Moscow”s newest musical duo began with two guys and one guitar. Owen and McCoy, an emerging band comprised of University of Idaho freshman Nate Owen and Brendon McCoy, first formed when the two discovered they both share a love for the same instrument, McCoy said.
Both students are orginally from Sandpoint, Idaho, but McCoy said they didn”t know each other well until they realized they shared a mutual interest.
“He brought an acoustic guitar to Spanish class and I was like “Hey Nate, can I play your guitar?”” McCoy said. “He said “Sure,” you know, “just be careful”, and after he heard I could play, he was like, “Let”s jam.””
McCoy said he and Owen first decided to solidfy the band after a random encounter with a local business owner.
“We were playing guitar in the back of my truck one day, and the owner of a pizza shop pulled in and was like “What are you doing Friday night?”, and I guess that show kind of started it,” McCoy said.
Jamie Ray Photography | Courtesy
UI students Nate Owen and Brendon McCoy are Sandpoint natives who are new to the Moscow music scene.
McCoy, who, like Owen, has been playing music for almost 10 years, said the secret to their success as an up-and-coming band is their passion for music and their perseverance.
Although the two students have a lot of instrumental experience, Owen said he and McCoy keep an open mind and are always receptive to opinions and suggestions about their music.
Owen said for him and McCoy, songwriting has become the easy part of forming their band and that the difficulties they have faced actually have more to do with the band”s image.
“The hard part is being normal people,” Owen said. “And making people also see you as more than that [because] people have this idea that rock stars aren”t normal people.”
When it comes to being an emerging regional band, Owen said all shows matter, but that some shows are different experiences than others.
Owen said while he finds every show to be important, there is a difference between playing for 10 people in a coffee shop and playing in front of 3,000 people.
The duo experienced their largest show for the first time this summer when they were one of the two bands to open for alternative rock band Wilco during The Festival at Sandpoint.
“After that [concert] our web trafficking in a couple of different variations just exploded,” Owen said.
The duo”s music inspirations range from Robert Plant to Jimmi Hendrix, and Owen said he and McCoy try to incorporate the sounds of these artists into the music they make.
Owen said despite their recent burst of success, he and McCoy still reserve doubts about their band, but the most important part is they work hard to improve upon their music.
“Whenever you have self-doubt, find moments where you”re wrong,” Owen said.
Will Meyer can be reached at [email protected]