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Meet Bill Zimmerman, Sami and Sean Michelsen of Reptile Room in Decatur

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Zimmerman, Sami and Sean Michelsen.

Bill, Sami and Sean, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Reptile Room was started about a year ago by the 3 of us. We have worked on projects together in the past, but nothing like what we’re doing now. When we started writing, Bill had been working on the studio/engineering side of things and Sean and I had been performing, writing, and producing on various projects. “This allowed us to quickly bring in our individual ideas and skills all at once.

We also have very different influences & interests in music, so It’s been real cool to create and hear them come together. We went through a lot of demos and ideas before landing on the vibe we have now. The sound really fit each one of us once we found it.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We are very close, so It seems easy to make it through any “struggle” we face as a team. This at least makes it appear smooth to us. Creating music together is probably the easiest part because of our communication. Since we are so close, we are qucik to give ourselves good or bad feedback without letting it get personal.

It allows us to sift through ideas much quicker. We do all of our own artwork., licensing, management, and booking at the moment, so that can feel like a struggle at times, but it’s been a great opportunity to learn. We have plans to relieve a couple of those jobs in the near future which will be nice.

Please tell us about Reptile Room.
Our name, Reptile Room, can mean a lot of different things to us, but I think from our vastly different influences, it’s kind of like controlling something wild. Taking all of our ideas and fitting them into a song is kind of like fitting all these wild reptiles into a contained room. It’s definitely open to interpretation. As far as our sound, we try to keep it as interesting, minimal, and catchy as we can. Instead of throwing 1000 ingredients in, we want to find just the right ones.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Nothing differently – we think things slide into the right place at the right time and any problems or mistakes help build that reality. Anything we could’ve executed better turns into another experience gained and something learned.

Contact Info:

  • Website: www.reptileroommusic.com
  • Email: reptileroommusic@gmail.com
  • Instagram:@reptileroomofficial
  • Facebook:@reptileroomofficial

Image Credit:
Cindy Harter Sims, Paul Wood, Akeeme Martin, Kevin McKnight

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