A Chat With: Meg Mac

Australian singer-songwriter Meg Mac combines her soulful vocals with pop melodies to craft irresistible tunes, like the viral "Roll Up Your Sleeves," which has racked up over 9 million Spotify streams. Prior to the July 14th release of her debut album, Meg will tour North America playing some of the new songs, returning for the first time since she supported D'Angelo on a 2015 tour. In advance of the tour next month, we had a chat with Meg to get the scoop on the upcoming album, her influences, her advice on dealing with jet lag, and more! 

Photo Credit: Metaxia Coustas

ANCHR Magazine: Congratulations on your debut album coming out later this year! Can you tell us a little bit about the songwriting and recording process of the album?

Meg Mac: Thank you! I really wanted to make my first album simple.  I write all my songs at the piano and I played on most of the album. I wanted it to feel and sound like you were in the studio with me when you listen to the album. Just me and my songs without anything getting in the way.

AM: You’ve cited Edith Piaf and Carole King as influences for the album. Did you pull inspiration from any other art mediums or nonmusical influences when writing the songs?

MM: Edith Piaf said she wanted to make people cry even when they don’t understand her words. I love the idea of that. When I am writing I’m always inspired by something personal, something I am experiencing. I have to feel strongly enough about something to sing about it. 

AM: Which of the new songs are you most looking forward to playing live, and what can we expect from the live show?

MM: There’s a song on my album called "Ride It." Recording this song is what inspired me to get my first electric guitar from New York and learn how to play. Obviously it features guitar, but it also has an energy on it that I haven’t had before, and I can play around with that on stage.

AM: Which cities are you most looking forward to on the upcoming tour?

MM: I’m excited to come back to a lot of the places I’ve been before. My last tour in the states was with D’Angelo and I fell in love with a few places. But I’m pretty happy about playing my first show in San Francisco.

AM: Since you’re coming to tour The States all the way from Australia, what are your best tips for staying entertained on long flights and dealing with jetlag?

MM: Don’t take daytime naps.

AM: I saw you tweeted about Firefly Festival and being in disbelief you’re on the same poster as Bob Dylan. Who else on the Firefly lineup are you hoping to see while you’re there?

MM: I’d love to see Banks - she’s playing the same day as me.

AM: I also saw on your social media that your sister is in your band and plays on some songs on your album. Is your whole family pretty much musical, and when did you first get into making your own music? 

MM: Yeah my little sister sings in my band and every now and then she comes in to the studio. Singing is just what we did in our house growing up - it was normal.

AM: What other bands are you listening to at the moment? 

MM: I have been getting into Father John Misty and also going back and loving Tracey Chapman.

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You can pre-order Low Blows here, and grab your tickets to see Meg Mac at Schubas Tavern on 6/20 here. Get ready for the show and the album by listening to Meg's debut EP below. 

Catching Up With: Alex Napping

It's been a little over a week since the NYC/Austin-based band Alex Napping released their sophomore album, Mise En Place, full of honest narratives driven by grooving melodic riffs and lead singer Alex Cohen's ethereal vocals. Since the May 5th release, the quartet have been on the road in support of the new songs, playing album release shows in both of their base cities, NYC and Austin, as well as a handful of new cities. Prior to the tour kickoff, the leading lady of Alex Napping caught up with ANCHR to chat about the process behind the album, from her songwriting to recording, as well as some of her influences and favorite artists. Before the tour hits Chicago's Subterranean this Saturday night, check out these 5 things we learned while catching up with Alex Cohen. 

Photo by HELMUT Studio

Alex Napping is: Alex Cohen, Adrian Sebastian Haynes, Tomás Garcia-olano, and Andrew Stevens. 

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The Album Was Recorded More Than A Year Before The Release

While chatting with Cohen the day before Mise En Place's release, Cohen describes her excitement to finally release the album, saying, "We’ve had this record finished since March of 2016. So it’s been a while coming. I’m very happy to finally be putting it out into the world."

Cohen also reveals the group divided the recording into several different blocks, the first session going all the way back to 2015. Telling the tale of their recording process, Cohen begins, "We recorded at a studio in Austin called Cacophony Recorders, with Erik Wofford, who is the owner of the studio. He produced the record. We did a couple of one-off singles about a year before going in to make this record, just to see if he was someone we wanted to make a whole record with. We made these two songs, “Trembles Part I” and “Trembles Part II,” and just loved working with him and loved his space. [We] decided that when we were ready to do our full length, we’d do it with him."  As far as the span of different recording sessions, she says, "We recorded the record in three chunks. There were four days in November 2015, two days in December, and then four more days in January of 2016, where we tracked the record. And we just kind of broke it up based on like who needed to be there." Cohen continues on to say that "Wife and Kidz" and "Heart Swells 2.0" have minimal bass and drums, so they were able to knock those out in the two days in December 2015. 

