Mammoth Indigo

Going on a full US tour just over a year after your first release isn't an easy thing to do as band, but Mammoth Indigo doesn't mind. In fact they make it look easy.

All photos by Eric Sonson

Coming from Richmond, Virginia, Mammoth Indigo has a sound that healthily and uniquely blends too many styles to count on one hand. Coming from the ten songs on their self-titled first release, which you can listen to here, are soaring vocals that would make Thom Yorke jealous, explosive yet melodic guitars reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky, and a maturity in songwriting that would make any first album sound prodigious. And now they've come all the way to Dallas for a show at The Boiler Room.

I got a chance to sit down and talk with them after their set about life on tour and their album.



So you guys released your first album, Mammoth Indigo, just this past year in August of 2013. How long had you been a band before that point?

We actually recorded the album before we were a band and were essentially like, "Dude, let's be a band" and went on tour immediately. In fact, we didn't even have our album before we left for our first week of dates and had to have it over-nighted to us in Atlanta.

How many tours have you been on since the album release?

This is our third big one, but we do some regional stuff every once in a while. We'll do a big thing for a month, month and a half, or two months for this one and then go back home and work for a little while. We'll do a few shows here and there and if we get one that's far away from town we'll string a couple of shows together for a kind of mini-tour.

Any tour stories?

Every night has a weird story. That's the cool thing about being on tour, is that every single day is so different. Our vocalist Cody has a good one:

"We were in Muncie, Indiana and after our set I was walking around when this guy stops me. I had a really good beer in my hand that the owner had gotten me and was just savoring it, not really wanting to give it to anybody. This guy stops me by grabbing my hand and he kind of looks like Danny DeVito or something, but he starts rubbing my fingers gently going, 'Meow....meow meow meow meow.' And he started trying to drink my beer saying 'What're you drinking there? Can I get you another one?' I said 'No, that's ok' but he just kept meowing."

What's been the longest drive so far?

Dan drove from Chicago to Utica, New York. That's like 14 or 15 hours. He drank one cup of McDonald's coffee and was set.



How does the east coast differ from the cities that you're visiting further out west?

It's kind of hard to say, because you'll think that you're going into a new culture because of one or two shows and then you'll find the same type of people that you knew from home. We also, being an indie band, don't get to experience a majority of the culture. We don't play a lot of places that cater to country or jazz, which is what a lot of people want down here. I was actually kind of scared last night because we played a show and in the audience there were a bunch of old dudes with white scraggly beards, but they loved it. You really can't tell. You just have to go into each city with an open mind, no matter how many times you've experienced [that city].

I heard that you guys had some obstacles come up at the beginning of the tour. Can you tell me more about that?

Our bass player dropped out of the band the day that we left for tour and basically said, "Oh, sorry. I can't come anymore. See ya." We had to cancel a show and then stay up for about...14 hours re-recording all of the bass parts. We recorded them into Apple Logic and then split them up into samples so that we could put them onto a pad to trigger them during our shows. It was crazy. We did it for about five shows before we met our [current] bassist Adam in Charlotte. We were playing a show there and asked the crowd if there were any bass players, and the bassist from the first band that played yelled out, "I'll play bass for you guys!" We called him the next day and he was like, "Yeah man, I'm still down to go." We pulled into his driveway and thought that there was no way this guy was coming with us. He got in the van and we started pulling away and were like, "Shit! This is happening right now. He's actually coming."

Who did you guys record the album with?

A buddy of ours, Chris Perez. He did it in his basement...well, two different basements because he moved halfway through, but he did a phenomenal job. People are always like, "Yo, what studio did you record this in?" and we're like, "The basement down the street." He helped write a lot of the stuff [and] helped with the bass parts; he was the fifth Beatle. He's definitely a really good guy to work with.



Have you guys written any new music while on tour?

Yeah, we keep noodling around with new stuff. Actually, before we left we wrote three or four new songs just in case we didn't have a bass player so we could play at least a set. We actually haven't shown them to [our bassist] Adam yet.

What are some notable bands that you've played with so far?

Listen, Earth, The Soil and The Sun, and Caddywhompus were all really good. Check them out.



