Today we’d like to introduce you to Almost Edible.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hi, we’re Almost Edible. My name is Jenn and I play bass, Kevin plays guitar and Joseph plays drums in the band. Both Kevin and I sing though we’ve been trying to convince Joseph to get in on the singing too! The band formed in 2016 when Joseph joined as our official drummer. Our first live show was at Cobraside Distribution in 2018, and from there, we played a few local shows around Downtown LA and Cypress Park. I would say that playing at Cafe Nela had the biggest impact on us as a band. Dave Travis, the owner of Nela, would invite us to play there from time to time and supported independent music of all genres. A lot of older punk bands played music at that bar and had some influence on us as well. Cafe Nela is no longer around, but what it represented and supported had a lasting, positive effect on how we wanted to create music. As a band, we‘ve been making music that’s hard to categorize. It’s definitely in the rock realm, but we’re not tied down to a specific type of style.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been the smoothest road for us, especially during the pandemic. Scheduling rehearsals were especially harder during that time since we were in lockdown and weren’t allowed to visit anyone until those restrictions were lifted. It wasn’t just us though, every musician who was ever involved in a band or group went through the same ordeal. Although things are a bit different now, I feel like it still had an impact on our growth as artists. However, I’ve always believed that things happen for a reason. It was during lockdown that Kevin decided to convert his room at home into a recording studio. I ended up helping him build sound panels over the summer of 2020 when they lifted the restrictions a bit, and he decided to learn how to become a sound engineer; taught himself to use Reaper, which is a type of recording software. Most of our recording is done on Reaper and Pro Tools. Joseph went back to school to study music and music technology during that period. So essentially, we ended up utilizing that time to build this recording space for our work and also learned to mix our own music. Being able to record and produce on our own ended up being rewarding in the end and made sense for us since we were always a DIY band anyway.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
All of us play an equal part in regard to the contribution of our band. Joseph creates the beats, Kevin writes all of the guitar parts and I come up with the basslines and artwork. We make it a collaborative project. As far as lyrics and vocal melodies/harmonies go, Kevin and I write those. What sets us apart from others is that we make music that’s difficult to categorize. I mean in the end, we are a rock band, but we’re not chained to one category. That being said, we recently released our E.P. Chariot on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. We’re excited to share this with others and hope you’ll enjoy it. You can also check our website, almostedibleband.com, to find our music on other streaming platforms.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
There is no point in being an artist if risks aren’t taken. This can be said of us musically since we’re essentially mixing different genres of rock music instead of slapping one specific label to our sound. When we first started the band, our music was more funk and blues, less progressive. Now it’s changed. We’re pretty sure by now that we’re not a commercially marketable band, and that’s fine because that wasn’t our intention in the first place. It’s a risk we’re willing to take without question. We just want to explore and see how our sound comes together.
Contact Info:
- Website: almostedibleband.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/almostedibleband
Image Credits
All band photo images: Kristin Mothersbaugh Artwork image: Jennifer J.