There's a New Sense of Maturity In The New Album

Discussing the difference from debut album to the sophomore record, Cohen muses, "I like to think that the themes have matured as I’ve grown older, and kind of have a different perspective on conflict." She continues to confess she actually went back to listen to their first record shortly before Mise En Place's release, revealing, "It was really weird. It wasn’t painful. I was like 'I think this still holds up'...But it definitely sounds like a young record,  and a lot of the feelings that I had that felt so important and grand definitely have a naivety to [them]."

Because of how personal Cohen gets with her songwriting, she says her age definitely plays a factor in the song themes. Elaborating, Cohen says, "I was 21 when I wrote those songs [on the first album], versus being 23, 24 when I wrote this record. I feel like those first few years out of college, being a real adult are pretty big. A lot of stuff happens. A lot of this record is kind of like dealing with being an adult and figuring out how to realistically handle situations. Where things that felt like the end of the world when I was like 20, you’re just like 'this is part of life'. Just kind of figuring out how it all fits into life, like balance and security. Like what do those even mean?" 

Cohen says the themes of her songs aren't the only difference this time around, revealing that her and the band built up the arrangements while they were in the studio this time. "It was kind of fun because we’ve never really gotten to do that as a band before. 'Wife and Kidz' had the melody and that kind of delayed bass part, but other than that we just came up with a bunch of stuff in the studio. It's kind of like the most fun part about the studio....When you have a structure for a song, but figuring out how you want to fill in the spaces. I enjoy working on the fly like that. I think that a lot of really cool, creative things happen when you’re locking yourself in a studio setting for like 10 hours a day," she continued. 

“A lot of this record is kind of like dealing with being an adult and figuring out how to realistically handle situations. Where things that felt like the end of the world when I was like 20, you’re just like ‘this is part of life.’ ”

— Alex Cohen on her maturing songwriting

Land Of Talk and Chairlift Acted As Influences

Being able to freely create and collaborate in the studio also meant that Cohen and her bandmates were able to soak up influence from other bands during the recording and writing process. "When I was writing I was going through a really big Land Of Talk phase. They’re the best. It’s really cool because they hadn’t put a record out since 2012, and they have a record coming out in June for the first time in years. But I was listening to a lot of their music, and I think that that definitely comes through in my songwriting...and even guitar chords and voicing, Cohen says. Continuing, she reveals, "Actually what’s funny is in 'Temperamental Bed', I play in an alternate guitar tuning, and that tuning I learned from looking up tabs from a Land Of Talk song. It’s one of my favorite tuning styles, but I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t been like 'How do I play this song that I love so much?'" 

Cohen credits another band for inspiring her during their time in the studio, saying, "Right as I was going into the studio, I started listening to a lot of Chairlift. I don’t think [they] musically influenced this record, but I do just really love the way that Caroline Polachek from Chairlift sings and how she uses her voice. How she can be really playful with it. I think aspects of that, I was interested in incorporating into some of the vocal performances on the record. I think that will be way more apparent on the next one." 

Each Song Acts as a Snapshot of a Moment 

The songs on Mise En Place were recorded a while before the release, but Cohen still find them to be accurate portrayals of herself. Talking more about the relevance of these songs as they age, Cohen says, "I think they’re still relevant in that they’re accurate portrayals of how I felt in specific moments in the year that I wrote those songs. That’s what a lot of them are. I wrote them as certain things were happening..These cool little snapshots of exactly how I was feeling when something happened."

On the contrary to that point, Cohen continues, "At the same time I feel really far removed from that time in my life. It’s weird because it’s like 'Oh, I remember feeling that way, but it feels like a lifetime ago.' Even by the time we were in the studio, I had written a lot of the songs six months to a year prior to going into the studio. I was starting to feel quite distanced from the subject matter."

Although Cohen feels distance from the song subjects, she's still really excited to play them all on tour. She talks more about the live show, revealing which new song she's most excited to play live. "We’ve actually just worked out how to play 'Wife and Kidz' live and we’ll be unveiling that for the first time live, and I’m actually really excited about that, cause I’m just gonna sing on it. I’m not gonna play guitar or any instrument, which I love doing 'cause it’s just nice to have moments where I just get to focus on only doing one thing. I think that we’ve worked up a pretty cool version of it, all things considered and our gear on stage."

As far as the cities they're most excited to hit up? "I’m always excited about New York shows. I actually live in New York now. it’s kind of like a second hometown. We’re playing some places in the northeast like Providence, RI and Bloomfield, CT. I’ve never really been to some of those small town northeaster states before. Our midwest shows in Chicago and Minneapolis because those are just really cool cities. I have friends there that I’m excited to see, and both of those shows have really awesome line ups," Cohen says.

