Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Misdemeanors
The Misdemeanors are looking at a busy summer in Northwest Arkansas. They recently were tapped by Richard Gathright and NWA Pride to perform at Pride. Next month they will perform at Railyard Live, and then they are looking forward to Format in the fall. The allwomen indie rock band from Fayetteville stopped by the What’s Up! podcast studio recently to talk about the band, their collective art group from high school, their new album, “Summer Nights,” and to share a new song, “Heaven,” with our readers.
Below is an excerpt from the podcast. Some answers have been edited for space and/or clarity.
Q. When we talked before, you said that in high school, you and a group of friends had started an art collective called NWA Collective. How many of you were involved in that?
Milcah Hulen-Posnak: Misdemeanors started our junior and senior years of high school, and through that we kind of built an audience, we built sort of a community of a bunch of musicians. Addison’s other band — True Romance — plays a lot. And there’s a couple of other bands as well. Then aside from that, me and a few other students kind of revamped an organization called Young Authors and Artists at [Fayetteville High School] and that’s where the collective came in. Our first gig as The Misdemeanors was a joint gig with a Young Authors and Artists exhibition at my house. So that’s kind of how the collective formed. I would say, you know, we’re an affiliate of the collective, but we’re not all running it or whatever. That’s my side project. …. I attribute it to our success in our community that we started together. (@thecollectivenwa on Instagram)
Q. Getting back to The Misdemeanors, you have an album out called “Summer Nights” (released on March 11). Can you tell me a little bit about the writing process and how you’re feeling about the album now that it’s out in the world? Jessi Morrison (vocalist):
When we started the band, [we started asking ourselves], “What songs can we sort of craft into being something we can perform?” And we just started writing, and we ended up collecting about 13 originals that we played a lot. We started working on recording the album last August. Then we finished in like December.
Q. Where did you record the album?
Morrison: We did the basis of the recording at the library in the studio that they have for music production. We use it a lot. And then our friend, Eli Dranow — he’s a great music producer, up and coming. He helps us produce things at his house, add layers and that kind of stuff.
Q. Tell me about the song that you plan to play today.
Hulen-Posnak: It’s a new one. It’s not found on the album. Jesse, anything want to say about it? She’s our lyricist.
Morrison: It’s not autobiographical, let me tell
you that. I thought I’d let you know that. If anyone ever does hear or read the lyrics, it’s about a fictional story, about a guy. And he is in a relationship and he relies too much on this person for comfort and saving. Then his person leaves because not all partners are just supposed to be there for your comfort, you know, to like help you. You have to give something in return. So it’s sort of just about that.
Listen to an extended interview with the whole band and listen to the new song, “Heaven,” on the What’s Up! podcast at nwaonline.com/616themisdemeanors and on our YouTube page at youtu.be/74JwfShv5_k. Keep up with The Misdemeanors at themisdemeanorsband.com