Shady Angels emerged from Spokane with their first album Heirloom in 2023, but since then they've grown and evolved as not only people, but as musicians. 2024's Try My Door is a reflection of growing up and shows their expertise in putting emotion behind instrumentals and lyrics. The band was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about their new album as well as their dynamic and why Shady Angels wouldn't exist if they didn't have each other.
Introduce yourselves and what you do in the band
Brayden: I’m Brayden Moore and I sing and play rhythm guitar.
Jameson: I’m Jameson and I play drums.
Owen: I’m Owen and I play lead guitar.
Curran: I’m Curran and I play bass.
How did you begin, and how did you get to where you are now?
Jameson: We started out of high school, it was sophomore year. It was a Snapchat story situation where someone posted “who wants to start a band?” and I slid up and so did Brayden. We met in my garage and started jamming around and then we brought Owen in to play guitar, and he blew us out of the water with his skills. We started out doing covers at our shows with just a couple of originals, so we were mainly a cover band, but eventually we wanted to do our own thing and find our own sound. Two of the previous members left.
Owen: They didn’t really have the same goals, they wanted to stay where we were at, but we wanted to move forward. Eventually our bassist went off to college and that’s when Curran came in to play. We started writing our best music yet at that point.
Jameson: We’re definitely on another level with Currin, he brings really good music out of us.
Brayden: I agree with that. It’s been a long two and a half years, and we’ve had some ups and downs, but we started pretty humbly in a garage. Now we’re here, I’m a little far from home at college, but we’re still making it work.
Are you guys all in college?
Jameson: Brayden is and I am.
Owen: Curran and I are still seniors in high school.
Jameson: Youngins!
You dropped your second album Try My Door back in September, do you have any favorite memories from recording that album or putting it together?
Owen: This album, more so than our last one, is a lot more cohesive and definitely more of a group effort. We all contributed and brought this one together. That was really special to me. There was a specific song called “The Lesser” where I showed up in Brayden’s basement one day and he’s like “Owen, I need a riff,” so I was playing for two minutes and came across some chords. He started humming along to it so I knew I should keep it going, and we wrote all of the guitar parts for that song on that day. Jameson showed up and put drums in and Curran showed up, did the bass, and we had the bulk of the song done in like two days.
Brayden: It was a lot more of a collaborative effort, we really enjoyed being in the studio. We did two sessions, one in February to record the singles, and that was really fun. It showed us what we could really do if we put the effort and time and money into it. We went back in early August and cranked the rest out within a couple of days. We all just had a total blast.
When you’re finding that collaborative creativity, do you find it in the studio or outside of it?
Owen: For us being a new band, we kind of have to make sure we have every part down before we go to the studio. We’ve been playing these songs live at multiple shows for months before we had recorded them.
Jameson: Our last album, we had one song that wasn’t fully formed, it’s called “Chaser,” and we sort of wrote it in the studio. It doesn’t work out as well in the end as it does if you just come to the studio ready rather than writing it there.
Maybe this doesn’t apply as much because Brayden is away at college, but has living in Spokane influenced your music at all? Do you find inspiration in location?
Brayden: I’ve got a lot of roots there, I grew up liking all the grunge bands and felt connected to that, especially while writing the music. It’s a lot of dark music, Spokane is dark and dreary a lot of the time, but there’s a lot of songs that have elements of home in them, especially from our first album Park Street. It’s a direct ode to home and the things I love about that city. Since I’ve left, I feel a completely different vibe when it comes to sitting down and playing music. Having lived in Spokane my whole life, it did impact the way I was writing music.
Jameson: A lot of the inspiration also comes from our parents, at least in my experience. That was my main source of older bands, like Alice In Chains, my dad showed them to me. I probably have a little more influence on my music taste from my parents rather than location. I know Brayden can say the same.
Brayden: Oh yeah, my dad! One of the first memories I have with him was going up to the ski mountain and listening to “Come As You Are.”
Yeah, Nirvana, Seattle. All of that scene. You guys have a very Kurt Cobain-esque voice which is an awesome nod to Washington in general.
Jameson: Thank you!
Are there any specific lines or parts from the album that you hold close to you?
Jameson: Mine is the end of the last song, “Try My Door.” It’s honestly more of a ballad song compared to our other ones. It builds up to the last section of the song, and then the guitar get bigger and the drums get louder, it’s very emotional for sure.
