Since Dignan’s conception within a church sanctuary seven years ago, the indie rock outfit from McAllen has been diligently carving into Texas’ music scene.
Between extensive touring schedules, Andy Pena (lead vocals/guitar), Devin Garcia (bass), Heidi Plueger (keyboard/vocals), and David Palomo (aux instruments/vocals) have released two successful EPs and a debut album, Cheaters and Thieves.
The quartet has performed twice at South by Southwest. They rocked New York City’s 2009 CMJ Music Marathon, and they played a special in-house show at Paste Magazine’s headquarters.
This small town band is on the verge of breaking completely onto the music scene.
“We’re not unknown, but we’re not really known either,” Garcia said. “We’re in the middle…Right now it’s a lot of multitasking and doing little odd and end jobs on the side [for income], doing a lot of internet work, all while performing each night.”
Dignan is currently on the road again, playing through Texas, the Carolinas, Florida and other southern states. They will hit The Mohawk in Austin at the end of August. This tour, and all events prior, has been fueled on the band’s own budget and determination.
“We don’t have any label support or booking agents or anything,” Garcia said. “We’ve kind of done it all. We’ve done it by slowly working towards it, working our way up, and doing it by ourselves.”
Dignan attributes the internet to their independent success.
“These days you can do anything through the internet,” Garcia explained. “With the right dedication and drive and persistence, I think [a band] can build themselves as big as they’d like to be.”
And big they will be. For the next three months, Dignan will take on various stages and perform a shifting set list for fans.
“It will be kind of different each night I think,” Garcia said. “Hopefully we will have some variation.”
Although their shows will be a mix of old and newer tracks, the band hopes the atmosphere remains the same.
“Having a really energetic crowd and a good response is what we hope for of course every night,” Garcia said. “It’s really nice when that happens—when it’s a good intimate moment with the crowd and the band.”
Dignan’s emotional lyrics paired with sweet melancholy melodies could easily consume a crowd.
“I feel like [our music] is very hopeful—our songs are very hopeful even when the lyrical content is darker,” the band’s bassist said. “It’s kind of eerie at some points. It shakes my bones up sometimes even playing it on stage. It throws a chill down my spine. I like it.”
Their whimsy, wanting sound has been described as a blend of Arcade Fire, Cursive, and Broken Social Scene.
“It’s always nice being compared, or people telling us that they hear a certain band in us,” Garcia said. “That’s always a nice compliment.”
For their own influence, Dignan draws from other indie works.
“We are all very big fans of David Bazan of the band Pedro the Lion,” Garcia explained. “Just recently we found out he had our record and he sent us a picture of himself holding our CD. He is such a big influence on our band, and a personal influence on our lead singer. It’s a great moment when you look up to someone and then they turn around and are like, ‘No, you’re great too. We enjoy what you do.’…We’ve had a couple of moments like that, where people we look up to shine light on us.”
By this time next year, Dignan fans will have another album to hold.
“Right now we are in the early stages of slowly working towards getting some songs complied for, what I believe will be, our full length release,” the bassist said. “We are trying to have that out late July or early August of next year.”
Until then fans will just have to hold themselves over with Dignan’s current tour and hits.
After each show fans can catch Garcia, and the rest of the members, hanging around their merch table and talking about their sound.
“Our band just kind of enjoys meeting new people and talking to people, and spreading the word about our music—one by one,” he said.
–Cassie Morien, photo by Taylor Pool
(As mentioned above, Dignan hits the Mohawk this coming Sunday, 8/29…)
