The band headlining T-Rex Fest’s opening night in Grand Rapids opens up about its new music. The Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase also debuts tracks by several Mitten State artists.
Greet Death: Unfurling a ‘more versatile’ collection of songs. (Courtesy Photo)
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With release of “Die in Love,” Michigan’s Greet Death has found a comfortable, honed approach to its indie-rock melded with elements of slowcore and shoegaze.
“There’s more going on,” suggests guitarist and singer Harper Boyhtari, who describes it as “sonically more versatile” than past projects.
“Not every song is a bludgeoning, slow, chord-heavy distorted song. It’s still all over the place, but there are more tender moments. It’s like Death Cab for Cutie meets Queens of the Stone Age or something – so just more versatile songwriting.”
Already branded as the Flint-area band’s signature and most anthemic recording, Greet Death released its third full-length album on June 27 after laying down the tracks in the basement of Boyhtari’s parents’ home in Davisburg, partly inspired by The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo catalog.
The New Album: “Die in Love”
Boyhtari and singer-guitarist Logan Gaval – elementary school friends from Holly, Mich. – aimed to “do an album of love songs,” Boyhtari says, “but in our style and dealing with not just … the idea of finding a person that you would want to die with, but it extends to family and friends. There’s a lot of just love of different topics, but to do it in our style, which is obviously not like a Beach Boys song or whatever.”
Greet Death will unleash those songs live for the first time in 2025 as part of its Friday night (July 25) headlining set for the three-day T-Rex Fest at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, joining other artists with a heavier slant such as Show Me the Body, A Place To Bury Strangers and The Vagabonds. Greet Death takes the stage at 10 p.m. (Schedule below.
Tickets for T-Rex Fest — $107.81 for a weekend pass $38.80 for Friday or Sunday day passes, $50.13 for a Saturday pass – are available online here.
“It’s going to be the first show we’ve played since the record came out, so we’re probably going to try to do a lot of the new record,” says Boyhtari. “It’ll be cool to talk to people about the new record and sell it for the first time. It’ll be a celebration of the new songs.”
Although the band road-tested much of the new material last year, she concedes that the songs “definitely have a different life live because there’s more energy and because it’s a live show, it’s going to be more exciting.”
That excitement has grown as the band has expanded its fan base and attracted a global following over the years. The tracks on “Die In Love” already have accumulated more than 1 million listens on Spotify.
VIDEO: Greet Death, “Country Girl”
BIGGER BAND, BIGGER SOUND, TOURING LIKE ‘A PIRATE SHIP’
The band’s more expansive sound can be attributed in part to adding members such as Jackie Kalmink on bass (and studio engineering) and Eric Beck on guitar to the trio of Boyhtari, Gaval and drummer Jim Versluis.
“So eventually, I keep saying we’ll be like Wilco and we’ll have two keyboard pits and a string section, and that’s the dream,” Boyhtari jokes.
That “pipedream” started in the early days with basement shows, inspired by songwriters such as Elliot Smith and Neil Young. Now, the band’s national stature means their upcoming tour – which kicks off in September – will have Greet Death traveling from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, with a Sept. 23 stop at Detroit’s Majestic Theatre.
“I like going to different places. Logan says it feels like being on a pirate ship. I kind of like that,” Boyhtari says, noting that the goal always is “trying to write better songs, trying to grow as a songwriter, to find new inspiration, to keep telling stories.
“I think that’s what drives both Logan and I, and then just to see what we can do with those songs and how many people we can play them for.”
This week’s episode of the Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase featured two tracks from “Die in Love” — the title track and “Country Girl.” The show also debuted new music from Cameron Blake, Worm Head, Samantha Crain, Clawfoot, Urphme, The Fields, Zudocks, Ralston Bowles, A. Billi Free & The Lasso and Benjamin James Childs.
The Michigan Music Showcase airs at 11 a.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. Sundays on WYCE (88.1 FM) and online at wyce.org, and on Interlochen Public Radio at 7 p.m. Saturdays.
PODCAST: Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase (7/25/25)
T-REX FEST AT THE PYRAMID SCHEME: THE SCHEDULE
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