Church Friends talk “Home Cookin” and future releases
Comprised of four Louisville locals and long time friends- vocalist Conor Hildabrand, guitarist Grant Snell, keyboardist Aaron Snell, and drummer Trey Shapanus, Church Friends is not a band to miss. With a sound self described as ‘kush rock’ and the Grateful Dead and Anderson .Paak listed among their most revered influences, for fans of the jam band, salvation is here. We caught up with Church Friends to discuss their first album “Home Cookin’” and to see what the future has in store.
First, can you tell us a little bit about the band? How did church friends form?
CF: Church Friends has a long storied history that reaches back to way before the band formed. In fact, Grant first met Aaron on the day some 21 years ago when Aaron was born, as they have the same parents! Grant, Aaron, and Connor all grew up together and the Snell brothers met Connor through church (hence the band name).
CF: The musical history of the band essentially begins in 2009 when Grant and Trey met in the Male High School marching band. Shortly thereafter they began playing music together with other friends from marching band in an informal setting, writing instrumental only songs. Grant and Trey formed their first official band while still in high school around 2011, called The Formalities. In addition to Grant and Trey, who would switch back and forth between playing drums and piano, this band included three other members. After experiencing some local success, The Formalities decided upon an amicable split around 2015. With the musical future unclear, Grant began experimenting with doing his own recordings of new songs he had been writing using an old 8 track recording interface. He first pulled Aaron, Connor, and Trey together to experiment with group writing and recording of a song in this fashion. What came out of this was the first song:
After this, the four guys began to seriously work on songs that grant had written and the band was on its way recording the first album, Home Cookin’ as well as playing small shows around Louisville. The other three members of The Formalities went on to form another local band whom you may have seen play at Forecastle 2019, BOA.
How did Church Friends find and develop your signature ‘kush rock’ sound?
CF: When we first started we didn’t have much direction. We kinda wrote and played whatever (in regards to genre, structure, organization, etc…we essentially didn’t think much about those things, not that you have to but there’s a fine line between making cohesive music that the both the audience and the musicians playing the music can enjoy) and most of the resulting music was pretty progressive, which shows a little in Home Cookin. Over the past few years we’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of great talented people and I think we have picked up a few things in regards to songwriting, which you may hear on our next record (due 2020). Additionally, we have spent the past few years doing a lot of improvisational jamming and that has helped develop as a cohesive unit of musicians as well as played a part in some of our songwriting (you get a lot of musical ideas while jamming).
Can you explain the process of recording your debut album, “Home Cookin’”
CF: As far as the making of Home Cookin goes, we did a lot of it using Audacity as our DAW (LOL) and we tracked most everything through a Mackie Onyx Blackjack, which is a two channel interface. So drums ran through a soundboard and out L and R into the stereo interface and then into the computer. We used a MXL condenser for all the vocals and CAD mics on drums. We would essentially record drums to a guitar/vocal scratch track and then dub all the other instruments on top of the drums. We always did vocals last and then Grant would mix it all on Audacity. But most of the songs were written before we recorded them. Except Rice and Lentils, that was actually a live jam that wasn’t even intended to be on the album. We just happened to set up the live recording setup and then the red light happened to be on when we hit that nice streak of jam. Flowting was also a unique one. Connor had that guitar riff in mind and then he laid all the vocals and harmonies on top of it. He’s actually the only church friend on that song
For those who missed out, how was last weekend’s Saturday Service?
CF: Our show at Butchertown Social this past Saturday with locals Quality Cable and Maggie H. was the first time we have personally organized and headlined our own show. It was very rewarding and humbling to see that all of this hard work could be appreciated by a full room of music crazed individuals. It left us so juiced that you can expect us to bring more Saturday Services to the city of Louisville, as we use this as an opportunity to join forces with some of the best musical talent in the state. We will be announcing the next Saturday Service this fall, and we’ll be back on stage by the end of 2019 with a barn burning lineup.
What’s next for Church Friends?
There is much in store for the church friends. By the end of spring next year you’ll have singles, music videos, and a new album all released to the public. Capping all of that off with one helluva album release show. You may even get a chance to hear us collaborate with some other Louisville artists. After that the future is unclear, but one thing is for certain, we will keep on truckin and our sound will continue to evolve.
Featured photo by Tess Fulkerson Tesslemessphotos.com