Micaela Huebl’s childhood revolved around her parents singing for whatever “non-denom” church the family attended at the time.
Huebl sings and plays bass with the burgeoning garage-sax rock band Fallout Orphan. The 25-year-old has leaned on her musician mom and dad in recent years since leaving college – and aspirations of becoming a radio deejay – to pursue band life.
We caught up with Huebl during her bumper-to-bumper morning drive to her straight job in the Denver Tech Center to talk about ditching the family ministry for rock.
Q: Why is classifying Fallout Orphan harder than sewing with spaghetti?
A: Well, you just don’t want to sew with spaghetti. When you’re creating art, it’s a piece of you, and nobody thinks of themselves as one type of person. You fall into comparing yourself to something people know. We sort of sound like a Radiohead/PJ Harvey/Sonic Youth mix. But I don’t even know if that’s accurate because people hear what they want to hear. For us, it’s really just about playing what we like.
Some people have a tendency to latch on to what the current hot sound is. But for us, it’s not about writing something to please an audience. If somebody gets something out of it, that’s fantastic. But I’m not going to get (breast implants) and a choreographer just to please an audience.
Q: The band name sounds like something hatched after screening the nuclear nightmare “The Day After.” We take it you’re children of the Cold War?
A: We were all born in the late 1970s. The name is something our guitar player came up with, and I can’t really explain it. We sometimes get confused with that (Chicago emo) band Fallout Boy. I won’t go into my opinion of them but we definitely target two different audiences. We used to be part of Penelope Project … but about a year and a half ago we locked ourselves in the basement and redid everything.
Q: How significant is today’s Larimer Lounge BBQ featuring all female-fronted bands?
A: It’s great because a lot of female rock bands in town don’t get much attention. There are great female singer/songwriters and great female blues singers, but there’s not a lot focus on girls who rock.
A lot of people go, “Ah, it’s girl music, so how much could it really rock?” Obviously they haven’t seen the bands I’ve seen, like (local acts) The Swanks or The Swindlers.
Fallout Orphan headlines today’s BBQ at the Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., with The Sleepers, Vulpes, Crash Orchid and Lickin’ Lolli. Music at 3 p.m. $5.
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-820-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
