Electronic rockers The Octopus Project bring their Austin influence to Soda Bar Sept 22

By Logan Broyles | SDUN Reporter

With a name like The Octopus Project, you can’t expect your average run-of the-mill band. Or your average show.

For the better part of the last decade and a half, this rock-electronica group has pioneered a unique style that is all their own. Their music blends together aspects of pop and indie music, making a sound that is often described by the band and its fans as “joyous party music.”

Or as band member Toto Miranda puts it, their music is “a crazy, noisy, party, fun-time, loud experience.”

No one in the four-member group plays a set instrument; instead they all take turns switching between drums, guitars, bass, samplers, keyboards, synthesizers and an occasional glockenspiel, for good measure. And that doesn’t even mention the theremin, a 1920s electronic instrument that uses antennas – and no physical contact – to produce a sometimes eerie, but always entertaining, sound.

Ryan Figg and Josh Lambert join Miranda, while Yvonne Lambert provides additional vocals, which rarely involve her actually singing. Instead, her voice is most often used as one more sound in a wild cornucopia.

“I think we’re more focused on sounds than genres or trying to sound like particular artists,” Miranda said. “The way a lot of electronic instruments and music-making techniques tend to work is that you can go in with an idea and if you’re open-minded with the feedback that you’re getting, your idea can mutate into something completely unexpected but still feel like it has a piece of you inside it. That element of surprise is always the most satisfying to me.”

Hailing from Texas, The Octopus Project first got together back in 1999.

“Josh, Ryan and I have all known each other since we were in high school. We grew up together in Houston,” Miranda said. “We all ended up in Austin around ‘97. Josh and I were in film school at UT [the University of Texas] and this band ended up getting started a little bit after that, in ‘99.”

The Octopus Project will be returning to Soda Bar on Sept. 22 – they played a set at the Uptown club in November 2012 – with Canadian indie-rock band Paper Lions and Rubedo opening.

The show will be stop number 11 in a 25-show tour to help promote The Octopus Project’s latest album, “Fever Forms,” which dropped in July as their fifth release with Peek-A-Boo Records.

While the live shows are an experience like none other, the group’s music hasn’t always translated as well from the stage onto recorded albums. By all accounts this latest release has successfully captured the live experience.

“The reaction’s been great. We’re happy that people seem to like it as much as we do,” Miranda said. “It’s different than the last one because it’s more focused and tends to sound more like how we sound when we play live.”

At its core, the album has a steady dose of rock with dual guitars playing on most tracks, but just enough synthesizers and additional random sounds to give it a cosmic, trance-like feel.

But what about those shows?

“Our shows tend to be a little bit more on the bombastic side I guess, Miranda said. “We try to keep things really big and add a little momentum into it.”

Miranda said the strong musical influence that Austin gives the band comes from a supportive community, or a “natural” artistic feeling in the city.

“Everybody is involved in some kind of a creative enterprise in Austin, especially music,” he said. “There’s so much of that going on but there isn’t really a specific sound. Things aren’t focused around one particular style.

“The fact that so many people go to shows and play in bands, it really keeps the whole thing exciting and healthy and alive and it kind of pushes you to do your own thing.”

Presented by The Casbah, The Octopus Project’s return show at Soda Bar, located at 3615 El Cajon Blvd., is Sept. 22. Paper Lions and Rubedo open, with doors at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10. For more information visit sodabarmusic.com.