Other Artists That Alex Is Into Include...

It's always great to find out who your favorite new bands are listening to, which keeps your music library from getting stale, so naturally we asked Alex what some of her current favorites are. Besides Chairlift and Land Of Talk, Cohen mentions a couple other badass female artists that have been in frequent rotation on her playlist. "I'm really in love with the Tei Shi album that came out a month ago. She’s so good and so cool,  and I just think that that’s one of the best like, kind of weird pop records of the year," she says.

"Half Waif put out a record this year, which I love. I saw them play live for the first time during South By [South West], which was incredible. Nandi, who fronts that project, is amazing. She also plays with Pinegrove, but I really love the record that she put out this year," Cohen added.

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Tickets for Alex Napping's show at The Subterranean this Saturday, May 20, start at $10. Snag your ticket here, and listen to their new album below. 

A Chat With: Julia Jacklin

Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin has had a year as incredible as the songs she writes...releasing her debut album, touring nonstop, and being announced on massive festival lineups all over the world, like Glastonbury and Spendour In The Grass. Her music blends her rich and haunting vocals with retro-tinged folk music, and a pinch of twang. In the midst of her current North American tour, Julia took some time to chat with us about her first album and what's in store for her this year. Get to know Julia Jacklin now before she takes summer 2017 by a storm.

Thumbnail Photo Credit: Scarlett Mckee

Photo Credit: Nick McKinley

ANCHR Magazine: Congrats on releasing your debut album last year... it’s a big accomplishment! What have been some highlights for you since you’ve released it?

Julia Jacklin:  I’ve kind of been on tour since I released it. So I’ve done a lot of things. Playing music festivals has been cool. We played...it’s a pretty big bill back home, it’s a festival called Laneway Festival. We got to do that, which was like a teenage dream come true. We did Tiny Desk two days ago, which was also on the list of dreams.

AM: Cool! Talking more about your music, you wrote, starred in, and directed the video for “Leadlight." Was that your first experience directing?

JJ: The first one I did was “Pool Party” actually. I released that quite a long time before I released the record. That was my first experience, just kind of coming from having to make it work. I needed a music video and had to make it happen.

AM: Do you have any interest or background with films, or was it really that you just needed someone to direct it and stepped into that role yourself?

JJ: I definitely have an interest...I definitely have a lot to learn in that regards. I’m a person who has grown up watching many things. It’s something that I ended up really enjoying, but honestly it wasn’t like an “Oh, I really want to do this all on my own.” It was like I just had to do it.

AM: Do you have any all-time favorite music videos that you were inspired by when you were planning what you were going to do for your own music videos?

JJ: Probably my favorite is a Grimes clip, called “Oblivion.” Have you seen that one, where she’s in like a football field? It’s really cool. I wish it was my music video.

AM: Cool! So then as far as the live show, what have been some of your favorite songs from the album to play live since you’ve played a bunch of shows since the release? Are there any that have sort of changed and transformed in the live sense?

JJ: Yeah, they’ve all kind of changed over time. They’re quite a lot bigger than on the record now. I’ve kind of had a few---just cause I’m touring a lot in many different places, I’ve had a few line up changes in the band. That’s always changing the songs in a way. I definitely hated a couple of songs a few months ago and now I’m enjoying them. It kind of changes all the time. I’ve been really enjoying playing “Leadlight” lately. Which I was always really scared of for some reason. It was always the one song in the set that I was thinking I was gonna screw up.

AM: So you’ve had a few different line up changes with touring different countries. What’s the current set up on this tour?

JJ: I’ve got Eddie from back home. He’s played with me the whole time. Then I have Ian and Ben from Toronto, who joined a couple of weeks ago. They are fantastic. We’ve been really getting to know each other.

AM: Nice! Any random outings or fun stories from this tour so far?

JJ: It's been a very chill tour so far. The whole first part was driving up the west coast of America, and getting to see the Red Woods. Like staying in really secluded Air BnBs, and just feeling like a real tourist for once. Instead of like a really tired musician just coming in and out of cities and never really seeing anything. I felt like I really got to see some of America this time.

AM: Any cities coming up that you’re excited to go to on this tour?

JJ: We’re going to a few places on this tour we’ve never been to, like Raleigh and Atlanta. So I’m just keen to see what the deal is, what’s going on. I’m pretty excited about playing in New Orleans. I’ve been there a few times as a backpacker, just wandering around, soaking it all in. It’s a nice turn of life events that I’m gonna play there.

AM: That should be great. I hear a lot of musicians say they like playing there because the crowd is really receptive.

