A brighter shade of ugly

Tomorrow at Backspace, Portland band Ugly Colors will play its album-release show in support of its debut full-length Perfect As We Are. The band, composed of Daniel Jacob Harbold, Alexander Walker, Max Martin, Joey Lewis and Fernando Cruz IV, is playing its second show at Backspace with a new level of excitement as the band releases a record that has been a reflection of its experience and journey.

“This album is a story of our lives,” said singer and guitarist Harbold. “We wrote these songs at both high and low points of our lives over the course of roughly a year, and you can tell. There is energy, emotion and everything in between. But with this album we wanted listeners to get to know us better and feel that they can relate to us.”

Ugly Colors began as Harbold’s solo project under the name of Eli Keller. Soon after, the act turned into a full band project and released an EP called The History of Military Uniforms. After a brief breakup, the band came together under the name Ugly Colors thanks to the support of Baron Bodnar and Mediaskare Records.

“Fortunately, Baron decided to take a chance on it and we joined the Mediaskare family…we decided to rename the band Ugly Colors,” Harbold said. “We tracked the album, filmed a music video for ‘Speakerphone’ and started playing around…anticipating its release.”

Harbold and company are excited for tomorow’s album-release show, as well as inspired by the finished product which, though it was time consuming, reflects the band’s story and musical diversity.

“What I am personally looking forward to about the show is just knowing that we did it,” Harbold said. “We released the album and everyone we care about got to share and celebrate that with us. We also look forward to heading out on the road to share our music with new friends and fans…We have a couple awesome tours in the works right now! We look forward to heading out on the road.”

From the band’s endeavors as Eli Keller in 2005 to the release of its debut album under the name Ugly Colors in 2010, this Portland band has transitioned in more ways than one. Through avenues of success, changing members and diversified styles, Ugly Colors has found Portland to be its home and pivotal to its success as a band. The northwest environment has also developed the band’s writing style into a collaboration of creativity.

“There’s no place like home,” Harbold said. “It has all of our friends and fans we’ve had from the start and that’s important to us. We jam based on how we feel and it tends to sort of form itself. I then write vocal melodies and some lyrics, but I usually wait until the song is finished before I begin writing my story over it.”

gly Colors has a traditional rock sound and impressive production on its new album. Whether tomorrow’s show is an opportunity for you to discover a rising star in the Portland music scene or congratulate them on a successful release, don’t miss out on an exciting show. Ugly Colors will be joined by Pegasus Dream and The Jezebel Spirit.