By Debra Gonzalez
A&E Editor
“I first heard her at an open-mic at Common Grounds, but when I first saw her I was like, ‘This girl is a creative genius.’ I have to meet her and play music with her,” said Andrew Hulett, member of Waco-based band Lomelda.
Lomelda, which Baylor student Hannah Read started as a solo project when she was in high school, has been around for five years, with new members Zachary Daniel and Hulett joining last December.
Wacoan Daniel joined Baylor juniors Read and Hulett after the two men saw Read perform at Common Grounds.
“She says things with her music that I could never dream of being able to write, so I really wanted to be a part of that,” Hulett said. “Zach and I joined her last Christmas just for fun and after that we decided to start playing together as Lomelda. We played a couple of shows. We opened for Dave Ramirez last semester at Common Grounds and the day before we played at Dia. That and Common Grounds were the first time we played
all together.”
The band, which enjoys local shows, is releasing its debut album later next month.
“This is the first real Lomelda album,” Hulett said. “It’s fantastic. It was actually recorded before Zach and I came into the picture, so it doesn’t sound a lot like we do now, but it is really good and I think very quintessentially Lomelda, even though it has a different sound.”
The album was recorded around the time Hulett and Daniel joined the band, and it mostly features Read.
“I almost feel like I’m looking in on it because I wasn’t very much a part of the actual recording of it,” Hulett said. “Even though I do play those songs with her now, it sounds quite different. Because of that I feel it’s a fantastic album and I’m really excited for itto be released.”
Hulett describes their sound as hard to place.
“We like to describe it as post-folk,” Hulett said. “We’re not folk because we’re using electric instruments and the song writing isn’t a story-telling type of song, but it definitely has those influences in it. You can tell, even when we’re playing electric guitars, that some of our influences musically are kind of folk-y, but it also has kind of an indie-rock sound to it as well.”
Lomelda’s CD release show will be Oct. 26 at University Baptist Church.
Upcoming events can be viewed on the band’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lomelda.
