The Redwalls Find A Voice of Their Own

words by Janine Trinidad
photos by Victor You

Like any good kids from the suburbs of a working-class city, Deerfield, Illinois natives Justin and Logan Baren of The Redwalls just wanted to be in a good rock band. The Baren brothers started learning guitar and bass when they were in middle school; a few years later, a band materialized when neighborhood friend/ guitarist Andrew Langer joined the brothers. Jordan Kozer on drums rounded out the quartet, and they christened themselves The Pages. As The Pages, the high school friends played small venues in Chicago doing Beatles' covers and British invasion songs; they eventually released an LP, Universal Blues, on Undertow Records in 2003. Universal Blues is an 11-track album that sounds like a time capsule of late- 1960s rock: Logan perfectly mimics John Lennon's voice, and the music is infused with the feel of that passionate and politically charged era. Universal Blues only had mild success in Chicago, but it found its way into the hands of Capitol Records. Capitol signed the band on the condition they change their name: The Pages was also the name of Mr. Mister before Capitol signed them in the 1980s. Renaming themselves The Redwalls—a rumored interpretation of Bob Dylan's Freewheelin' song, "Walls of Red Wing"—was "easier said than done," says Justin. "We sat down for a week and threw those two words together. It evokes something in your mind—or it [does] in my mind," he says, wishing that he had a pithier anecdote to tell people.