Cumulus, an indie rock band from Seattle WA, started with two core members, Alexandra Niedzialkowski and Lance Umble. Both were (coincidentally) born to Military families in Western Germany in the mid 80′s. As all military families do, they eventually relocated, finding themselves in the Puget Sound, a beautiful group of islands in the Pacific Northwest. It was here that they grew into their own, finding themselves separately, and eventually together, through music. Alex’s childhood town of Oak Harbor, WA, was (and is) a place without many outlets for young artists. Seeking more fertile ground, she found a home for her art and music in Anacortes, a small town just thirty miles north. Anacortes’s community quietly embraced DIY culture and practice, offering her a place to perform and live, The Department of Safety. It was here that Alex became friends with Lance, a guitar player living in Anacortes and performing with different punk, rock and indie bands.
The two went their separate ways, and while attending college in Bellingham Alex found a home in the city’s house shows and tight knit music community. Cumulus was created as a way to express and release her quiet, thoughtful songs, and Bellingham was the perfect place for someone new to songwriting to nurture that creativity and feel safe. Post college, Alex moved to Seattle as a means to greater exposure and once again, the odds of proximity were in their favor, as Lance separately moved to Seattle to better cultivate his musical career. The two artists, with their common goals in sight, reunited as friends and naturally began playing music together.
After playing a Bruce Springsteen covers show at Seattle’s Porchlight Coffee, Alex and Lance met Leah Julius. Leah knew that Cumulus needed a bass player, so she introduced herself to Alex as a bass player knowing that she had never played bass in her life. After listening to the songs for hours on end, teaching herself and writing her own parts, Leah came to band practice and the rest is history. With a completed rhythm section, the band began performing Alex’s songs as louder, fuller pieces of art. The local blogs and papers simultaneously nodded in approval, giving the band the confidence they needed to step in the next direction. Needless to say, these incidental occurrences somehow gifted us Cumulus: a pleasant blend of delicate songwriting and rain soaked indie rock. Now, after returning to Anacortes to record their debut record as a band, Alex, Lance, and Leah are surely prepared to uproot and travel some more, only this time they’ll be sharing an old van and sleeping on barf stained couches. GLAMOROUS.
