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Indie Outing: Annuals

Indie-Jam Connection: The members of the modern indie rock band Annuals started playing music in the Raleigh and Chapel Hill areas of North Carolina. While not necessarily known as an indie rock breeding ground, North Carolina and its surrounding Southeast states are fertile ground the many jambands who emerged in the wake of Dave Matthews Band and Widespread Panic’s success. So it is no surprise that several members of Annuals grew up on Phish, DMB and Panic and later massaged those expansive sounds into the band’s more refined brand of experimental indie music.

Notable Jam Moments: While several members of Annuals have roots in the jamband scene, the group’s most outspoken jam-head is Donzel Radford. The drummer/percussionist learned by listening to Phish and Dave Matthews Band and attended numerous shows as a young music fans. These days he uses those skills to energize the songwriting of the band’s forntman Adam Baker.

Lot Talk: “High school was filled with Phish. I am also a huge Dave Matthews Band fan and some of the other guys in the band are too—same with Rusted Root. When I started taking music seriously I would try to imitate immediate Carter Beauford’s beats. The whole indie thing has become more popular so people started switching over to that, but jamband music is more fun to play,” Donzel Radford, Relix.