Mammoth Indigo is still on tour. If you'd like to see them, which I'd highly recommend, you can check out their tour schedule here and like them on Facebook. - Austere Magazine

Because there are so many bands and artists currently making music, it’s hard to make a splash if you’re not doing something crazy, controversial, or a mix of the two. We tend to notice the bands that are peddling gimmicks at the cost of not noticing bands that put out solid, quality work. And it’s easy to be cynical about bands that don’t reinvent the wheel. Take Arcade Fire for example1: their critics often cite the lack of innovation, or that they are “boring”, instead of giving them some credit for earnest, quality songwriting.

Mammoth Indigo fall within this range of bands – bands that don’t necessarily change the paradigm of rock music, but they do a good job of working within pre-existing frameworks. At the outset, Mammoth Indigo’s debut record (self-titled) sounds like a lot of bands that you’ve probably heard before. The components of a modern rock band are all in place: soft vocals, guitars, a solid rhythm section. There’s nothing that immediately catches your ear. However, Mammoth Indigo is a record that, if you give it a chance, will surely win you over. The best word that I can use to describe the band is “thoughtful.” These songs are measured and well-made – there’s almost no excess, no fat, and no self-indulgence.

The best songs on Mammoth Indigo are the ones that twist and change throughout their 3-minute-or-so track length. The best representation of this is the first single, “Rapture”. The song starts slow and softly and works its way up until its roiling over. But even at the band’s wildest and most frenetic – everything is firmly, surely under control. On one hand, this ensures that the song (in thise case “Rapture”, but it applies elsewhere on the album) has an intense, determined tone to it rather than a scattered one. On the other hand, it kind of zaps some of the excitement and energy if Mammoth Indigo had chosen to go the looser, “off-the-rails” route. At any rate, the band make it work, and their music carries a serious punch.

Part of this punch, comes from the lyrics. The lyrics on Mammoth Indigo are often fantastic. Most of the subject matter appears to be pulled from memory, and this is done not only with a fresh sense of honesty, but with a some really great imagery. For example, on “No Mothers”: “Low on time with the headlights coming for you / Lied to your mother, smoking cigs on the swing-set / Only nineteen, burn trees with your lovers.”. Or on “Rapture”: “I’ve seen a life, a life of rapture / It could be yours if you want to get there / Where has your soul gone to? / Where did your spirit go? / Don’t got money, spent it on the white dust / You look ugly, skeleton white ghost.”

If you’re looking for art-oriented indie-rock without all the pretense – here it is. - Earbuddy

What's so good?
By austindixon | Aug 15, 2013

Mammoth Indigo is a four-piece band out of Harrisonburg, VA. They have a darker folk-rock sound similar to Desaparecidos, but not quite the same intensity. Cody Bower’s tenor voice rises above a post-rock landscape of shimmering guitars, heavy bass, and gunshot percussion. It’s a mature and fine-tuned sound with hardcore tendencies.

Their first single, “Rapture,” starts out with slow, methodical, and contemplative yearning from Bowers and builds into an eruption of sound and emotion. This song relies heavily on the vocals to carry the song through, and it pays off, with a haunting and melancholy quality that sticks around for the rest of the day.

Their eponymous first album was released earlier this month and they’re currently unsigned. The album can be purchased on their Bandcamp page. - Indie Shuffle

An indie-rock band based out of Harrisonburg and Yorktown, Virginia - Mammoth Indigo is quickly gaining attention since their independent album release in August 2013. The band's ability to infuse sincere emotion along with musical flow immediately led us to using one of their songs in a commercial last year. Mammoth Indigo has spread themselves across audiences by touring up and down the east coast, grasping the eyes of blogs, magazines and record labels. As they look to the near future, expansion to the west coast and into Canada have become set plans.

untd: What do you consider the style of Mammoth Indigo to be?
Mammoth Indigo: This is usually a hard question to answer. We definitely try to take an honest and sincere approach to our songs. As a band, Cody finger-picks most of his guitar parts, Dan is constantly playing three instruments at once, and Eric keeps things loud and epic on the drums. We've been labeled everything from "dream-folk" to "native indie-rock" and a lot more in between. Earbuddy described Mammoth Indigo as "thoughtful...indie-rock without all the pretense".

