Soul Friends

A. Armada Releases New EP

originally published September 3, 2008

It’s not easy being a band that moves to Athens. Those that have tried will tell you that Athens is too insular, too tight-knit (or worse, cliquish) and too musically incestuous for outsiders. A quick and ready defense for all of this, though, is that Athens simply prefers homegrown talent. The bands that have moved here and failed to find an audience generally arrived like gangbusters seeking to wow the town with themselves. The ones that have succeeded are the ones that truly made Athens their home. This is why A. Armada is rarely associated with its hometown of Columbus, GA anymore.

The band's roots lie with guitarists Matt Nelson and Josh McCauley, who came to town with original drummer Wynn Hyatt and bassist Aaron Stevenson around four years ago. The band recorded a now-forgotten collection of songs that served more as a demo than anything else. Fast forward two years: several handfuls of successful shows and a couple of lineup changes, and A. Armada is on the verge of releasing its first proper record and undertaking a tour of Europe.

Drummer Jeremy Harbin, better known around town as Catfish, had played in another Columbus, GA band, Ampersand, which shared early member Stevenson and remained in Columbus when A. Armada first moved to Athens. “I was thinking about moving to Athens to go to school anyway, and they asked if I wanted to play and that's that,” says Harbin of his entry into the band. Stevenson was replaced on bass by Cinemechanica guitarist Bryant Williamson who says, “I came on around September 2007. Matt [Nelson] had joined Cinemechanica about three months before, and I think things weren’t working out with A. Armada’s bass player, so I offered to play, and they said yes.”

Williamson also runs local label Hello Sir Records and had been coincidentally looking forward to working with A. Armada on a release. Said release will finally make its debut in the U.S. on Sept. 2, through a licensing deal with Germany’s Golden Antenna Records. A. Armada’s debut EP, Anam Cara, was released overseas back in July. The album's title is Gaelic for "soul friend," and the band certainly seems to have found that in Timo Siems, who runs Golden Antenna. When McCauley toured Europe last year as an adjunct member of Maserati, he encountered Siems, who had coordinated the tour, and the two became friends. Siems had already released work by Maserati, and when attempting to send the band on another European tour this fall with San Francisco-New York band, From Monuments to Masses, Maserati was unavailable. A. Armada made the pitch to fill in, and Siems got behind the idea readily. McCauley says, “I think it's gonna be a good one. Timo is awesome, and I'm really excited that he's gotten behind it.”

Harbin, who is a full-time UGA student along with McCauley, is the sole member who has not toured Europe. He says, “I'm very excited I’m the new guy to Europe. They think they know what they're doing with their tour stories and everything!”

Indeed, this opportunity is a curious and serendipitous one, considering that A. Armada has yet to do any serious domestic touring. Williamson says the band is trying to change this. “We're going to try our best to [tour more in the U.S.]. We're trying for maybe a couple of weeks in November or December. In the spring, Jeremy and Josh are back in school. We're going to do as much as we can while they're not in school,“ he says.

The compositional tasks of A. Armada are very similar to that of any other rock band. Nelson and McCauley typically come together with ideas and flesh them out before all four members get together to work on arrangements. As is the case with other all-instrumental bands, the lack of a vocalist requires the members to pay more attention to the flow of a piece of music and to be more conscious of what is going on within the music itself. Williamson says, “When I came in, I asked if they wanted me to listen to old live recordings to learn bass lines. They said 'no,' and I kind of crafted the bass lines so the songs' parts flow better from part to part.” Nelson describes the process by saying, "I work on stuff all the time. Josh and I will each bring stuff in and then we’ll get together and hash it out. He and I feed off each other really well. Josh is just a phenomenal guitarist."

The EP, which clocks its five tracks in at just around half an hour, is just enough to get a strong taste of the band without being overwhelmed. Similar in structure and sound to the aforementioned Maserati and even Explosions in the Sky, A. Armada distinguishes itself from its peers by possessing an intangible Southernism which renders its intensity more introspective than bombastic. In this respect, it seems A. Armada may have nearly become a wholly Athens band, but the music still draws from its Columbus, border-town roots rather than seeking to obscure them.

Gordon Lamb

WHO: The Buddy System, Iron Hero, A. Armada
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, September 5
HOW MUCH: $6 (21+), $8 (18+)