JJ: Totally, yeah.

AM: Have there been any culture shocks for you playing in America? It sounds like you’ve been here before even as a backpacker, but anything being a musician that is completely different here than back home?

JJ: It's very different to back home, as there’s so many more cities and venues to play. In Australia it’s like you tour for a week and you’ve pretty much covered it. Really long distances between places as well, and you have to fly. That’s super different- being in a new place every four hours that seems to have a pretty different culture, like food-wise and the music scene seems to change a lot between each state. It’s a completely different experience than back home. It kind of feels like you’re in different countries every couple of days.

AM: What’s been the most surprising show, like where the crowd or city was different to what you thought it would be like?

JJ: We just played in Montreal actually, and that was quite different to what I was expecting. Just a very a vocally appreciative crowd. They were yelling a lot at me, but nice things. Kind of throughout the whole set. They were really into it.

AM: So kind of circling back, do you have anyone who inspired you to start making music? Both musical and nonmusical, what first inspired you to start writing and playing an instrument?

JJ: I guess my friend to be honest. My friend Liz, who I got to know when I was 18. She was a massive fan of like Annie DiFranco and she had a classical guitar. She used to do really cool finger picking, and I was like I really want to be just like you. So I bought a classical guitar and started doing exactly what she was doing. We still play music together. She’s been the biggest thing for me in the beginning. The first band I was in was with her, and she’s just someone I really looked up to.

AM: Very cool. So are there any new albums or bands that you’re listening to a lot?

JJ: I’ve been listening to Mitski’s new record a lot. That’s been a big favorite. I’ve just discovered Cass McCombs. I’m very late to the bandwagon on that, but I’ve been enjoying listening.

AM: So then last thing, you’re on the Splendour in the Grass line up. It’s a big Australian festival and your first time playing it right?

JJ: Yeah the first time, it feels really good.

AM: Awesome, so anyone else on the line up you’re hoping to check out?

JJ: Well we have to fly straight to LA to play FYF Fest. So it’s one of those things where it’s like oh cool there’s all these great people playing, but we have to play and leave straight away to get to the airport. Which is usually the case it seems with music festivals once you start playing them. So I’m choosing not to look at the lineup and when people play so I don’t get disappointed.

AM: Anything else you’re looking forward to this year?

JJ: We’re moving to Spain in a month, doing the European Festival circuit, doing like Green Man, Glastonbury, and Primavera. So I’m really looking forward to that. Summer time festival life.

AM: Very cool. Are you writing new material on tour?

JJ: Yeah I have been. We had quite a lot of down time at the beginning of this tour, so hopefully I’ll have something new soon.

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Follow along with all things tour and other updates from Julia here.  Chicago, you can see Julia Jacklin with Andy Shauf this Saturday, May 13th. Grab tickets to their show at Lincoln Hall here, and get ready for the show by listening to Julia's debut album below!

Get To Know: Skela

Independent, fearless, genuine: Skela is the New York based singer-songwriter you need to know about. A power vocalist and a poet with the knack for crafting catchy pop melodies, Skela's not afraid to pack a punch with her message. After playing an incredible show at The Mercury Lounge in NYC last month, Skela took some time to chat with ANCHR about her upcoming debut EP, new music video, and her other writing projects. Get ready for Skela's takeover in 2017 by reading up on 6 things you have to know about Skela. 

Photo Credit: Grace Watts (@gracexless)

Powerful Vocalists and a Chipmunk-Tuned Cassette Player Got Her Started in Singing

As a self-taught musician, Skela definitely took an unconventional approach in teaching herself to sing. "I actually have one really distinct memory," She revealed. "My earliest memory with music and realizing how obsessed I was with it...I used to live in Sunnyside in Queens, and we had this little Mickey Mouse cassette player. I was really little, I think I was maybe 5. It had this little chipmunk option that made it go really, really fast. It was this song called “Toy Soldiers" on one side, and on the other side was Mariah Carey or something. And I remember that’s how I taught myself how to sing. By mimicking exactly what I heard over and over again, and I would mimic the chipmunk voice. I wanted to sing high. That’s when I first started singing. I would do that all the time until my mom came in one day like 'What are you doing?” I was like in a trance, it was just so normal to me," she continued. 

As far as other inspirations behind teaching herself to sing, Skela credits a lot of female power vocalists, from popstars to pop punk front women. "It’s so broad, it changes over the years when you go through different phases," Skela says about her influences. "Growing up I guess I started off with all the great vocalists. You know, Aretha, Etta James...Christina Aguilera was huge. Mariah Carey. We would listen to a lot of Janet Jackson. As I grew older and kind of got my own ears going, I would listen to The Beatles all the time. I went through that whole emo pop-punk phase of Paramore, you know," she revealed.

