Ramona Falls (band)

Ramona Falls
Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls Recording Vocals in 2016
Background information
Origin	Portland, Oregon, United States
Genres	Indie rock Neofolk
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Barsuk Records Souterrain Transmissions
Associated acts	EL VY , Menomena, Dear Reader, Lost Lander
Website	RamonaFalls.com
Members	Brent Knopf
Past members	Matt Sheehy, Dave Lowensohn, Paul Alcott

Ramona Falls is an indie rock project founded by Brent Knopf and based in Portland, Oregon. The band name is taken from a waterfall located near Mt. Hood, a place where Knopf used to hike as a child. Brent Knopf co-founded Menomena before departing in 2011, and is also one-half of EL VY, a collaboration with The National's Matt Berninger.

Ramona Falls took shape after Menomena's recording process for their third album was delayed. Knopf embarked on the project with songs that were not used for Menomena.

Brent played a handful of his own material at shows around Portland, Oregon sometime in the years prior to the Ramona Falls project, including a performance October 24, 2008 in New York under the name "Dear Everything." Some of this material was further developed for the band's first album Intuit.

Recording Intuit gave Knopf the opportunity to work with 35 colleagues from the Portland and New York areas. The album was recorded in Knopf's own studio and at the homes, practice rooms, churches, and other personal spaces of the featured guests.

Intuit and its songs did not chart, but received positive reviews from Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound and generated a large enough following for Knopf to justify leaving Menomena and release another album.

Prophet was released on May 1, 2012 and reached #28 on Billboard's Heatseaker Albums chart on May 19. Knopf took a direction on Prophet that was less centered on the acoustic guitar and focused on expanding the band's sound.

Prettymuchamazing chose Ramona Falls' drummer Paul Alcott as best drummer of SXSW 2012 for his "insane, massive fills" and stage antics, referencing times when Alcott would "come out from behind his kit, stand on bass amps and yell along, drum on the walls, play cymbals backwards, and shake around his giant red ‘fro."

Brent Knopf co-founded EL VY with Matt Berninger (lead singer of The National). The duo released their debut album Return to the Moon October 30, 2015.

Brent Knopf has been creating music since before his inclusion into Menomena. He initially approached Danny Seim and Justin Harris with a demo tape while the duo were in a different band. Knopf is frequently credited as the creator of the Digital Loop Recorder (sometimes referred to as DLR or Deeler) used to help compose creative ideas for inclusion into Menomena's music. The Menomena song "Rose" is believed to be most wholly contributed to by Knopf among other songs.