Meet Caleb Sanders of Plain Faraday in Golden

Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Sanders of Plain Faraday.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Caleb. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
When I was about 15, I started writing music with my father, Rob Sanders (bass). We built our roots in folk music, focusing our tunes heavily on lyrics and substantive content. Over the years, we went through a couple of music group iterations together, but towards the end of high school settled on Plain Faraday – a name that, to us, is a reminder to pursue creativity, humility, and authenticity in everything we do. In 2017, classical cellist Katie Burns joined the group. Soon after, jazz drummer Miles Jenkins also hopped on board. These two spectacular musicians helped take our music to new depths and complexities. Since then, we’ve also added Ezra Bram (multi-instrumentalist), Ian Thomas (trumpet), and Riley Merino (multi-instrumentalist).

It’s sad to not be able to play big shows these days – over the years, we’ve supported bands like Run River North, The Collection, The National Parks, and Parker Millsap. That said, we’re having a great time, even amidst the difficulty of this pandemic. We just released our first record (a 7-track EP). Nearly all the recording for this project was done on our own and this record was mixed it in my bedroom. We’re scheduled to get back into the studio in November to track another EP. However, while our first EP was heavily folk, this next record will be rooted in indie-funk. Yes, folk and funk. Those are our two favorite things.

The thing I love most about Plain Faraday is that we’re a collection of individuals from all different walks of life. Our band consists of engineering students, baristas, music students, music teachers, photographers, business executives, and everything in between. Ultimately, we’re just looking to build substantive relationships together and create music that we love along the way.

Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been beautiful! Amidst all its difficulties and all of its successes. One thing that was really intimidating to us at first was recording. The music industry is so expensive, recoding and releasing a record typically costs thousands of dollars – money that a bunch of college students just don’t have. So, we decided to take the DIY approach. We started tracking in my apartment, in church basements, and in my parent’s living room. I started learning about mixing and began exploring different methods to build a unique sound. Ultimately, this approach has empowered us to record what we want and release what we want. It has been freeing to feel like we don’t have to fit into a specific mold in order to be successful.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
We want to make music that makes you think, “huh, I’ve never really heard anything like that before, but I like it.” We also care a lot about the lyrics. We want to write songs that have a clear meaning and direction but that also allow the listener to fill in certain gaps for themselves and connect in a way that makes sense to them.

One of my favorite things about us is that we can play an indie-folk-rock song that makes you want to stomp/clap and a funky/jazzy groove with a shredding drum solo (Miles rocks) in the same set. I never thought mixing jazz, folk, funk, and indie-rock would work, but it just might. It’s pretty difficult to put our band into a specific genre, we take a lot of influence from Andrew Bird in that regard. This definitely sets us apart from others in the Denver music scene.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
YES. We love Denver. We love the community, we love the music scene, we love the other bands here, and we love the opportunities that are available for artists like ourselves to build a foundation. If someone is looking to branch into the music scene, I think Denver would be a great place to start – I know so many stories of people who have done this very thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://plainfaraday.com/
• Email: plainfaraday@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plainfaraday/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plainfaraday/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2is8xTrf2ufRO6HfAjk1qi

Image Credit:
Olivia Sanders
Nikki Rae

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