Each month, we'll highlight a local up and coming artist with on-air interviews, a sponsorship of a show at a venue, and information about the band. We'll also showcase a song in our Song of the Week and a video in our Video of the Month! We're excited to have Urban Wildlife as our featured artist for January.
I chatted it up with Emily of the band (via email) to find out a bit more about her....meet Emily Logan!
How long have you lived in the Portland area?
I've been in Portland for a little over 4 years - moved here in August of 2009.
Give us a brief history of your band/project:
Urban Wildlife was a solo project in San Francisco for a couple of years, but I was too shy to really play shows, so I played some of my friends' parties and that's about it. Then right before I moved from SF, I created a little hand-made EP to take with me traveling, and I played open mic nights across the country and gave those away. Then when I moved to Portland I started writing more music, and once again was a little too tentative to form a solid band, so I got a bunch of my friends to play parts on the first Urban Wildlife full length. But I really wanted a full band for the record release show, so I enlisted some folks to play that show with me, and that turned into the band! Ryan Mauk and I played together first - he's the drummer. He was just coming off of a project called Solomon's Hollow, because the lead singer and songwriter had moved to Boise. We clicked right away and just jammed on some of the songs on the record. Then Paul Notley, the bass player, had been a friend of mine for a while, and we previously played briefly together in Soft Tags, which is a band he was in for quite a while. And Wade Morehead and I started dating in the end of 2012 (we met at a show where he was playing rhythm guitar in another band), so he joined as our lead guitar player and it all just started to fall into place. They're all amazing musicians, and I am so lucky to have them. So anyhow, after the first record release we basically started working on a new album right away, and a year later we're releasing Strangers! This album is all these band members, with a few parts done by our engineer and producer Stephan Bayley, as well as some viola parts by Stephanie Wallace.
What’s the first song you ever learned to play?
Ha! The first song I ever learned to play was "Snail" by The Smashing Pumpkins. It's from the album Gish, which was one of my first huge mind-blowing album experiences. That song is pretty much three chords, so it was a good first one. My second song was "Stairway to Heaven." :-P I'm almost serious - I pretty much made that my life's goal when I started playing guitar. Hehe.
What’s your favorite local venue to play? To see other bands?
I really love playing at the Secret Society. They are so great to their musicians there, and the sound is really fantastic. I love how it's a little dance floor as well, though it's rare that people dance. :) I really love seeing bands at the Doug Fir because it attracts a large variety of musicians but is still really personal. I've played there in other bands as well, and it's of course wonderful. On a smaller scale though, I love seeing bands at Mississippi Pizza, Valentine's, and the White Eagle.
Speaking of other bands, who do you like on the Portland music scene?
So many! I really love Anna and the Underbelly - she's amazing and I think she's working on some new stuff, so I'm super excited for that. And she plays sometimes with Jeffrey Martin, who is just incredible. I also crazy love Swansea, who is opening for us for the record release show - they are SO good. And my friend Cait Olds is totally amazing. We lost her to California for a while, but word on the street is that she's returning. ;)
Tell us about a recent “Only in Portland” moment you might have had.
Oh man, there are tiny ones all the time, like how some girl handed me a nipple cupcake on the street the other day. And usually these moment have to do with finding out that friends who I think don't know each other have been friends for years because Portland is such a small town. Oh, I have a good one. I recently formed a women's group - it's a small group of women who support each other and do things together (kind of Portland in itself). But somehow it ended up that three of us members (of about 10) have the same ex-boyfriend. Pretty awesome.
Finish this sentence: “I cannot live without_____”Can I do a list? :) ... always learning a new instrument or song. Burritos. My cat Ostrich. People who are a little bit crazy. KZME! :)
Learn more about the band: www.urbandwildlifemusic.com
CD Release show on January 24 at The Secret Society! Here for tickets and details!
045.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment