Written by Gabrielle Olivia Pruitt
What do you get when you put Aaron Young, Craig Featherstone, Tyler Jones and Sam Featherstone with a harmonica, a guitar and percussion instruments?
The answer is Some Different Animals.
That is the name to which these Harding University students choose to answer; the guys recently have come together to form a band called Some Different Animals. The name was inspired by Craig Featherstone after he read a Cormac McCarthy novel over the summer that discussed man as a new kind of breed or “some different animals.”
Sophomores Aaron Young and Craig Featherstone are majoring in psychology; sophomore Tyler Jones is majoring in management information systems; and freshman Sam Featherstone is majoring in business marketing and management. What brings these varied young artists together is their love for music.
Young and Jones grew up together as friends in Oklahoma and were in a band previously called From the Hollow with Logan Nickleson and Craig Featherstone. While in this band, they performed songs from the same genre as they do now, folk music.
Since Nickleson went overseas and will be transferring to another university, they decided it would be too difficult to keep the band going. This did not stop them from making music, however. They continued writing music, but when asked to perform for an event, the guys became serious about it.
Campus Activities Board Director Corey McEntyre asked them to perform at this weekend’s event, the Food and Music Festival, so they realized they needed a fourth guy.
That is when Craig Featherstone, Young and Jones picked up Sam Featherstone and formed this new band – Some Different Animals. Sam Featherstone entered Harding this year as a freshman and is Craig’s brother from Tennessee.
“Yeah, I’m the smart aleck, and he’s the jovial spirit,” Craig Featherstone said describing his brother Sam.
They get together and practice about two or three times week, but almost every night they come to each other sharing new music they have written.
“Everyone writes their own songs and sings their own songs,” Sam Featherstone explained.
Everything they do is original, and right now they have several songs in the works.
“Every time we practice, someone brings something they wrote,” Young said. “But a lot of times it’s only part of a song or it’s untitled at the time.”
Their inspiration comes from reading a lot and listening to some of their favorite bands like Kevin Devine, Manchester Orchestra and Neutral Milk Hotel.
Their dream would be to perform with Neutral Milk Hotel at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, but they say, in reality, they prefer the closeness of small venues and small audiences.
“We like to connect with our audience,” Jones said. “Larger crowds seem too distant.”
As for their future, the guys seem set in their majors and will build their careers based on those studies.
“If music happens, it happens,” Young said.
In other words, the music industry is not necessarily being pursued by Some Different Animals. However, they will continue to enjoy writing and performing music for now as a fun pasttime.
“It’s a hobby, but it’s also an obsession,” Craig Featherstone said.
