Sam Kiszka’s background might not have had the white piano and palm tree this time—“not today,” he jokes—but he brought plenty of celestial insight to our latest conversation. Greta Van Fleet’s third album, Starcatcher, is out now, and while their signature riffs are still intact, there’s something deeper stirring beneath the surface. Call it mythology, call it world-building, call it four guys in a room chasing the cosmos.
“We hit the mountaintop with The Battle at Garden’s Gate,” Sam tells me. “That was everything we wanted to do creatively at that point. So the natural next step was going back to where we started—just four guys writing and recording together with as little overthinking as possible.” The band reunited with producer Dave Cobb, this time in Nashville, capturing ideas moments after they were written. “We were aiming for something raw, something alive. First guitar solo, not the 50th.”
But Starcatcher isn’t just about raw energy. It’s a concept album in disguise, a sprawling tale of creation and existence that winks at biblical allegory, cosmic curiosity, and a spiritual quest that’s as much inward as outward. “It’s about the creation of the universe,” Sam says, “and it introduces this Starcatcher figure—kind of a creator deity. But then it also narrows down to the uncorrupted innocence of a child. So it’s zooming in and out, from galaxies to something as personal as your own inner voice.”
There’s also a wink to the band’s own mythology. “Frozen Light” features the line ‘Four brothers searching for a meal’, which Kiszka confirms is a not-so-subtle nod to the band itself. “We slipped in a few autobiographical things this time. Josh [Kiszka] is really at his literary peak on this record. He’s writing from our perspective, but through these cosmic characters and mythological arcs.”
And then there’s “Runway Blues,” a gloriously ragged garage rock rager that ends right as it lifts off. “That was take one,” Sam laughs. “We made it up on the spot after a few bottles of wine. Josh hated it. We eventually convinced him to let us use half of it.” Is there a second half? “Yes,” he grins. “You might hear it someday.”
For all the grandiosity, there’s plenty of fun. The backing vocals on “The Falling Sky,” the headphone candy sprinkled throughout, the moments where it sounds like the band just said screw it, let’s get weird. Sam says those are intentional. “We were throwing around zany ideas constantly—using voices, weird textures, gongs, whatever. It’s about grabbing things out of the air as they fly past. You explore and invent at the same time.”
It’s not surprising, then, that film influences sneak into the conversation. “When you watch a movie, you get visuals, music, a plot,” he says. “We try to do that with albums—create a movie that only exists in your head.” So, are they thinking about making an actual film in the Starcatcher universe? “Yes. We’ve talked about scoring, doing shorts, and eventually something full-length. We’re still building the world. This album might be from a different part of the solar system than Garden’s Gate. But it’s all part of the same mythology.”
And what mythology it is—full of creators and children, light and shadow, gods and gongs. “We want to make music that’s thought-provoking,” Kiszka says. “Music that makes you ask, ‘Why are we here? What does it all mean?’ Or even, ‘What if nothing?’”
Greta Van Fleet might be the only modern rock band asking those questions in the language of arena riffs and fantasy lore. They’re still loud, still virtuosic, and still unafraid to go big. But Starcatcher proves they’re also looking inward and upward in ways that feel almost—dare we say—eternal.
And hey, they might just turn it all into a movie.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
