Premiere: NightOwl, ‘Stripped to the Core’

1
NightOwl
NightOwl

There must be something in the water in the West Valley. L.A. quartet NightOwl is the latest young band to emerge from the same general neighborhood as The Neighbourhood, Bad Suns, Hunny, Private Island and Maudlin Strangers, among others. NightOwl’s sound wears like denim. It’s derived from classic rockers of the ’60s and ’70s, as if the band — Daniel Focil, Jackson Englund and brothers Xavier and Bernardo Aguilera — unearthed some of their uncle’s old Stones and Creedence vinyl. Says Focil: “Our influences are inevitably more classically inclined.” The quartet, childhood friends, got serious last year during late-night jam sessions in Englund’s garage. “We would jam for hours on end, playing whatever came to mind,” Englund says. The band is currently finishing up their debut EP at Stagg Street Studio in Van Nuys with Gustavo Farias and Dan Moore. Their debut single “Stripped to the Core,” with its world-weary vocals and tasty licks, is like a Flashback Friday in four minutes, right down to its mellow outro.

||| Stream: “Stripped to the Core”

||| Live: NightOwl plays Dec. 23 at the Viper Room.