Greeley Estates

First can you state your name and what you do in the band?

I’m Dallas and I play guitar in our band.

Where does the name Greeley Estates come from?

It comes from Greeley, Colorado…the smelliest town in America. Kinda boring, I know, but we never intended for our band to take off. We started our band as a joke, so a smelly ol’ cow town sounded like a good idea for a band name. We considered changing it but people had already tattooed it on their bodies so we never got around to actually doing it.

You just released “Far From The Lies”, what was the recording process like?

The recording process for Far From the Lies was interesting compared to our other two recordings. We had a lot more time to actually record the album (both of the other ones were done in under a week), but for a somewhat legitimate label release we only had five weeks, which I guess is not very much time at all. We made the most of it, and our producer Lou Giordano and engineer Todd Parker made the whole shebang move along smoothly. Todd got us addicted to Donkey Konga on Nintendo Gamecube between takes. We ate way too much Mexican food. Cool people kept dropping in to hang out like Kris Roe from the Ataris (who borrowed us some rad gear like a Matchless and an Orange guitar head to use for the recording), and Hunter from AFI came by. The sound board kept breaking. Every day was interesting for sure.

What does the title “Far From The Lies” mean to you?

The title comes from a lyric in our acoustic song “Secret”. It refers to getting out of a situation in which you feel trapped. If you’re involved in something that you’re ashamed of, lies seem to pop up in your mind to dissuade you from seeking help. Stuff like “they’ll never understand”, “they’ll look at you differently if you tell them”, “I don’t need help, I’m doing fine on my own”…etc. there’s a freedom that comes from getting something off your chest and that’s what Far From the Lies means. Have the courage to ask for help if you’re struggling with something.

Have you done a music video yet, or plan to do one?

We actually have three music videos currently. We did a concept video for the song “Outside of This” on our first album, and that video can be found on our dvd, “The Death of Greeley Estates” and on the enhanced cd portion of our “Caveat Emptor” EP but we’ll probably post it online sometime soon. We have a performance video for “Y’all with the Vampire Squad?” that was directed by Darren Doane and you can see that on our myspace profile...(www.myspace.com/greeleyestates). We just finished another concept video with Darren recently for the first single from “Far From the Lies” called “Life is a Garden”. That video is completed and hopefully will see some airplay on stations like FUSE, MTV2, and MUCH MUSIC soon!

Do you have a certain way that you get together and write music?

I’m the music guy in our band in the sense that I’ll write and compose the basic song structure of each of our songs on an acoustic guitar and then play the song for the guys. They’ll throw in their input, and then we’ll all work at structuring the song better and adding the other parts (drums, bass, other guitar lines). Once the music is completed for a song, we’ll make a ghetto recording of it and Ryan will come up with a vocal melody then work on lyrics.

Who did the cover art for “Far From The Lies”?

We have two friends that do all of our artwork for our albums and merchandise. Our friend Brian Trummel did the artwork for Far from the Lies and we couldn’t be happier with it! He also did the artwork for Outside of This and Caveat Emptor. Apparently our label couldn’t be happier with it as well, because they were so impressed with the packaging that they hired Brian on as a full-time artist at Record Collection! We’re really excited for him. Another guy named Ryan Peterson does all our merch designs. We’re blessed to have both amazing artist making our stuff look pretty.

How do you think the band has grown since the release of “Caveat Emptor”?

Definitely! Caveat Emptor was released as a thank-you to our original fans in Phoenix. Many people are unaware that we released our first full length Outside of This on our own almost 3 years ago, and our fans in Phoenix have been rocking it hard in taco bell parking lots in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area since then. We wanted them to have some new jams to rock out to while we were getting material ready for our new full length. Caveat was an opportunity to try some strange things and branch out a little. The process tightened us up as a band, but since then, we’ve been on tour for another year and playing shows every night made us exponentially better as musicians. We’re extremely proud of the growth we show on “Far From the Lies”, mostly because we haven’t changed musical styles much since we’ve started, we’d just like to think we do it that much better now. People who like Outside of This will love Far From the Lies. People who like Caveat will find that the technical elements are still there in the new record, they’re just done a little smoother so they’re not so out of place with our sound. Plus we’ve all grown sixth toes on our left feet. So YES! We’ve grown?

I’ve read that Canada is your favorite place to tour, why is that, and has it changed?

