“Thus Owls are a five-piece transatlantic band centered around of husband and wife duo Erika and Simon Angell. Turning Rocks is both a scrapbook of memories and oral transmissions from an island in Sweden, and a sonic experiment in tone and colour recorded in Montreal. The album is lyrically inspired by Erika’s childhood home: a small house in her family for generations, in a tiny village on Orust-an island in Sweden just north of Gothenburg.”

Check out the band at their official Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, BandCamp and SoundCloud. The experimental pop rock band have just released the “Turning Rocks” LP and I want to thank Simon Angell (Guitar) and Erike Angell (Vocals) for taking the time to participate in this edition of First/Last.

• The first album you ever bought?
• Simon Angell: CD: “Use Your Illusions II” Guns ‘N Roses, Tape: Pet Shop Boys “Actually”,
• LP: “Slippery When Wet” Bon Jovi.
• Erika Angell: CD: Lisa Ekdahl “Vem Vet”, EP: Whitney Houston “I Will Always Love You”.
• Your last album bought?
• Simon: “Lost In the Dream” The War on Drugs.
• Erika: Angel Olsen “Burn Your Fire For No Witness”.
• Favorite album of all time?
• Simon: “Dark Side of the Moon” Pink Floyd.
• Erika: I could never pick one, here are 3 favorites that I’ve listen to a lot during the last 5 years. “Rock Bottom” Robert Wyatt, Portishead “3”, Joanna Newsom “Have One On Me”.
• Least favorite/most disappointing album?
• Simon: Hmmm… hard to think of. If I don’t like something, I tend not to remember it!
• Erika: Agree there. I can almost only remember things that move me in a really good way so there’s not really room for things I don’t care about.
• First concert attended?
• Simon: Sloan, in a McGill University study hall when I was 12. Note: It was also my first moshing experience.
• Erika: I hardly remember my first concert since I grew up with a mom that gave concerts all the time, but my first rock concert was Madonna in Gothenburg, 1990.
• Last concert?
• Simon: Jim Campilongo at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC. Although I’d heard him before maybe 15 years ago, I fell upon this show randomly. It blew my mind. I should mention seeing Connan Mockasin at this years SXSW just before that, as it was an incredible show as well.
• Erika: Since I spend most of my time with Simon these days, we have the same last show experiences.
• Favorite concert ever?
• Simon: Neil Young at Rock Werchter in Belgium. Since I was playing the festival, I got to see it from front row center. I turned into myself as a 13 year old superfan.
• Erika: I have many favorite concerts, but maybe Björk at The Gorge is amongst my top 10.
• Least favorite concert ever?
• Simon: I accidentally saw Hole (well, Courtney Love and 3 LA session guys) in Amsterdam a couple years back. Terrible. I have to give props to her sound engineer though. He knew exactly when she was going to start playing guitar and was quick on the trigger to pull her out of the mix!
• Erika: Most of the really bad shows I’ve seen has been part of some bigger festivals I’ve attended. You always get the opportunity to see some big names/bands there that you can be curious to even see even if you’ve never really been into their music, which means I’m not the fair judge I guess. But some of those shows can really surprise you in a good way. One show that didn’t win me over was Missy Elliott in Stockholm a few years ago, when she spent most of her show pitching a shoe brand to her crowd.
• Any thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?
• Simon: I’ve only passed through once, about 15 years ago. If memory serves me right, I do remember really enjoying a street called Carson Street. Am I right or is Carson Street a fiction of my subconscious?
• Erika: I still have Pittsburgh to look forward to. I have never been.

Thanks, Simon and Erika. Yes, there is a Carson Street here in Pittsburgh. I highly recommend it except between the hours of 10 p.m. – 3 a.m. That’s when that zoo should be avoided at all costs.

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