Music
Press
"You guys are awesome!"
- Paisley, Rock 94 1/2 - Paisley, Rock 94 1/2
"Flying Mammals is making a statement people!"
- Greg Mills, 96.9 Spokane's River - Greg Mills, 96.9 Spokane's River
"GO!" is creating interest with its slick production and catchy, piano-laden rock.
- Matt Loi, 103.1 KCDA - Matt Loi, 103.1 KCDA
"Flying Mammals sounds like early U2!"
- Glenn Lefay, 95.3 KPND - Glenn Lefay, 95.3 KPND
"Brilliant and Amazing!"
- Mike Morisson, 95.3 KPND - Mike Morisson, 95.3 KPND
"Flying Mammals know how to put the put the 'w' in RAWK!"
- Get Out North Idaho, Get Out North Idaho (Nov 27, 2011) - Get Out North Idaho, Get Out North Idaho (Nov 27, 2011)
A couple of weeks back, a trio of former Sandpointians packed their gear and instruments, drove up from Coeur d’Alene and camped out at the KPND studios for a feature segment on the Homegrown Show.
It was the first time Flying Mammals – made up of brothers Aaron, James and Andy Birdsall – had played in their family’s former home town, and the band’s first actual Sandpoint gig is slated for June 4 at the Downtown Crossing.
“It feels good to be playing up here,” said Aaron, who at 29 is the eldest of the three, and supplies Flying Mammals with lead vocals, bass and keys. “Hopefully we can get a good fan base in Sandpoint, but it can be hard – your name is either gold or dirt here.”
But just because the Birdsalls are only now gearing up for a date in Sandpoint, doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy elsewhere. James, the band’s 24 year old guitarist, said Flying Mammals has played upwards of 30 shows in the last three months, ranging from downtown Coeur d’Alene to Spokane.
Formed just this winter, they’re also polishing a six-track EP – recorded in Post Falls and set to drop later this summer – and Flying Mammals’ single has been getting radio play in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and, of course, Sandpoint.
“None of us really anticipated how fast things were going to move,” said Aaron.
The June 4 show at Downtown Crossing will feature songs from the EP as well as a handful of covers. Aaron characterizes Flying Mammals’ sound as pop-rock akin to Kings of Leon and The Killers. The band’s debut single, “Go!”, is a polished, soulful and soaring number driven by James’ guitar work and featuring Aaron on lead vocals and keyboard.
The song bears readily identifiable traces of Aaron’s longtime experience producing commercial and studio tracks, and wouldn’t sound out of place coming from your car stereo between songs by Coldplay and Lifehouse.
“We’re trying to balance between having the same, recognizable sound, but without getting boring,” said James, whose eight year stint in Chicago saw him playing blues clubs with funk-classic rock group crEam TanGeriNe. “This band definitely has more of a chance of succeeding than any other band I’ve been in.”
Andy, who at 22 is the youngest of the trio, played drums for a couple of groups during his 12 years in Chicago, and Aaron has played with more than a half dozen bands over the years. The entire Birdsall family, which includes five boys and three girls spread across the country, is musical – ranging from singers to musicians, and including actors and artists.
Aaron said the original plan was to build an eight-piece, all-Birdsall family band last summer, but things broke down owing to distance and artistic direction. James and Andy, who at the time were in Chicago, were convinced it was a good idea, and Aaron convinced them to pull up stakes and head west.
He said Flying Mammals is a different beast than his past efforts, which most recently included the funk-fueled band Black and Tann.
“We’re not a jam band,” Aaron said. “I was tired of the 10 people in the audience really enjoying it, and I’m really hoping now to appeal to more people. I always felt like I had a little more to say.”
Downtown Crossing, June 4, 9 p.m.
- The READER - Zach Hagadone
Discography
Singles:
GO!
One Chance
Shine Down
LPs:
READY SET
Photos
Bio
It's been a frantic couple of years for Flying Mammals, the Inland Northwest-based trio whose earnest and melodic songs have been striking a huge chord with audiences. Formed officially in 2009 by the three brothers Aaron, James, and Andrew Birdsall, Flying Mammals knew long before then that they would eventually be making music together. Its a story of family, friendship and fallout, that spans the country and a decade.
Even at the young ages of 8 and 13 James and Aaron found themselves writing songs together and performing for family and fiends. “As the children of a doctor and an actress, we were all raised to be child prodigies.” Aaron, the lyricist, said in an interview. “Unfortunately, our parents expected us to get ‘real jobs’ in addition to playing in orchestras” added Andrew the youngest.
After a house fire in 1998, the family moved to Chicago where James and Andrew began cut there teeth, grinding out weekend gigs on the club scene. James went hard to work as the lead guitar player, and founding member of the band Cream Tangerine, which was a blues based funk band. Due to the bands high turn over of drummers, Andrew often filled in until he was made a regular member of the group. Since Aaron’s current band, The Star Bellied Sneetches, was all moving to Seattle he quickly vacated the Chi-Town area and moved out West to pursue the post Grunge scene. The singer/bass player was quickly picked up by an international touring band called The Cube as the rhythm guitar and backup singer.
While the FM band of brothers was separated by 2,500 miles of North America, Aaron found himself in the planning stages of Kavode Records based in Orlando with Jeremy Birdsall, the first born in the Birdsall Family. As one of the youngest record label executives at 18yrs old Aaron found himself putting down his own music to create opportunities for other artists.
After splitting Kavode into the East Coast and West Coast devisions, Aaron finally broke off completely in 2006 and started Audio Jerk Records after convincing James to move to the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area from Chicago. It was at this time James and Aaron started writing music together again; the first time since they were kids! In one year AJR had produced and engineered over a dozen albums, one of which was “So Much To Be The Same” by Black and Tann, Aaron’s band at the time. When asked what happened with that group Aaron paused and then said “Black and Tann was a lot of fun, but it was never what I really wanted it to be. I had always wanted to play in a band with family members.”
In the summer of 2007 when Black and Tann finally called it quits James and Aaron set out to create a new project that had only had 2 real members (Aaron and James) while the rest of the on-stage 6 piece would be hired players. Out of the initial writing process, the Flying Mammals single “GO!” emerged. The dynamic duo played only one show with the hired players and decided that was not the answer. What they really needed was the final piece to the power trio.
After much consideration, in 2009, Andrew finally took the plunge and moved out west from Chicago where he had been settled for quite a while. With a broken pelvis from a snowboarding accident and within one week of Andrews arrival, Flying Mammals played 2 shows that instantly got everyone on the music scene asking “Who the heck is Flying Mammals?”
Their song “GO!” was leaked to the pirate radio station 99.5, which caused a huge public push for more of the musical brothers. At that time they had only officially been a band about 2 months and had played over fifteen shows. “I figured why mess around trying to decide what to play or call ourselves when we really already knew and already had the gel that takes years to develop in a group since we grew up playing together” said Aaron. “With us writing songs like GO! people seem to really enjoy our sound” added James. After a long time coming, Flying Mammals will not disappoin
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