The Calgary date of warped tour last year was the first show we’ve ever had outside of our hometown of phoenix where we felt like we hadn’t left home. Twelve-hundred kids showed up and they were singing every word and leaving waves of devastation around the pit. We were thinking, “Uh, what’s going on? We’re in CANADA!” We were stoked to find out that everywhere else we went in Canada was similar in awesomeness. Canada’s received us with open arms and the shows there are becoming increasingly unreal. Hopefully the rest of the U.S. will take note of Canada’s domination of energy at shows and step up their game a little bit!

Are their any unusual things that you all have encountered while being on the road, or touring in general?

We’ve been in three huge accidents in the past five months. During that time, we’ve totaled two vans, an RV and three trailers. Semi-trucks have hit us, semi-truck TIRES have fallen off of trucks and jumped in front of our RV in order to ruin our day, and animals want to sacrifice their lives to keep us from making shows. It’s all in a days work though. Another thing is drive-thrus are a challenge on tour. Most fast food places won’t let you order at the window if your vehicle won’t fit through the drive through, but we’ve gotten creative at tricking them and now it’s a nightly affair.

What type of music do you enjoy listening to, and is their a genre that you cant stand?

I write the melodic stuff in the band, and that’s mostly because I LOVE melodic music. If I make a playlist to jam out to, it usually involves Copeland, The Juliana Theory, acoustic Thrice, old-school Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5, and Millencolin.

I can’t stand Menstruation-core! Y’know…all those tampon jingles that pop up during manly shows. I dunno if that’s an actual genre, but I’ve always wanted to name a band The Wandering Menstrual Cyclists, and have the logo be one of those medieval bards with a guitar riding a unicycle. Next question.

What is the best/worst parts about touring?

The best part about touring is meeting rad people every day that happen to like our crappy music. The worst part is being away from friends and the ones we love at home. Oh, and the accidents. Those suck too.

Do you know of any good bands starting out that we should keep an ear out for?

AZ Bands, represent! Check out Scary Kids Scaring Kids, The Stiletto Formal, Goodbye Tomorrow, De Sole, Bless the Fall, Versus the Mirror, A Change of Pace, It’s Like Love, The Bled (ok they’re kinda well known already). Listen to Copeland if you haven’t yet.

What has been your most memorable performance, why?

I will never forget the clapping part we have on our song “Angela Lansbury Keeps Guys Like You Off the Streets” in Montreal during Taste of Chaos. Eight thousand French-Canadians clapped along and it was the most mind-blowing thing I’ve ever seen. Wall-to-wall, front-to-back, everyone was into it. That show was the most memorable for me personally.

Have you been given the chance to perform overseas, and if given the chance, where would you like to tour abroad?

We haven’t been fortunate enough to get overseas yet, but if we ever get the means, we’d love to tour Europe, Australia, Japan, and the Philippines. We get daily messages from people asking us to go those places and we’d love to be able to actually do it!

What type of music would you classify yourselves as?

We’re melodic post-hardcore.

Are their any shocking qualities about yourselves that you would be willing to share to your fans/readers?

We all fart WAY too much on tour and should have our buttholes surgically sealed and have colostomy bags installed for the sake of anyone who comes into our RV.

Do you have any favorite cities in particular, in the states, that you enjoy performing for?

PHOENIX!!! CHICAGO!!! DETROIT!!! ANAHEIM!!!

If you could play with any three bands, past or present, who, and why?

Personally I’d want to play with The Juliana Theory (circa Emotion is Dead – I learned to play guitar by learning that album by ear), Thrice (unbelievable songwriters and everyone in our band loves their live show), and Green Day (best live show ever…made me want to play music).

Brian our drummer would pick classic rock bands and Bob Marley. I’m not that cultured.

Does any member of the band have any religious affiliations?

We’re all Christians in the band. We don’t shove our beliefs down anyone’s throat but we try to live our lives in a way where people can notice there’s a difference in who we are and if anyone wants to know why, we’re down to chat with them about it. 

Does the band have a collective political view on certain topics, such as the war on terror, George W. Bush, abortion, etc.?

Nope! Politics are for suckas! Just kidding. It’s important to be educated on current events, but we keep our political stance to ourselves. Bands that push their political agendas on kids who don’t know any better is one of my pet peeves.

When you're not on tour what do you do for fun?

We raise much ruckus about the streets of Phoenix. There’s a lot of rad places to do stuff there, so we get out and about and get our enjoyment on! We also soak in the pool all day getting out of the 120 degree heat.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Do you have any last words for the readers?

No Worries! Thanks for reading this and for taking time to check out our band. If you have any of our music, blast it loud and proud, and come see a show if you haven’t had a chance to yet! We’d love to meet you and blow out your eardrums with our loud, crappy muzak. w0rd