Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons

Catch up with Angela of Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons and look for the band's sophomore album, Homemade Vision, available now.

What got you interested in songwriting and what brought the band together?

Angela Perley: I started writing songs in high school and probably my first inspiration was Bob Dylan as a songwriter; he definitely had a big influence on my early songwriting and I love listening to his records and his lyrics were like poetry. 

The band started after I went to college at Ohio University. I was an English major and I was playing in different groups, doing some solo stuff, and my college roommate had some demos - I was recording my own solo demos just in my room, using my laptop and Pro Tools and making these little paper bag CDs - our senior year she started interning in Columbus over in Grandview at Vital Companies and she had one of my demos and gave it to Fred Blitzer, who's like the head guy over at Vital, and he listened to it and was really interested. He actually shared my demos to our guitar player and bass player and was like, 'I'd love to record this girl's music, would you guys be interested in being studio players on the recording?' and that's actually how the band started. I came down to Columbus and had a blind music date with Billy Zehnal (bass) and Chris Connor (guitar) and, at the time, we had Jesse Cooper from The Receiver and he was helping out on drums. It kind of started in 2009 and it's been going since and we've had a lot of different drummers throughout the years and, even now, we have four drummers in our band and it rotates in and out on our live shows. But, the three main members of the band, we've been together since 2009.

Do you remember the first song you wrote that you were happy with?

Oh my goodness. I think the first song I was really happy with kind of was the start of the band, it almost was a prelude to The Howlin' Moons and it was actually called, "Yellow Moon". I was just finding my voice with songwriting still and I wrote it in college at Athens and it was on our second EP - we ended up recording it - but it was one of the first songs that Howlin' Moons actually played together and I was really proud of it because it just fit really well with the whole band and even though I'd written it before the band was formed, it was kind of perfect for the band. That was my first one I was proud of because my songwriting has matured a little bit and it had a sound that definitely was more of our rootsier side of the band, so it was like the first chapter.

Other than Bob Dylan, who would you say you've been influenced by?

I love just rock and roll; I love The Rolling Stones. As far as new bands, it's definitely all over the place, I listen to a lot of music so it's hard to say. I think some musicians end up working their way into your subconscious of writing.

Is there an artist or song you've got on repeat now?

Oh, right now I've been listening a lot to Kurt Vile's new record, I really like his songwriting and his new record is great. I've actually liked his music for awhile, but I definitely got more into it recently. I also love Cage The Elephant, that's another band right now that I've been listening to a lot. They have a lot of '60s/'70s influences in their music yet they have a really modern sound and I just really like everything that they're doing.

Which words would you use to describe your own sound?

[Laughs] When people ask that it's hard to say. I usually just say, we're a rock and roll band with country and blues influences. That's kind of the easiest way to describe it.

Could you tell us more about your new album, Homemade Vision?

We just released Homemade Vision January 22nd and it's a lot different than our first album. Hey Kid was definitely very roots rock and this record is similar, but it's a lot different in that it's just very dreamy. The band has evolved a little bit more and there are more dreamy sounds on it and 'homemade vision' just made sense for the album; as an artist you're putting your vision out there, you're making your own little world with your music, and so that was the perfect way to describe the collection of songs that we put on there. And we got 'homemade vision' from a line in the first song on the CD that's called "White Dove"; it's a line that's like, 'hey you with your dark sunglasses on, you're like a homemade vision' so that was a line that stuck out to us and we were like, oh, that kind of is the vibe of the whole record [laughs].

What was the inspiration for this new video for "Your Love"?

Whenever we make videos I'll have these ideas and I'll send them to Vital and be like, 'what do you think about this?,' and it's funny because, with "Your Love", I had a whole list of all these ideas and then I think at 3 in the morning one of the nights before we were planning stuff, the idea of this love interest, this relationship with a wolfman, just popped in my head [laughs]. I don't know if I was really tired or something, but it was a random last minute idea and then I texted it to Fred over at Vital and he was like, 'I think that's a great idea!' so, out of all the ideas, that was this last minute one that everyone was like, 'yeah, that would be sweet, that sounds really funny'. It was cool because usually our videos are more straightforward, so this was one that we could be campy with and it's more funny and pretty lighthearted, yet we try to make it visually beautiful too. There was definitely some artistic elements to it [laughs] and at first we were like, 'oh, we want it to be almost like a wolf love story in a Wes Anderson film,' kind of thing. That was our inspiration that we went off of.

