Edited by Jacob Saucier

My therapist tells me that I need to be more optimistic, assume the best in people, look at the glass like it’s half full, all that jazz. To that end, even though I’m writing the second installment in the Songwriter’s Hub Spotlight series – this installment, the one you’re currently reading – before the first installment is released, and thus have no way of knowing what people are going to think of it, I’m going to assume that it received nothing but rave reviews and universal acclaim from readers of the Rival American, bringing a campus-wide focus to our wholly underrated musical community and leaving the masses on the edge of their seat waiting for the next article in our newest series. If that’s true, hooray for me, but if not, it doesn’t matter; the show’s going on all the same.

With that said, let’s take a look at the first full band I interviewed for this series: Birdcage. This four-piece band consists of vocalist and guitarist Ariel Frisch, a sophomore from Manhattan, NY (who, as mentioned in the last installment, also plays bass for Alizeh); bassist Owen Schafer, a sophomore from Portland, OR (also the bassist for Corie Brynn, a.k.a Fly Fish Fly); keyboardist and guitarist Noah Schneider, a sophomore from Kensington, MD (also the keyboardist for Alligator Hands, a band I did not interview but nonetheless worth seeing); and drummer June Nerney, a junior from Needham, MA (who might be in other bands–I forgot to ask). When I interviewed Birdcage last November, I wanted to find out if their band name extends to an overall theme for the group. This may come as a shock to some of you, but the answer is… yes.

“We all have birds,” said Ariel, in an interview with the Rival. She said hers is a songbird, the canary. Owen’s bird is a pigeon; Ariel once blanked on his name early in their musical relationship and called him “Pigeon.”. Noah’s bird is an Owl due to both their messed-up sleep schedule as well as having been attacked by an actual owl on campus. June’s bird is a duck, because, to quote Noah, “You can tell why.” (I couldn’t.)

But let’s not put the cart before the horse, or, more fittingly, the chicken before the egg (bird humor): the bird theme was inspired by the name of the band, not the other way around. Originally starting out as Tinted Window before finding out there was already a supergroup by that name, the band either renamed itself to Birdcage in honor of Noah’s owl attack, or had already named itself Birdcage by the time the owl attack happened. Each member of the band offers a differing order of events that, combined with some amicable lineup changes during their time as Tinted Window, created the modern Birdcage.

So what kind of music do they actually make? Ariel’s answer, very emphatically, is indie rock, heavily resisting any labels of pop, which the Tinted Window iteration of the band was closer to sonically. Ariel’s songwriting, which she estimates makes up 80% of the band’s songs, draws inspiration from bands like Pixies, the Moss, and Arctic Monkeys, with a slight influence from Mannequin Pussy. The rest of the band brings their own inspirations into their playing style as well – June cited Modest Mouse and Pavement, Noah drew from jazz as a whole, and Owen credited his overall music taste and imagination. Fans of these bands will definitely be able to hear the influences in their songs, but the sound and vibe from all of them put together creates something unique, and very distinctly their own. But don’t take it from them – take it from me, someone who’s been to multiple of their shows in the past year.

Birdcage has played at venues such as the Woods-Brown Amphitheater and the community garden on campus, The Pocket (a lovely intimate venue tied to a music school in NoMa), and The Garage which is located on a horse-filled ranch in Boyds, MD, a 45-minute drive from campus. They also did a special love-themed show at the Fridge, an art gallery by Capitol Hill, in honor of Valentine’s Day; while I didn’t attend due to my own bitterness around the holiday, I’m told it was amazing. Their dream venues to perform at are as ambitious as they are interesting, ranging from Madison Square Garden and D.C.’s historic 9:30 Club to Noah’s backyard and TDR; the latter half, they suggested, may actually be in the cards.

But these shows are not the only way to hear Birdcage’s music, since, as June put it, “We’re pregnant with [a] baby album, [and] we’re not getting an abortion.”  The band’s first album, titled ‘Avian Flu,’ is currently slated to release around the beginning of this coming semester. In the meantime, their first single and recent live staple, “Wisdom Teeth,” released at the end of this past March, and can be found on the band’s Spotify.

Their digital footprint as a whole, however, is much larger than simply Spotify. Birdcage can also be found on Instagram and Bandcamp, the former of which they use to promote upcoming shows and releases, and the latter of which will apparently show an entirely different band with a naked woman on the cover if their username is entered wrong. They also have a SoundCloud, a TikTok, and a YouTube channel with a lyric video for “Wisdom Teeth.” While I wasn’t given any usernames for the remainders of their platforms, I’m told they also have a LinkedIn, a Reddit for future AMAs, a Tumblr, a Wattpad, a Minecraft server that requires real-life firearm ownership to join, offices in most major cities worldwide, and an upcoming British remake. Now, do those things actually exist, or did the band simply run away with a bit while I laughed so hard it muddied the quality of our interview recording, making writing this profile that much more difficult? It’s not my place to say. 

(It should be noted that they also offered what dorm rooms each member could be found in if you wanted to ask them in person, but those are not being included both because the school year ended and because, as a publication, we don’t generally put information quite that identifying out there.)

To wrap up our interview, I asked the band members what their favorite things about being musicians in AU’s Songwriter’s Hub are. Their answers were profound, but also deeply contrasting with one another, and I feel as though all four deserve to be quoted for what they said.

Ariel: “I like writing songs.”

Owen: “I like performing, sometimes. I think if I had to perform all the time, I would hate it, but in small doses, when we do one gig a month, I really love it. And also, because I’m an audio tech student, I am really into recording and producing music… so I’m excited to get that going more and actually get the songs done.”

Noah: “I like things that sound nice, and the piano sounds really good to me. So I just kind of like amazing myself with that instrument, and what that sounds like.”

June: “Hitting stuff. Really hard.”