Portland – Alaskan transplants to Portland, Animal Eyes, are gaining traction as a psych rock band to watch. Their first two EPs, Found In The Forest and Ursus focused heavily on their roots in Alaska, but also provided an outlet for their experimental pop sound which borderlines folk and rock. They try to never stick to just one genre. The five-piece are currently working on their first full-length album and departing on an Alaskan tour, but they had time to sit down with Best New Bands before their set at Rontoms on Sunday. Band members Figley, Sam Tenhoff and Haven Multz Mathews filled us in on the Portland music scene, how they get their music to the masses and hacking it as an independent band.
You’re all from rural Alaska, what brought you to Portland?
ST: The music scene, a lot of our favorite groups are from here.
HMM: Sam said he was getting a house here so I sorta hopped on the train and we started jamming, but we didn’t start a band right away.
ST: We’ve been playing in bands together since we were in high school.
What do you think about the Portland music scene now that you’re here?
ST: It’s great.
F: Really awesome, it’s close knit.
ST: Yeah, it’s a lot better connected than some of the scenes in other cities.
HMM: Definitely a lot of homies.
Speaking of favorite Portland bands, who are your favorites?
ST: Menomena. That’s a big one for us.
F: Modest Mouse.
ST: Once we moved here we learned of some local bands that we really liked. Yeah Great Fine, they’re a big influence for us. And Hello Electric.
I found you guys through listening to “Mushroom Hunter.” Do you think the song is at all different from your usual sound? Have you been trying to head in a different direction?
HMM: Our sound has definitely changed from when we first started. It was a little folkier. This upcoming album is more like weird rock stuff.
F: From the progression, you can tell how much different equipment […] we got.
HMM: When we started we had $100 drum sets, $2 amps.
F: No guitar petals.
HMM: We kind of stock piled stuff and then once we got jobs…it took a long time.
What’s your concept for your upcoming album?
ST: It’s our first full-length. We’ve been working on it for a year and a half, and I’d say it’s our first attempt to make our first professional studio album. We did it all ourselves and produced it all ourselves in our house and recorded it all together. We were going for a more professional sound that can contend with the other stuff that’s coming out.
HMM: I think the sound on the album is way more fluid. It’s not as all over the place as we were on our last releases.
ST: A lot more standard song structures and more straightforward songwriting than we had in the past.
F: Since we did it all ourselves, this is how we want to sound.
How is it being an independent band? Do you think Portland is a good place for it?
HMM: Yeah, for sure. Definitely.
ST: It’s a great launch pad.
HMM: The scene here is not too overwhelming. Right now is a great time to be in it, it’s only getting bigger.
ST: It’s easier to book shows in Portland than it is in bigger cities. It took us a long time to break into it. We toured around the west coast and the south a lot to gain a following. A lot of empty dive bars.
How do you try and go about getting attention for the band?
ST: Basically we all sit in a circle with laptops. It’s kind of like The Social Network. A few of us are “plugged in” for 12 hours. Basically, what we do is look at our favorite bands and where they toured, and the venues they played at, and the bands they played with—it’s a long arduous process, you’re listening to such crappy garage bands. One day we emailed 400 blogs.
F: Now we have PR so it’s nice to have a little bit of the weight off.
Animal Eyes will be releasing more videos and more music this fall, like them on Facebook and Twitter for updates.
Dakota Smith
Follow her on twitter in case she says something funny: @LikeTheStates
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