Describing their music as “southwest emo”/”plant rock”, no fauna has been on the rise in the Fort Collins music scene since 2023. Lead singer and guitarist Trip Renner and drummer Sam Kanter met in high school and had a “pirate punk” band, splitting and reuniting years later to make more pop-punk music. The duo found math rock lovers bassist Zip Roberts and guitarist Brian Holdbrook and the band was set in stone. “Live & Local” is no fauna’s first appearance on the radio waves, and their performance brings a driving energy and a clear love for their music and each other. The group chats about their new EP, fall, and the process of writing and recording their songs, reminisces over their start in bands in high school, and has no explanation of how a mysterious voice appeared on their song “rugby sox”.

Live & Local is available to listen to anytime on our website and major streaming services, and is live on the air every Sunday from 11-1 p.m.

Transcription of episode (provided by Ava Barbieri)

Riley Hilbert (intro)
Hi, I’m Riley Hilbert, KCSU’s local music director, and you’re listening to my show, Live and Local. My show invites local bands and artists into the studio for an in-depth interview and a live performance on air. Live and Local airs every other Sunday, 11-1pm. This is a prerecorded broadcast.

Riley Hilbert
You are listening to 90.5 KCSU Fort Collins. I’m DJ Retrograde, and this is my show, Live and Local, and here in the studio, we have no fauna. Thanks for hanging out, guys and take it away.

Trip Renner (“mary,”)
I’ve been spending my time thinking, but my brain is shutting down, I just got you in my head, but I have got to get you out. I am standing in the doorway, I am staring down the hall, I am looking for an answer, I am waiting for your call. Oh oh lovely, Oh oh dead,  I am so damn stuck, in my head. Mary won’t you bury me, I know this is how I will die, Mary won’t you bury me, with all these roses on my eyes. When we sat down by the river, I just tried to make you smile, I looked into my eyes, and said can’t we reconcile? The trees line the banks, watch him cast his pole, he’s reeling in a catch, that his line just can’t hold. Oh oh lovely, oh oh dead, I am so damn stuck in my head. Mary won’t you bury me,  I know this is how I will die,  Mary won’t you bury me, with roses on my eyes. Oh come back down, it’s here underground, it lays there hungry, for you to make a sound, make a sound.

Riley
You are listening to 90.5 KCSU For Collins. My name is DJ Retrograde, and we are here in the station with no fauna. How are you guys doing?

no fauna
Good!

Riley
Yeah, awesome. Well, what was that first song that we just heard from you guys?

Trip
That was “mary,” It’s off of our first EP.

Sam Kanter
Yeah.

Trip
Yeah. One of the first songs we wrote as band altogether. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s one of those starting out. It was just me and the drummer Sam. We played in a lot of bands together throughout high school, went our separate ways, reconvened about two years ago, and then took our time until we found Brian and then Zip and yeah, it’s been going ever since.

Riley
Super cool. Well, how about we start off with, tell us who you guys are. Tell us about the band, if you guys want to go around and introduce yourselves.

Sam
I’m Sam, I play drums.

Zip Roberts
I’m Zip, I play bass.

Trip
I’m Trip. I’m the lead singer and rhythm guitarist.

Brian Holdbrook
I’m Brian, lead guitar.

Riley
Yeah, okay. Tell us about, so we got a little bit into how you guys started, but give us some more details and how everyone’s connected and whatnot.

Sam
Trip. We’re like, we were like, pretty much punk is what we liked to write. And like we were, we were in a pirate punk band, which was goofy.

Riley
That’s awesome.

Sam
You know, when we reconnected, we were like, we really want to take it seriously and write music that we actually like, really like to listen to and just as much like to play. So when we first started writing tunes, they were all kind of like, I wish there was a bassist for this song, or I wish there was a lead guitarist, because I know what the guitar solo should sound like, kind of thing. So we took our time finding Zip and Brian, and they’ve worked out very well.

Trip
For a while, there was just the two of us. I had a different guitar where I changed one of the pickups to this one that takes the lowest string, puts down an octave lower. It not, not recommended, not good for live.

Zip
Now I have an extra string. I have a five string bass.

Riley
Oh, perfect. That’s where that one went.