untd: What is the writing process for you guys?
Mammoth Indigo: Cody wrote all of the songs on the debut album. He brings an acoustic version of a song to the band and they add their ideas. The song completely morphs into what everyone hears on the album. It's a huge creative transformation.

untd: Do you all have a favorite song to play and what makes it special?
Mammoth Indigo: Our song "Videotapes" is always great fun to play live because we added this trippy circus vibe to the entire last 2 minutes of the song. Every time we play it we have fans talk to us about it afterwards. We always add new stuff to our live performances to keep people on their toes.

untd: What’s the biggest influence on your music?
Mammoth Indigo: We have a huge range of influences. The main parallel we see between each of us is that we all enjoy music that's entirely sincere. If it's honest, you can kind of sense it.

untd: How did you get into music?
Mammoth Indigo: Dan's parents are both highly musical; his mom being a choir teacher and his dad a band director. Having tons of instruments around his house may have something to do with his talent. Eric played drums in band and when he got his own kit everything took off from there. He's also great at the piano. Cody became addicted to the guitar after a friend taught him a song, and began writing music towards the end of high school.

untd: Could you tell us about the formation of the band?
Mammoth Indigo: Mammoth Indigo was originally going to be a solo EP by Cody. As the music began developing, he invited Eric and Dan to join the band in order to make it the bigger vision he was seeing in his head. They threw away a couple songs and collectively finished the rest of the album together as Mammoth Indigo.

untd: If you could play anywhere, where would it be?
Mammoth Indigo: Australia and all over Europe. On the more immediate horizon, we plan to be on the west coast and Canada very soon. - United Clothing Co.

This month, we are so excited to bring you the truly amazing Mammoth Indigo. These Virginia natives have struck much more than chords with us, and we hope they will for you too. In fact, it seems they already have, judging by the fact that both of their Feedbands tracks, “No Mothers” and “Rapture,” have been holding steady at the top of our charts for many weeks now.

This alternative/indie/post-rock band has a tempered roughness that does not come easily. Much like other post-rock groups such as the Appleseed Cast, Minus the Bear, and Colour Revolt, Mammoth Indigo has no trouble going from melodic guitar and soft folky vocals to pounding drums and lyrics like war chants. Many of their songs feel as though they could erupt into screams at any moment, but don’t. In parts, they have the solemn sing-song rhythm of some Modest Mouse tracks; in others, the intense percussion and epic guitar riffs of Brand New or Manchester Orchestra.

Frontman and former solo artist Cody Bowers has a voice like frontman-turned-solo-artist Ryan O’Neal aka Sleeping at Last: breathy and gentle but powerful and raw; it suits his lyrics perfectly. He writes pure poetry, telling a story with every song. His lyrics mirror his music in that they can transition from simple to guttural in the span of a song: “No Mothers” begins with a common enough image accompanying just a guitar, but by its ending, it’s all pounding drums, electric guitar, and layered chants. Overall, there’s some dreamy indie verses, some big soaring choruses, and high production value, making for one very impressive band. - Feedbands Blog

Mammoth Indigo have been teasing me with their self titled album for the past few weeks, and while I wait for my soul to decide on whether or not I love it or just like it, I fingered I'd share my love for this fucking song by telling you why you should love this band.

The intensity of this music video, while being simple as Fuck, is fucking amazing. Not only is the simple straight forward camera angle focused on this dude's adorable face sort of force you into listening to the lyrics, the subtle shakes of the camera when you're into the thick of it are fucking jarring. And when dude finally looks at me I can almost see this guy as a kid looking at someone in a position of authority with a sense of disdain and contempt. It's fucking awesome.

