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Updated: 8/29/2008 3:47:01 PM                                               PRINT | EMAIL | COMMENT

City: Chippewa Falls.

Members: Alyssa Rieper on guitar and vocals; and Johanne Swanson on keyboards, accordion and vocals.

Together since: This summer.

Style: Folk pop.

Influences: Joni Mitchell, Iron and Wine, Rilo Kiley.

Web site: www.myspace.com/feathe.

Next gig: 7 tonight at Acoustic Cafe, 505 S. Barstow St. All ages. Free. 832-9090.

Backstage Pass is a regular feature that showcases Chippewa Valley bands. If your band would like to be featured, send e-mail to rob.hanson@ecpc.com.

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Feathe members Alyssa Rieper and Johanne Swanson have done the full-band thing.

And like many musicians, they wanted out of the drama and creative control issues.

Their solution: An intimate duo that is as much friendship as musical act.

“We were friends before we started making music together, and I think that’s what helps us out so much,” said Swanson.

And that intimacy is what allows their creativity to flow.

“Lately it’s been pretty equal as far as making music,” said Rieper. “I made a couple songs recently on guitar, and she’ll add a lot of harmony.”

Their style, although a bit stripped down, is another example of the wave of indie pop folk that has washed over the Chippewa Valley - a genre that lacks a definitive title but has become a local favorite.

Swanson said Feathe’s music at times reminds her of the early days of the band Iron and Wine - one of her favorites.

“Alyssa comes to me with songs in a like, really skeletal form, and I help with arranging and adding,” she said.

As for the eccentric band name, it came when a distracted Rieper was writing in her journal and failed to finish a sentence. Days later, what was meant to be “feather” read “feathe.” And it stuck.

Feathe has done home recordings but isn’t in a hurry to lay down tracks in the studio.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the duo doesn’t have a goal.

“I guess we just want to be known locally,” said Swanson. “It’s not so much that we want to be heard. I think it’s just that we want to share our craft with other people.”