House of Angels
Modern Laurel Canyon Folk
Learning to play on a guitar he borrowed from his uncle, Sam Fowles never really looked back. "I'd spend all my time down in the basement playing guitar," he recalls. "As soon as I got home from school until dinner. It was the one thing I'd get so lost in- time melted away."
Naturally he formed a handful of bands over the course of his school days, and continued into college, there forming The Parson Red Heads with Evan Way and friends. "I was 19 when we formed the band. Shortly after we did we just got knocked out by the 60's and 70's. Neil Young, George Harrison, The Byrds. Other people around us loved the stuff too, but we kind of fixated on those decades exclusively. Prince didn't speak to us- Big Star did!"
After more than ten years together as a band, touring the US, Spain and beyond, Sam felt the need to step out on his own musically and bring to fruition a brand of music he'd been gestating for years. He chose a project name that had mysteriously drawn him towards itself- House of Angels- and set about making an album that incorporated many of his most enduring influences- Midlake, CSNY, Vetiver and Jonathan Wilson, to name a few. He literally drew a map of his plans for musical style and mood. "It was a challenge to myself," Fowles says. "Could I make a song of my own that had a vibe similar to the one you hear in 'Cinnamon Girl'? And the other challenge was to write, record and perform it mostly on my own because I had never done that before in the 15 years I'd been making records. I'm really proud of the result, and I'm looking forward to sharing it with people."
Era Ephemera is out on Parson Farm Records Friday, February 24th 2017.
- Website:
- http://www.samfowlesmusic.net