Mammoth Indigo, I want to blow you. Rapture is fucking gorgeous. - SYFFAL

Mammoth Indigo floored me with this song when I first heard it a few months back. The lyrics! The music! all just come together to lodge themselves into your ears and thoughts and never leave. The rest of the songs on their debut LP are at the same calibre of this track and are definitely worth checking out and downloading at their bandcamp page. - Don't Need No Melody

Mammoth Indigo frontman, Cody Bowers, has motivation to make music that matters, that extends beyond voluntary compulsion. A recent college grad with news of having a baby on the way, Bowers invited Eric Singer and Dan McDonough to join the project. A fervent scatter of immediate writing, tracking, and tour plans were made. The writing and recording of the album is described by the band as being, a very intense and meaningful dream-like blur. Family, distance, responsibility, the unknown… There was so much at stake.

The band has a haunting Band Of Horses meets My Morning Jacket type feel. “Rapture” starts with an amazing slow-burn feel with a steady electronic beat throughout. The song whisks you away with the ringing guitar, the erupts into a tribal stomp at the end and makes for an unforgettable experience. A great taste of what this band can do.

The rest of the album holds up to the single, oozing with emotion, chant-esque harmonies, anthemic melodies, and huge layered guitars when unleashed. - AmpKicker

Tour tested band Mammoth Indigo of Richmond/Harrisonburg, VA, brings an emotional, atmospheric, big finish indie rocker with the up close and personal video for their debut single "Rapture". Veterans of the road, Mammoth Indigo are now poised to stomp with future releases of swelling, melodic tunes. - The Modern Folk Music of America

The debut album from Richmond/Harrisonburg alternative indie rock band Mammoth Indigo was intended to be a 5-track EP, but the music making process took hold and the group managed to pull 10 excellent tracks on one incredible self-titled debut.

With influences from bands like Brand New, Beach House, Radiohead, The National, Fleet Foxes and Led Zeppelin, Mammoth Indigo band likes to incorporate gang vocal chants and their album has a wide range emotions from peaceful and ambient to upbeat and fun.

The band’s track “No Mothers” was named one of the best releases out of VIRGINIA from 2013 by WNRN. They’ve headlined at the National back in September and recently completed their second US East Coast and Midwest tour.

Check out the video for “Rapture.” - RVA Playlist

When members of Mammoth Indigo were asked how they would describe their sound, they answered simply: “We wouldn’t.”
The three-piece set consists of JMU alumus Cody Bowers (’12) on lead vocals and guitar, Dan McDonough on rhythm guitar, keyboards and backing vocals, and Eric Singer on drums. The band is based in Yorktown, Va.
Last Saturday they played a show at Blue Nile and let the music speak for itself. With a mature sound that consists of chords similar to Cold War Kids and percussions that boom like fireworks reminiscent of Imagine Dragons, one may think of Mammoth Indigo as indie-rock veterans, but the group is only a year-and a-half young.
“We all went to the same high school [in Yorktown] but didn’t know each other at the time,” Singer said. “We all were playing in different bands in college, but one day Cody [Bowers] hit me up and asked if I could come drum and record on some tracks, and it took off from there.”
The formation of their band was almost natural.
“It was pretty cool because I knew of him through other people, and when we met it was real easy,” Bowers said, while stringing his green ’76 Fender American. “Eric [Singer] would come up to Harrisonburg to record and sleep on my couch in Copper Beech.”
Mammoth Indigo, whose name comes from Bowers’ two favorite words, is a band with a relentless touring schedule. The band has already been around the country three times, including a slot at last year’s Madipalooza festival. The band has been doing everything themselves, from booking gigs to selling merchandise.
“We’re like gypsies,” McDonough said.
“It’s like a mild form of insanity, you lose all social graces,” Singer added.
Despite their frenetic schedule on the road, the band finds ways to keep a level head.
“You kind of learn on the road that you can’t have any expectations about anything going on, at all, because they’re always wrong,” Bowers said. “You get somewhere and you just gotta go with the flow and stay calm and just say ‘let’s do it.’”
In order to save money, the band opts out of buying hotel rooms and instead meets people at the show who offer them a place to stay for the night.
“Every venue, we just meet these people and they offer to house us,” Bowers said. “[We make] new friends every time.”
The band believes that their music helps them get proper housing.
“People are awesome,” Singer said. “If I walked into a town looking like I do and didn’t play music, people would close their doors and slam their windows. But I play a little music and they’re like, ‘Oh dude, come eat my food and sleep in my house’. It really brings a positive air to humanity that we’ve all seen. A lot of people don’t get to see it and we definitely don’t take it for granted.”
The band has been developing a solid fan base in each city they tour, especially here in Harrisonburg. Ryan Kinsey, an employee at Blue Nile, has been a friend of the band for two years. He refers to them as “Mami.”
“They have this simplicity, but there’s so much depth to it,” Kinsey said. “You listen to a song and it can mean something completely different to you after you read the lyrics.”
Kinsey mentioned that an inside joke between him and the band is that when something is really good, they say, “It’s so breakfast.”
Drew Johnson, a regular at Blue Nile and an avid Mammoth Indigo fan, has seen them “at least five times” and mentioned that there’s always something new to each show.
“One of my favorites is the song ‘No Mothers’ — you’ll see me get emotional when they play it,” Johnson said. “It’s just so good.”
When the band members aren’t performing, they might be finding nearby cliffs to jump off into water or hanging out with Bowers’ 10-month-old daughter. They are also working on a new album, which Bowers described as “spooky and Halloween.”
Mammoth Indigo will play at the Blue Nile again on Nov. 9, and maybe you’ll think the band is “so breakfast,” as well. - The Breeze

