Performing in front of a live audience at The Overall Company Friday, Oct. 19, gave local band Teacup and the Monster another chance to do what it loves.
After releasing its first EP four months after forming, the band plans to move on to bigger and better things with more live shows and another EP in the works.
"Our first show as Teacup and the Monster was at the Gnu's Room, and we did an acoustic set," said lead singer Jake Carnley. "There was a big turnout, and it really inspired us to keep moving forward with the project.
"Before we got there, we were getting text messages like 'this place is packed out,'" Jake said. "It's very special to me -- getting to express our art. I try to leave everything on the stage, and leave knowing I accomplished what I came to do."
Guitarist and senior at Auburn Tommy Kratzert said the first show it played was his favorite.
"I was nervous, but nobody had heard us and just seeing all the support we got -- I kind of just reveled in the privilege to play, because not a lot of people get to do that, and it's such a cool opportunity to play in front of people," he said.
Kratzert said the band's sound continues to evolve.
"It's gone from something very folky to something a little more alternative -- the sound we're going for right now feels like Ryan Adams meets Pink Floyd," Kratzert said.
Jake said the band has progressed since its first EP "Love So Strong" was released. "We hit the ground running as a band -- we put out an album right away and then we took three months off," he said.
"We all just dispersed and got away, and when we got back the sound had just evolved.
"There's more brought to the table, and I really feel like we assumed our responsibility of the role that we play in Teacup and the Monster," Jake said.
"There's been a lot of time now for us to grow and develop a sound much different than the very first bit of art we created."
The Auburn/Opelika music scene has grown in the past few years, and the band is growing with it.
"We're playing a lot of local shows," Jake said. "What we love about local music is you're actually a part of it--it's not something that's so separated from the listener."
The band is often asked where its name came from.
"A lot of what we get is who's the teacup and who's the monster," Jake said. "To be honest, I don't know. I had a dream the summer before we got together about a band called Teacup and the Monster; it was a weird rock 'n' roll, '80s hair band, and when it came time to name the project, it just kind of stuck out."
As a senior at Auburn, Carnley looks forward to the band's future and life after graduation.
"There's an open road in front of us, and we just have to stay true to the art that we create," he said.
Kratzert agrees.
"I was playing the other day and with the way we're heading, for the first time, I'm actually getting that we're going to make it," he said. "I'm confident in my abilities, in Jake's abilities and in the band in general, and as long as we stay together I feel like you should be hearing a lot about us."
Teacup and the Monster will release a second EP sometime next spring. Its music is available on iTunes and Spotify.
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