Tracks Ahead: Electric Owls

As main songwriter for NYC-based band the Comas, singer/guitarist Andy Herod pairs concise, fuzzy guitar pop with thinly veiled lyrics about emotional catastrophe. We recommend 2007’s witchy Spells and 2004’s sci-fi heartbreak album Conductor (gossip has it that Herod’s broken heart came courtesy of actress Michelle Williams), both small miracles of balancing bedroom-pop intimacy with arena-rock hooks, space-out stereophonics with garagey guitars and the twin vocal attack of Herod and bassist Nicole Gehweiler.

Last year, Herod left New York to criss-cross the country and eventually ended up in Asheville, N.C., where he recorded Ain’t Too Bright (due May 5 on Vagrant) under the name Electric Owls. Check out album track “Magic Show” below and cower before its big, old Styx-y synth clouds. MAGNET exchanged emails with Herod to discuss owls, wolves and the future of the Comas. Q&A after the jump.

“Magic Show” from Ain’t Too Bright:

MAGNET: What prompted your exodus from NYC? A lot of these songs seem to have been written in transit, with an acoustic guitar strum at their core.
Herod: I had just done enough time there in Brooklyn. I had fulfilled my goal of living in New York, and it was fun if nothing else. But I had come to suspect that I might be happier someplace with mountains, rivers and such. I was right. If you count the last two tours I did, I was on the road a year before settling in Asheville. These songs and more where written and recorded during that time, on an acoustic guitar.

You ended up in Asheville and worked with Jason (Caperton, bassist) from the Comas, but also with some local musicians. How’d that affect what you had in mind as far as how the record would sound?
Well, I really just wanted to have a fun, surprising experience with a different group of folks. And although I had worked with Jason before, he played a completely different role in this recording. Ain’t Too Bright is a product of all of that. I didn’t have too much of an idea of how I wanted the record to sound other than awesome.

It’s hard to say what kind of direction this record takes. For every witchy/prog-inflected track with huge synths or effects, there’s something like the twangy “Haint In The Holler.” What’s the common denominator for these songs?
For me, the common denominator was the fact that these songs where all written during the same few months and captured a time for me. As far as the eclectic styles, that’s just how it happened. It wasn’t well thought out, I’ll admit. But I am in love with its flaws and tendency to run off the page at times. Like a puppy that ain’t too bright: I promise I didn’t plan that, but now that I’ve written it I have to leave it.

What’s the state of things with the Comas? What’s your take on how the band has evolved over the years, both in terms of personnel and the albums you’ve made?
The Comas. I haven’t found a great way to answer that yet. Nicole (Gehweiler, Comas guitarist and co-vocalist) and I would like to do another record at some point, but it would have to be under very different circumstances. The Comas made at least two amazing records. I still get messages from people who talk about how important this song or that record was to their life, and it gets me all choked up. Because to make those records took a lot of our lives away and brought a lot of heartbreak, disappointment and damaged relationships. It’s a very tough thing to commit so wholly to something that you know is great yet yields very little in the way of worldly rewards.

I’ve noticed that owls are the new wolves. It’s like the indie craft animal of the moment. (I can’t believe I just typed that sentence.) There’s not exactly a run on band names yet—as existed with Wolf Parade, We Are Wolves, Wolf Eyes, Wolfmother, etc.—but it might not be far off.
Yes, during my spiritual quest I visited a seer and asked her what the next wave of animal band names might be so that I could at position myself at the forefront of this movement. She told me owls. Money well spent, obviously.

—Matthew Fritch