MAMMOTH INDIGO has been hitting the road hard to support their eponymous debut album. Over the past eight months, the Harrisonburg-based outfit has embarked on two month-long tours that have covered various venues on the East Coast and beyond – cities as far South as Birmingham, as far west as Chicago, and as far North as New York. Life on the road has been as interesting as one would expect from a group of 20-somethings with a strong zest for life and music. They’ve slept in extravagant downtown apartments, rat-infested shitholes, and every style of living quarters in between. They’ve bunked with relative strangers, held an after-hour dance party at one particularly liberal venue, and watched in excitement as a growing number of fans have begun to sing along during live shows.

It’s a thrilling time to be a part of the MAMMOTH INDIGO brigade, and all signs point to more good times on the horizon. They wrapped up their second month-long tour a little over 30 days ago and plan to continue “touring the first album into the ground” while compiling songs for a second release. Tour dates include appearances at two festivals: JMU’s Madipalooza on April 12th and Rally in the Alley in Winchester on April 13th. They also have a show at The Camel in Richmond on April 16th.

Recently, lead singer and guitarist Cody Bowers, who is also the proud father of a five-month old baby girl, took time out of his hectic schedule to chat with The Dominion Collective about sleeping arrangements on tour, the band’s favorite venue (hint: it’s in Richmond), and his unrepentant admiration for pop singer LANA DEL REY.

Who are some of your biggest influences? I hear some COLDPLAY coming through as well as “folkish” undertones.

That’s cool that you hear folk. We get that quite a bit. I don’t listen to a ton of folk music. There are a few bands that stick out as being folky, but I think my lack of being able to play the guitar really well might lend itself to why it sounds kind of folky. The twanglin’, janglin’ kind of style. Dan, on the other hand, can play anything on guitar. One band I listen to that’s really picking up a lot of steam is THE SOIL AND THE SUN. They have violins and a lot of double drumming like we do. Very peaceful, spiritual vibes. Another band I grew up listening to was BRAND NEW. And I know Dan McDonough really likes RADIOHEAD. Eric Singer listens to THE NATIONAL. I love BEACH HOUSE and female singers—WYE OAK. SHARON VAN ETTEN, LANA DEL REY. I’m not ashamed to admit I like LANA DEL REY.

Can you talk a little bit about the cover art for your debut album “Mammoth Indigo?”

Andee Watson is the name of the girl that did it. She’s my girlfriend’s 11-year old little sister. It was funny, because we were thinking about what we wanted on the cover. So one day I ended up on her Instagram account and one of the pictures was that picture. She had taken a picture of her jumping into a pool off a diving board and then photoshopped it onto that sky/plane background and made it look like it does now. I thought it was so cool. I liked the idea of falling, being isolated. I showed the guys and they were like “That has to be the album cover,” and it makes it that much cooler that it was made by an 11-year old girl.

