Feral Fauna is like a musical phoenix that has risen from the ashes. Formerly a seven-piece electronic pop/soul outfit known as Audiafauna, the band has evolved into a “bluestronica” group led by singer Heather Deardorff and multi-instrumentalist Krikor Andonian. “Krikor and I met and connected on the idea of fusing electronic and live music, at the exact time when Audiafauna was disbanding,” explains Deardorff. “So the timing of our meeting, as well as having a similar vision of what we wanted to do with music, helped make the switch from Audiafauna to Feral Fauna very fluid.”
Their debut single, “Feral Nation,” combines acoustic guitars, organs and propulsive beats in a manner reminiscent of Euphoria’s 2001 album, Beautiful My Child. Feral Fauna hopes to finish its debut release this fall. The band’s experience performing at festivals this summer has greatly impacted their approach to live shows, according to Deardorff. “The whole realm of electronic music is so vast,” she says. “I’ve learned so much from other electronic producers on how to do it. We have a new setup we’ve been playing with while touring at festivals, like Burning Man. We discovered a whole new way of looking at our setup, so the show’s going to be more massive.” But for Deardorff, this is about more than just creating music people can dance to. “Music is this huge vein in the center of my being,” she says. “It’s this huge river that flows on and on inside of me, and basically it doesn’t give me a choice. I have to make music. I have to create. It’s the closest thing to the human soul that you can really plug into. It moves me from a very deep place in my humanity and gives me perspective on life and gives me hope. So I think music is a vessel for collective hope and inspiration.”
INFO: 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $5/adv, $8/door. 479-1854.
