A classically trained cellist, folk guitarist, percussionist and strong vocalist merge to create Ship of Fools, a band with an eccentric sound and organic feel.
Mass communication junior Ashley Monaghan provides the vocals, while pre-engineering sophomore Michael Blount plays guitar, music junior Raudol Palacios plays cello and biological engineering senior Eric Brown plays drums.
Although the band was conceived only eight months ago, the members have fallen into a comfortable pattern of writing and performing that they say feels genuine.
“For me, being on stage with this band is a lot of fun,” Palacios said. “I have a lot of connections with all of the members in different ways.”
Ship of Fools started with Blount and Palacios. The two met through mutual friends and began playing together.
After a few practices, Palacios mentioned bringing Monaghan in for one session because they’d also been playing together.
From there, it continued as a three-piece band until the members realized they wanted to play larger stage environments and offered an audition to Brown, with whom Monaghan reconnected in college after being in a band together in high school.
For the members, balancing their music and school work doesn’t always come easily.
Shows and school keep their schedules full, but they’re able to find a balance in the midst of individual demands because of how much they enjoy what they do.
“You have to treat it as a job,” Blount said.
Over its short tenure as a group, Ship of Fools has established itself as a group of experienced musicians with rising notoriety.
Recently, the band has been playing shows regularly and experimenting with new projects.
Over the weekend, it performed an original score for the silent film “La Antena” at Baton Rouge Gallery’s “Movies and Music on the Lawn” series.
Despite being something it had never tried before, the group was able to challenge itself and work out some musical pieces to create the right mood to accompany the film.
Monaghan said composing the score came more easily once the band stripped down the music it already had and started building up from there.
“With a lot of our music, when you take the vocals out of it or take it in different sections or break up each song, they have some really nice melodic lines to them that act as really great backup music,” Monaghan said.
As for future plans, the band expects to continue to play shows and work on its upcoming EP, as it has a plethora of songs, both out and in the works, that have never been recorded.
“I think the selection of songs that we did is a good sample of what we can do,” Palacios said.
Though there’s no set date for the release yet, Blount noted November as being ideal.
The band is currently recording with PreSonus in Baton Rouge and working with New Orleans artist Tish Douzart, who specializes in printmaking and will be hand-marbling paper to design the album cover.
In the upcoming weeks, a music video will also be released for Ship of Fool’s new single “Handle Myself.”
Filmed at the The Walls Project Art and Design Center, the video was a collaborative effort with LSU students and professors, including head of dance Sandra Parks and assistant professor of film and television Joshua Overbay.
Ship of Fools’ upcoming shows include Sept. 7 at Siberia Nola, Oct. 10 at The Roux House with Nyce and Nov. 17 at Gasa Gasa with Gardens.

Gallery • 9 Photos

Nicholas Martino

People gather on the lawn to watch a silent film with an original musical score performed by Ship of Fools on Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, at the Baton Rouge Gallery.