You all just finished up a month-long tour that went all over the East Coast. Was that the most extensive tour you all have done as a band?

We did another month-long tour in August. We had played maybe two shows before we left for that one. So we were kind of ambitious with both of them. [We] just wanted to get out there and start touring hard. That first one was a month long, and it was in the summer. This winter tour was the exact opposite of that. The first one we want a little bit further south: Georgia, South Carolina, and places like that. The second one the furthest south we went was North Carolina.

Where did you all crash?

On the first tour we went into it pretty blindly and ended up staying with people we met at the shows. That was always interesting. You never knew what you were going to get. We got some good stories out of that tour. The second one we planned out a lot better. We stayed with some friends that we had met on the first tour.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM MAMMOTH INDIGO
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM MAMMOTH INDIGO

Do you care to divulge any of those stories, if they’re fit for public consumption?

We played with this band in Chicago named FLETCHER. They were from England. They were like, “You guys can stay at our place!” And we were sort of expecting the normal little house, like maybe we would sleep on the floor or something like that. But they took us to this awesome, huge building in Chicago. The band somehow knew the guy that owned the warehouse that was attached to it. They had a recording studio that I ended up sleeping in. It was just this beautiful, two-story apartment that blew our minds. They housed us for two days, and we had a blast.

So the place in Chicago was the most extravagant pad you stayed at. What was the grungiest?

There are always those people at shows that offer you a place to stay that can be pretty eccentric. Usually those are just as fun. The mangiest place we stayed at was on our first tour. I won’t mention the name of the venue just because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but the guys that worked at the bar were like, “You can stay with the people who live above this venue.” So the tenants came downstairs, and they seemed like pretty normal girls, but kind of on the wild side. They were like, “sure ya’ll can stay with us!” When we got up there, it was like a crack house. One of the sketchiest places I’ve been. We were scheming up escape plans if they tried to rob us. There was rat poison on the floors around all of the walls. These people smoked a ridiculous amount. We had been there for two hours after our show and all of them had smoked a pack of cigarettes each. It was hard for me to breathe; I had to go outside a couple of times. And it’s not like I have an aversion to smoking. We play at bars every night, and I smoke a cigarette every once and a while. But this was insane. I don’t know how these people lived in there. The dude said that before he lived there, there were some drug dealers living there. They had problems with break-ins and shootings. So we decided to get a case of beer and drink our worries away.

What has been your favorite venue so far?

We played at The National in September, and that was a real honor. I think everyone in the band would agree with that. Playing in big venues like that is so exciting. The sound is so good. All I wanted to do was kick the shit out of the bass drum and let it echo. We also like playing in Utica, New York at this place called the Dev. The first time we went there, our buddy in this band call BAD CELLO hooked us up. Everyone was so receptive. They kept the bar open late for us and had a dance party after the doors were closed. They were so accommodating that we made it a point to go back there on this tour. This last tour, we had a girl by the name of JOEY COOK, a singer songwriter and accordion player. We kept telling her that we couldn’t wait to get to Utica, and she like, “Why are you guys so excited about that place?”, and when we got there everyone loved her music and people who were at our first show were there for the second. It was like a reunion. Just tons of free stuff and good vibes. After we were done playing the first set, a couple hours went by and there were enough people there and they still wanted us to play. So we played a couple more songs at one or two in the morning.

So considering you went to a lot of the same places during the second tour as the first tour, did you recognize a lot of faces? And did you notice people starting to sing along to your lyrics and stuff like that?

It’s always cool when you start a song and people cheer because they recognize it. We’ve been getting a nice little following in Richmond. People singing our songs and stuff like that. It makes us play that much better and makes it mean that much more. This second tour we got to see a lot of people we met the first time. We also saw some new faces who were just as big of fans as the people we had seen the first time. That was really cool to us. It’s crazy how you can put out a video or a song and someone a few states away is listening. It’s so cool. For all of us, this is the most serious band we’ve ever been in. To see that sort of stuff happening is really cool.

MI 3

Have you run into any overzealous fans? Crazies, as it were?

