The Evolution of Animalia

I stood near the front of the coffeehouse, watching and waiting. Before too long, in walked two young men, hair slightly damp from the drizzle outside. After greeting Zach Mejia and Estevan Palomino, the songwriters and ostensibly the “faces” of the band Animalia, we found a small table nestled between three other groups in the back. Whether studying or just relaxing at the end of a day, they would all soon become witnesses to Animalia’s first interview.

Animalia is a pretty unique, unconventional name. What made you guys settle on it and have you changed it before?

Estevan Palomino: Well, Zach and I were trying to start a band and every name we came up with was kind of a joke with an animal’s name in it—
Zach Mejia: Well, we started with Zombie Pikachu, if that counts. Then Beetles to Bottlerockets.
EP: Then after looking at scientific names of animals, trying to find a cool one, we thought, “why not just call ourselves Animalia?”

So what sort of music do you guys play?

EP: The umbrella term I think would be alternative rock, but with each new song we do, we try and incorporate another genre. There are influences from every genre.
ZM: I’d say we’re influenced by both surf and punk. With a bit of jazz in there.
EP: Jazz? All right.

What bands would you say are your biggest influences?

EP: Pixies, definitely. The thing is, we both have different influences and that’s what makes it interesting.
ZM: Yeah, like I’d say Kanye West.
EP: I listen to the Arctic Monkeys a lot, some psychobilly music, which comes out every now and then.

When did you form the band? What inspired you to make music together?

EP: It’s complicated. So basically what happened was, in high school Zach made these recordings and sent them to people on Facebook. Mostly as a joke, it was just him singing songs.
ZM: Just individual songs I wrote on the spot.
EP: A lot of them were just covers, but one of them was “Barbershops,” which turned out to be our first song. Then we got together and started working on it. It was my first guitar solo. I was a drummer [originally] but I picked up guitar because one of my ex-girlfriends left hers at my house so I just started learning how to play it. So after I learned how to play guitar, we started making some music together. When college came, he went to Long Beach and I went to PCC (Pasadena City College) and it died out for a while. Then in 2012 we recorded our first album.
EP: In 2010 we made our first EP, but no one has it. We have it and that’s it.

Do you have a record label?

EP: No, we’re self-produced. The first EP … was produced by Zach, and mixed by Zach. I don’t know if you can call it produced…
ZM: The arc of our production was just us in my garage using a single microphone to record everything, then our friend Stevie, who wants to be an audio production big-shot, had a mini-studio in his room. We used pretty much everything there.

Where have you performed? Any upcoming shows?

EP: We do everything in Long Beach and L.A. Nothing in between. In Long Beach, it’s just been stuff on campus. For L.A., we’ve done Lot 1 Café, Cobalt Café out in Northridge. We’ve done a bunch of house gigs, party gigs. We’re going to be doing a show at the Whiskey a Go-Go on Sunset in West Hollywood. It’s going to be our most high-profile show.

And what’s the date?

ZM: February 20th.

What are some notable venues?

EP: Oh God, okay. My least favorite—it wasn’t even a venue—it was a backyard gig we played in, in an incomplete tool shed.
ZM: I thought it was fun.

Do you have a set playlist or is it more spontaneous?

ZM: We have enough songs now to fill up an hour, so we can pick and choose between the ones we want to play. Some standard ones are Catmandeu, Red Rock and the Arachnid, Surf Song for the End of the World, and Tijuana Bible. My least favorite song is Moda.

What are rehearsals generally like? Any set times or more spur-of-the-moment?

EP: More like, “Oh s***, we have a gig. We should probably practice.”

And the other two are okay with the short notice?

ZM: Yeah, we usually give them the songs when we’re done writing them and they learn them on their own. Then we practice as a band, and we’re usually able to pull everything together within a few practices.
EP: That’s one thing we’re awful at: if we don’t have a gig, we don’t practice together.

What’s your ultimate direction for this band? Any ideas of fame or fortune?

EP: We both know that there’s a low probability for that. We just like writing our music and yeah, we both like the idea of having our own small following. If people know our music and actually know our songs, then that’s success enough. Playing the Whiskey right now is the peak, the most we’ve done and even that feels awesome. I thought we’d just play house gigs and cafes.

Any last words?

EP: We’re working on new stuff. We’re almost done with this really small EP, too. And ideally, there’ll be an album out by the tail end of summer.

Animalia’s first album is entitled Catmandeu and can be found on Bandcamp for five dollars. You can also find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AnimaliaMusic.