It is incredible to think about how a piece of art can help us get through hard moments in life. There is a lot of healing both for the artist and the audience when it comes to music. It is a therapeutic process I would say. Music is the pain, the happiness, the sadness, the excitement, the fear that rests within our souls. The lyrics of a song and the melody is what wraps up these sentiments. There is really no perfect way to define amazing songs, because they speak for it themselves. How often do we stop and think about the subliminal messages in songs? Not many. Yet, that chorus that wont let us go is sitting in the back of our minds. Sometimes it stays there for months, weeks, days, or a couple of hours. Without realizing this that song sticks to the back of our minds like glue because it means something to us, or it is stupid and extremely catchy. The songs that we find that are able to capture what we are feeling in life at that exact moment are the true gems in music. There are so many amazing artist out there that are able to convey this with their music. Duncan Fellows is a band I came across a while back. You can hear the honesty and simplicity in their music. It has a new sound, but it is nothing weird that would take great courage to listen to. It is just the right amount of new, honest, and raw. They are able to capture you in their music and take you on their journey.
MWN: Finding your sound as a band is highly important. There can be challenges in that because each individual can come from different musical backgrounds and is inspired by different musicians. However, you guys were able to create such a unique awesome sound. So, who would you guys say influenced your sound the most as a whole?
Duncan Fellows: It has evolved as the years have gone by. What influenced us when we started is the instruments we owned which was like acoustic instruments and that is all we had to play with. It was fun, but once we got a little more money we got electric instruments. I was listening to a lot of Van Morrison an album called Astral Weeks.
Duncan Fellows: I listened to a lot of softer stuff. Gregory Allen. The stuff we listened to before the band was more upbeat like Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Bombay Bicycle club. Since we only had acoustic instruments when we started the band we wrote softer stuff, but we are always trying to evolve into something louder and more energetic. That is where we are headed I guess.
MWN: Between Your EP’s such as the first one where you guys have songs such as Arrow and Rich Man. It is much more acoustic. This new album Marrow has songs such as Dark Eyes and New Skin you can really hear it. Was it that you guys had electric instruments now or did it just change because it is reflecting your life?
Duncan Fellows: That was a factor. Also we just liked it when we play live shows and there is more energy. We realized we could only reach a certain level with acoustics. We started writing our songs together.
MWN: What is the writing process for you guys? I know some bands will sit in a room turn on a recorder and just play until something they like comes out and then they work around that. Other bands have a very specific idea of what they want.
Duncan Fellows : Colin and I. We write all the tunes. Of course we will arrange it with the band, but usually we will come up with that initial idea and like what you were saying. We play around with the melodies and see if I can get something I like. Usually on an acoustic guitar. Then I will bring that to Cullen and we workshop it. If we end up liking what we hear we will bring it to the rest of the guys, and try to arrange with a full band.
MWN: Are your lyrics more personal or fictional?
Duncan Fellows: I would say it is more personal now.
MWN: I would say the song Saints captivated me the most. The opening verse “Smiling mother fearless child burning words burning words from the church choir. A boy that runs is twice as wise He’ll shiver, he’ll shake, with his shining eyes.” Can you guys tell me a little bit more about this song?
Duncan Fellows: That first verse is kind of like sort of potentially written from the perspective of a boy. It is about rebelling!
MWN: Alright, so to wrap up the interview. My last questions is really quite simple. What do you guys expect to do with your music?
Duncan Fellows : We are recording an album! We are still playing a few shows around TX. Our main goal is to finish the album so we can debut it next year!