After local band Captain Kudzu finished their set, members of Dogwood Lung gathered in the center of a packed living room on Harper Avenue for a graduation party in May.
Smoke filtered in through the open doorway from the porch into the purple and green-lit room and when Dogwood Lung began to play, the bass reverberated through the walls as the crowd danced and jumped on the old hardwood floors sticky from spilled stale beer.
Singer and guitarist Rose Farrington and her boyfriend and drummer Ben Ewing began playing music together a year and a half ago that they described as sad and folksy.
Ewing said after they got tired of “being down all the time,” they changed their style and formed Dogwood Lung, which gets its name from the song “Weave” by Foxing.
“We were both wanting a change of pace and to put ourselves out there in a new way, so he started playing drums and I started playing electric guitar,” Farrington said. “We were trying to do something that was fun that we could play at parties because previously it was mostly playing at coffee shops.”
The band gained guitarist Austin Arias from Cherry Motel and bassist Timothy Collier from Captain Kudzu earlier this year, and have since changed their musical style to what could be described as dream pop or dream punk, with musical influences ranging from Elvis Depressedly and (Sandy) Alex G to Sufjan Stevens and American Football.
Continue reading below...
“It’s about trusting each other and being on the same page about the vision and the future, but it’s also about trusting each other and being comfortable with each other bringing in different influences,” Collier said.
“The music is emotionally rich. There’s no lacking substance at all in the songs, and that’s what I like the most,” Arias said, and added that his guitar playing is “mostly indicative on how the Chicago Cubs’ season is going, and in particular my playing has similar personality traits to different players on the team, so different things that I do will embody different characteristics of players on the team. So far it’s been an okay season.”
All four members of the band have connections to Auburn University, with Farrington being an upcoming junior in horticulture and philosophy, Ewing an upcoming senior in English literature and philosophy, Collier a graduate in English literature and Arias a graduate in Marketing.
The majority of Dogwood Lung’s shows are at house parties around Auburn, but they have also played at Avondale in downtown Auburn, Red Clay Brewing Company and John Emerald Distillery in Opelika and The Firehouse and Seasick Records in Birmingham. The band is currently booked to play at Concourse South, Opelika’s downtown festival on August 26.
“Auburn underground scenesters listen to us,” Ewing said and laughed. “There is a scene here and it’s good, just go loaf around Shady Glenn on a weekend. You got Lady Legs, you got Josh Jackson, Cherry Motel, Captain Kudzu, Bobby Rock ‘N’ Roll…Shady Glenn is the scene, it’s where it all goes down.”
The band has two demo songs on Band Camp but is currently recording its first album this summer with the help of Auburn resident Michael Whelan, who helped produced the recently released Lady Legs album, “Stay Late,” and will be released on CD, vinyl and the seemingly obsolete option of a cassette.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
