We recently connected with Cody Pomeroy and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Cody thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I specifically learned to drum by simply listening to lots of music. I think I always had a sense of rhythm and coordination, which really helped in many different creative aspects of my life, but music gave me the perfect outlet for it. My music foundation came from playing in a variety of ensembles throughout my school years. I first learned music playing cello in an orchestra, then drums in a jazz band, and eventually singing in a variety of choirs. The actual drumming itself though just came from lots of hours of practice and watching my favorite musicians. If I could have done anything to speed up my learning process, it would’ve been playing with more musicians earlier on. A lot of what I have learned has come from adapting and learning by feel, and the more people you can play with the more opportunities you have to learn. I think the most important skills were patience, determination, and repetition. I think the main obstacle that stood in the way was just time. I just had to learn to prioritize my practice and self-improvement.

Cody, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Fwango is an LA-based indie rock band, taking inspiration from and attempting to iterate upon the sounds of bands like The Strokes, Interpol, and Built to Spill. The group is comprised of Logan Hall on vocals/rhythm guitar, Zachery O Wagner on bass, Cal Gunderson lead guitar, and myself on drums. The band originated in LA but more or less came about from friendships being formed back from our time at school in Ohio. I personally knew Logan pretty closely from college and met Cal pre-Fwango once I moved out to LA. Zach and Logan had jammed together first, and wrote the progression for what would eventually turn into our first single, If You Want Me to Move. Those two brought that song to Cal and I, and the rest was history.

The first song was well received (aka by our friends) so we just kept writing from there until we had enough material to play live. We threw our first show in Logan and Cal’s backyard and put the whole event together ourselves. We used that first show as a springboard to market ourselves and get out there to some real venues in town.

We’re now hoping to put a fresh spin on a familiar indie rock sound. I feel like indie rock as a genre is a pretty widely-encompassing umbrella, that a lot of people are familiar with, so we hope that familiarity is just something that can break down one more obstacle of bringing in new listeners. I think a key element to our early-on sound was that the music was catchy and easy to sing along to, which IYWMTM was a great example of. But I think the greater, and deeper, component that sets us apart is the musicianship of the group, and each of our own flavors and styles that we’ve brought to the band as we’ve evolved.

I think there’s a lot of achievements we can be proud of at this point, but for me personally, I’m just really proud that our music has been able to provide positivity and inspiration to people literally all around the world. I’m also proud of how we’ve been able to develop as a band and explore more serious themes and ideas in our writing.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Initially we built our audience simply by spreading the word to our friends and family, of course after building ourselves some sort of identity with simple things such as a logo design and photoshoot, to put some faces to our name. We have a pretty large network between the 4 of us so we were able to build our initial base of followers just through that word of mouth. We are also pretty fortunate in the fact that most of us come from a media production/design background so creating the visual elements for the band came pretty naturally. The next step for us was just generating as much content as we could, both music and non-music, to engage our followers. We found some consistency and success with creating IG/tiktok shorts and creating relationships with viewers around that content. Ultimately our biggest social media successes came in partnering with other content creators. A few of those successes included getting featured in a viral music tiktoker’s video, collaborating with a friend’s band to cross-pollinate our fan bases in promotion for a show, and working with a content creator to use our music in a partnership video with Major League Soccer.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think the most rewarding aspect is creating something new that we’re all genuinely excited about, walking away, coming back later, and still being as excited about it. There’s a lot of ideas the come and go between the four of us, so when there’s something that sticks, it’s like catching lightning in a bottle. Finding that lightning isn’t always easy, so when we do, it becomes such a satisfying moment. I think another majorly rewarding aspect is knowing that our music has impacted people other than ourselves. Hearing from a fan they’ve really related to a specific lyric, or that a song of ours has gotten them through a hard time, gives myself, and I hope the group as a whole, a reminder that the music is bigger than ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/fwango
• Instagram: @fwangoband
• Youtube: @FwangoBand

Image Credits

Cam Erickson
Matt Moyseenko
Sam Miller