Prior to last year, Nate Eisland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing were 3/5 of acclaimed indie act, Scattered Trees. When the band broke up in 2012, with studio time already scheduled, the trio decided to forge ahead and began recording for their own project, On An On. Those recordings went on to become the band’s debut, “Give In,” a hazy, synthy, pop dream of an album.
Following the release of the art house single from the album, “Ghosts,” the band began to see a growing buzz; they were featured as iTunes’ “Best New Artist” of the month, received glowing reviews in Paste and rocketed to the very top of Time Magazine’s top artists to check out this year.
On the deservingly hyped album, the three members combine their talents to create something unique. Ricci’s said that she contributes her enthusiasm for sound art and design, while Estwing brings in his bass technique and Eisland his sense for great pop music. Ricci sites Bjork and Radiohead as some of her influences and says that their music grows from sounds they experience combined with their intuition for how it should feel. She says the band’s greatest inspiration is simply their desire to be creative.
Recently, the Chicago-based band toured Europe for the first time and is on the current Communion tour along with Tennis and Nathaniel Rateliffe and the Night Sweats. On An On’s live show is one not to be missed; they generate the same hazy feel of the album but manage to make the songs fresh and unique each night.
You can catch them this week at Nashville’s Communion show at the Mercy Lounge on November 14th.
– Meagan Lawson
On An On- ‘Boy From School’
