Columbus-based artist Befriend Strange Creatures to release new EP and play celebratory house show Friday

Anna Pichler
Wed, 17 Apr 2024 02:03:14 +0000
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Noah Louys (center), the artist behind solo project Befriend Strange Creatures, performs alongside live bandmates — drummer Dylan Matthews (left), guitarist Ben Smith (right) and bassist Jake Woods (not pictured) — at Rumba Cafe on March 29. Credit: Zach Pennington

For local artist Noah Louys, making music is a fluid and cathartic process.

His solo project, psychedelic- and punk-influenced rock group Befriend Strange Creatures, will release its second EP titled “Adverse Beauty” Friday. To commemorate the release, Louys and his live bandmates — guitarist Ben Smith, bassist Jake Woods and drummer Dylan Matthews — will perform at a local house venue known as “The Greenhouse” Friday at 9 p.m.

Louys said the songs on his forthcoming EP will maintain the psychedelic flavor that characterizes previous releases while additionally reflecting a more “experimental punk direction.”

“I just kind of get in this weird, manic state where there’s this music in me that needs to get out, or if it doesn’t get out, I feel like I’m gonna die,” Louys said. “So, I just kind of sit down and play around.”

As with previous Befriend Strange Creatures releases — like the project’s first single, titled “Lost In the Static,” which was released in December 2020 — Louys single-handedly wrote, recorded and produced his EP using the free program GarageBand, which he said has significantly improved as a software in his 10-plus years of experimentation.

After former guitarist and fellow local musician Simon Molnar amicably left the group, Smith became one of the permanent musicians to play alongside Louys, whom he had previously met and befriended at a concert, in October 2022. Because he mostly listens to and plays metal music in his free time, Smith said he has enjoyed embracing the new music’s heavier punk essence.

“I can tell when [Louys] was teaching me parts as he was recording this project, he did write these parts with me in mind a little bit on some of these songs,” Smith said. “It’s cool to watch him sort of understand his band to that degree. Makes me feel definitely lucky that someone would, within their own creative process, think to include others and how they play and how they sound as they’re thinking. It’s a very professional thing for someone to be doing like that.”

Though Louys did not write the EP’s individual songs with the intention of assembling a cohesive record, he said his experiences with deeply affecting moments of growth and pain in recent years largely inspired the songs’ lyrics and represent the EP’s throughline.

“I personally like to have an open heart and be vulnerable with people, so it’s kind of an extension of that being a part of my personality,” Louys said.

Exemplifying his personal approach to songwriting, Louys said the EP’s closing track, titled “I Don’t Think You Understand,” is about a painful experience that left him feeling “the worst [he’s] ever felt in [his] life for months.” He said writing the song was one of the most memorable moments in composing the record and, more personally, a “very transformative experience.”

“When I finished writing, I felt this wave kind of come over me that everything’s kind of fine and it’s over,” Louys said. “And I learned and worked through that, which was a very beautiful moment for me. I just kind of just started crying a little bit. It was great.”

Over the years, Smith said Befriend Strange Creatures has been a regular presence at local music venues like Cafe Bourbon Street and Rumba Cafe, along with other house venues like The Greenhouse. Smith said he enjoys getting to mesh his own musical interests with Louys’ overall creative vision during such live shows.

“Noah leaves it up to us live to really get to put any of our own artistry on [his music] and he gives us that creative liberty 100%,” Smith said. “He’s not very strict, other than, ‘You gotta use this one effect, but everything else can be your own. Just get it as close to true to the recording as possible.’ It’s fun to sort of get to bring my sound to his sound and see how it works.”

Louys said one of the band’s most memorable experiences was opening for The Brian Jonestown Massacre — a rock band Louys said partially influenced his own music’s psychedelic edge — at Newport Music Hall in September 2023. Even now, Louys said performing on the Newport stage was a surreal experience.

“I never thought I’d be up there ever,” Louys said. “It was a dream come true. It was a bucket-list [item] checked off right there.”

Smith agreed playing at Newport was “like a dream come true.”

“Just getting to be up on that stage that I grew up going and seeing some of my favorite artists at, getting to play on that was really cool,” Smith said. “Newport would be the No. 1 coolest thing that we’ve gotten to accomplish together, for all of us.”

Along with returning to the Newport stage, Louys said his hopes for Befriend Strange Creatures’ future include booking a small summer tour. In the meantime, he said he is excited to release new music and perform with his live bandmates at The Greenhouse Friday alongside Columbus-based band Six Flags Guy, Dayton, Ohio, group Bomb Bunny and Cincinnati, Ohio, band Hueston Woods.

Smith said he is also “stoked” for the EP’s release and accompanying live performance. He said he strongly encourages people unfamiliar with Befriend Strange Creatures to listen to the EP upon its release and come to the show.

“Any new ears is always the goal,” Smith said. “I love seeing new faces that I’ve never seen before at shows, seeing people who are just getting to hear us for the first time live.”

New listeners and fans alike can find something special in the forthcoming songs, Louys said.

“The thing about music is that it’s subjective,” Louys said. “I think that’s what makes music enjoyable and relatable because people can kind of make their own stories out of it.”

More information on Befriend Strange Creatures can be found on its Instagram page. To access The Greenhouse’s address, Befriend Strange Creatures can be direct messaged on Instagram. Doors will open at 8 p.m. and music is set to begin at 9 p.m.