You know what the quintessential band is? It’s not The Beatles. It’s not the Stones. It’s not a bunch of kids in a garage screaming into the mike. It’s a band like Green Inside, four guys that get together and make music that is likeable yet relevant. It sometimes seems that likeable has to have an almost negative connotation to it-likeability equal’s disposability. Not necessarily true-all popular music is disposable in a way, yet certain songs still have an emotional impact fifty years after they were written. It’s that popular music, music with likeability, always transcends itself-it almost always hits people in an emotional way, which is perhaps the definition of true art itself. Seth Adam, Green Inside’s lead singer and songwriter, just wants to affect the way an individual feels. “I hope [people] identify with and can maybe relate to the story being told. Though the stories in the songs are based on things that happened to me, or how I felt about a particular incident, I hope the story I told is open ended enough so that people can place their particulars inside the song when listening to it.” Though the melodic music they create sounds like contemporaries Matchbox 20 or the Gin Blossoms, it is still undeniably affective. “Our average fan is in their mid 20’s, going through changes. Music is important in their life and they get through the day with it. Green Inside represents to them a culmination of love, wonder and entertainment that is identifiable on an accessible level.”
Green Inside doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel; they want to make music that sounds good. Their music goes for an emotional response. Although many of their songs are up tempo, they are thoughtful pieces on the affects of relationships, which is not only what every good pop song is about, but life itself. The band is perfectly suited to be liked by every person in America, because their music is the definition of mainstream and likable. It doesn’t really bother them that they make a polished amalgam of pop and rock. “I think true artists are into creating their art, regardless of what genre may be "hip" at that point in time. That's what we do. We create our art. We aren't trying to sound like anything. We're trying to sound like us.”
The music that constitutes Green Inside’s sound is a marriage of various backgrounds. Tim Sway’s upright bass lines come from jazz, while guitarist Gerry Giamo flavors his playing with the sounds of alt. country. Drummer Steve Tobey is into challenges-infecting grooves with hip hop, funk, or jazz. Adam gets his influences from a variety of places, including the storytelling of Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz and the subtle funk of Dave Mathews Band. Adam performs material solo much of the time-which means that the band is adding strength to an already solid foundation. Their songs can be stripped down to their core and retain their emotional impact. Personal stories remain universal. “Promise” can be identified with by anyone who couldn’t give themselves to a relationship anymore; “Everything is Wrong” is an “I Will Survive” style break up song, which Sway has described as “A good tune with a good mix of all of our playing styles and personalities. Besides, I can already see the platinum album it'll help us get.”
Adam does have a plenty good reason for all the emotional tunes: he’s had every relationship problem in the book. “After countless bad relationships, girls I thought I was going to marry, being cheated on and one time being a cheater, I felt like that proverbial "man-woman" relationship thing was just never going to happen for me. I still at times feel like a relationship failure when it comes to that stuff.” However, when asked about his dream woman he responded “My dream woman just left my house. She's a beautiful human being. We went to high-school together and I haven't seen her in 12 years. We caught up about a month ago and have been seeing each other since. We are taking things slow you know... we both just got out of relationships. But, there's no denying on my part that she's the one for me. She's smart, funny, warm, loves music, makes me laugh, we share many similar interests... She makes me happy.
That's the bottom line.” Listening to the lyrics of Green Inside the most evident thing about Seth Adam is that he is a fool for love. And he’s not ashamed of it, either. When I asked him to describe the other members of the band and himself in the same way the Beatles are all given simple descriptions (John’s the rebel, Paul the cute one, George the mystic, Ringo the clown), he described himself as the “introverted, “hurt” artist. For him, songwriting is “More like a reactionary thing. Something (usually emotionally traumatic) has to happen for me to react to. I have to write about things that really happened. They are much more tangible to me. I know this is SO cliché, but songs are a "therapy" for me. If I can write about it, it helps me deal with it.”
However, the band isn’t just Seth’s. The rest of the group’s contributions are what really gives Green Inside its force and all four members work as editors for each other. “We were working on a new tune the other day, and we had never played it together before. It was our first time. We spent a lot of time talking about the song after having only gone through it about once or twice. I had to sit back and laugh because once we are in the room, I'm quiet. At that point I've said my peace, which is the song I introduce. I get off on bringing in a piece of music and having the other guys dissect it and then put their signatures on it. From that point on, it is no longer a Seth song; it becomes a Green Inside song. Those guys are the best musicians. To have them contribute and put their touches on the songs I bring in... to have them hear things differently and open my mind up to different possibilities... that's on an un-earthly level. It's spiritual.”
“Originally this whole project started with me playing acoustic solo. The singer/songwriter in a coffee shop kind of thing. When the band was finally assembled, we called it the Seth Adam Band. A few months into that, we came to the realization that this band wasn't about one person, and the name of the band should reflect a collective effort. Steve (drummer) came up with "green" on his own as well did I. Our original bass player, Lorin came up with "inside." "Green" to me meant "life," "living," and "being alive." Our music was "alive inside." We wanted people to walk away feeling "alive inside" when they heard our music. So with a little clever symbolism and marriage of words, "Green Inside" came about.”
Adam realized the band could really amount to something when Tobey played drums and sang along during one of his acoustic gigs. But he recently felt that again, after the band began work on their full length album “Left at the Prom.” However, the energy they have when they play live, which has nabbed them numerous followers, was hard to capture on record. “The live show, for the most part, has more energy. There's no way we cannot get hyped up before we play. It happens every time. The volume, the people, the fact that we're playing the song that one time with no "do-over"... it bleeds energy. There's also the spontaneity to the live performance. It's hard to catch those things in an isolated studio. The studio can be very sterile. When we recorded "Left At The Prom," we did everything we could to make it as "live" as possible. We didn't isolate the instruments, like recording drums first, bass next, etc. We played together and recorded it with minimal overdubs.” In the music you can really hear the enthusiasm the band has, not only for themselves but their fans. They really do want to reach out.
“I see this band going far. I see this band as timeless. I think what we do is timeless. A good song is a good song, no matter when it came out or what genre it is. Creating timeless music and a long career that we can live off of... those would be two very great achievements.”
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