Indie folk rockers Fanno Creek are one of the biggest up-and-coming acts in Portland. They have packed large venues and small houses with enthusiastic fans who not only dance but also know all the words. Other bands don’t seem to mind them, either.
“They’re my favorite band,” proclaimed Tiger House frontman Bill Scharmann, introducing them at a house show earlier in January. Luckily for their student fans on campus, they will be performing Thursday, Feb. 7, as part of Portland State’s “Live @ Lunch” series.
The trio, consisting of guitarists Quinn Mulligan and Evan Hailstone and drummer Dane Brist, do not garner this kind of praise undeservingly; they have been working hard since their inception in 2009, recording three studio EPs and a live EP and gigging regularly, completing their first West Coast tour with Animal Eyes in September.
This wasn’t always the case for the two guitar slingers. In high school they were members of a blues-rock band called The Jack with Mulligan’s twin brother, and they would come to town and play regularly.
“It was really hard to make friends with the other bands,” Hailstone said. “But everyone tends to automatically hate you when you are under 21.”
The group’s foundation is rooted in a friendship between Mulligan and Hailstone that dates back to childhood—Fanno Creek is actually the name of a creek near the preschool they attended together.
“We’ve known each other for so long that all we have to do is look at each other when we play—we don’t even need to say anything,” Hailstone said of performing with Mulligan.
The band formed in a college dorm when Mulligan decided to start singing and recording his own material and shared it with Hailstone and Brist, their dorm-mate. This evolved into the act that is now headlining some of the biggest venues in town.
For these 25-year-old Oregon natives, success lies in a sense of community that has developed in the Portland music scene, something that was severely missing in high school.
“We jumped in as Fanno Creek as all of these other bands were jumping in at the same time,” pea-coat-clad Mulligan said between cigarette puffs, “so we’ve all kind of developed together.”
Rather than feeling a sense of competition or a clique mentality with other bands, the Fanno boys feel more like part of an extended family.
“The Portland music scene is just that way. You will go to a show and see members from four or five other bands,” Hailstone said. “It’s very supportive.”
Their new full-length album—currently a work in progress—will combine older, unreleased material with a few of the songs that appear on their Live from the Banana Stand album, composed of somewhere in the ballpark of 15 songs.
Fanno Creek
Part of its “Live @ Lunch” series
Thursday, Feb. 7, noon
Park Blocks
Free and open to the public
“There are going to be more layers and a lot more depth,” Hailstone said. “We’re really going to take our time with it.”
While Mulligan usually writes his songs in one cathartic release, Hailstone tends to write down his lyrics and workshop ideas over time, sometimes taking months to finish a tune to his satisfaction. The two songwriters work with drummer Brist, who also has skills as a professional graphic designer, which helps to give the group an upper hand in the visual component.
The band aspires to gain a national following, to tour the United States and Europe and to produce an album every six months. But it’s good to start small.
“If I can afford my rent, to eat and drink some beers, I’m happy,” Mulligan said of being a working musician.
“If I can cover my student debt alone, I’m satisfied,” Hailstone said.
For PSU students looking to start bands, this is the advice Fanno Creek offers: Get out and play once or twice a week; be polite and stick around for the other bands that perform and introduce yourself; don’t second-guess your music; and have confidence in your work.
This hands-on approach has helped propel Fanno Creek from weekly open mics at the Alberta Street Pub and the Goodfoot into standing-room-only shows where everyone is singing along.
“To see people who know all the words and have a connection to the songs is really moving,” Hailstone said.
“It’s mind-blowing,” Mulligan added.
To listen to Fanno Creek, go to fannocreek.bandcamp.com/.