Sweet Home Alabama – apparently. There are 49 state in this feature I have never been to, so as far as I know Lynyrd Skynyrd could have been talking nonsense. Never trust rock stars, that’s the rule.
For the first time in the feature we hit the southern states where I imagine everyone drives around in General Lee type cars and say Yeeeehawwww a lot. This of course could be a crass generalisation brought about by watching too many crappy movies and Yosemite Sam as a child. Wait….that might be Texas.
Alabama is the 22nd state was formed in 1819. Fact finders will know it was the state where open heart surgery was first performed in 1902 and was also the birth place of Nat King Cole.
Before we welcome this weeks band, there is currently a State Of Music album in the pipeline to be released on Choose My Music Records. The proceeds of this album will go towards a brilliant UK based charity called Camden Calling who work with homeless musicians and artists in London.
If you want to keep up to speed with how the album is progressing then please give Choose My Music Records a like on its Facebook page.
Anyway…that said, please welcome my favourite band from Alabama.
Earth House
BUY ON BANDCAMP: DIGITAL DOWNLOAD $7 (£4.50 approx) CD + DIGITAL DOWNLOAD $10 (£6.40 approx)
Earth House were on of the first bands I found when I decided to start this fools errand. I know someone who lives in Alabama, or at least used to live there – so naturally it was one of the first states I decided to try.
I am not even sure on how to describe this 3 piece. Their first track on new EP Choir wouldn’t be out of place on a early Verve album, while a few tracks later things get a lot heavier on ‘New Jehovah’. The closing song ‘Esto’ is though, a thing of beauty.
One thing I would suggest is you listen to this them through headphones as opposed to computer speakers. There is a lot of depth you won’t hear otherwise.
I am sure there will be many who will disagree. What does it matter? Well nothing when the music is good. I am sure once you give it a listen you will be perhaps surprised to know that Earth House are comprised of members who I estimate are not any older than 19. The band has also only been together since June this year.
Have a listen to their album in full here and as usual read the interview below to find out more.
CMM: Welcome to Choose My Music. I suppose the first question is – who are Earth House and where in the world would we find you?
EH: Thanks for having us. Earth House at the moment is composed of myself (Caleb Eberle), Samuel Oden, and John Oden and we are based out of Enterprise, Alabama, or as we usually just refer to it as, the dirty south.
CMM: How long has the band been in existence and how did it all start?
EH: Earth House’s current lineup started writing and recording music in June of this year (2011), but was originally an outlet I used to release a series of EPs that ranged from Lo-Fi/Folk/Ambient/Electro/Philosophical Noise, that I pray to God will never be heard. Earth House as it is currently, was started out of sheer boredom. I went to Sam asking for his help recording some songs I had been working on shortly after the two of us graduated high school. Over what seemed like months, but was really no more than four days, we had put together a full band, recorded an EP, and were scheduling our first shows. We all knew something big was in the works, but we just weren’t quite sure what it was.
CMM: How best would you describe your music?
EH: We like to joke that we’re no more than a Philosophical Jam band, but I think a more honest and correct description would just be plain Rock and Roll.
CMM: What is the music scene like in Alabama right now? What the genre of choice out there at the moment?
EH: Certainly not the best for a band like us. We’ve got a lot of local support from friends and people we went to school with, but honestly our town has practically no music scene. I think the most popular genres would be country, radio rap, any kind of auto-tuned “screamo” that you have to paint your nails and only shop at Hot Topic to listen to, and I think Justin Bieber is still popular amongst little girls, but I might be wrong about that. There’s probably some new teen sensation.
CMM: One thing I am hoping to find in this series is some kind of link between where a band is based and their location. Do you feel as an artist you are influenced by your surroundings and the scene around you?
EH: Definitely. Not so much the scene, but more of the location. When you question God and don’t speak too kindly of where you’re from in your lyrics, especially living in the Bible Belt south, you don’t always get positive feedback. We definitely deal with the fact of trying to get the hell out of where we are a lot, but not so much in a negative aspect. I think we take that fact and use it to fuel our energy, both writing and playing onstage. Our first full length LP will most likely be entitled Southern Hate, I think that pretty much sums up how we feel about our current surroundings.
CMM: What other influences does the band have, musical or otherwise?
EH: Musically we listen to a lot of current “indie” bands like All Get Out, Brand New, Sun Hotel, Manchester Orchestra, and Thrice just to name a few of our favorites. I’m also a big Jeff Mangum devotee, so that might play a factor into the music a little. As far as everything that’s not music goes, we all grew up in Christian households so we deal with the good and bad of that a lot and of course like i previously mentioned, the whole ideology of living in the South.
CMM: Could you maybe give us a run down of the music you have released so far?
EH: We released our first EP entitled Grandfather back in June and we’re getting ready to release another EP entitled Choir on October 4th that we recorded at Marigolds+Monsters Studio in Atlanta, Georgia with our good friends from Century Studios back in July.
CMM: I am sure like most bands you get out and play live when you can. Where are your favourite places to plan both in and out of state?
EH: We haven’t quite made it out of the southeast yet, but I think without a doubt Atlanta is our favorite city and place to play. Birmingham, AL is also a favorite for us, as well as being able to play home shows for our friends at any random location we can.
CMM: What’s next in the pipeline for Earth House?
EH: We’re releasing our EP Choir ourselves on October 4th and we are in the process of scheduling a two week winter tour that will hopefully reach as far north as Chicago, Illinois. I’m currently going to College in St. Augustine, Florida, Sam’s going to college back home, and John is still in high school so we’re pretty much on break until we get out of classes and are able to play more shows.
CMM: And finally, where can people reach out to you online and where can they get hold of your stuff?
EH: The best place to hear our music is at earthhouse.bandcamp.com, but if you just want to say hey to us we have a Facebook page at facebook.com/earthhousemusic. We also have a twitter that’s @earthhousemusic and youtube channel at youtube.com/earthhousemusic.
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