Definitely, but we love it. That’s one of the coolest things that have happened; meeting those types of people has definitely been a highlight. The crazier the better. It doesn’t really get old.

So now that you have some time off from touring, what are the band’s plans?

We’re trying to play a lot of festivals this summer. JMU has Madipalooza on April 12th. There’s a smaller festival the next day, and we play The Camel on April 16th with OCEAN VS. DAUGHTER. We’re writing our next album as we go. Not rushing it. Our plan is to tour our first album to the ground, really. We’ll probably do another tour in June.

How many songs have been finished for the next album?

I have two that are pretty done right now. This album is going to be a little different. The first album started as a solo album. I was writing these songs, and then I found out I was going to be having a baby. She’s five-months-old now. I decided I wanted to make music my career, to do something I love and be able to support everyone. I realized I needed to find a band to make it happen. We finished “God-Made Satellite” and “Rapture” and then went on to the rest of the album, but I had ideas for most of the songs, the structures, the lyrics, that sort of thing. We recorded really fast. We wanted to start touring and go, go, go. We actually had our first album overnighted to us when we were in Atlanta on tour, but with the new album we’re going to take our time, which I’m excited about. The first one was sort of rushed, which was cool in its own way, but the second one will be more of a project. We’re going to get much deeper into it. Much more musicianship and stuff like that.

For more updaters on MAMMOTH INDIGO, be sure to visit their website, follow them on Twitter, “like” their Facebook page, and check out their music on Bandcamp. - The Dominion Collective

I recently found out about the up-and-coming Harrisonburg-based band, Mammoth Indigo, through the release of their debut music video for their single, “Rapture“. The video features lead singer and guitarist, Cody Bowers, whom I got the chance to speak about the band’s sound, touring, and upcoming shows at two downtown venues.

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Marisa Cagnoli: When/How did the band form? Did it begin with you making music and looking for others to collaborate with, or was it a joint effort between band members?

Cody Bowers: Originally, I started recording the album as a solo project and then decided I wanted to be a looping artist, with Eric [Singer] playing drums along with me. He came in, things progressed, and we figured we needed a full band. I’d played with Dan [McDonough] before in a previous band so I asked him to play guitar. He hopped right in and we wrote the rest of the album.

Who are the members in the band, what do they play, and how did you all decide to make music as a collective?

Cody Bowers – lead vocals and guitar

Dan McDonough – lead guitar, keyboards, percussion

Eric Singer – drums

Austin Scarbel – bass

Dan and I were in a band and about to go on tour a couple years ago when our drummer broke his legs. We knew of Eric through mutual friends and asked him to play with us in two days. He came with us and we were instantly drawn to his style, both as a drummer and a person. Dan used to live with Austin so we asked him to practice with us a few days before our first show. He’s an awesome musician. He was perfect.

How do you like to describe the genre(s) you play? Has Mammoth Indigo always played the same style of music or has it changed over time?

Always the hardest question for me to answer… I don’t know anyone that sounds like us. I think we’re indie rock, but I don’t know. I think indie rock is so overused that I don’t even know what it means anymore. Some people say we have hints of folk in us too.

What are your plans for the future?

We’re about to tour as much as we can handle, mid-July through the end of August as of right now, maybe longer. We’re playing at the Artful Dodger on the 7th of July and the Blue Nile on the 10th before we head out for tour!

Your recent single “Rapture” has an awesome music video. Who came up with the concept for the video?

Thank you, it was essentially a really lucky, one-shot kind of thing. I was shooting a video with Forrest Pando of Pando Creative Co. for a song on our album called “God-Made Satellite” when I showed him “Rapture”. He liked the song and how I sang it so he immediately set up his camera with a black backdrop and put me in front of it. I sang the song, and a few months later we decided to use that video instead of the one we set out to make. Simple is good. We like simple.

What inspires you lyrically?

Music is a huge release for me. I rely on it for certain aspects of my personality, or just getting things off my chest. It keeps me healthy.

To find out more about Mammoth Indigo, visit:

www.facebook.com/mammothindigoVA

www.mammothindigo.bandcamp.com - Downtown Harrisonburg