Photo by Peter McCrady
Local folk musicians continue work on first album
Keeping still can be difficult once Austin band Hello Wheels begins belting out songs. The five-piece ensemble tears into tunes with enough energy that audience members often join them in dancing along.
"Lately the crowds have been blowing our minds," guitarist Peter Shults said.
The band formed in 2010 after a stay at banjo player Nick Garza's family ranch south of San Antonio. Band members had been jamming together before that, Garza said, but the time out at the ranch allowed them to come together as a band.
The band's current lineup of the band includes Matt Bradshaw on the keyboard, trumpet and harmonica; Garza on banjo, Gary James on upright bass, Shults on guitar and Josh Halpern on drums.
"Since then, we've been trying to make fun, interesting folk music with lots of harmony and atypical arrangements for the instruments we're using," Shults said.
Some aspects that make the band different from other folk groups is its use of a keyboard and more orchestrated arrangements for their songs.
Shults said the group draws from their varied musical backgrounds when composing rather than trying to fit into a predetermined genre.
"It's the music that came out," Shults said. "To me the coolest thing about Hello Wheels is that it has pretty equal parts collaboration. That's always been one of our creative benchmarks is — if we're going to add something, it has to really be bringing something."
The band's sound has evolved since its formal inception, adding Halpern and an electric guitar to its repertoire. The new additions have helped the dynamic of the band become louder, more intense and allowed Hello Wheels to "cause more of a ruckus," Garza said.
"[The drums] really takes it to a different level," Garza said. "You feel it in your chest at live shows, that big heavy kick, and that was something I had missed personally."
The band has put out a five-song EP and a 7-inch vinyl record with another local band, Whiskey Shivers. Hello Wheels also has been working to put together a full-length album.
"We've learned a lot of things—some good things and some bad things," Garza said. "Ultimately it's making us stronger and making us focus on what we need to get done to release something we really feel awesome about."
Hello Wheels, www.facebook.com/hellowheels, www.hellowheelsmusic.bandcamp.com
