New music collective Greater Than aims to promote Denver’s scene

A handful of the biggest names in the local music scene are joining forces to form Greater Than, a local collective of musicians and musically minded individuals that hopes to push Denver’s ever growing music scene into the upper echelon of indie rock. Suburban Home’s Virgil Dickerson, burrito king Pete Turner of Illegal Pete’s, and musician-journalist Andy Thomas came together to create Greater Than and are currently working on its first major project: the release of brooding electro-rockers Snake Rattle Rattle Snake’s debut album.

“Our idea is that we’re going to work with bands, bands are going to work with us, and through our combined efforts, we’re going to be able to do a lot of things that individually we wouldn’t be able to do as well,” Dickerson explains.

The three founding members of Greater Than have worked together before, starting the Starving Artists program together—which gave national touring bands free food at all Illegal Pete’s locations—and booking shows at Illegal Pete’s. The idea for the collective came out of this partnership. The plan is for Greater Than to be a hybrid between the traditional record label model and the DIY self-releasing model made popular recently by websites like Bandcamp.com.

“Take for example Snake Rattle: They used their own resources to record their album, get it mixed and mastered, and get the artwork laid out, and everything turned out fantastic,” Dickerson says. “We’re going to then take that and get the record released, distributed, promoted, and get press and publicity for the band.”

Despite filling many of the roles traditionally delegated to a record label, the partners insist that’s not quite what they’re doing here.

“We’re trying not to call it a label, we’re trying to call it a collective... We’re trying to create a scene here like Saddle Creek did in Omaha, or Sub-Pop did in Seattle,” Thomas says.

Turner agrees, and that ideal explains the name name Greater Than.

“The whole concept is the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” he says. “We talked about the collective and bringing bands together to push local arts and culture; [the name] makes sense.”

Outside of Snake Rattle Rattle Snake and its upcoming album release show in August at The Bluebird, the group has been talking with other Colorado bands, including The Epilogues and Air Dubai. Greater Than is also planning an Underground Music Showcase compilation featuring 20 local acts, including The Knew, American Tomahawk, and Tin Horn Prayer, to name a few. The comp won’t be available in time for UMS, but should be done shortly after and will be available free of charge at all Illegal Pete’s locations.

All three of the collective’s founders got involved out of love for Denver’s local music scene and to promote the great music coming out of Denver right now. The Snake Rattle release show will simply be the first step in the process. It’s something that they see growing into the future.

“Spiritually and philosophically, this feels right, it makes good business sense, and it’s a lot of fun,” Turner says.