Similar to how the former era of Greta Van Fleet kicked off, a few days ago fans once again found mysterious letters from the band in their P.O. Boxes. Letters addressed to fans from “The Peaceful Army” contained images of the band alongside cryptic tiles; which when placed together sequentially spelled out the title of their latest single, “My Way, Soon.” The song itself is Greta Van Fleet’s first single since the debut of Anthem of the Peaceful Army back in 2018. “My Way, Soon” comprises a rather upbeat and jubilant track depicting the band’s evolution over the past few years.
Aside from it being this magnum opus to their evolution as artists, the track itself is also fairly personal. With vocalist Josh Kiszka describing the song as being “my truth, how I feel about all of our travels; but I know it echoes the experiences and changes of perspectives for Jake, Sam, and Danny as well.” Alongside the breakneck pace of the galloping guitars is a self-directed video. Where in the video, viewers follow Greta Van Fleet at arguably the pinnacle of their fame; back when NME claimed that Greta Van Fleet were a band about to ignite a “cultural zeitgeist”.
The music video for “My Way, Soon” documents this pivotal time in their rise to stardom, and offers a unique glimpse behind the curtain. As home footage captures band members and friends hanging out together, drinking, and simply being normal people. But as their drummer, Danny Wagner puts it, “The definition of ’normal’ has very much broadened over the past couple of years, and it has affected us as musicians, especially in the writing and recording of this new album. We realized that while growing up, we had been shielded by a lot of things, we were unaware of a lot of things. And then we were thrown out into this huge world, and it was a bit of a culture shock at first.”
With this in mind, Greta Van Fleet’s “My Way, Soon” acts as this jubilant retrospective on the band’s life up until now. A life which has been filled to the brim with journeys, excitement, and travels to the farthest reaches of the globe; or as their bassist Sam Kiszka would say, “We’ve seen how people live in different parts of the world, and we’ve developed intrinsic respect for different cultures and people. We’ve gone from driving down a highway to a show and seeing endless miles of shantytowns in Sao Paulo, to playing some of the richest places on earth.”
As Greta Van Fleet blazes a trail across the globe, it seems that sonically their music is attempting to do the same. However, in this case, “My Way, Soon” attempts to blaze a completely different path. One which sees Greta Van Fleet shedding the skin of their associations to behemoth rockers like Led Zeppelin, and instead witnesses them stepping into their current roles as artists. As the band attempts to find their own voice amongst the MANY comparisons to classic rock bands. In this sense “My Way, Soon” is Greta Van Fleet at their most genuine and honest; as they attempt to define themselves as who they are, not who others want them to be. After years of being compared to others, Greta Van Fleet have kicked off a new divergent era – one which we hope to see come our way, soon.
