No, they’re not from Nebraska.
In fact, the five members who make up indie folk band Echo Nebraska have never even been to the “Cornhusker State” before.
Instead, they are named after the movie Nebraska — which guitarist Andy Schichter had watched while trying to think of a band name — and the word echo, which front man Devan Christodoulou “was into.”
“We struggled forever coming up with a band name and it wasn’t until the end of recording our EP that we came up with Echo Nebraska,” Schichter said.
“We just combined those two words. He (Christodoulou) wanted echo, I wanted Nebraska. And there we go, that sounds like a band name, let’s roll with that.”
Despite its ambiguity, it’s a name that has served them well. Since launching their group in 2014, Echo Nebraska, made up of Schichter (guitar and keyboard), Christodoulou (lead vocals and guitar), Carly Frey (violin and backing vocals), Mike Lauder (drums) and Gunn Park (bass and backing vocals), have made CBC Music’s list of best new music videos, and toured across Western Canada.
“We did things a little backwards,” Schichter said.
“We recorded a CD and we wanted to have that ready to go for when we officially launched Echo Nebraska, the band. We had a music video (and) EP (titled Send the Ships). We just wanted everything ready to go so that when we launched in November, 2014, we could say, ‘here’s our music video for our song Hey Allison, our EP is coming out in January, our first show is next week,’ get a buzz right from the get-go.
“We thought it would be better to start the band off with a bang.”
Comparable to folk musicians Josh Ritter, Grizzly Bear, Sam Roberts and Father John Misty, Schichter says Echo Nebraska’s music is “melodic, (with an) emphasis on a lot of background vocals and acoustic instruments.”
“It’s pretty digestible. Indie folk-rock is a good overall term for the songs, but there’s a lot of Neil Young influences, the Beatles, late ’60s early ’70s era,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a hybrid of what we grew up with from our parents and what we are experiencing now.”
This Saturday (June 18), Echo Nebraska will play a special performance at Water Shed Arts Cafe in Walnut Grove.
The evening begin at 7:30 p.m. with opener Bre McDaniel. Ticket are $8 in advance, or $12 at the door. To purchase, go to http://enwatershed.bpt.me/. See more on Echo Nebraska at http://echonebraska.com.