Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today we’d like to shine the spotlight on the Americana, indie/pop band on the rise The One Eighties.
The One Eighties is a name that aptly suits the duo comprised of Daniel Cook and Autumn Brand down to their core. Most artists dream of getting just a smidgen of the high praise their former band New Reveille received for their debut album The Keep. From The New York Times, Rolling Stone’s “10 Artists You Need To Know,” and Billboard to CMT, DittyTV, and stellar performances at Americanafest and on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour, and beyond, they were beginning to make a name for themselves. But like many a common tale, their record label folded, the pandemic hit, creative differences arose, and ultimately, the band went their separate ways.
“That experience was a massive part of the journey,” says Brand. “We didn’t know what would become of the music we had been tirelessly working on for what we thought would be the next New Reveille album, but we knew we had something there and we weren’t about to stop writing.” So, after many months of Zoom calls and few and far between outdoor writing sessions, the notoriously indecisive songwriters / multi-instrumentalists made a firm decision to move forward as a duo. They did a “180” and changed the course of their musical lives armed with an enormous desire to continue what was only just beginning for them. “What better way to memorialize our indecisiveness than to call ourselves The One Eighties” says Cook. But it’s more than just an acknowledgement of a character flaw they both share. “We decided we wanted to reserve the right to change course at any time and do a complete 180 if we so choose. It’s a statement that nobody is just one thing,” says Cook. “Even the way we were deciding upon the band name felt like the band name itself,” adds Brand. “It’s okay to do a 180 in life and in music. We both really feel that sentiment.”
With their new musical pursuits in their sight, they decided to take a month-long road trip across the country with the goal of figuring out, musically, who The One Eighties were. “We spent many hours listening to music in the car and talking about what all we liked sonically, lyrically, and otherwise,” says Cook. What they knew for sure was that they wanted to create something new so when they got back home, they got to work experimenting. They were spending time studying the engineering and producing work of other artists they admired when they came across some videos of Shawn Everett explaining step-by-step how he makes synth pads out of random samples and noise using Melodyne to shift pitches around. “That seemed way cooler than pulling up a preset in Logic and pushing a button. So, we built a lot of sonic textures that way,” says Cook. Out of necessity they got to work producing and mixing their songs in their Cary, NC home studio. “No label, no big fancy studios, just some help from a few friends, making the most of the limitations imposed by the pandemic,” says Cook.
We sat down for a short, but fun Q&A session with Autumn and Daniel from The One Eighties.
Every superhero or villain has an origin and a band is no different minus the radioactive spiders and secret government experiments. What is the origin of The One Eighties, tell us the origin of how you got into music?
DANIEL: I was playing basketball down the street when I was around 13 when my friend’s cousin came out on the porch and started playing a classical rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit. He had recently moved to the U.S. from Ecuador and spoke just enough English to take requests. When the sun went down, I ran home and dug my sister’s old guitar out of the attic. From then on, I was hooked. As far as the formation of The One Eighties, Autumn and I were in a band together called New Reveille. We were on a label for a while and got to have some amazing experiences in Nashville making that record, but it all fell apart early in the pandemic. We had both recently had a lot happen in our personal lives and felt like we couldn’t stop writing. So, we just kept going, not yet knowing what it would turn into. At one point we hit a wall and decided to drive across the country and back. That’s when all the pieces started to coalesce into a sound and into an identity.
Band names can have a meaning or it can be a name pulled out of a hat. What’s the story behind The One Eighties?
DANIEL: As the album started to take shape, we started trying to think of names. We must have changed our minds a hundred times. It occurred to us that we were both pretty indecisive, always doing “one-eighties” on small decisions like what to eat for dinner, and major ones like what to do with our lives. We also wanted to reserve the right to change our mind at any time about what we’re doing musically. So, it seemed like a fitting name.
What are you currently working on?
AUTUMN: We’re currently working on releasing our first album, Minefields. The album is done, but now the process of getting it in people’s hands come August 18th is underway. We’re getting our team together to make that happen, and we’re really excited about some shows we have coming up in the Raleigh and Nashville areas. We’re looking at doing a fall tour as well to take the album to the stage.
If you have any tattoos, what was your very first one and does it have any meaning behind it?
AUTUMN: I have 8 tattoos, and while I love them all, my favorite has to be the one on my left leg. The tattoo was done by a Denver artist named Melanie Steinway (yes, related to the piano makers!). The tattoo is of my cat, Faun, who passed away in 2016. Melanie did a beautiful job and really captured Faun’s sweet soul. She will forever rest on my lap. This wasn’t my first tattoo, but it’s the one dearest to my heart.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
DANIEL: I think it was Shania Twain and Ashley Judd.
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