The members of indie rock band Manchester Orchestra are (from left) Robert McDowell, Jonathan Corley, Andy Hull, Chris Freeman and Jeremiah Edmond
With the release last spring of their second full-length record, Mean Everything To Nothing, Atlanta quintet Manchester Orchestra are poised to become the next great indie rock band.
Produced by Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, My Morning Jacket), the record wrapped frontman Andy Hull's knotty, often dark alterna-pop in a swirl of outsized guitars and dynamic rhythms, achieving a sound as grandiose as the band's name.
The members of indie rock band Manchester Orchestra are (from left) Robert McDowell, Jonathan Corley, Andy Hull, Chris Freeman and Jeremiah Edmond
"We just wanted to make something that was huge, that would take the band a step up," says keyboardist Chris Freeman, citing Weezer's cult classic Pinkerton as a guidepost.
Mean Everything was a critical smash and put the band of young twenty-somethings in the Top 40 for the first time. But just as Manchester Orchestra has reached new heights, the group appears to be tearing off in different directions with the announcements this month that drummer Jeremiah Edmond is leaving the group and guitarist Robert McDowell is releasing an album from his other band, Gobotron.
Freeman says fans shouldn't fear an imminent breakup, however. Edmond is coming off the road to be with his new wife and run the band's label, Favorite Gentlemen, which is distributed by Sony Music. And McDowell's record, which is being released by Favorite Gentlemen, is just one of a series of side projects by group members, including Hull's ongoing multi-record saga of a 17th century sailor and Freeman's own Alaska Him Nicely.
"It's a bit stranger," Freeman says of his record, which he hopes to release this year. "I don't have the lyrical sensibility that Andy does, so there's a lot less words. It's more spacey than Manchester Orchestra."
High school friends who all live within a few miles of each other in suburban Atlanta, the members of Manchester Orchestra support each other through all these endeavors, regularly jamming into their shared studio space to help each other record.
"Once you find a group of people you want to play with, even if it's just in one band, then you can definitely make that translate to another band," says Freeman of the logic behind extending the musical collaboration outside of Manchester Orchestra. "Why mess with the dynamic?'
The dynamic is alive and well on the band's latest release, a split single with Brooklyn singer-songwriter Kevin Devine that was released this week. The two-song bundle features Manchester Orchestra covering Devine's "I Could Be With Anyone" and Devine tackling "The Only One" off Mean Everything.
Manchester Orchestra with Harrison Hudson and Oracle & the Mountain
Thursday at the New Daisy Theatre, 330 Beale. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets: $12 in advance; $14 day of show. Advance tickets available by phone at (866) 468-7630 or online at newdaisy.com. For more information, call 525-8979.
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