Freak Owls was created from the amalgamation of ideas, restlessness, and frustrations of Josh Ricchio. After spending the past 12 years playing and touring in a wide variety of collaborative rock bands, the desire to lock himself in a room and write what he calls "catchiness incarnate" became too great. In the year since the release of “Taxidermy”, and after whittling down the lineup from a 5-piece to 3, Freak Owls have brought their unique blend of indie-folk-pop on the road to a majority of the States and Canada, as well as having played festivals in England and as far away as Latvia. With their new EP “Orchestrates” on the way, we’re sure to be hearing a ton more about Freak Owls in 2012. We recently chatted with Josh to discuss his musical past, his favorite fan connection, and where you can see the band next.
What do you hope listeners will get from your music?
I'm all about melody and feeling first, and like to write over-layering melodies and vocal harmonies on top of each other to make it as big as possible. A lot of the time I write the lyrics on the feeling I get from the melody and rhythm of the song, and hope people take away more of that feeling and their own understandings of the music and lyrics. I think a song should mean something different to each listener, that way it's more personal.
What’s the best gig you ever played?
I used to play in the band, Pela, who are now the guys in We Are Augustines. A couple years ago we played Seattle's Block Party opening up for Sonic Youth in front of 6,000 people. Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better when playing venues, but this was pretty huge and we rocked the shit out of it.
What’s your prediction for the next big advancement in how we find/listen to/share music?
Our new EP, "Orchestrates", will be released digitally online and completely free on our website. For up-and-coming-bands like Freak Owls, especially with so much rampant pirating happening all the time, getting music out there while you're not really known too well is probably the main priority. We've had day jobs our entire adult lives and know that getting the "Big Break" is almost a thing of the past. Bands and artists are so self-sufficient nowadays, that waiting for that record deal with Mr. Geffen isn't as meaningful as it used to be. I like that you can listen to your friends' entire iTunes catalogue just by linking up with them online. I think music sharing is exploding in a natural way, and I'm just happy people are able to listen to our music. You know, until I'm broke.
What’s your favorite way/tool/site for you to interact with your fans in the digital age? Do you recommend anything to other artists?
I'm a big fan of Facebook, for now, but always ask fans to go to the site, freakowls.com where they can listen to (and download) all the music, watch the videos (cuz they're awesome), and comment on all of the stupid things I say in my posts.
What’s your next big gig coming up? When/Where?
We'll be touring at the end of March, starting with a show at Union Hall on the 29th, but will be announcing some upcoming local shows shortly.
Check out more on Freak Owls here.
