All photos credit: Dylan Machi
Derived from an Italian painting technique meaning “at first attempt,” the Asheville-based quartet Alla Prima has built their identity around spontaneity and gut feelings. Featuring Aiden Sheely on rhythm guitar, Jesse Harrison on lead guitar, Zak Johnson on bass, and Dillon Walker on drums, the band plays what they describe as garage rock fused with blues, drawing on influences like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and The Velvet Underground (to name a few).
What started as Zak and Dillon coming together through a winding series of prior projects and chance encounters at Asheville shows has continued to grow since late 2024. Out of all of it came Wet Paint, a packed 17-track debut that was road-tested at shows across the state well before it released. That unforced quality extends to everything the band does. They’re not chasing streams or angling for algorithmic playlists, but instead building community and saying yes to whatever comes next.
What’s something y’all have been listening to lately?
Zak (bass/vocals): I have been listening to a lot of Velvet Underground recently — especially White Light/White Heat. That’s been a big inspiration.
Dillon (drums/vocals): We were all listening to that one on tour, actually. That was the first time I’d heard it. It’s crazy. I’ve been really getting into Mission of Burma recently. I just found them on a whim, but there’s some really cool stuff there. I also have some friends in i26connector, a band around here. They just put out an album [i26 Connector] and I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’m excited to dig in.
When you were first getting into music, who was the first artist or band you became obsessed with?
Zak: That would have to be The Beatles for me. I actually discovered them through Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I was watching it with my grandpa and I was like, “Who’s singing this?” He said he thought it was The Beatles, and I went into my room and looked up the video of them playing and was like, “These guys are crazy.” They really got me into music, and the deeper you go down their discography, it’s just crazy how much they progressed in just a couple of years.
Dillon: Mine was also The Beatles. My dad was a pretty big fan, and for a long time the only electronic device I had was my old MP3 player that only had like two gigs on it. My parents were pretty strict about what I listened to, but they said I could listen to The Beatles.
My dad had all of those albums on MP3, so that’s what I had on there — that and the Shrek 2 soundtrack, and I think some instrumentals of Metallica because my parents didn’t want me listening to the lyrics. But yeah, The Beatles were my favorite. That’s where I really got interested in music and how it can be artistic.
At what point did y’all start choosing an instrument and going down the path of learning to play and eventually making music of your own?
Zak: Ever since discovering The Beatles, I wanted to learn guitar. I was just always really drawn to it. I started watching YouTube videos, watching The Beatles play, and learning from that. I tried going the route of a regular instructor, but I found it more rewarding to do it myself. I played guitar for many years and then picked up bass around sophomore year of high school, and I’ve pretty much been hanging out with that ever since.
Dillon: I actually started with the mandolin of all instruments because my mom’s side is all in bluegrass, especially my grandma. I had a relative who owned an old acoustic music store in the middle of nowhere and he had just like this old kit mandolin that he had built that was kind of cheap. He just decided to give it to me and that was kind of what started it.
So it was mandolin and eventually guitar and then eventually electric guitar and then drums. I just got lucky with drums because my dad used to play drums, so it was just sitting in the garage collecting dust.
Was this y’all’s first band, or had you been in bands before?
Zak: I’ve been in bands before, that’s actually how I met Andrew. I started a band back in 2023, and Andrew was recommended by the drummer of that band. We just clicked from there; we loved a lot of the same music. We ended up being in two other bands after that, and after our last one before Alla Prima, we were just like, “Let’s do our own thing going forward.” And that’s how we got here.
Dillon: I was in a punk band in middle school. A friend introduced me to punk, and it was just the two of us to start. I was on bass, he had an old Höfner. We eventually found another bass player, and when we couldn’t find a drummer I figured I’d just try and figure out drums myself. And it’s kind of gone from there.
What was the catalyst that really brought this project together?
Zak: After that last band ended, Andrew and I were doing music completely different from what we’re doing now, and we felt really constricted. We needed a drummer and were also looking for another guitarist. I brought in one drummer, and Andrew brought in Aiden, who he’d met through community college. So we had that first practice, and Andrew and Aiden both came in with the first songs that ended up on the album.
We started practicing constantly, started playing out in Boone, and then we met Dillon at a show at Static Age in Asheville. He was playing in another band, and I remember leaning over to Andrew while watching him play and being like, “This dude is cracked out on drums.”
After a while, we were getting ready to play a five-day straight show run and our old drummer dropped out just a few days before. That put us in a real tizzy. We put something out on Instagram looking for a drummer, and Dillon happened to see it.
Dillon: I’m really sporadic on Instagram. I hadn’t checked it in a long time but I just happened to scroll one day and saw that they needed a drummer. Since I’d already seen them play, I had a feel for the vibe, and I thought I could sit in for a show and have a lot of fun. So I reached out.
Zak: And then I didn’t hear from him for a while. I was like, “Is he still doing it?” We hadn’t practiced, hadn’t done anything. But when he played that show at the 27 Club, he played all the songs perfectly. And I was like, “Yeah, we’ve got to have this guy.” We didn’t ask him to officially join until probably only one or two shows after that.