Brian
We were joking that I was kind of like, tricked into being in the band where, like, originally, I was just meeting up with Sam at The Music District, and the idea was sort of to just play, like, math rock and stuff.

Sam
You wanted to start your own math rock group.

Brian
Yeah, it was, I was like, I was trying to start my own, kind of, like math rock project. And then he’s like, Oh, bro, you should you just come jam with me and my friend Trip, you know? And I was like, alright, and I started jamming with them, and, like, at first I was like, I guess I’m just jamming whatever. But it was just sort of, like, after like, three or four times, they were just like, you’re our guitarist, man. I was like, Oh, all right, but yeah, it’s been awesome. I’m really glad it happened.

Zip
Yeah, me too. I’ve always wanted to play in a band, and here’s the band that has brought me in.

Trip
Yeah, this is Zip’s first band for real.

Zip
For real.

Riley
That’s awesome.

Zip
Just kidding, I had a, I called it a joke punk band in high school with my bestie. It was, we called it Zoo Pals because you played the kazoo. Sometimes it’s bringing more kazoo. In the future of no fauna is more kazoo. I’m trying to convince them.

Riley
That’s so awesome.

Zip
Sam says no.

Riley
Wait, I need, I need two definitions. I need definition of pirate punk and definition of, what did you just say?

Zip
I said joke punk.

Riley
Joke punk.

Zip
Because it was like really crappy demos just like in their bedroom. We were just joking. We had a song. Best song was about Buddy Valastro, the Cake Boss, anyway.

Riley
That’s amazing.

Zip
Our music is a little bit of a joke, but maybe a little more serious than that.

Riley
That’s awesome.

Sam
I think pirate punk was just punk songs that high schoolers were writing about drinking rum on a pirate ship.

Riley
Oh, that’s awesome. Okay, perfect. That’s awesome. So that’s what. That’s what it was in my head. I just needed to confirm that…

Trip
Yeah.

Riley
…that we were getting this point across. Okay, perfect.

Sam
it’s exactly what it sounds like. Its was yo ho ho on the open sea from a band on a land locked state.

Riley
There we go. There we go. Okay, so last night, [11/9/2024] you guys had your EP release show. How was that, at The Sunspot?

Zip
It was so amazing. Yeah, I love this one.

Sam
So good.

Zip
It was great. We played with Chair Bomb and, Ok I Love You. They’re both from Boulder. Really sweet, awesome guys. And there’s a girl now, Annie, in Ok I Love You. They just added her to the band. They’re really cool. We played a lot of shows with them early on. Chair Bomb organized shows in Boulder, so it was really fun to have them up here and play.

Brian
Definitely the homies.

Zip
Yeah.

Trip
It was good to have friends.

Riley
That’s awesome. So cool. And tell us a little bit about the new EP.

Trip
So it’s called the “fall” EP. We’ve been doing a series of season based EPS. I don’t know, this one’s a little more somber

Zip
Little Midwest emo. We always, always have had a little Midwest Emo, math rock spirit, but this one really leans into it. I think.

Riley
Awesome, awesome. What’s everyone’s favorite song off the EP?

Sam
I like “apple” because it gives me a break. It’s got, like, a minute long intro with no drums.

Zip
To be honest we wrote the song as a Sam break song. Originally, I feel like it was just going to be like an instrumental thing, but then we were jamming, and it’s really cool. I really like this song, too.

Trip
I like “wasting time”. It’s cool.

Zip
“wasting time” is good. We’re going to play that one. Also I love “rugby sox”. The song has nothing to do with rugby socks, but that name just stuck since the day we wrote it, so we had to name it that I like it because I scream in it.

Brian
And she sounds so cool. She busted that out in the studio. And I was like, What the heck, Zip can scream! You got to do that way more.

Zip
Yeah.

Brian
I really like “apple” too. It’s, like, one of the more simplistic songs that we have. Like, we don’t do a lot of, like, super fancy guitar stuff, or at least I don’t and, but it just has, like a vibe from like start to finish that I just really like.

Riley
Nice, awesome, and what song are we gonna be hearing next?

Zip
I think we should play “wasting time” next.