Now that the album's out and everyone's had a chance to listen to it, do you have one track that really stands out to you?

It's not necessarily the single of the album but because it has the theme of the album, I think we really like "White Dove". It seems that one has been connecting to people a lot and it combines what we do live, which is we definitely expand things out; our live version of the song is longer than the recorded version and we kind of jam out a little bit at the end and that's feeling really good right now. That's definitely our favorite play - but things always change on new albums too - but that one has been really fun to play live.

What do you want your listeners to take away from this new album and your music in general?

It was released in January but it's definitely also a Summer album, so we hope that when they're having a little pool party or driving this Summer with the windows down that they just slip in the CD and enjoy [laugh]. We just appreciate if anyone listens and gets something out of it; it means a lot to us.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

We're always running around playing shows and touring and doing all our regional stuff, so maybe just look at our website. We're always adding new dates for this Spring and Summer so we should have a lot more shows coming up, too.

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Idalee

Look for singer-songwriter Idalee's newly released EP, Starting Now, and watch the video for his bonus single "Heal", out now.

What got you interested in music?

Idalee: My dad passed down a guitar to me, I think I was 13 or so, and that was about the same time that I saw the Nirvana MTV Unplugged segment that rocked my world back in the day. I saw Kurt Cobain doing these emotional but simple formed songs and that was kind of the starting point for me writing music and not over-complicating it and just keeping it simple like he did and that raw form of songwriting. But, yeah, back in the day, that's what really got me jazzed and I would take that guitar to the community swimming pool down the street and try to impress the girls and stuff [laughs], so that was another side of it. It's always fun to meet new people through music, so that was the younger starting point.

Why choose the moniker 'Idalee'?

I'm trying for a little separation from myself with it. Ida Lee is actually a park in Virginia where my old bassist and this actor friend of mine grew up, getting in trouble and breaking beer bottles and all that stuff in my hometown of Leesburg, Virginia. We decided to move to Los Angeles and we threw around the idea of moving to DC, which is close to Leesburg, and going there and trying to make some music and stuff or if we should just bite the bullet and drive out to Los Angeles and Ida Lee is where we chose to go out and try to pursue it and, from there, it was a pretty cool journey. We met a lot of good people, we ran into some unfortunate industry connections out there, so it was a turning point for my life. Idalee just kind of stuck with me. 

Other than Nirvana, which musicians have you been influenced by?

Back in the day, my dad played a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival in my house, pretty much all the time, so I have some of that Southern style rock, which was big with me. Weezer was big with me; even Sublime, back then. These days, I'm watching closely what Imagine Dragons are doing; I like their stuff, a lot. Stuff like The Killers also has influenced this record a little bit. I got into The Killers a lot when I heard that some of the people helping me make this record had worked with The Killers on their Hot Fuss album, and that was exciting, for me to meet the people that worked on those projects. Those are a handful of the folks that influenced me. Also, Elvis Costello has a style that I'm really envious of and I really like his jams, so he's in there, too.

What words would you use to describe your own sound?

It comes from a folky area but I've been told, since talking with industry people, that it's alternative. To me, it's like folk rock, maybe with alternative styles, but I write on an acoustic guitar and just write these melodies and I think they're folky. Alternative folk rock.

What was the inspiration for your song and the video for "Starting Now"?

