Koala Fires are saying goodbye. Deciding to move on with other projects, the band is going off with a bang! The final show is also a CD release for the sophomore LP, Doom of the Noms.
Koala Fires are also donating half of the merch sales to Anna Louise Inn. This was a place many struggling women called home and recently, the location downtown announced it was closing its doors. The funds raised will go toward helping the residents move to their new location.
Also, while the bands playing at the final show are all male staffed, Cin City Burlesque will be performing in-between sets to bring some female empowerment to the stage!
Come on out, buy a ton of merch and say your goodbyes. It’s been a good run and we look forward to following the guys in their next ventures!
We sat down with Matt Mooney prior to the show to talk about the next steps for Koala Fires.
Final show? What prompted that?
It's a culmination of reasons to be sure, but first and foremost a matter of the gut feeling that it's time to move on. Koala Fires has been around in one form or another for around 7 years and we've all grown as people, musicians and journeyed to new places so to speak. Sometimes you reach the end of the miles in one journey and then start a new one, not necessarily as the same people when you started out. I'm the only member of the original line up of the band, and while I love the guys I'm playing with now, and we've done a really cool thing in completing the new album, it seems that maybe that was what this leg of the journey was all about. The other guys in the band have been very supportive in realizing the completion of the album and in turn my personal restoration / rejuvenation. I'm proud of the album, but don't really feel as if it needs to be something we travel to support. I'd love the world to hear it, but will settle for those here in this great city who have journeyed with us over the past 7 years and would like the same closure we're all going to get by releasing the damn thing.
What is your favorite thing about being a musician in Cincinnati?
One of my favorite things (having been in the local music scene for around 15 years now) has been to see how the city has really evolved. Music is becoming more and more of a true industry in this town, although sometimes it seems it's three steps forward and two steps back (totally a Paula Abdul reference). It's cool to see a festival like Midpoint becoming something truly great, and I'm proud that Koala Fires played a part in its history. I also enjoy the camaraderie I experience at places like The Southgate House Revival on a Monday night for Singer-Songwriter night. I truly love to see the large amounts of talent that this city produces musically. Now if we could just build up the other tenets of the industry infrastructure so that music could more easily be discovered, we'd be all set.
What inspired the new LP?
This beast was conceived during a bad marriage I was in. After the last Koala Fires album was completed (2010's The Beeping in Our Hearts) I was starting to write again, and a lot of the songs came from a place of dealing with this great angst and wrenching loss of what had started out as a loving relationship. The album is conceptually about two beings that come together and exist in love for a time. Upon seeing the reality that had been hidden beneath the surface of their initial feelings, the relationship begins to crumble and die. In the end the two are left with a choice and one decides that everything has an end, and that maybe they've reached theirs. It's all told through cryptozoological, mythical, supernatural and historical metaphor though so that keeps it interesting. Once all the material was written I decided that instead of merely breaking even producing the album as we did on our first, that we could save money if I figured out how to record, mix and master it myself... It was a crazy idea, and it took me nearly two years to accomplish it, but I'm very very proud of myself for sticking it out and the final product is better than I could have hoped! I tapped a friend of mine from college (The Art Academy of Cincinnati) William Test to do a painting for the cover art and he really encapsulated some of the eerie and other worldly tenets of the album as a whole. His other work can be seen HERE. It's really great stuff!
New projects we should look out for?
As far as what's next, our bass player (Matt Zink) and his wife just had a baby, so congratulations are in order there. He also plays in another band called the Future Strikes. Our drummer (Matt Retherford) and other guitarist (Ben Evans) are in another great band called House of Feeble Minds and I imagine they will focus more on that project. I personally have been working on new material and have really found a nice pace and rhythm to my songwriting process. I'll be moving forward with building the new songs into something even more substantial backed by all of the knowledge I have gained from being a part of this great band. I often play at Singer/Songwriter night at The Southgate House Revival on Monday nights and will be working on an EP of the new material which will be released under a new moniker as soon as it's ready. New life from the ashes!
Koala Fires FINAL show and CD Release
w/ Brighton MA, Jody Stapleton and The Generals
Saturday August 24th
Mayday
7p Doors / 8p Show
$7
