Andrew Shepard admits it \u2014 the music business can be terrifying. But it sure beats the hell out of retail.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s strange, we\u2019re pretty new to it and we\u2019re learning more and more about it every day,\u201d said Shepard, singer\/guitarist for the Florida sextet Roadkill Ghost Choir. \u201cIt\u2019s stressful, but I\u2019d rather be touring than working a job in retail, which I hate. Those were some of the worst years of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Shepard, his two brothers and their three other bandmates, 2013 is turning out to be one of his best. Embarked on a nationwide tour of random spots \u2014 the itinerary includes stops in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Minnesota \u2014 Roadkill Ghost Choir is gaining praise and finding fans with a sound and live show both eclectic and unusual. The band is rolling through the country in a 15-person passenger van (an upgrade from six people in an eight-person van of recent years), extolling the musical virtues of its debut EP Quiet Light<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best way to reach out is playing live, it\u2019s always cool to see people come out to see us,\u201d Shepard said. \u201cIt seems topsy-turvy and a very volatile environment to be in, but at the same time it\u2019s incredibly fun and it\u2019s cool to experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n And it\u2019s a welcome respite from home, which in RGC\u2019s case is the sleepy town of DeLand. Sitting inland about 40 miles north of Orlando, DeLand is many things, but cool is not one of them. Yet the town\u2019s lack of excitement is the very reason Roadkill Ghost Choir finds itself perched for a breakout year.<\/p>\n \u201c(DeLand\u2019s) a small town, kind of like a retirement community, nothing much goes on there,\u201d Shepard said. \u201cBut it helps in the respect that we don\u2019t have much to do other than play music. So I think it has formed the music that way by being able to do nothing but focus on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Through that focus, Shepard, his brothers Maxx (drums) and Zach (bass), Kiffy Meyers (pedal steel, banjo, guitar), Joey Davoli (keys, trumpet) and Stephen Garza (lead guitar) developed a stew which mixes bluegrass, punk, country and indie-pop to inspired results. One is apt to hear Radiohead and Bob Dylan amidst a My Morning Jacket montage.<\/p>\n Or not. Shepard would just as easily not define it at all.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not thinking in the normal genre way, it\u2019s whatever feels right at the time as we\u2019re playing it,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what it comes down to for us, instead of trying to fit into some mold \u2014 in some scene or movement genre \u2014 we\u2019re just trying to play what\u2019s right. We try to not create something that\u2019s going to be tied down to one sound.\u201d<\/p>\n The band started in early 2011 when Shepard was offered a solo show and wanted some help filling out the music. So he asked his brothers, who he hadn\u2019t played with much before, and Meyers to join him in what was to be a one-off performance. \u201cIt kind of never stopped after that,\u201d Shepard said.<\/p>\n That initial collaboration moved into the song writing zone, where Shepard\u2019s rough arrangements became polished by the new collective around him. Shaping sounds and playing with tracks, the six-man crew sent out Quiet Light<\/em> in September 2012, a five-song selection mastered in Omaha by Doug Van Sloun, who has worked with Bright Eyes and She and Him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe like to listen to a lot of the same stuff but everyone\u2019s got their own taste for sure,\u201d Shepard said. \u201cThat makes writing the music an experience, where people are coming at it from different a point of view than you are.\u201d<\/p>\n A few more weeks on the road, then it\u2019s back home to rest, and write. The aim is for a new record by the start of next year, which is plenty of time when there\u2019s not much going on in the immediate world around you.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re writing now and we\u2019ll do more when we get home,\u201d Shepard said. \u201cYou just have to be home, somewhere that\u2019s not moving.\u201d<\/p>\n Which must be unusual for a band that is clearly going places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andrew Shepard admits it \u2014 the music business can be terrifying. But it sure beats the hell out of retail. \u201cIt\u2019s strange, we\u2019re pretty new to it and we\u2019re learning more and more about it every day,\u201d said Shepard, singer\/guitarist for the Florida sextet Roadkill Ghost Choir. \u201cIt\u2019s stressful, but I\u2019d rather be touring than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[215],"class_list":["post-1077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-roadkill-ghost-choir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions\/1079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}