Although her influences include a meld of all these different artists and they're ever-changing, Skela says, "I definitely started out with vocalists. That was like my number one. It still is. I could listen to Ariana Grande sing for days."

She Directed Her Upcoming Music Video 

Skela's got a new single on the way, but rather than just releasing the song, she's going all out. The new track, called "Hella," will be accompanied by a music video that she directed. Talking more about the new video, Skela says, "We have Mithsuca Berry as the romantic lead, then the very talented photographer based in New York called Maksim Axelrod. I’m just so excited. I feel like it really is coming together artistically." The new single was originally scheduled to drop in April, but it sounds like everything will be well worth the wait. "We’re wanting to make everything kind of perfect," Skela elaborates about the pushed release date, also mentioning the wonderful flexibility and freedom that comes with being an independent artist. Regardless of the exact release date, get ready to be "Hella Skela" when this music video drops! 

She's Not Far From Releasing Her Highly Anticipated EP

Skela says that her EP should arrive shortly after her new single premieres.  Speaking of new music, some lucky New Yorkers recently got to hear some of the new tracks performed live at Skela's show at The Mercury Lounge last month. Talking about the show, Skela gushes, "I was actually shocked how well it went. It was a pretty packed room. Which is crazy. I’m a small artist, I’m pretty indie...So to have so many people out was really really special. We had a lot of cross promotion with a company called What’s in Your Box? And then we had female based brands like Millioneiress. We just had a lot of love and support. The new music went over so well. Like all of the unreleased music that we played people were like 'Where can I hear that?' And that’s such a good sign that people want to hear it again. I can’t wait to put out the new music. I just can’t wait."

Skela also revealed more about the theme of her new music and her writing process when we chatted. "I think I’m kind of like an odd songwriter because I never really...," she pauses before continuing on to say, "I do write about experiences and events to a certain degree, but most of my music is based off of the literature and the subjects I’m interested in within a certain time period. You know what I mean? I read up a lot on my interests and all of that sort of pours through to poetry, and then I’ll make songs from the poetry. So I’m hoping to release some poetry with the EP. I guess it just shows a little more of what the songs truly are about."

In a way, you could say that her poetry is the skeleton of Skela songs (say that five times fast).  

Her Advice For Other Independent Artists Is...

Skela recently wrote a guest blog for Tunecore about her experience in the industry as an independent musician. Touching more on that subject, and being a new artist, Skela gives her number one piece of advice. "You’re just so overwhelmed with where to start. And just eager. But I think-- just navigate from a point of rationality and logic as best as you can, and it’s gonna take a while 'til you can. Cause you’re so eager that you’re just down for anything and excited to work with everyone. That’s so great, but at the same time, you should be focusing on who you are and what’s right for you. What’s your decision. It’s easy to let people tell you what to do, from agents to managers to you know, anyone with opinions. It really takes a long time to be like no, I got this. I got this cause I got me. For me, my number one thing is just to stay as grounded as possible. And not in a humble way. In a literal, grounded place. Be grounded in your music and who you are. That’s a very hard part of chasing your dream. You lose that because you get discouraged, or you get one good thing that happens to you and it doesn’t work out. Then you’re devastated again. Just staying grounded."

For anyone starting a creative project, not just in the music industry, that advice to remember your intent behind the art is so important. 

“It’s easy to let people tell you what to do, from agents to managers to you know, anyone with opinions. It really takes a long time to be like no, I got this. I got this cause I got me. ”

— Skela on standing your ground as an independent artist

She's Not Just a Singer, But a Screenwriter As Well

Singer, songwriter, director, poet, blogger, and that's not all. The gem of Skela's writing possesses many different facets. "I actually just wrote a short film script," Skela says while talking about what's next for her this year.  "It’s going into production this year, and I’m actually really excited about that. That’ll be pretty cool to have my first screenplay actually going into production. It’s called 'Le Reve,' and it’s being produced and directed by a very close friend of mine, Chiara Gerek," she continued. 

So besides the massive amounts of writing talents, does Skela have any secret talents? "I don’t know if this is a talent, but I always twirl my hair, and I can do it really fast. It’s more of a nervous tick, really," she confesses. 

She's Got a Love For Lo-fi Music

Skela will easily become one of your favorite musicians once her EP comes out, but talking about her favorites, she says, "I’ve been listening nonstop to this one artist called Ben Rosenfield. He’s very awesome. I have this big love for lo-fi music. I’ve been listening to him a lot. I always go back to the basics, like [Sandy] Alex G...Day Wave...Mitski. Diet Cig is really dope, they just came out with a new EP that’s really good. Those are the ones that I go back to. Oh, Active Bird Community. My friend- he goes by Kraus, but his name is Will Kraus and he’s super talented. I feel like he’s about to blow up in that scene. I listen to that music pretty regularly, and it serves as a strange platform for pop music. If you listen to the new music, you’ll definitely hear it. It’s in the melody...it’s all over."

Elaborating specifically on her favorite local artists, Skela has some hot tips about the NYC scene. "I have some friends and musicians that I think are really talented, and I really only try to work with people that I genuinely support and love. A few of them are Josh Jacobson. He’s a producer and a songwriter I work with. He’s dope...he’s got great stuff coming out. Florio. He actually opened for me at the show. Then the Frances Rose girls are so talented. They’re kind of Synth, 80's pop. This girl May, she is amazing. She has this crazy voice, just crazy operatic training behind her. There’s a lot of great musicians in New York, but I feel like right now those are the ones I really pay the most attention to cause they’re somewhat in my lane, but I also really admire them," she says. 

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Stay "Hella Skela" by keeping liking Skela's Facebook page to keep up to date with any updates. You can also listen to this killer Spotify playlist that Skela made, featuring some of the artists she hyped as her favorites while you wait for the EP. 

A Chat With: A R I Z O N A

A R I Z O N A is definitely not your conventional band. The Jersey natives combine their love of eclectic sounds and raw lyrics to deliver songs such as "I Was Wrong," "Oceans Away," and "People Crying Every Night." We recently caught up with Nathan Esquite from A R I Z O N A (the band, not the state) to talk about dad jokes, road trips, and their upcoming debut album Gallery, which comes out May 19th.

A R I Z O N A is Zachary Hannah, David Labuguen, and Nathan Esquite

Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine

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ANCHR Magazine: What are some of your musical and non-musical influences?

Nathan Esquite: Hm. I like the addition of non-musical because there’s a lot of influence you can get from non-musical. For me, personally speaking, a big musical influence would be Jeff Buckley. He’s a huge one for me. Saint Vincent, Ben Howard and punk rock. For non-musical, I love cinema. A lot of the stuff that we’ve done is inspired by movies and video games.

AM: What are some of your favorite movies?

NE: My all-time favorite movie is definitely Pan’s Labyrinth.

AM: I’ve heard that dad jokes are a thing amongst the band. What’s the best/worst one so far?

NE: Full disclosure, Zach talks a lot about dad jokes, but he actually gets them all from me. For example, he tells this story like it’s his all the time. While we were on tour, we do a lot of driving, especially through farm country. So we're driving through cornfields and I look to my right and see this huge flock of cows. I look at Zach and I’m like, “Dude check it out there’s a huge flock of cows over there.” And he goes, “Flock of cows? Bro don’t you mean herd of cows?” and I go, “Of course I’ve heard of cows there’s a whole flock of them over there!”

AM: Stop! Was this planned or did that just come out?

NE: Nah that’s the way he told the joke. Pretty good right?

AM: That’s incredible. So at your homecoming show in Brooklyn with Kevin Garrett, Zach talked about all of the negative things going on in the world, and how we should be better humans. Do you think it’s an artist’s responsibility to spread positivity?

NE: I believe that it is everyone’s responsibility to spread positivity, not just an artist. I believe as an artist, you know you feel another calling to it where things that are happening around the world influence the way you do things. Being an artist, you want to share what inspires you and the way you see the world with other people. I believe artists tend to do it more out of that feeling inside of us to share what we see in the world, but I think it's everyone's responsibility to share what they see and what they feel and spread positivity.

AM: Awesome! So, you guys are definitely fighting against the odds. You’ve only been a band for almost two years and you’ve already gone on tour with Kevin Garrett, and are due to play big festivals like FireFly and Governors Ball this summer. How incredible is that?

NE: It’s pretty unreal. If you asked any of us when we started “Hey where do you see the band in two years?” The last thing any of us would have said was “Oh just finishing our first tour and playing all these festivals.” We just want to make music and have fun doing it. To have all these opportunities in front of us, especially me being someone who grew up going to festivals, it’s like a dream come true. It’s a lot of fun.

AM: Yeah that’s my favorite thing about seeing artists grow. Just seeing an artist progress and getting bigger and better is amazing and it makes me so happy. So why call yourselves A R I Z O N A (the band not the state of course)?

NE: We thought it’d be funny.

AM: You guys do a great job writing about love and loss while maintaining an eclectic sound. What can we expect from the debut album?

