[Photos courtesy of Alice Falkowski]

By Cody Englander, Managing Editor

Airbag is one of the newer bands in the Athens scene, made up of guitarist/vocalist Quinn Carmichael, guitarist Davis Lewis, bassist Max Walker and drummer Colter Mathis. The Battle of the Bands marks the band’s third performance at The Union, one of five participating bands. I was able to talk to them before their performance on Saturday. 

[This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity] 

Cody Englander (CE): With two performances heading to the big stage of the Union, how have you all prepared heading into the battle of the bands?

Quinn Carmichael (QC): A lot of practice, a lot of building upon what we’ve previously done. We’ve tried to look at what we didn’t do well in our first performance and how we made changes for our second performance. We’re trying to make it our best yet. 

CE: And how did Airbag form?

Colter Mathis (CM): We met on the first day of classes, freshman year. 

QC: We just ended up talking about music. I was like, ‘Oh you play drums? That’s the hardest thing to find. Let’s play music sometime.’

Davis Lewis (DL): I found them in a Snapchat story. They were looking for a bass player, then we met up and played in your dorm. 

Max Walker (MW): I met them via Grindr! My buddy from high school matched with his ex-roommate. Now we’re a beautiful collective. 

CM: Shoutout Grindr!

CE: So you began performing in dorm rooms? 

QC: Yes! Last year, we only really had the three of us, and we didn’t really have a huge direction of where to go. So we also had one less band member. You know, I’ve never really been into, like, trios. They can be cool, but the music we all really enjoy, even though it varies, features more than three artists because there’s typically a thicker instrumentation. 

CE: No spoilers for songs, but how would you describe what you’re planning on performing to people that haven’t heard you before? 

MW: Techno-wizardry.

QC: Always throw in indie there somewhere. It’s a cop-out.

MW: Psych-rock.

QC: A little proggy, one might say. Progressive indie psych-rock. 

CE: And how have you all landed at this sound?

CM: I think it took some time. 

QC: I think one of the things that inspired a bunch of us is that, I feel like we don’t really want to just be like, ‘Oh, let’s do this regular trope from this genre,’ you know, because they all do that. I feel like that’s also something that slows down the writing process. You want to make it new. I’m kind of going into what we make with thinking less of like, ‘I want this to sound like this,’ and more like it can sound cool. I at least want it to be different, you know, than other stuff. Because I feel like that’s always what when I see a band and they sound good, but I’m like, ‘Oh, they sounded great, but there was nothing different about them.’

CM: I think for as much music as we all collectively enjoy together, I think all of us also have our own little niches that we kind of like to drop back into that influence us individually, but when it comes together, it kind of blends and it makes a different sound. It’s a good blend. We all wear different influences, like Davis with Title Fight or Quinn with Radiohead.

CE: Where does the name Airbag come from? 

QC: Speaking of Radiohead, it’s the first track off their album OK Computer.  I remember learning it on guitar when I was so young, it was maybe my first or second year learning guitar and I’m just really having trouble with it. I was like, ‘I don’t like the song.’ I don’t remember why it was so challenging, because it’s not that hard now. But I just remember that moment of learning and thinking that it is so annoying. But now I love that album. It’s one of my biggest inspirations. Also, I think it just sounds cool. I think it’s so hard to come up with an original name. Don’t tell anyone this, but I hate when bands have names that are just two words. It’s alliteration. It doesn’t really mean anything, like Blue Bus. That’s not a band, but it’s like, I don’t love it. I think we’ve gotten to a point where it’s like all the band names are taken. You just have to pick a word, like airbag. 

CE: So what’s next for Airbag after this show?

DL: I’d say studio, studio recordings, dropping stuff on streaming, hopefully soon. Maybe some shows at Donkey.

QC: I guess our next step is largely just getting into the studio, getting some music out. We have some shows lined up and we’ve been talking to some people about doing some in-store shows, but we don’t have any dates set up just yet. 

CE: Lastly, anything you want to say to the other bands?

CM: I wish I really hated one of them a lot, but they’re all really nice.

QC: Like reverse trash talk. They’re all really cool, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone perform.