feed off each other. We can play a show to three people and be just as sweaty as playing a big show.”
Greenland Is Melting formed in 2007 out of a group of friends at the University of Florida at Gainesville. At first, they shared nothing in common except friendship, but that changed when they heard The Avett Brothers.
In the rootsy, genre-spanning sound, folk instrumentation and vocal harmonies of the North Carolina-based Brothers, the members of Greenland Is Melting found something to agree on, Dueease said.
“They were one of the first bands where we were like, ‘These guys rule. Let’s try something like that,'” he said. “It was awesome, and it was fun to play and people seemed to like it, so we went with it.”
Four years later and with all its members now graduated and free to hit the road, Greenland Is Melting is in a position to commit itself fully to touring.
Their show Tuesday night will be at the start of a nearly four-month-solid schedule. Dueease said the band’s primary songwriters, guitarist Shaun Pereira and banjo player Karl Seltzer, write their best material while being inspired on the road, so it should be a productive winter.
“The best time the songs get written is in the van when we’re driving for five or six hours,” Dueease said. “I’ll be driving, and they’ve got their notebooks open writing (stuff) down. It’s always fun getting back from the tour, because they’re always like, ‘I’ve got a couple of songs I want to try.'”
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205.
IF YOU GO
* Greenland Is Melting, Red Collar and Bryan Hensley.
* When: 10 p.m. Tuesday.
* Where: JJ’s Bohemia, 231 M.L. King Blvd.
* Admission: $5.
* Phone: 266-1400.
* Venue website: www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia.
* Related links at fyi.timesfreepress.com.
DISCOGRAPHY
2011 “Folk Songs From Florida: Volume 1” (EP)
2009 “Our Hearts Are Gold, Our Grass Is Blue”
2008 “The Measure of a Man’s Worth”
HEAR MORE
Greenland Is Melting’s albums, “Folk Songs From Florida: Volume 1” and “Our Hearts Are Gold, Our Grass Is Blue” are available for free or pay-what-you-want digital download at greenlandismelting.limitedpressing.com.
WHAT’S NEXT
Greenland Is Melting just released a three-song EP, “Folk Songs From Florida: Volume I” and is almost finished writing material for its third, as-yet-untitled full-length album. The band will probably enter the studio to record after its winter tour ends, bassist Will Dueease said.
MORE ONLINE
http://greenlandismelting.limitedpressing.com