Owen: It’s big, it’s powerful, it’s definitely emotional. The lyrics in that song are slightly brutal, but I think it’s the perfect way to end it, so yeah, I’d say the same thing.
Curran: It’s probably the same with me, “Try My Door,” the ending of it, when we’re playing it, it kind of gives me a sense of peace. I can sit there and actually enjoy the moment.
Jameson: It’s a kind of release, you know?
Owen: I’m stressed out when I’m playing it! I’m switching from part to part, I’m doing a lot of shit. Dude, I’m tap dancing with my pedals.
Brayden: I wrote that song after I had a pretty horrible breakup, and the first time we played it live, I remember just having this pent up feeling. Right when we switched to the part they’re all talking about towards the end I felt this total catharsis wash over me and was able to express myself without saying anything. It turned it into a lot more than a breakup to me. I also really dig Curran’s bass line in “I Am A Superman,” that could just be on repeat forever for me, it’s also one of my favorite parts.
It’s interesting that you bring that up about “Try My Door,” when I first got the email about working with you guys, it was the first song I listened to. It was raining outside and I was walking out of a class to my next one, the mood was perfect. I felt it too, it’s so powerful, so I totally get what you’re saying about that song.
Jameson: That’s awesome!
You mentioned this a little bit, but who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Brayden: I like Alice In Chains, The [Smashing] Pumpkins, I was big into that stuff growing up. Those were my main influences, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, all the grunge stuff. Recently, I’ve been getting into some folk-ier stuff like Jason Isbell and Elliott Smith. Growing up it was heavier stuff than it is now, so that’s the main stuff I draw from. Korn too.
Jameson: Korn rocks.
Brayden: Korn does rock.
Jameson: We like Jeff Buckley a lot, he comes out in a lot of our songs. And Radiohead, which is funny because Jeff Buckley inspired Radiohead a lot, so there’s a connection there. Bands like Deftones and Tool are my big drum influences, Tool especially, I can't wrap my mind around the shit they’re doing. Listening to them is mind-boggling everytime. The drummer for Deftones is super underrated, you don’t really focus on his drumming in their songs, but he makes those tracks awesome.
Owen: I’ve got a few different music personalities, as the lead guitar player I love blues music like Stevie Ray Vaugn, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, John Mayer. I also love R&B soul like Bruno Mars, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder. I of course listen to grunge music, but I like to bring a little bit of different flavor to our sound.
Brayden: He totally elevated us, it’s kind of like ear candy when he comes in and does all this twinkly stuff.
Curran: I have a love for Tame Impala, that’s like my favorite artist. I like a lot of 70s music too like Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, my dad listened to all that stuff, Alice In Chains. That’s kind of my go-to stuff. I grew up listening to that, so I can bring it to our sound.
Jameson: It matches the vibe pretty perfectly, honestly.
Owen: We all have different influences but it comes together in a nice whirlpool.
It’s kind of nice that you each bring something different to the table.
Owen: Brayden is definitely the main driver of our sound.
Jameson: Yeah, big time.
Owen: But we all bring our own influences too.
What would you say was the most challenging part of recording the most recent album?
Jameson: Knowing when to call it quits. We had so many different things we wanted to try, and on day four of being in the studio, we had everything tracked, but it was still like, “What can we fit in with the time we have?” We kind of had to call it quits time-wise, but there were just so many ideas on that fourth day that we just didn’t want to stop. But honestly, it worked out because most of the stuff we did that day was for “Try My Door” which added a lot of layers to that track.
Brayden: It was also tough to just get everyone in the studio with scheduling conflicts. We didn’t know we were going to record until July which was pretty late notice. Being in there is always overwhelming, you have to know what you want to do, but you’re always apprehensive about how it’s going to turn out or how you’re going to get there. Then of course the money, but it was worth it. We were stressed out but once we were in there, we were totally cruising.
Owen: We weren’t stressing over the music at all--
Jameson: --It was more just the logistics of it.
Owen: Yeah.
Brayden: We were happy, healthy, ready to do it. We’re never at each other’s throats or anything.
That’s admirable, it’s great not to have it out for each other.
Jameson: We have conflicts, but we also have good conflict resolution. We settle it within the argument.
