Post Paradise bring Ft. Collins to Milwaukee

Ft. Collins four-piece Post Paradise are in town tonight (Sept. 27), appearing at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn with local favorites I’m Not a Pilot. TCD caught up with guitarist and vocalist Nick Starr Duarte and cellist Amy Morgan earlier today where they discussed music, playing Red Rocks and a rather interesting way of swapping shows.

TCD: I can assume that there’s probably some bands that you immediately get compared to just by virtue of having a cello player. Who would you compare yourselves to?

Nick Starr Duarte: When people ask what we sound like, we tend to go with the “Incubus with a cello” comparison. I think it’s the vocals more than anything. We don’t tend to be quite as hard rock as Incubus, but I can see the comparison for sure.

TCD: So you guys are a part of a program from Ft. Collins called BandSwap. Could you explain what that’s all about?

ND: There is a non profit marketing entity called Spokesbuzz in Ft Collins, Co where we’re from. They pick a certian amount of bands for a two-year membership to promote Ft. Collins through their music. It started out a few years ago with sending bands down to South by Southwest in Austin, and now we’re branching out and reaching out to other bands around the country and partner cities to other bands to Ft. Collins and vice versa.

Amy Morgan: This week we’re here in Milwaukee and next week Herman Astro will be coming out to Ft. Collins and we’ll be hosting them there.

ND: This is one of the five or six cities involved where the Spokesbuzz band is playing with two different bands instead of one. Because of scheduling conflicts we’ll be playing with I’m Not a Pilot tonight and then with Herman Astro next week.

AM: Which is cool that we get to meet two Milwaukee bands.

TCD: I know the Milwaukee music scene is pretty diverse and there’s no real “Milwaukee sound”. What’s the music scene in Ft. Collins like?

AM: The music scene in Ft. Collins in Denver is pretty huge. I know the Fray and One Republic both got their starts in Denver. The Ft. Collins music scene is growing. It’s a college town, so there’s always people who want to come out to shows. There’s tons of bands and they’re all really supportive of each other. It’s just a tight community of people who come to each others shows and support each other’s bands.

TCD: I understand you recently played at Red Rocks?

ND: It was with the Hives, The Wombats and Silversun Pickups. It was a really great show and it was a really beautiful experience.

TCD: So what’s next in store for you guys?

Nick: We’ve got a bunch of new songs almost ready to go for our next record. It’ll be a few months, but we’ve got a few things lined up for all that.

TCD: You’ll be playing here tonight with I’m Not a Pilot, right?

AM: Yep, we’ll be playing with them tonight at Linneman’s. It’s just us, and we’re both pretty similar in style, so it should be a good show.

ND: Yeah we’ve been talking to them a bunch for the last few weeks and they’re great guys. It should be a good night of ‘cello rock’ (laughs).

You can catch Post Paradise tonight (Sept. 27) at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn with I’m Not a Pilot at 9 p.m. Stream “A Way With Words” from Post Paradise’s latest album The New Normal here.