The reason why it's the title track and the reason why I think we went out with that one first was, it's the on the nose theme of what's going on in my life now; just, a new leaf sentiment. It's about standing up and starting over and I think a lot of people get that. It hits a lot of people that they can start over and I think that a lot of people that were involved in that video searched themselves and they were all holding up their signs and stuff that said, 'starting now I will do something better,' and it's a pretty human instinct. For me, it was when I moved to Phoenix from Virginia; it was a next step for me and also harkens back to my cleaning up and turning a 180 in my life. I was going a certain direction and it would be really hard to get a fresh start, but it's happened and it's a daily reflection and I think that's why a lot of people were into it and wanted to participate in the video.

Could you tell us more about your new album, Starting Now?

Yeah, like I said, starting now is the theme there, but it's a pretty optimistic record. I grew up with Kurt Cobain and a lot of doom and gloom and I held onto that grunge movement longer than probably most people, so I had some melancholy times, for sure, but this was my optimistic comeback. It's a way to get a fresh perspective out there because I'm feeling very good these days and I don't have the same demons that I did back then and so those ideas bleed through a lot of the songs. "Fury", for instance, is about letting go of some of the people in my life that were important to me for some of the wrong reasons and "Home" is about actually relocating and reminiscing about my LA times and I'm in LA more often now, so it's like a weird homecoming song. The whole thing all bleeds through with that optimistic rejuvenation.

Is there a track from that album you're most excited for your fans to be hearing now?

It was just released and the one I'm hearing the most positive about, that really is striking people - and me and my producer felt the same way - is "Barbarian". That's a pretty fun song and that's really a song that I have in a bunch of different versions and we picked that one out of several, but that's really the crux of my style, is that song; the punctuated rhythm of the lyrics and the way that I phrase words weirdly - I don't really know, my old bassist can explain it better than I can - but those verses in that song are like my native land in writing. I really like that that was chosen and it shines through a little bit and that gives me encouragement for the next project to do some of those that come easy to me, 'cause they're fun to write. And it's a rockin' song, it has a fun chorus to it; I think "Barbarian" is one to watch.

What do you want your listeners to be able to take away from your music?

I want them to feel like there's a second chance for everybody and sometimes there's a second, second, second chance; it doesn't really have a number on it. The new leaf, the fresh start, it doesn't have to be on New Years' Day; those resolutions are important to do some self-reflection and be positive but, like I said, I wrote some darker stuff back in the day, I was influenced by some bands that put the demons out there in their songs and there is a place for that and I have songs like that too, but this one I want the fans to feel positive about and to start the work day with it and end their Friday night with it and stuff like that. I want it to be a positive influence.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

"Heal" was a special song that I'd like to single out. It's kind of different from the other ones and it wasn't initially on the EP. It's a little bit of a darker song but it is influenced by my work with prison populations and the extreme of people that really try to start over and they have a lot working against them. That's the extreme version of the whole starting now context and starting over. I'd like people to look at that video on Facebook and YouTube and check out the prisoners performing it with me in that prison in Houston.

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Adrienne Tooley

Catch up with New York-based indie folk artist, Adrienne Tooley, and look for her sophomore EP, This Was True Once, to be released April 8th.

What got you interested in music?

Adrienne Tooley: I had the required youthful piano lessons. There was always classical music playing at our house and my grandpa sang at church, my mom sang around the house, and it kind of just was something I did and didn't realize was weird, but I would sing all of the time under my breath. I remember, I think I was probably 8 years old and I saw a stage production of the musical Annie and I was sitting next to my mom and I just turned to her after the first act and I was like, 'mom, I want to do this,' so I spent most of my youthful teenage years actually in musical theater, so I was very much that typical, I'm listening to show tunes all the time, going to play rehearsals, and doing my homework backstage and it was just this amazing way to be immersed in music all the time and be part of a team. So that's where my love of singing came from and, as I got older, I realized that I didn't have to sing other peoples' words, instead I could sing my own and use it as a platform for my own creativity and that's how songwriting came about.

Do you remember the first song you wrote?

Oh my gosh, I had to have been in high school. I had taken this road trip - and I use that very, very loosely because we were probably just driving around the hills in our town - with two of my best friends and we found this weird little bridge and, in your typical 16 year old girl fashion, made this a very ceremonial thing, like, 'the day we found the bridge'; I went home and I wrote this song that I ended up calling "Crossing Bridges" and it was very much that feeling of being a teenager and having no idea what's going on but you found something that is special and makes you part of a group. I don't think that I could even remember any of the lyrics, but I remember that we would remember that day because I wrote that song.

