Local favorite Angela Perley will be playing in Athens for the second time this year in support of its sophomore record Homemade Vision.
Local favorite Angela Perley & The Howlin’ Moons will be bringing its high-energy performance to Athens once again.
The band is returning to Athens after performing at the August Moon Festival held at Scripps Amphitheater last fall. The group is touring in support of its recent album release Homemade Vision which will be played at Casa Nueva, 4 W. State St., on Thursday.
The Post had the opportunity to speak with Perley, an Ohio University alumna, about the band’s return, why she loves Athens and what a Howlin’ Moons performance is like.
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The Post: How did you start your musical career?
Angela Perley: My roommate at the time was interning at Vital Companies in Columbus. I did a lot of … home recordings and stuff in Athens, and she passed them along to Fred Blitzer who owns Vital Companies, and he was interested. … I put my music in paper bag envelopes that caught his eye. He knew our bass player and guitar player, and he actually passed my music on to them … The three of us have been in the band since then, and it just started to take off and have a life of its own.
P: What kinds of influences come into play when it comes to your style?
AP: They’re definitely very wide. I would say in general though definitely a lot of ’60s and ’70s rock and then just like really old kind of classic country and folk influences.
P: Are there any specific artists that you look up to currently?
AP: I would say songwriting-wise it has always been Bob Dylan, and then, all of us in the band love Led Zeppelin, so that’s kind of a nice bridge of communication. As for modern bands, we really love the Heartless Bastards, they live in Austin now, but they’re from Cincinnati. … We even did a cover of Black Sabbath at some of our shows, so it’s all over the place.
P: How has the music scene in Athens attributed to your success?
AP: It’s this small, Appalachian town, and then, you just have the college. … It’s like this bubble. It’s just a very interesting scene, but it has a great art and music community. There was a lot of like old-style country and folk bands coming through town and playing in town and there. … I started really getting into old-school country and blues.
P: Walk me through an Angela Perley & The Howlin’ Moons show.
AP: There’s usually a lot of guitar solos, and we extend some things out. It’s pretty high energy, and every once and a while, we’ll have a wild card cover at the end of the night or something. We definitely feed off of the audience’s energy, and if our bass player is in the mood, he’ll do the splits or something.
P: You guys played the August Moon Festival back in the fall, how was that?
AP: It was so cool and so surreal to be at the Scripps Amphitheater because the acoustics are really great, and when it gets to be evening you can hear the crickets in between the song, and it’s just really cool.
P: Can you tell me a little bit more about your new album?
AP: The album kind of takes off where our last one left off on, and it’s heavy, but it’s more dreamy than anything. We had a lot of fun recording it and definitely a lot of ear candy when it comes to reverb and delay and stuff on the vocals.
P: What specifically do you want people to take from your music?
AP: I think we’re just happy if someone connects to our music in any way and brings about any kind of emotion or nostalgia about their life. We want people to just connect and enjoy it.
@kperez85
