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My first thoughts on watching this gorgeous video by Creature Colony were something quite unplaceable.  I was washed over with nostalgia, I could feel my eye softening, my jaw relaxing and melting downwards.  What am I watching?…What am I hearing that reminds me so much of being young and inspired?  This animation–where a streamlined series of Van Gogh paintings seemingly serve as settings–is simple and lovely; the story is sad and beautiful. There are hints of Charlie Brown reminisce, and, at times, bits of Fantasia appear and disappear. Watching the video, you can’t help but become the line-drawn man; he brings out a sadness present in everyone, and illuminates a subtle struggle in the simple motions of life. The song parallels the story; it is simple and lovely, sad and beautiful.

I’m not sure if what I just wrote can accurately describe the entirety of my feelings and reactions to this song and video. Like I said before, it brings something unplaceable, and I think just the recognition of this ghostly thing should be enough…I mean, I don’t think the ghost really needs to be made material. Wow, I feel like I could write an entire thesis statement on this. Moral of the story, I was really moved by this video, and I hope you have a similar reaction. Definitely looking forward to what else Creature Colony has to offer.

Claire Gallagher: Alrighty, who’s who? What are your names, what instruments do you play, etc?

Dustin Andrews: I’m Dustin, I sing and play guitar.

Chris Constancio: I’m the Drummer.

Allan Sechrist: I’m really good at Dance Dance Revolution and I play guitar.

Jon Jennings: My name is Jon… I play bass and sing.

CG: Where are you from?  Did you grow up there? Did you all meet there? How long have you known each other?  If you didn’t meet there, where did you all meet?  How did the band come together?

CC: Allan and I are both from San Jose (California), Dustin is from Syracuse (New York), and Jon is from Hollister (California).

JJ: We all met when we moved to Los Banos (California) at different points in our lives. Some of us went to school with each other and some of us worked together.

AS: We have all known each other in one way or another for a few years now.

DA: The band started when I started playing with Allan in the summer of 2010. We eventually added Jon and Chris to make us a full band. Now we all live together. We pretty much spend all of our time watching Jersey Shore and The Real World.

CG: Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

JJ: We are mainly influenced by Manchester Orchestra, Death Cab for Cutie, Brand New, Bright Eyes, and Kevin Devine.

CG: Do you feel like being from Central California, as opposed to Southern or Northern California, gives you an advantage or unique-ness at all?

DA: It is definitely really easy to write about living in a small town. I feel like it makes our music more relatable.

CC: The Central Valley of California is full of opportunities, along with the ability to travel up north or down south easily.

AS: It is definitely always nice and unique to be from a city that nobody has ever heard of before. You should look up Los Banos on Urban Dictionary when you get a chance. It will tell you all that you ever wanted to know.

CG: What bands do you think you sound like, if any?  What bands have others told you you sound like?  Any strange or incongruent comparisons?

DA: We don’t really think we sound like anybody in particular, but we have been compared to Brand New, Manchester Orchestra, Lydia, Thrice, and many more.

JJ: We have been compared to Tool a few times, which makes no sense to us. That’s always been a mystery to us.

CC: We would like to sounds like a combination of all of our favorite bands with our own flavor thrown in.

CG: What do you think you would be doing right now if you weren’t a musician? What did you want to be when you were a kid?

JJ: If we weren’t musicians, we would probably be working at our local movie theatre or something like that. We love movies.

AS: When we were kids, we all wanted to be members of the X-Men. I am Professor X, Chris is Wolverine, Dustin is The Beast, and I am Gambit.

CG: What has been a personal high and a personal low about your musical career so far? Any particular moments of awesomeness or embarrassing blunders?

DA: We haven’t really had any lows yet, but we have had a lot of highs. Recently, we opened for one of our favorite bands Now, Now ([formerly]Now, Now Every Children). They are the nicest people you can ever meet. (Read a review of Now, Now’s Los Angeles concert here).

CC: We try not to take ourselves too seriously, so when something embarrassing happens it is normal for us.

CG: So what’s the story behind the name Creature Colony?  How did it come about?

DA: There is actually no story behind the band name. We just thought that it fit our sound perfectly. We also love the ideas of creatures in the night and animal instincts.

CG: Tell me about your first full-length album Breathe Night, White Owl? What’s the feel of it, what was your inspiration for it, and how has the response to it been?

JJ: We are inspired by everything that happens in our lives. With this album, we wanted to make it extremely personal to what we were going through at that time. Most of the lyrics are about the people that surround us, whether it be friends and family or ex-girlfriends and people that we are not particularly fond of.

AS: The response has been amazing, almost overwhelming. We love using tumblr to keep close with the people that listen to our music. We love hearing what they have to say.

CG: What is next for Creature Colony?

DA: Next up for us is a collaboration with Humble J (also on Quote Your Pulse Records) for a remix of our song “Circles and Shine.” He will be adding in a rap section and we are excited for everybody to hear it because he is our favorite rapper. We plan on putting a few b-sides with it and releasing it as a free download in early April. Be sure to keep up with us on Facebook and/or at our official website www.creaturecolony.com

JJ: After that, we are going into a recording studio in late April in order to record songs for a 7inch vinyl record that we will be releasing in the summer. We also plan on releasing a new full-length album by the end of the year. It will definitely be our best work to date. We plan on taking our sound to a whole new level and we are confident that our fans will love it.

Be sure to take a listen to Creature Colony’s Breathe Night, White Owl, and check their Facebook for all the latest updates! Also, if you’re in the Los Banos area, be sure to see their next show on March 27th (it’s a house show!).  More details here.

 

What do you think of Creature Colony? Also, how about that video? Did you get all googly-eyed and dreamy like I did?  Speak yo’ mind, readers, and drop me a comment.