Trip
Should we do “wasting time” or “i scream” next?

Zip
Yeah, we’re talking about it.

Riley
Okay, nice, nice.

Trip (“wasting time”)
I know I should stop, or at least slow down, one day broken dreams, another wasted sound. Tell me if you can, are you ready to go, a single minded quest, to double book a show. Always, I’ll be, always, wasting time. One day I’ll be, the brightest star. One day I will be, the voice in your heart. I’ve become so scared, of what’s unknown, one life at a desk, the other on the road. I just want to live, under blinding lights, one arm on the stand, the other reaching high. Always, I’ll be, always, wasting time. One day I’ll be, the brightest star. One day I’ll be, the voice in your heart. One day I’ll be, the brightest star. One day I’ll be, the voice in your heart. Always, I’ll be, always, wasting time.

Riley
You are listening to 90.5 KCSU Fort Collins. Hi, no fauna.

no fauna
Hi.

Riley
How are you guys?

Zip
Great!

Riley
That was amazing. I, that was, your last two songs have been incredible. It’s so awesome to have you guys here today. So thank you for hanging out.

no fauna
Thanks for having us.

Riley
Yeah, of course. So this break, we’re going to talk about the EP. So to kind of start things off, how has the band changed your sound, your music since you guys have started?

Sam
So, I mean, yeah, like we said, when me and Trip started, we were writing a lot of punk stuff when we were younger. When we got back together, it turned into more heartfelt stuff, writing about real things instead of pirates that we weren’t in Colorado. So yeah, the next song we’re gonna play is one that me and Trip wrote very early on when we first reconnected, before we met Zip or Brian, but when we got with them, it all kind of came together.

Trip
Was gonna say, this one, a lot more, I don’t know how you’d say it, I don’t know. Starting out with no fauna, it was a lot more punk.

Zip
Pop punk, a little bit.

Trip
Yeah, more than pop punk. And then with the addition of these two, it started to turn more into post hardcore. You know, the sound that we have now.

Brian
Both me and Zip are math rock lovers.

Zip
Yeah, we’re huge math rock fans.

Brian
It’s funny because I was, like, my original idea when I started jamming with Sam, like, oh, I want to make a math rock band, but so I feel like we’ve been playing together now for just barely over a year, and in this year, I’ve been very slowly, just pushing, pushing the band towards doing weird stuff with, like, time signatures and, you know, and cool, like mathy riffs and stuff and so. So definitely, when we started, it was, like, a lot more straightforward, just like, this is jammy, like punk, you know. And now it’s getting a little bit more, like, I don’t want to say experimental, but like, just a little more interesting with, like, song structure.

Zip
Totally, I think me and you are definitely more likely to try to be like, what if we add something weird there, like in that last song, “wasting time”, before the bridge thing. I was like, what if we hit that note five times and then stopped for some reason, and then we kind of just try stuff out until it sounds like something we all can agree on, which sometimes takes a little while, but it’s kind of just yeah, experimentation, ’til we all all agree with it. So I think that’s how we sort of evolved, is that we’re all super involved in the songwriting process now more than, you know, before when I was coming into it, and, you know, Sam and Trip had written some of the songs, and I was just laying down something underneath. Now I feel like we’re really all collaborating, and it’s really cool.

Brian
But writing, writing in general, is, like, pretty easy. Like it feels, it comes to us naturally, like I’m waiting for the day that we all get that, like collective writer’s block. But it hasn’t happened yet. It feels like a lot of times we can just go into like a jam, like somebody just starts playing a riff, like Sam started playing drums, like-

Zip
It’s usually you, Its usually you Brian. That song, the last song, “wasting time”, was Brian started playing that little riff. And we were all like, what’s that? Yeah, what’s that?

Riley
I like that.

Brian
Everyone just kind of just jumps in and starts playing, and then it’s like, you know, a day or two later, it’s finished. Like, oh cool, like, there’s another song, you know. We just have so many on the backlog, and we released three EPS this year. I mean, I think we have one more kind of coming, hopefully before New Year’s. And like, you know, we’re just trying to go through that backlog as we write so fast, at least right now.

