Michael Norris (left), Chris Carter, Jason Winner and Garet Camella of Columbus-based indie rock band Indigo Wild.
Credit: Courtesy of Nick Fancher
In an attempt to shine light on local music, The Lantern’s“Columbus’ Own” is a weekly series that will profile a new Columbus band every week.
The power of mutual friends and a love for music are a uniting factor for Columbus-based band Indigo Wild.
Lead singer and guitarist Garet Camella and guitarist Michael Norris first met in their freshman year at the University of Cincinnati and found that they shared an interest in music. They started playing music in the dorms together and decided they wanted to reach out to other musicians and start a band. Through a mutual friend, Camella and Norris were able to find their future drummer, Jason Winner. Then as the trio started playing and writing songs more frequently, they got in contact with bassist Chris Carter.
“We were fortunate from the start. We didn’t know what was going to happen. But (our band) really worked from the start,” Camella said.
The indie rock band was formed in the summer of 2010. According to the band’s website, Camella also plays keyboard. and Norris and Carter provide vocals for the band as well.
In 2014, the band looks to work on recording and crafting new music. It intends to start drafting its first full-length album, and release an acoustic version of its new song “Pacific.” The original, non-acoustic version is also set to be on the full-length album, Camella said.
Camella said “Pacific” is about his first trip to California with his best friend, where he interacted with nature and stood on a cliff that faced the Pacific Ocean.
“I realized how big the U.S. is and how little I was at the moment,” Camella said.
The songwriting process is a collaborative one for the band.
“Michael and Garet will usually come up with a guitar part or a vocal harmony part and all four of us will usually build it into a song,” Winner said.
Camella added that when coming up with a melody for a song, the band collectively writes songs that remind the members of particular moments or memories from their lives.
“We come up with a guitar part, a melody, a vocal line that reminds us of something. If we want to write about a particular thing, then maybe we’ll match what we think that (song) would sound like with whatever emotion we’re trying to convey,” Camella said.
The men of Indigo Wild enjoy playing live as much as they like to write music.
“It’s energetic and fun. At times it can be unpredictable. Personally, I think it’s the greatest feeling in the world. If we can perform just one show a month, personally, I think it’s the best 40 minutes of my life,” Winner said.
So far, the band has toured around Ohio including Cincinnati, Columbus, Athens and Cleveland, and has performed a gig in New York City, at Mercury Lounge in the Lower East Side. The band tries to a reach a wide variety of audiences with its music, but the audience is usually made up of college-aged people.
“We really care a lot about what we’re doing. We believe in what we’re doing and we hope that other people believe in it too,” Winner said.
“Rowboats” is the favorite song of Max Mattingly, a third-year in information systems and drummer of The Ridges, a band from Athens, Ohio.
“(The song) is really fun. It gets everybody moving and everybody singing along. It’s just a really great song,” Mattingly said.
“Rowboats” can be found on Indigo Wild’s most recent EP “If By Sea,” released in 2011.
Other local musicians are fans of the band. Victor Rasgaitis, lead singer from The Ridges, who met Indigo Wild through a music festival in Cincinnati, loves the band’s music, he said.
“They bring the crowd into their songs. They make you feel what they’re playing and they put a lot of heart in their performance,” Rasgaitis said.
Rasgaitis also said Indigo Wild uses a lot of familiar musical elements that can be heard in many indie rock bands, including the use of guitars, drums, bass and vocal harmony, but the band has a lot of originality in its music.
“The types of instrumentation as well as the type of songwriting isn’t unfamiliar. But they really make (music) their own. They put their own voice in it,” Rasgaitis said.
Mattingly still remembers the first time he heard Indigo Wild perform live. It was in a venue called the Southgate House in Kentucky, he said.
“I remember Indigo Wild coming up. I didn’t know anything about them, and they just absolutely blew my mind. My friends and I were just standing there. We couldn’t believe it was real. They were just amazing,” Mattingly said.
As the band performs more and more together, the friendship among the band members continues to grow. The band even reminds Camella of a family.
“We’re kind of like a little family because we’ve seen each other grow throughout college,” Camella said.
The band’s next performance is with Nick and the Believers, set to be on Jan. 25 at Kobo, located at 2590 N. High St.
