Bowl Peace on Eugene and their Single “New Clothes”
Photos by Lucy Ruppert - Interview and words by Cece Faulkner - Styling and creative direction by Elias Perez
Bowl Peace, the four-piece self proclaimed “indie slacker rock” band, have become the heartbeat of Eugene, Oregon’s local music scene. The band, comprised of Elise Benton, Owen Akiyama, Holden Hunt, and Elizabeth Bailey, has actively been a part of University of Oregon’s music scene for a few years now. It’s safe to say the majority of college kids here in Eugene that enjoy music know the name Bowl Peace— alongside names such as Growing Pains, Grrrlband, Verb8im, and many, many more (seriously, the list is never-ending!) House shows, shows at the WOW Hall, and other special venues around town have been the core parts of many young students’ coming of age. Bowl Peace, with their their soft, nostalgic, and borderline surf-rock music, are at the heart of a vibrant and well-loved music scene.
Introduce yourselves and what you do in the band.
Holden: I’m Holden and I play guitar.
Elizabeth: I’m Elizabeth I play drums.
Owen: I’m Owen and I play bass.
Elise: I’m Elise and I sing.
What you do love most about the Eugene scene?
Elise: For me it’s kind of just all the bands, everyone here are such great musicians and people. We have a lot of friends we love to play with, it’s always a great time. I think that’s really fun.
Owen: There really are great bands here, and we’re all influenced by each other. There’s an abundance of house shows and it’s fun that everyone wants to come see us! It’s great to have a crowd to draw from.
Elizabeth: I really feel like we go to the church of rock ‘n roll somethimes. Every weeked you see the same people.
Holden: Well said guys.
It feels like it's become such a community, a very tight-knit group of fans in Eugene, and I love that you’re a part of that. How was your Valentine’s Day show?
Elise: It was really fun!
Owen: It was a great lineup, great bands. Everyone sounded amazing, we had a great sound guy. We play WOW Hall a lot now and that was one of the best shows we’ve played there.
Is the WOW Hall your favorite venue to play in Eugene?
Owen: Yeah.
Elise: Definitely.
Owen: All the people there are so nice and it’s a great space. I was just saying, house shows are kind of parties, people go there to get drunk or whatever. But with WOW Hall, there’s more focus on the music. We also just sound way better at the WOW Hall as opposed to being set up in a backyard. Volunteer for the WOW Hall! They’re a non-profit, and can always use help.
Who are some of your biggest musical or creative influences?
Elise: That’s your question, Holden.
Holden: As far as modern acts, we’re all really big fans of Slow Pulp and Snail Mail. We all love the way that type of music makes us feel, very well produced but very emotionally raw at the same time. Right now we’re working on our new album and we’re leaning towards a more chill sound than anything we’ve put out before. I’ve been listening to some Phoebe Bridgers recently too.
Elizabeth: I think those are our two big artists that we actively pull influence from. We also love Alvvays, Momma, and Alex G.
Owen: Our tastes have kind of homogenized. It’s really fun, we were not very similar in taste when we first started but now we have the same Spotify wrappeds. We also pull influence from 80s and 90s bands, The Smiths, The Cure.
Elizabeth: We take a lot of influence from our friends in other bands, too. We love Growing Pains.
I love the local bands supporting one another! You guys dropped your single “New Clothes” last month, is there anything you want to tell us about it? How it was made?
Holden: We started that a long time ago, we did our first recording of it and it was not up to snuff. We scrapped it and rethought our parts, then recorded it again. We spent a lot of time setting up the space to minimally sound like a house. It’s kind of got the warmth of something that was recorded in a house by ourselves and that was a lot of fun.
Owen: We wrote it around this time last year. It evolved so much as we played it live and we eventually recorded it. The violin was the last touch, we felt like it really elevated it. It took us so long, dude. We were kind of ironing out the kinks of our songwriting and recording process, and now we have it pretty well down.
I was going to mention, I love the violin in it. You were talking about the warmth of it being recorded in a house, I think the violin also brings a lot of that warmth to it. If you could have a drink with any musician dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Owen: Who would be the best at telling me how to be a better musician, you know what I mean? I could say my favorite musician but they’re probably an asshole.
Holden: I’d have a drink with Alex G.
Owen: Yeah! That would be so fun.
Elise: I’d probably get a drink with Prince. It would be the craziest, most awesome drink of my life.
Elizabeth: He’d probably have some crazy stories.
Elise: Exactly, one drink would take like five hours!
Owen: I’d love to get a drink with an old session player from the 60s or 70s. Back when that was a thing… That was peak musicianship. James Jamerson and Carol Kaye, they played bass on so many records, that would be awesome.
Holden: I feel like if I picked a dead musician i’d be too freaked out.
Elizabeth: I would just ask, ‘Do you go back to being dead after this?’
Holden: They’d ask, ‘How’s my family doing?’ and I’d say you can’t ask me that!
Elizabeth: I’d get a drink with Emily from Slow Pulp.
Elise: I change my answer, that’s my answer too.
Holden: The two girls in Momma, too.
Elizabeth: Yeah!
Holden: Can we get all of Momma honestly?
Elise: We just have to split one drink in between all of us.
Holden: We’ll do one of those bowls.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah, the volcano bowls! Final answer, volcano bowl with Momma. In an Applebees.
What’s coming up next for Bowl Peace?
Elise: We have a show on the 28th!
Owen: And we’re probably doing a St. Patty’s day show. They’re going to be good old fashioned house shows.
Elizabeth: We’ll have a single coming out in the spring, too.