NE: Well the debut album is called Gallery. A lot of that goes into for all intended purposes is like a collection of our past experiences over the past 10 years in a lot of ways. Just like journeys we’ve gone through and knowing each other and trying to make it in music, trying to make it anywhere in life really. You see a lot of that throughout the album what this journey has been like for us from point a to point b, and you can also hear that in the music. There’s songs like “I Was Wrong” that we wrote two years ago, but then we have songs we wrote a couple of months ago. You hear this huge growth, not just in our writing but our music and how were trying to push our sound.

AM: What inspired you guys to travel around the U.S in Zach’s mom’s Toyota Corolla?

NE: It was a mix of a lot of things. It was a mix of us not having anywhere to work, Zach at the time was living in his aunt’s spare room, I was living with my mom and my five brothers and sisters, Dave was living with his super strict parents so we decided it would work. We took Zach’s mom’s car and we would just sit there and make music all day. We felt like we had this sort of freedom to go wherever we wanted. Why are going to sit in a basement and make a record when we’re in a car? We could go to the beach if we wanted to. And we just kept pushing it further like, ok why are we just going to the beach why don’t we go to like Nashville?

AM: Did that influence your sound in terms of your music? Are you using any of the songs that you made on the album?

NE: Well “People Crying Every Night” was one of the songs we started in the car. But more than anything, I feel the journeys we took in the car, it kind of put us in a position where we were like “Hey, let’s take this seriously and try to do something for real for a second.” When we did the first major road trip we started in Jersey, made our way down to New Orleans and the day we came back from New Orleans, we were like “You guys wanna try this for real now?”

AM: So was that your defining moment?

NE: In a lot of ways, yeah. This was always something. When we started, we would always laugh about it because this was just never about being famous or about making money. It was just like “Hey we have nothing else to do let’s give this one last shot and have fun doing it.”

AM: Last question, what’s next for A R I Z O N A?

NE: The album comes out May 19th and we’ll be on tour all summer!

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As mentioned, A R I Z O N A will be at festivals like Firefly, Governors Ball, and Lollapalooza this summer. Check out the details on those festival appearances and all upcoming tour dates here. Get ready for their tour by preordering the upcoming album Gallery and listening to their latest single "Electric Touch" below:

Get to Know: The Evening Attraction

One listen to The Evening Attraction, and it’s nearly impossible not to get instantly hooked. Between lead singer Miles Malin’s vocals, their strong, melodic riffs, and their subtle nods to an array of influences from country music to Beyonce (more on that later), TEA have managed to brew up the perfect balance. After releasing their debut album and several subsequent singles, the Chicago-based five piece are now back in the studio mixing their sophomore album. In honor of the new record and the band playing our ACLU benefit show with local legends Post Animal and Jude Shuma, The Evening Attraction chatted with me on Record Store Day before their set at Shuga Records. Here's what you need to know about The Evening Attraction, including more on their new music, their past highlights, and future plans.

TEA performing on Record Store Day 2017. The band is Miles Malin, Paul Ansani, Joey Abaroa, Nick Tumminello, and Vince Pimentel.

Miles and Paul have been playing music together for a decade

Bassist Paul Ansani and lead singer/guitarist Miles Malin first started playing music together in middle school, just about a decade ago. "We played in a band called The Break, with Matt Gieser, who owns Treehouse Records," Miles says about the early days with Paul. Continuing on the subject of their first band, he says, "We had some mild success, for kids. We did like all the big venues around the city. Then we moved on into college. Paul went down to U of I, and we kind of spread out. I met Joe at Columbia, and then sophomore year when Matt opened the studio, we did a record there of like post-Break songs that I had, and basically labeled it The Evening Attraction."

The current day line up varies slightly from the first days of The Evening Attraction, though.  "We did the whole first Evening Attraction record...it was us three [Miles, Paul, and Joe], Matt Gieser on drums," Paul says. Miles interjects to add, "Then our drummer now, Nick, did like organs and shakers. Just an all-around auxiliary, good musician. Then we started playing gigs with The Evening Attraction." 

Paul picks the story back up, saying, "Nick eventually transitioned to drums, and then we added our friend Vince." Vince Pimentel joined the group last year to play keys and various percussion. 

Michael Shannon went to one of their gigs

Miles says they've worked on getting their sound down throughout the years as they've played more together. "We’ve been playing a lot. We’ve done a lot of shows since we’ve been together. I think our first show was April of 2013 or 2014," he says. 

While they've played many, many shows, one show in particular still sticks out to the band. "I think our biggest claim to fame is one time we played in front of Michael Shannon, the actor," Joey Abaroa says. Although Paul admits he hasn't seen any of Michael Shannon's movies, Joey's a huge fan of the Academy Award nominated actor. "We peaked, and Michael Shannon left our band," he jokes. 

