Breathe Owl Breathe is a Michigan-based trio that plays atmospheric, evocative acoustic-based music, fusing folk traditions with the adventurous approach of indie rock. Breathe Owl Breathe was formed in Ann Arbor, MI by songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and banjo picker Micah Middaugh and Andrea Moreno-Beals, a cellist who also contributes banjo and vocals. Middaugh was born and raised in a small town in Northern Michigan, and he inherited his love of music from his father, who played a home-made banjo as well as the concertina. Moreno-Beals was born in Colombia but spent most of her childhood in Ann Arbor, where she displayed a talent for the cello at an early age. Moreno-Beals was offered scholarships to a number of music schools after graduating from high school, but grew tired of the strictures of classical music. In 2001, she was introduced to Middaugh by a mutual friend during a visit to an ice-cream stand, and the two became fast friends and musical collaborators. (They also helped a friend with a VHS video camera make a home-made zombie movie the same evening.) With the addition of Lansing-based percussionist Trevor Hobbes, Breathe Owl Breathe became a three-piece, and they began performing around the Midwest. In 2004, they released their first album, The Fall Album, through Earthwork Music, a collective of socially and environmentally conscious musicians. Climb In followed in 2005, and Canadian Shield in 2008, as the group continued to spread the word about their music though steady touring. Ghost Glacier was issued on CD, LP, and download formats in the fall of 2009, and another album was scheduled for release in 2010. Middaugh and Moreno-Beals also collaborated with guitarist and singer Sari Brown in a side project, Three Spoons Make Three.
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How did we carve to this? I guess we whittled from the inside out at first, trying to cultivate and cata-pult these small songs over the castle wall. With instruments, levers, wires, and the sturdy encouraging hands of friends, we formed the band / art project, Breathe Owl Breathe.
Before the band came together, we were all in different places working on different things. I was
studying printmaking, Andrea was giving cello lessons, and Trevor was reading and making maps. When I first met Andrea we played music all day outside under a shady tree. Later that same day, we made a recording of short story songs inside a small messy room with drawings on the wall. The day I met Trevor, we played music inside a dorm room and later made a movie about zombies. The recording was a think piece; the movie was a romantic comedy; and we were friends forever (at least).
The name Breathe Owl Breathe came from a dream I had. There was an owl that was cutting its way through the cold, still night. Whoever was in charge of the cinematography of the dream my hatʼs off to them. It was from the perspective of just above a field mouse scurrying through blades of grass. The mouse then found a little divot in the ground, laid down on its back, and gave its last breath. The breath rose up into the sky, passing by the owlʼs beak.
Visit their official website, or listen to them on MySpace.
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