Greet Death’s Logan Gavel doesn’t hate everything anymore, he’s still pretty vitriolic on 'Die In Love'

#greetdeath

“Pain and loss. Everyone feels it; it’s a very human thing. At the end of the day, we’re lucky to lose people we care about.”  Interviewer: Dom Smith This quote comes from Logan Gaval of Greet Death, a Michigan based shoegazing/slowcore leaning rock band formed by two lifelong friends. Logan Gaval and Harper Boyhtari debuted this band in 2011, and they return this month with their third album, Die in Love. Their first album in six years. Release is set for Friday, June 25th, 2025. In this album they tackle the difficult sides of humanity- living knowing that we will one day die, and loving, knowing that we will one day lose it all. Yet despite these deep themes, it’s their most uplifting album yet.  

“It is our duty to experience loss and people don't like hearing that. But yeah, life is hell. I'm sorry if I'm the first person to tell you that, and it's difficult, but it's still worth doing. There's still joy to be had.”  Greet Death is a diverse group in terms of genres, covering shoegaze to classic rock. They’ve toured with Say Anything, Low Animal and Clearbody, and Prize Horse. Coming up this fall, they will be joining Nation of Language as a supporting act. To mix with all these different bands, Gaval attributes it to necessity.   “I think that's not really something that's our design. We don't get a ton of opportunities to open for bands, so the reason why the support tours that we get are so different is because when we get an offer, we pretty much have to say yes, right? You know, our influences are pretty eclectic. And I think it has a mixture of shoegaze, and classic rock like Guns and Roses.

And then it has a mixture of Nirvana and modern such as Cloak Room. I don't know, earlier Spirit of the Beehive. So, I don't know. I mean, I think we do a lot of things.  I think maybe that's why. But I do think the actual answer is because we don't have a lot of opportunities.”  Photo credits: Kat Nijmeddin Gaval used to define success as being measured by the dollar, although he admitted that in that regard, the band is an abject failure. For a long time, he thought that he couldn’t consider himself a real musician unless he was making all his money from touring.   “Since we put out New Low, I’ve reprioritized a lot of things... I think the true measure of success is whoever is having the most fun. If having fun were dollars, then I’d probably still be a failure. So, I’m trying to have the most fun out of making music, because it’s unbelievable what we’re able to do and it’s a huge blessing...  “What makes everything worth it is performing for people who care... I’m incredibly lucky to get to trudge through hell to bring our music to people that care.”   After years of touring, the band has seen firsthand how deeply their audience connects to their music.

Themes of home and alienation, love and death, all through a lenses of humour and catharsis, make this a secure safety blanket for fans.   “I wanted to try to write something less fatalistic, because I feel some kind of responsibility to help,” says Logan.  “I'm a blue, angry, lonely, confused person. And so, every time I try to write happy songs, they come out hella bad. So, this is a journey that I've been on ever since New Low, trying to write a happy song, an uplifting song that doesn't have some tinge of, like, nihilism or pessimism. Some people would say it's not important. I would strongly disagree. The words you put into the world are important, the sound of the words and the meaning of the words.”  Die in Love's Cover Art, credits: Olivia Sullivan Illustration,  Keeley Laures Gaval said that he pushed away any expectations for the album before its release. It’s a lie he tells himself to avoid any disappointment, but as a human, there are still things he hopes fans take away from the album.  “I would like a lot of people to hear the record and enjoy it. I’m so close to the project, at this point I can only hear mistakes. I hope that Pitchfork reviews it positively, so that more people will hear it and connect with it, and then more people will join the Greet Death subreddit.” 

Although there are currently no scheduled UK tour dates, Gaval promises to UK fans that the band is on their way.  “What I'd like to leave everyone with is, try your best to get rid of your delusional perspective of what success is, because it's straight up not real and you're going to be broke no matter what. So, if your idea is like, ‘All I want is to tour all the time and make all my money through music and have a career in music,’ the things that you're going to have to do and the kind of person you're going to have to become to get to that point... you basically have to be a bug.”