Which bands or artists have you been influenced by?

It's really all over the board. Like I said, there was a lot of classical music played in my house growing up and that's where you can find a true sense of musicianship, studying those composers and, also, I'm a huge musical theater nerd. I fell off the train for awhile, but recently I've been listening to the Hamilton cast album, basically non-stop, for a couple months; there's just something so incredible about the way that Lin-Manuel Miranda utilizes the language and it's this really amazing, groundbreaking hip-hop musical. It's actually incredible and I'm getting a lot of inspiration from that. Beyond that, I have a lot of love for British folk artists. They're quieter in sound, but that's where you get to really focus on their lyrics and I'm a lyric centric person in my own writing and also in what I choose to listen to; I just really love language and I love people who are able to play with that in an effective way.

Is there an artist you're hooked on now?

I am always a huge fan of Laura Marling, she's my go-to British folk muse. I've seen her live multiple times and she put out a new record - I guess I saw her last Summer - and so whenever I'm in need of a little bit of inspiration or emotional understanding, I go revisit her catalog. I find a lot in what she has to say and I find something new in myself every time I listen.

How would you describe your own sound?

I guess it's a conglomeration of any folk. It's hard, because what you feel about your music and what other people take away are so different and I always hesitate to give myself a little box because I don't want to alienate anyone based on a word that I'd say, but I definitely think that it's wondering and it's wandering and it's a little literary and - I'm sure everyone thinks this but that's one of the beauties of being an artist - I think it's really honest and it's one of the places that I'm the most comfortable allowing myself to be vulnerable.

What was the inspiration behind your new single, "White Noise"?

I don't like to talk about the specifics of songs, it's, again, that you don't want to burst the bubble for anything; the way that one person can listen to and interpret a song can be completely different from what I meant when I go to write it, but again I think that's kind of the beauty of music, is that you can have all of these different ways to feel something for and be influenced by one single track. I will say that this new song is a really lovely form of vulnerability and it's kind of about losing the sense of what you think you know when you love and having to define that and realizing that you don't need to. It's again, very convoluted, but there's something about "White Noise" and it's about how I have had a lot of experiences in life where people will try to define, for me, the way that I love, whether it be friends or old relationships, and sometimes the way that I love doesn't work for them and I think that song is about realizing that that's okay and the chorus is, 'I don't love the way I think I do,' and realizing that maybe that's okay and waiting for someone where my love will work.

How does this new EP, This Was True Once, compare to your last release, Nowhere Girl?

I think they're really different but you can still see me. Nowhere Girl was a really lovely and whirlwind adventure/creation. I was new here to New York City and I met Ted Young, who produced that one, from a friend of a friend and we recorded it all in one night with a live band and I was very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at that moment and I think you can hear that in, not only in the arrangements, but in the lyrics and the songwriting and it's more of a youthful, jovial record. I wouldn't say that I have necessarily lost any of that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, eager sense but, obviously, this city is changing all the time and people are changing, artists and musicians change, and I think I would just say - and I'm sure everyone says this - that this album that is about to be released is just a little bit more grown up and it's a little more introspective, the way that my producer, Katie Buchanan, arranged things. It's really surprising and lovely and it's not what you would expect if you listened to Nowhere Girl, but it makes a strange sort of sense in the progression of, not only my musical journey, but just the journey of myself over the past few years.

Could you sum up This Was True Once in one sentence?

It's about recognizing that the things that you felt in the past are always relevant, even if they're not still true.

What do you want your listeners to take away from your music?

