Meet Perfect Animal | Band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Perfect Animal and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Perfect, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
There are really only a few ways to put this. Creative individuals don’t necessarily choose to be artists – it just sort of finds them. In short, our minds play with themselves. Whether images and words come through to us in dreams or hallucinations of sound emanate through street noise, the mind of a creative person combines its pre-existing state with an external and foreign stimulant, thereby creating a third, separate thing that lives on its own. This is the holy trinity of creation.

These new things that our minds create, as fleeting as they often are, constantly come to us because we are made that way and have an opened door individualized perception. The only real decision a creative person has to make to become an “artist” is whether they are willing to endure the self-inflicted pain of producing these thoughts and feelings into a tangible medium for others to perceive themselves and hopefully connect with in a way that resonates with their own lives.

The reason we choose to endure that process of creation (“artistic constipation” as John Lennon put it) is because deciding not to would deny us a huge part of ourselves and frustrate our human nature. To answer in the negative, not doing so would be the greatest disservice to souls and the wonderful gift of a creative mind.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We are most proud of our album, “Soft Applause.” It is the culmination of our artistic experiences and indefinite struggle in the process of developing as musicians.

Music is hard. Not only do you have to learn how to write and produce songs, you also have to promote yourself over a long periods of time, work with difficult people (I don’t even know how many bands we have all been apart of), and push through all the negative experiences and struggles in order to achieve the compulsive, necessary vision we see and hear in our minds.

To us, being successful musicians is defined by becoming better each day and continuously defeating the anxiety and self-doubt that filled us yesterday with the energy and effort we expend today. This process of constantly defeating ourselves and evolving over time is how we define success, and this album is the product of that process over years and years of experience.

“Soft Applause” reflects who we are as artists; these songs have our DNA all over them. This album symbolizes our integrity, the defining characteristic of our band. Love or hate us, we will never be anything but ourselves and, to us, that is success.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The best venues to see live, original music in the Atlanta scene are 529, The Earl, The Masquerade, Smith’s Olde Bar, and Aisle 5. Our music scene is filled to the brim with wonderful and unique local bands, you just need to know where to look. So, indulge and take in the originality that defines Atlanta in one of these legendary venues.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Michael Hitchcock of Argyle Records.

We recently released our debut studio album, “Soft Applause,” the most important artistic achievement of our lives. It reflects everything we have worked toward in our lives, both as a bandmates and individuals. Each song on the album is so directly connected to a life event or highly personalized emotion that we needed exactly the right person to produce it. Michael was that person.

Audio engineering, mixing, and mastering are art forms in and of themselves. A great mixer/masterer can make mediocre songs amazing, or equally ruin something that had the potential to be great. This delicate process requires a mastery of both large concepts and fine details to create a soundscape that resonates with a listener and achieves a musician’s ultimate goal in the studio – achieving the full band sound he or she originally heard in their head.

Michael came into the album process when we were coming up against a hard deadline – an album release show at Aisle 5 in April of 2024. While we had tracked drums and scratch tracks for all the songs in August of 2023, we wasted nearly 5 months of time mixing and tracking incorrectly. Simply put, we needed someone with an artistic vision of their own to come in and help us navigate the waters of producing the album to achieve the sound we wanted.

We did not accept anything less. Even though we created a huge time crunch for ourselves, we are so glad we waited for Michael to come into the picture with his skill, equipment, knowledge, and (most importantly) work ethic to finish the album. It made all the difference in the world. As a result, we were able to make the album of our dreams (10 songs) in the first three months of 2024.

Website: https://www.perfectanimalband.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectanimalband/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/perfectanimalband

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgpmEE9z9Js77FXaSJVUBNQ

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/671Jah1PMv2YWB8ZJU86em?si=f9r0UVXBT6ScNLfAKun3JA

Image Credits
Sam Kapoor Emotive Studios