Plenty of bands boast a member or two from Westchester, but the psychedelic-rock group Indigo King is 100 percent local. Consisting of members Danny Annibale, Josh Braunstein, Liam Houghtaling, and Faiz Lone, the foursome first made waves when they won last year’s Pleasantville Battle of the Bands and earned a spot playing The Pleasantville Music Festival. In March, they released their debut album, Cloud Neon, and just wrapped up a recent performance at The Boathouse in Ossining. We caught up with the band to see what makes these regional rockers tick.
How did you guys first meet?
We’ve been friends since childhood. Josh, Danny, and Faiz were members of the school jazz band in fourth grade, and that was probably the first time we ever played together. Our passion started really building around the eighth and ninth grades, and we formed a couple different bands — including a hip-hop one — throughout high school.
Tell me about recording your debut album.
It was always the goal to make a proper recording. What’s particularly unique about our process was that we’d been to several studios and tried recording there but were never happy with how the tunes came out, mostly because they seemed over-produced and lacked an authentic, raw sound. We ended up buying a couple of mid- to high-end recording tools and went to work in my mom and dad’s basement.
How do you feel you guys have grown as a band?
Tremendously. It actually becomes a problem sometimes, because we grow so quickly, we find it hard to release stuff just based on knowing our potential. That’s why Cloud Neon is such a monumental thing for us, because we drew a line and said, “Anything after this point is not fair game for the album.”
What do you see ahead for Indigo King?
[We plan to perform] at bigger and bigger venues, eventually leading to a full tour. We want to open for bigger bands and tap into the audiences who would appreciate our music. We believe that if someone sees us live, we have the opportunity to make them a fan for life.
