Only one night after another captivating performance at Oliver’s Pub, the members of Hungry Animals wake up on a Saturday looking forward to another day of band practice.
Their Centretown basement fills with the five-piece’s unique indie rock sound three times a week, demonstrating a strong commitment to their craft. After a quick breakfast, the day’s agenda involves running through all of their material from start to finish.
Change is afoot in the Hungry Animals camp, a band that already has more than enough on their plate the first few weeks of 2014.
A much-anticipated debut release is waiting in the wings, likely to be seen in late February. Initially recorded in the spring of 2013, the band scrapped the previously recorded session, saying it wasn’t up to their standards.
“We had five full days of recording at CKCU and we kind of rushed it,” frontman Micah Rakoff Bellman said. “We sat down, listened to it, and thought we could do better. It just wasn’t something we felt comfortable releasing.”
More exciting news from the band includes the addition of another member to their lineup. The band has added multi-instrumentalist Zachary Ledgerwood, fourth-year Carleton music student, known for his work with fellow indie rock locals Little Stella.
Having been working with the group for one week already, the band sees him filling the role of a third guitar player and a backing vocalist. Despite a short amount of time, guitarist Marc Bright-Chochlekov said it’s easy to see the instant impact the addition of Ledgerwood has had on the music.
“It also adds a whole other dimension to, at least from the guitarist’s perspective, just playing,” he explained. “There are times where we’ve wanted to add parts or thought parts would be cool, but we just didn’t have enough fingers to play them.”
The quintet, including bassist Ilan Mucher, is also forging ahead in new directions with regards to writing and composing music. Blending the musical sensibilities of indie and progressive stylings into one is something the band realizes may not be easily accessible at first, but they are looking to strike a balance between musicians and non-musicians.
“We’re trying right now to make our music a little more danceable at this stage,” Rakoff Bellman said. “We’re trying to make happier music because the music that we wrote last year is a little bit of a downer. It’s not necessarily all sad music that’s hard to listen to, but it’s not necessarily party music.”
Fourth-year journalism student Matthew Couto is the band’s drummer, famed for taking his shirt off during performances.
He said the band is moving away from their sadder, slower sound.
“We’ve been making progress,” Couto said. “Especially with our last two songs in the set, ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Jack in the Box,’ it’s been getting progressively more kind of upbeat, and we still maintain the progressive element.”
Even with all this and more on the go, Hungry Animals are quick to show they are, indeed, hungry for more.
“This weekend we’re sitting down to do a 12-hour, five-song EP,” Rakoff Bellman revealed. “We’re just going to set up recording equipment on all our instruments and just go—try to write five songs in 12 hours.”