I hope that they feel something, whether it be, 'this is a catchy chorus,' or, 'wow, that lyric spoke to me,' but I love music that makes me feel something. I know that's kind of an outrageous demand to ask a listener, like, 'feel something,' and I'm not making music for that sense, but I feel a lot from the songs that I chose to include and I think it's just a really lovely, raw portrait of who I was and who I am and how I've come to kind of straddle that line of 'was' and 'is' and I hope that that can reflect outwardly and that other people can maybe find solace and seek some comfort in that.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

The music video for "White Noise" will be out sometime later this month, I think. I am going to release the record, it's coming out on April 8th and I am having a big EP release show on April 10th here in New York at Rockwood Music Hall.

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Zeke Hunter

Look for New York City based indie rocker Zeke Hunter's debut EP, Nuclear Feel, out now.

What got you interested in music?

Zeke Hunter: Well, what initially got me started in music was actually my father. He was running a recording studio back when I was in diapers and so I was surrounded by all these rappers and whatnot who would come in and record their mixtapes with him and then, several years later, I was in high school and I started my first band with a few friends and I ended up, basically, taking a lot of my dad's old recording studio equipment and re-purposing it for myself and, from there, I just went through a couple different projects and joined a few different bands. One of them ended up getting pretty successful at one point; I was with Run On The Sun and we performed at Virgin Mobile FreeFest and Howard 101, and it looked like things were going great, until they weren't. The band broke up and, since then, I've just been writing a lot of my own music and really trying to forge a path for myself. 

Do you remember the first song you wrote that you were happy with?

Oh god, I'm still not happy with them most of the time [laughs]. It is a process and I think feelings towards a song ebb and flow and most of the music I put out, even on this EP, it's stuff that I've been working on sometimes for years and there was a long time where I just hated it until I got a few months away from it, I got a fresh perspective, and then all of a sudden I'd just be like, 'oh my god,' because I actually had something here that I almost overlooked. The first time I wrote something that I really was happy with, it had to be probably "Contraption", about a year and a half, two years ago, which was the first one I released.

Which artists or bands have you been influenced by?

It's all over the map. I listened to a lot of The Beatles growing up. I love George Clinton, James Brown, I listen to a lot of funk but, strangely enough, a lot of people tell me my music actually reminds them more of Depeche Mode or Nine Inch Nails, which I never really listened to beforehand, but I definitely hear the correlation.

Who's in your current playlist?

I'm trying to remember her name, there's this new artist that just released two songs and they're phenomenal, but I can't remember her name.. I love Banks, she's always my go-to. I can't even remember, there's so much stuff that's usually just like a Spotify browse playlist where I hear something in the background and I'm like, 'oh, this sounds great,' but, as far as specific artists, I'm all over the map.

How would you describe your sound?

I usually just say electronic pop rock, but it's all over the map. I mean, I'm working on another song right now that's almost like a soft, sweet, Ed Sheeran-like acoustic song, too. So, I don't know, depends on my mood.

What was the inspiration for your new single and video, "Staring At The Sky"?

"Staring At The Sky" came from a place of imagination, at first. It actually started with a vision, kind of like the movie, Interstellar, where you have the family members going off in a space ship on a journey for years, you never know if you're going to see them again, and that was the first visual inspiration for that story. Then I just kind of went to places of feelings of old longings in relationships and family that's far away and thinking about how people can be hurt by one another and that feeling is so real and so true to each person, but also so different; two people can be so mad and so upset with one another, and their experiences are both right, but so completely unique. That's the whole lyric, 'it's not the same, it's not the same'. The song is really my way of trying to say, it's okay to explore how everyone hurts, but we don't hurt the same.

Could you sum up your Nuclear Feel EP in one sentence?

I'll do one word; eclectic. 

What do you want your listeners to take away from your music?

I want them to feel like they can do whatever the heck they want and they don't have to suppress themselves. So much of the world is about trying to put up facades for people and I feel like I have to hide who I really am and I think, by writing an EP that crosses four different genres and songs that are often so angry but also so personal, I'm trying to show people that it's not the worst thing in the world to reveal who you are, to reveal what you feel. Put it all out on the line.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

Keep your eyes and ears out for new music. I've got that song that I'm finishing up right now that should be out in the next month or so called "Thunderstorms" that I'm very excited about.

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