Indie 101 With Aly Carr: June Madrona
September 2, 2008 by poprockcandy · Leave a Comment
Aly Carr is the creative writer and co-host of The Merry Andrews Show in Tampa, Fla. She is an amateur small cat trainer and she is very fluent in knock-knock jokes. The Merry Andrews Show can be heard online at the show’s official site.
The Merry Andrews Show At MySpace
June Madrona is a folk band based out of Olympia, Washington. They create songs that will make you laugh, cry, and dance all in less than 4 minutes. I recently got to talk with lead singer, Ross Cowman, and melodica player, Micah Ellison, about how they came together, their Europe tour, campfires, secret music projects, and Clint Eastwood.
Aly Carr: It sounds like there are a gazillion people in the band, which is one of the reasons I think I’m drawn to your music. How many people are actually in the band and how did you all come together?
Ross Cowman: Ha! That is a funny question. There are actually 4 and 1/2 people in the band. I’ve never actually counted how many people have been in the band historically… I’m going to do it now … 16. That is just everyone who has played a show as part of June Madrona. If you count people who have recorded an album with the band it goes down to 8. Currently I play guitar, Danielle plays flute, Micah plays melodica, and Bob sings and claps (he is the half because he never actually comes to practice). The story of how we all came together is complicated but briefly, Micah and Sean both met me by coming to June Madrona shows, Danielle and I met at a Valentine’s Day party, and this crazy lady named Celina introduced me to Bob, whom she was stalking at the time.
Micah Ellison: I came across June Madrona when it was in a time of transition, in early ‘08. I’d heard a bunch of songs from the Winged Life online and really liked them. I eventually had the chance to see Ross at a house show and it totally blew my mind to be exposed to this incredible acoustic experience. He was playing with Bob Schwenkler, his partner at Bicycle Records. I went to the Bicycle website, saw that June Madrona was working on a new album, and e-mailed them saying, “Hey, need any melodica on the album?” Then I met Ross, played with him for a couple hours, and he made me dinner. I think we were pretty much sold on each other at that point.
I think Danielle’s and Sean’s stories are interesting but they should tell you those stories themselves if they want to. =)
AC: You all toured Europe last year, was this a first for you, and how did it go?
