This Thursday, June 7th, there is a special celebration happening at The Cotton Club in Atlanta and we’ve got TWO pairs of tickets to giveaway so you can join in on the fun. The intimate setting in the basement of the Tabernacle will host the Family and Friends Album Release Party and all you’ve got to do win one pair of tickets is bring your social media A game. Details on how to enter:
Simply comment on our social media posts announcing the contest on our Facebook (direct post here), Twitter (direct post here), and/or Instagram (direct post here) for one entry each. A Regram (tag @OpenEars_Music) and/or Retweet will get you another entry each. Share the article (tag @OpenEarsMusic) on Facebook for an additional entry. Two winners will be randomly selected each to win a pair of tickets. Wednesday (6/6) at 4:45pm is the cutoff point to enter. The two winners will be announced at 5:00pm on Wednesday so make sure to check to your socials at that time!
The party will celebrate the Athens, GA band’s first full-length album, the Brad Wood produced Felix Culpa. It’s been three years since XOXO, the most recent of the band’s two EPs, and nearly as long since the breakout track “Amadeus” burst onto nearly every major folk and Americana playlist on Spotify.
This time around, Family and Friends are excited to share their emerging plugged-in sound, to unveil new music built for the live set, and to play the songs they’ve written together for the first time as a band. Where songwriting was once entirely up to lead singer Mike Macdonald, Felix Culpa was an undertaking by committee. It was a process that took time to develop, and one the band is confident has strengthened their music.
Felix Culpa is an album that reflects the bands current place: It is a fun album about being young, backed by radiant and upbeat alt-indie-folk music. Yet it is also an album about growing up, looking back and looking forwards too. There are more sonic elements than previous works, more electric guitars, keyboards and synthesizers. More production value. Maybe just a bit more edge than the Family and Friends of old. Whatever Felix Culpa might be, it is undeniably the band’s most ambitious effort to date: The album is 12 songs clocking in at about an hour in length. Felix Culpa will be available everywhere this Friday, June 8th.
We sat down last week with Mike Macdonald and Alejandro Rios, the respective lead singer and percussionist for Family and Friends in the days leading up to the release of Felix Culpa, their debut LP. ~ Adam Kincaid
Family and Friends at Shaky Knees Fest 2017. Photo by Mike Gerry
OE: The last time we saw you was last week, in the crowd at a Neighbor Lady and Dot.s show at 529.
Mike MacDonald: I had never seen Dot.s before but they blew my mind, all I heard. It felt like watching them, you were watching the start of something big.
OE: So, your song “Amadeus” was a hit on Spotify. It’s got 18 million streams, which is a shitload. How’d that happen?
Mike MacDonald: We got really lucky through Spotify putting that song on their curated playlists. It helped us out a ton. It’s nuts too, because we’ll get booked to play with other bands and the audience won’t really know our stuff but then they’ll know “Amadeus”.
When we were starting it was Facebook likes that we watched the closest, and then Instagram became more of a thing. And Spotify, if you aren’t getting streamed, I don’t think they’ll book you the same way otherwise.
OE: Yet, despite that breakout hit, you are really a band on the verge more than one that has already arrived. You’ve released two EPs, but Felix Culpa will be your first full length LP. It’s an interesting profile, where do you think your band is at today?
Family and Friends. Photo by Mike Gerry
Mike MacDonald: When we first started, the EPs seemed liked the right mentality for us and the right approach at the time, and we just took things step by step. After XOXO, we knew we wanted to write a full-length album; it seemed like the right logical step and something we need for the industry to take us seriously.
I know one of the things we want to do from the live show perspective is hit the road, and get in front of as many people as we can.
OE: You guys are independent, are you looking for a label?
Mike MacDonald: Unless a label offers us something we can’t refuse, having that freedom and growing things on our own has been hugely rewarding.
OE: There are a lot of examples of bands starting to latch onto that independent on purpose idea. What does the business side of music look like for you as an independent band on the rise?
Family and Friends at SK17. Photo by Mike Gerry
Mike MacDonald: When we were looking at the models, with the labels kind of dying, that they are more or less just a pocket to fund things. They have certain connections too, but if you assemble your own team that has those same connections, then you can self fund and save those percentages on the backend.
OE: Your earlier work falls pretty squarely into the Americana genre, right? What direction is this album heading in?
Mike Macdonald: I think with this album we’re trying to expand past that. It’s been a lot less acoustic-oriented, trading that out for electric guitars and keys and synths.
OE: And if you go to East Atlanta Village and check out a Neighbor Lady and a Dot.s show, that’s the undercurrent…that’s what’s hip right now isn’t it?
Family and Friends at SK17. Photo by Mike Gerry
Mike Macdonald: Totally. And I think a lot of our writing comes from what we’re listening to and what we’ve done has been a product of that. The folk was so big a few years ago, and we look at everything as a logical step forward. Hopefully this album is something for us to build off of into the next album too. We just keep pushing the boundaries for ourselves.
OE: Your new album Felix Culpa has been two years in the making. Why such a long gap from the breakout success of XOXO?
Mike Macdonald: A lot of it was the writing process. We changed the way we were doing things, and made it more collaborative. Just navigating that process and how to write music in a new way, and figuring out what sound we wanted to hear at the end of the day is what took the majority of the time.
Family and Friends at SK17. Photo by Mike Gerry
OE: Felix Culpa is going to big a big moment for the band. What do you think is in the cards for the band this summer and fall?
Mike Macdonald: Well, the album is coming out on June 8. We’ll let it percolate and sink in a little bit, and then once the fall hits, the goal is to tour as much as possible. We’re ready to get on the road and to get in front of people. We generated a lot of momentum from the first two EPs, and instead of putting something out immediately after that, we sat back and put together something we really believe in. So, for us, we’re ready to get back in front of people to play.
Family and Friends shows always starts with love. Photo cred: John McNicholas
Family and Friends Online:
Website // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter
Upcoming Family and Friends Tour Dates:
Jun07 – Family And Friends Felix Culpa Album Release Party @ The Cotton Club – Atlanta, GA
Jun14 – Headliners w/ Typhoon – Louisville, KY
Jun15 – Taste of Randolph (June 15-17) – Chicago, IL
Jun15 – The Burl – Lexington, KY
Jun16 – Fifth & Vine Live w/ Edward + Jane, Wake The Bear – Cincinnati, OH
Jun23 – AthFest Music And Arts Festival – Athens, GA
Aug03 – ARISE Music Festival – Aug 3-5, 2018 – Loveland, CO
Sep08 – Moon River Music Festival (September 8-9) – Chattanooga, TN