Owen: Sonically, there’s not too much arguing because we know what the vision is and where we want to go.
Jameson: We know and we don’t know at the same time.
Owen: We’re also open.
Jameson: Yeah, we’re open to trying new stuff, new concepts sonically, which is important. As artists you have your eyes and ears open to new things.
Owen: I’ve been playing with Jameson for like three years and I’ve been playing with the other guys for two years, two and a half years. We all know each other very well as musicians as well as people. Like, I know what a Curran bass line sounds like, so anything he tries new I think is awesome.
If you’ve been able to, how has it been to play the new songs live, and if you haven’t gotten to yet, what songs are you looking forward to playing?
Brayden: We’ve been rockin’ them live for a while now. We did a show in July where we played the whole album tracklist. You’ve gotta try them out live before you record them to see if people like them or not, and to see if we like them or not. They’re so much fun to play, so much better than the other album. It’s a total shift in dynamic, we don’t even want to play shit off the first record now we just want to play the new stuff.
Jameson: We play like two songs at most from the other one. They’re just meh compared to the new ones.
If you guys ever come through Oregon, I’d love to see you live.
Owen: I hope we can!
Jameson: Yeah, dude, we want to.
That would be so fun. Have you guys seen any artists in concert either by yourselves or together that just absolutely blew you away?
Jameson: I went to The Gorge the other day and I saw King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and they were frickin’ rad. That just blew me away, it was a three hour set and one song was like thirty minutes long.
Curran: At our last big festival Boomjam, we all stayed afterwards to watch the other bands, and one of my favorites was Johnny Franco. He is a whole act as well as a musician, he made everybody laugh.
Owen: A musical comedy guy.
Brayden: Owen what about you, didn’t you see Bruno Mars and that just blew your pants off?
Owen: Oh my god! Dude, I saw Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak. in Las Vegas and I’ll never see a better concert, it was phenomenal, just perfect. I’ve also seen a band called Blue October maybe four times, and their stage prescnece as well as emotion in their music always blows me away.
Brayden: I got to see Korn when they came through, they were so tight and so good. I’m not an avid listener of all that stuff, but that rocked my world, it was an amazing show. I also saw Pearl Jam on my birthday in Missoula, and I knew every single song on the setlist. Those are my favorite shows.
Curran: One of the bigger shows I enjoyed was Tame Impala at The Gorge, that was my first Gorge concert and I don’t think anything will ever compare to that.
I have one more question for you guys, what is one thing you want listeners to take away from your album or music?
Brayden: I’d like them to listen to Heirloom first, and then Try My Door just to see how far we’ve come. I wrote this thing in the liner notes, just kind of a brief message about the philosophy of the album, so if they keep that in mind-- I won’t give it away-- then it’s going to make more sense and will hopefully have a more intimate time with the album. That’s what I want people to take away from it.
Jameson: Also listening in order is a good way to do it.
Owen: Knowing all these guys as people, I hope people can find our personalities out of it. There’s definitely a lot of that in there. It shows how we represent ourselves and I hope people understand it.
Curran: I hope that they can feel the same emotional ways that we did on these songs, because there’s a lot of instrumental parts where we’re all kind of just floating there. Especially at our live shows, I want everybody to be able to feel a big emotional explosion.
Owen: I wish everyone could know what it feels like to play a song that you helped create to people that are into it.
Jameson: I hope we inspire more people.
Owen: Another thing I love about this group of guys is that nobody is replaceable. Everybody has their signature sound that they bring, that’s like this song wouldn’t be the same with Curran, or this song wouldn’t be the same without Jameson’s beat. Nobody is replaceable.
Jameson: That’s very well said, the music would hurt a little bit, the chemistry would hurt if we had new members.
Brayden: I wouldn’t want to do it. This is it for me.
Those are such sweet takeaways, what an awesome way to end this. I love that you’re friends at the core, and I think that’s why you’ve been so successful and it all sounds so great.
Brayden: We are friends at the core. I dearly miss these guys, I haven’t seen them in a few weeks. I’ve been seeing them for the last three years. It's weird. But I’ll see them soon, we’ve got a show in Seattle coming up soon.
Jameson: It’s going to be a blast.
That’s going to be so fun, I can’t wait to see all the videos. Good luck with the show!
Comments