Meet Koyal | Indie rock band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Koyal Indie-rock band and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Koyal, why did you pursue a creative career?

Henry: I went to an arts high school where I spent a lot of my time practicing and performing drums and piano! I wanted to keep performing and doing shows so I joined a band in college that became Koyal. It’s been an amazing time and I never want to stop

Cooper: I grew up with my family constantly playing music in the house. I cut my teeth on 70’s and 80’s rock as a kid, and would always go to concerts with my parents. Playing guitar was a pretty natural choice for me, so I picked it up around the age of 7 and haven’t looked back!

Ethan: I will always remember when my Grandparents started paying for me to take guitar lessons as a child. My instructor, Dean, taught me so much about playing what I enjoy listening to, and built up so much of the musical background I have today. I decided to take up Double Bass in middle school, and played in the jazz band all the way through high school.

My dad and mom grew up listening to Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and all kinds of early 90s grunge, and I have never seen a reason to diverge from their musical preferences. Music has had a huge impact on my life, and I always look forward to bringing music to other people’s lives through Koyal.

Noah: When I was 8, I joined a community based choir called the Keystone State Boychoir. I ended up spending the next 10 years in that choir being exposed to world class music and musicians. I sang on Broadway and toured 8 countries with friends who felt like family while achieving a high level of excellence in musicianship. This gave me an insatiable hunger for creativity and music! Because once I felt the extreme high of experiences like being in the first non-Russian group to ever sing in Moscow’s infamous St. Basil’s cathedral, or learning Folk music from the Lesedi Show Choir in a township in South Africa, I knew I could never do anything else. Koyal is no different, Anyone watching knows the love we share for each other and for our music.

Pooja: A song can tell you what words can’t. Art charges my life with meaning, and seems like the perfect way to record the nuanced beauty of a moment! I’ve written poetry all my life. I did playwriting in high school and wrote the script for my high school theater’s fall production “The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe” and workshopped my plays with professional actors and playwrights at Horizon Theatre Company’s New South Young Playwrights Festival! I began writing songs when I was 18. Being a songwriter and performing live in a band combines elements from all of those aforementioned arts. I feel at home on stage. I feel at home in a song.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

We’re Koyal, an Atlanta based indie-rock band. Since forming in 2018 in a college basement, we’ve performed at ATL venues like the Masquerade, Smith’s Olde Bar, 37 Main Avondale Estates etc. with nationally touring bands such as Forrest Isn’t Dead, Yasmin Nur, All The Locals, Khaliko, and Parrotfish (who played at Bonnaroo this year)! Last year, we released our debut album, Mountain City, and our next EP, “Joyride” will be dropping November 2022! Come say hi at our EP’s release show at Criminal Records on November 20th, 1 pm!

We take pride in our “uniquely Koyal attitudes” which you will find in our songs, bandmates, friends, and shows! We are best friends first and are very kind, motivated, and passionate about music!. During a backstage couch interview at the Masquerade with More2TheCore, the interviewer told us that we had the “happiest mosh pit” that he’d ever seen!

We’re really excited about our upcoming EP in November called “Joyride.” It’s indie pop, rock, and jazz, and we’ve been working with really talented artists to create the EP art and merch. One of our songs “I Wanna Believe” is about aliens, and is being mixed by Greazy Wil, a Grammy winning engineer, as we won his TikTok competition.

Some challenges we’ve faced were navigating through COVID. Our first major headlining show in 2021, “Koyal: Mtn City Tour”, was part of the Georgia Tech Arts Skyline Series of socially distanced performances including Atlanta arts companies such as the Atlanta Ballet and internationally recognized artists. We were so ecstatic to play on a festival-sized stage with professional lighting and crew, especially when the pandemic had made live music so scarce. We got the opportunity after meeting Dr. Aaron Shackelford, Ferst Center’s Director of the Arts, at a showcase! He also directed us towards a $3000 grant opportunity which covered paying for the crew and socially distanced facilities.

We manage ourselves, which involves a lot of the less glamorous behind the scenes marketing, booking, planning strategy, producing the music, etc., but all those hours of work helped us transition from a college band to one known in the Atlanta music scene. We really enjoy networking and meeting other creatives! It’s led to so many friendships and helped us be a part of the Atlanta music community.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Restaurants

Cook Out- Cooper has memorized the employee handbook on making their famous shakes.
Caribbean Chicken and Fish (3358 E Ponce de Leon Ave, Scottdale, GA 30079): It’s a “Hole in the wall” type establishment with only enough room for ten people standing, and it has the best Caribbean food including goat, roti, plantains, rice & beans, curry, and cold drinks!
Willy’s Mexicana Grill and Fellini’s Pizza are two Atlanta classics and comfort food
Heirloom Market Barbeque. This is the best barbeque in the South-East. Some will tell you otherwise… they are wrong. Heirloom was started up by a wife from Korea and a husband from Texas, both equal in barbeque mastery. Their Texas and Korean barbeque is unmatched, and their fusion dishes are even more delectable. If you are in ATL, this is a place you cannot miss.
Alon’s: Get the Garlic Roasted Lamb sandwich on Rosemary Thyme Foccacia. Best sandwich in ATL!

Bubble Tea
Ding Tea( 1000 Northside Dr NW Suite 900, Atlanta, GA 30318)
4.0 Ice Cream & Drinks(6035 Peachtree Rd SUITE A201, Doraville, GA 30360

Entertainment
Catch a local band play at Smith’s Olde Bar or the Masquerade
Regal Tara Theatre is an art house movie theater and shows independent films
Watch a play at Horizon Theatre
Join a Tiny Doors ATL Tour, and take pictures in front of all the tiny doors
Check out Krog Street Tunnel, take pictures!!

Parks
Piedmont Park
Atlanta Beltline
Palisades trail (15 min drive for a great hiking trail, is seriously beautiful)
Waterworks Park is new but has a great little spot to see an awesome view of the ATL skyline!

Museums
High Museum of Art
SCAD Museum of Fashion + Film
World of Coke
Georgia Aquarium
National Center for Civil and Human Rights

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

– Nate (@natethemeh on IG, Haen on Spotify)! A great friend of the band from Nashville, currently in Huntsville, who produced and mixed our first album, and still provides us with incredible assistance.

– Zuko(@danieldayzuko on IG) and Wes(@wesleydoesit on IG): Amazing mentors who have helped us navigate the Atlanta music scene, plan release strategy, and given us opportunities. They’re also part of “MOREDOPEMUSIC,” an Artist Management Agency.

– Justin Golding(@prodkg on IG): A very cool friend who played saxophone on one of our upcoming singles “Tumbleweed” He is a phenomenal woodwind player, producer, and studio assistant at Patchwerk Recording Studios where he has worked with Grammy winning artists.

– Every previous band member(Sultan: keys, Akash: Guitar, Morgado: Bass, Jackson: Guitar) for their contributions to songwriting on our last album “Mountain City” and even on our upcoming EP, killer performances, and helping cultivate the Koyal culture of love and respect.

– Under the Couch at Georgia Tech: This is the on-campus space that was our home and helped us form a band years ago. They gave us so much early on – a stage to practice on, amps, and a community or artists to integrate with.

– #EthansAuntBrooke (look it up, I dare you)

Website: https://officialkoyal.wixsite.com/music

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/koyal.official/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/officialkoyal

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Wu_a6a-yv_iVVY15us2Dw

Other: https://linktr.ee/koyal

Image Credits
Joyride EP art by David Harris