MUSIC Valley native in Miranda Sound sounds off about his hometown

Experiences from the area have been turned into the band's songs.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Deceptive is the way Miranda Sound singer-guitarist and Youngstown native Billy Peake describes his band's latest album "Western Reserve," which may be poppy in principle but contains rough edges and pointed commentary under the surface.
Such deception led the Columbus-based band to use the oft-misunderstood blue jay on the cover of its new disc. While nice in appearance, the feathered creature is known as an aggressor within the animal kingdom.
That's the dichotomy the group -- and specifically Peake -- is exploring all throughout "Western Reserve," with songs such as "Jackson Milton" and "The Lull of Youngstown" standing out. The former track is based around acquaintances of Peake's from Jackson and Milton townships, while the latter song tackles social issues.
"I still love Youngstown and I still have a lot of family there," Peake said. "It ['The Lull of Youngstown'] was kind of a knee-jerk reaction to going home and having a bad night out and just witnessing some weird things that I haven't seen in a while but it's not per se so much about the town as it is the experience I had that one evening."
Where it came from
After pressing him about his experience, Peake explains the root of the song's bitterness. "It was mostly socially, like hearing racial and homophobic slurs that I'm not so used to anymore, it kind of shocked me," Peake said. "But I don't have a bad taste in my mouth about the town as a whole. There are a lot of things I love about Youngstown, that I miss, that Columbus doesn't have. There's that kind of cultural pride and old-school, blue-collar work ethic that isn't present down here."
Peake added that despite his love of his former hometown's pride and work ethic, it's these same qualities that often beget intolerance. Still, the 1994 Ursuline High School graduate looks forward to Miranda Sound's return to Youngstown on Friday at Nyabinghi Hall.
"It should be a blast," Peake said.
Blasting off is what is happening to Miranda Sound, which formed in 1999 while all of its members attended Bowling Green State University. After graduation, the band relocated to the state capital with Peake pursuing a master's of education at Ohio State University to allow him to teach English "sometime after my rock 'n' roll dreams fade," he said.
While "Western Reserve" is available in Ohio, it receives a national release date this summer with a two-week tour to follow. Peake remains optimistic about the band's chances. "I think my favorite thing about us musically is that we don't really fit," Peake said.
"It's hard to compare us to other modern or even bands from the past. I think we pull from so many different places. It's just really melodic indie rock."