So the first five or so songs on the record, Andrew and Aiden had brought those in?
Zak: Yeah, at that first practice Andrew brought in “Gone Away,” and they brought in “Bayonet,” “Sweet Evil Lady,” and “Pass the Lighter.” Not exactly the first five tracks on the record, but a good chunk of what ended up on it. It really became the blueprint for the album. I remember hearing those songs and thinking, these are great.”
When you had those songs coming in at that first practice, what was the process of building on that and putting together the album?
Zak: When they brought in those first songs, we didn’t want to fall into just practicing the same five over and over and getting them perfect without writing anything else. So anytime any of us wrote something, we just brought it in and tried it out.
Eventually we each kept bringing in songs. Aiden brought one in that he wrote all by himself, I brought some in that I wrote, Andrew brought in more. By bringing all of these songs together, the album just kind of fell into place. We started playing them at shows, really testing them out, and feeling out what a good track list looked like over time.
Dillon: There was a stretch where we’d just walk out of every practice with like two new songs. That still kind of happens, honestly, because we don’t practice a whole lot.
Zak: Yeah, and the 17 tracks on the album aren’t even half of what we actually have. The 17 we chose ended up just being our set list at shows at a certain point, so we picked the ones we liked best and put them together as the track list. We might bring back some of those older songs that didn’t quite make it and rework them into something new.
When you’re putting together set lists or preparing to play live, how do the songs lift from the recording to the stage?
Dillon: A lot of it is pretty unstructured, honestly. I feel like the band is just kind of a free spirit in its identity. Half the time we’ll make up the set on the way there, or even on stage. But we’re pretty familiar with our songs at this point. We can come into practice with new songs and be pretty solid on them for a show almost immediately.
Other than that, I think it’s just that we know each other pretty well. We can do a lot of on-the-fly stuff on stage. We don’t have to have that structure to perform, which is great for me as a drummer, because it means I can play things a little differently every time and keep it fun.
Zak: As long as we have an idea of how a song goes, we can usually throw it in. Sometimes that’s just how we build a song, by trying it right there in front of everybody. And I think because our name is derived from the Italian art style meaning “at first attempt,” that’s kind of also our motto. We just try it and see what happens. Sometimes that turns into a really beautiful experience.
Y’all just put out your debut record. What’s your plan for supporting it, and what has the early response been?
Zak: We plan to promote it as much as we can. We have several shows lined up in April and a few in May, but we’re saving our real touring for the summer. Putting out the record was almost last minute, honestly. We took the album cover picture the same week it was released. We decided to just drop it on Bandcamp because a lot of artists are moving away from the streaming platforms.
Dillon: Yeah, our whole attitude toward music in general is that we’re trying to do it for art’s sake, for fun. Not very serious in a job kind of way. You want the art to stand on its own and not have to be wrapped up in the whole business side of it. We don’t want to be a TikTok band. We’re doing it for hopefully some people who enjoy it, and mostly for ourselves.
What’s your relationship with the business and promotional side of putting out music?
Dillon: I hate trying to bring that business mindset into music. For me, most of why I do music is to get away from the clinical, business side of life and just wing it. Go with what feels good in the moment.
Zak: I agree with that, and I do handle a lot of the band’s business side. But I have to agree with Dillon. Sometimes I wish it wasn’t like that. That said, if you want people to listen, you at least have to tell them it’s there.
Our whole ethos right now with releasing the album is just like: it either happens or it doesn’t. We’re pretty happy with it being on Bandcamp, people are still listening and seem interested, and the response has been overall pretty positive. We’re excited about that.
For y’all performing out in Asheville and being part of that community. What has the experience been of playing out, and have you looked to play beyond the area?
Zak: Right now we do play all across the state. We’ve played in Charlotte, Greenville, Wilmington, a lot in eastern North Carolina. But although we love traveling, we’re looking to really settle into the local Asheville scene and invest in what’s already a flourishing music community, while still saying yes to anything and anywhere that’ll have us.
Dillon: The Asheville music scene just has so many of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Andrew and Aiden are both looking to move here, and when that happens it’ll be a lot easier to just be going to shows and talking to bands and really getting more embedded in the scene. There’s almost an overwhelming amount of shows, which is obviously a good thing. Once they hopefully get up here, we really want to dig in as far as we can.
Who are some of your favorite local Asheville or North Carolina musicians you’d want to shout out?
Dillon: Everybody knows Wednesday. They’re just a fantastic band, kind of the poster band of the Asheville scene. There’s so many great bands here. Tanner York‘s great, that whole crowd has a lot of really good bands. Same with Tombstone Poetry, i26 Connector; they’re great.
We’ve had one show with PAPRIKA and they were a really great group of people. Hook of Moon is pretty new but has a lot of cool & unique ideas, and I cannot wait for Headringer to drop some crazy music.
Zak: Porcelain Parrot is also really great. And we’ve played with so many great bands across North Carolina. Shack Ratz from Wilmington, and Lily of the Valley from Boone are also amazing. It’s hard to pick just one or two.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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