Making Music for Portland, Oregon: Reptaliens Share Their Inspiration

One place we really love is the International Rose Test Garden up in the southwest hills by the zoo. It’s super serene and beautiful and it feels like you're completely out of the city even though you're only a few blocks away from everything.

My favorite venue to play is Mississippi Studios. They treat bands really well, the sound is great, and it is a very comfortable and fun atmosphere. We love them and always try to play and go to shows there.

We've all been making music forever but Reptaliens started one afternoon recording a song for fun. We put it out on the internet because we thought it was good and people really responded to it so we decided to write more and start the band.

I think we just create what we think sounds good as opposed to going for a specific genre or style. We are influenced by everything around us and even though we use different genres and styles in our music, it will always be a Reptaliens song because that is our sound.

The songs are just vague enough that they can be relatable in a lot of different ways, to different people, in many situations. It's as much for us as it is for the audience, we will always make music because we love to make music and hopefully people will enjoy the sound and relate to the content.

Portland is a great place to make music because everyone in the music scene is very active, talented, and driven. Everyone is supportive of each other and lots of musicians play in many different bands creating a tight community and a diverse music scene at the same time.

Portland is a relatively big city but it is also only a couple hours from the beach, the forest, the desert, or the mountain. There is nature everywhere and it is really nice. Also, the food here is amazing.

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