Sun Covered Town EP – 01 Winter Has Come by Golden Afternoon
Sun Covered Town EP – 02 Sun Covered Town by Golden Afternoon
The Golden Afternoon
At first glance, Elizabeth Messick looks sweet, fragile and unassuming. Her long dark hair hangs in delicate waves around her face, concealing only slightly her wide eyes and youthful, imp-like smile that could make even the meanest of curmudgeons want to pinch her cheeks. But then she starts to sing, and the strength and maturity in her soulful, jazz-style vocals will knock you to the ground. The twenty-one year old has been singing with Golden Afternoon for a grand total of 368 days (they celebrated their one year anniversary on December 3), and she and the band have already taken Orange County by storm. In the year they’ve been together, the band has released a 3-track EP on Bandcamp, played with a number of talented local acts, including Nicole Vaughn and Honeypie, and even picked up a residency at one of the OC’s coolest venues.
“It happened really fast,” Messick said of the band’s inception. She had previously played with indie band Matt Kollar and the Angry Mob – whose album, I might add, was the subject of my very first piece with OCMM – and was eager to keep perusing music when the band parted ways. Add band mates Scott Zschomler (Guitar/Piano/Vocals), Adam Churilla (Guitar/Mandolin/Vocals), Daniel Stonebraker (Bass Guitar/Ukulele Bass), and Ashay Shah (Drums), top it all off with an Alice In Wonderland-inspired name, and presto! Golden Afternoon was born, peddling their entrancing ukulele folk rock to the masses.
Elizabeth is the group’s chief songwriter. She told me, “Melodies just come to me…usually in the car… [Or] I just pick up an instrument and play random cords.” Andrew Bird inspires her, along with Leonard Cohen (“Even though I sound nothing like him,” she adds), Vashti Bunyan and Ella Fitzgerald. Clearly, these introspective, poignant artists have influenced her writing.
“I’m definitely a storyteller,” she says before pointing me to “Sun Covered Town:” a song about a family living in the 1930s Dust Bowl. Music is “literally the only thing [she’s] passionate about,” and music is “the best way [she] can deal with [life] and share it with the world.”
Of course, Messick is nothing if not a team player. Throughout our conversation, her admiration and respect for her fellow musicians is undeniably clear.
The Golden Afternoon
“What makes Golden Afternoon ‘Golden Afternoon’ is when I give [the song] to the guys,” she says of their unique sound. She considers them the roots and foundation of the band. This statement is not just metaphoric. “I like to wear flowers in my hair onstage, and the boys usually wear dark colors” – literally recreating the talking flower scene in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, though she quickly adds with a laugh, “I don’t think it comes across.”
When I ask Elizabeth if she’s experienced any struggles being the only girl in the band, she excitedly responds, “Oh, I can’t tell you how many essays I’ve written about that in school!” Female-fronted bands are constantly facing criticism of being called gimmicky or insincere, but Messick had some words of wisdom to counteract the skeptics:
“It’s really difficult, but you just have to see it as a personal thing… when I’m on stage, I’m completely vulnerable… [and] if you think I’m gimmicky, you think I’m gimmicky, and if you think I look like Zooey Deschanel, then you think I look like Zooey Deschanel.” The confidence with which she approaches her music shines through in her performances and rightly so. She is a truly organic and mesmerizing vocalist, as far from gimmicky as can be though I can’t say I don’t see the resemblance to Deschanel.
Golden Afternoon looks forward to recording new material and bringing the music to the next level with complex songs, complete with more instruments and harmonies. For now, the band will be spending December at La Cave, where they have a residency every Tuesday night (tonight is night one – hint, hint).