Riley
Yeah, that’s amazing. Well, you guys answered, my other question was, what’s your writing process like? So there it is. This just in.

Zip
Yeah. But I mean, I feel like it’s always interesting, because when we get into the studio, sometimes other things come up, like, we realize there might be, like a lyric that we want to sort of like hone, or like a part that we take away or add, when to be like, hear it in that context. So it’s it’s cool, because that definitely impacts it as well.

Riley
That’s so awesome. And my next question is, what is your guys’s favorite recording memory during this EP?

Trip
So during the recording of one of the songs on the new EP, “rugby sox”, for like, the last, I don’t know, outro bit of it, there’s some weird audio ghost happening where it sounds like there’s some sort of, like…

Sam
Choir.

Trip
…yeah, choir in the background, there is not.

Zip
Yeah, it usually, like, when you play that live, usually Trip is, like, singing over it. And so we omitted that because we were like, there’s like, this ghost singer instead.

Brian
Yeah.

Riley
Oh, wow.

Brian
We recorded, we’ve recorded all of our EPS this year at Studio Nile in town with Elliot and Marshall. And it was crazy in that we were, like, listening back to the recording, and then it was just like a weird moment where we had to, like, pause it and, like, look at each other and be like, does everyone hear that? Like…

Riley
What?

Brian
…there’s just, like a phantom harmony, like playing where, like, nobody, like, there’s no vocals there, like, but it sounds like there is, it was.

Sam
So if you listen, listen to the end.

Riley
Wow, that’s super cool. That’s very interesting. Oh, wow.

Brian
Other than that I mean, my favorite anything with recording has been at Studio Nile Elliot’s got this little doggy.

Sam
Donut!

Zip
Donut!

Brian
Named Donut.

Zip
We all love Donut.

Brian
Its the sweetest little, like dachshund, like golden mix thing, but he’s so funny, and he’s learned so many musicians have come through there record that he’s learned that if he wants attention, he has to lay right on top of your pedal board.

Riley
That’s awesome.

Brian
Cause’, obviously, like, everyone’s looking down at their pedals and like playing with them and stuff. So he’s like, Oh, if I just lay right here, they’ll pet me.

Trip
That’s amazing.

Riley
That’s awesome. That’s so cool. So what’s your one piece of advice or something you want to tell your listeners before they hear your EP?

Zip
Listen to it all in order, because we think about that a lot.

Riley
A lost art.

Zip
Yeah, and maybe even sing along. I feel like we’re really trying to write songs that people can relate to, that people can sing along to in their car. So.

Sam
I don’t know, my whole my whole thing with writing has always been, I want it to get stuck in people’s heads. So.

Riley
Yeah.

Zip
So please let it happen. Also, if you check it out on Spotify, we put little like leafy fall videos on each of the songs, and so hopefully it’s like a calm and chill vibe behind the maybe less chill songs, but yeah.

Riley
And any any final words for our listeners before we hear your guys last song?

Zip
Enjoy.

Sam
We love you.

Trip (“i scream”)
We sit on the porch, no chairs give us support, the lawn’s been dead so long. We talk into the night, watch the moon slowly rise, then I turn and I say, can I go home. I’ve said too much, on something I can’t rush, I can tell by the look, on your face. I’m sorry, I’m terrified, I look back on, a man I despise. I scream, I scream, I scream cause I’m scared, I’m scared that I’m just like my dad. I scream, I scream, I scream cause I’m scared, I’m scared that you won’t understand. So much for time, I’ve wasted my whole life, doing nothing you would do Now I will try, 25 and terrified, there’s nothing, I can’t do. So here I will stand, petrified but in command, of all my thoughts and voice. I’m sorry, I love you, but I’m tired of talking this through. I scream, I scream, I scream cause I’m scared, I’m scared that I’m just like my dad. I scream, I scream, I scream cause I’m scared, I’m scared that you won’t understand.

Riley Hilbert (outro)
Thanks for listening to live and local. I’m Riley Hilbert, KCSU local music director. If you like what you’re hearing, you can listen to more on our website, at KCSUfm.com, our Spotify at KCSU FM, or anywhere else you get podcasts Live and Local airs every other Sunday, 11 to 1pm.