The new album references influences ranging from The Monkees to Beyonce

The new record from The Evening Attraction is completely recorded and on the brink of release. "Right now we’re in mixing. We’ve got like two final mixes, and we’re gonna hopefully be done mixing at the end of May. Followed by shopping it around, hopefully getting someone to help us put it out...If we get lucky enough and we’re fortunate enough to get it in the right hands," Miles says, adding that he thinks there's something for everyone on the album. 

As far as what the record sounds like, Joey says, "I usually tell people it’s like The Monkees but if The Monkees smoked more reefer than the Monkees smoke reefer." As Miles elaborates on the new music, adding, "The album has 9 tracks, and there’s so many influences that we have. A lot of Jazz stuff, a lot of 60's rock 'n’ roll. Anything from The Zombies to Ty Segall," Joey chimes in again, citing Beyonce as an influence. (The Queen B influence will probably be very subtle if anything, but make sure you listen to the record thoroughly when it comes out).  

Paul also reflects on the new album, saying, "It goes a lot of places. I was listening to it today...we have some rough mixes in. They really kind of run the gamut of our influences. Individually every track kind of goes in a different direction." Paul and Miles also hint that the new music includes some jazzy undertones, horn arrangements, swing tracks, Latin flavor, and 1960's Brit Pop.

At the center of every TEA track, sits a strong melody, according to Paul. Miles also says their songs feature somewhat cinematic qualities, with Paul adding,"A lot of them do have some peaks and transitions, and [it] ends in some place it doesn’t start. A lot of jams. A lot of fades." 

Much like other Chicago bands, they're immersed in the local scene

Although Matt Gieser no longer plays in the band, the new The Evening Attraction record was still recorded at Treehouse Studios, located here in Chicago. In addition to being a recording studio, Treehouse also puts on shows with a lot of local acts. Just recently, TEA played a Treehouse gig with another ANCHR favorite, Joe Bordenaro + The Late Bloomers.  Joey gives Joe Bordenaro a shout out when talking about his favorite bands, also mentioning The Voluptuals and Red Francis.

Paul weighs in on being a part of the Chicago scene, saying, "Now that we feel like we’re kind of consistent and established, we really have a nice connection with a lot of our friends’ bands around here. It's always just nice to see our buddies' bands play. We share the same bill with a lot of the same groups, so it’s kind of good to see everyone hyping each other up." Speaking of sharing bills, don't forget that The Evening Attraction will be playing our benefit show with Post Animal, one of their personal favorites. During the interview Paul is wearing a Post Animal shirt, and both he and Miles say they've been hyping their friends' music for years. 

In addition to fellow local musicians Brandon Reed and Max Loebman, the band say they're huge fans of The Nude Party, Scott Walker, and The Beach Boys. Similar to their own dynamic range in their songs, their musical tastes rest all over the map. 

Rock'n'Roll runs in their family, from musician fathers and touring grandmas

Talking more about their individual inspiration to start playing music, Paul says,"My dad played in a 90's band called Material Issue, and they had their success in the scene. Growing up with that was always fun because you know, it was just always part of my life." 

Paul mentions that his mom is coming out to see them play at Shuga Records, and that Miles' grandma came to the last show. "She’s coming today. She’s gonna come to the next one...and then she’s gonna come on tour with us," Miles joked. 

Speaking of tour, the band say they'll likely tour in the summer after the album release. They've already played 7 out of the 9 new songs live, so make sure you head out to any upcoming shows to get a sneak preview. 

They're into collecting records

In the true spirit of Record Store Day, Joey says he got up bright and early to do some shopping before their show at Shuga Records. "I picked up that Cheap Trick Volume 1, which is a 1975-1979 double LP. I got the two Zombies 45s. You know what’s really crazy? Bamboo. The Dennis Wilson record on vinyl," he shares about his finds. 

Although he wasn't up at crazy hours shopping, Miles says he also collects his own records, in addition to the ones he's inherited from his parents. Miles says his favorites include old jazz records, especially a live compilation from Capitol Records. His absolute favorite, though? "The Casinos. 'I Still Love You.' It’s like this big band, doo wop-y, soul from the 1960s. It’s this track called 'I Still Love You.' It’s like total deep cut that nobody knows," Miles says. 

On the same subject of records, the band say they'll definitely release the new album on vinyl. "I’m looking forward to putting together some good album art," Paul adds. 

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Stay up to date on all The Evening Attraction announcements on their well-rounded, diverse new record and upcoming tour dates by following them on Instagram. Make sure you get down to The Subterranean on July 10th to see them perform with Post Animal, Jude Shuma, and Condor & Jaybird. Grab tickets to that show here, and get ready for the gig by listening to the latest double single from the band below:

A Springtime Guide to Los Angeles with Toyko

On the rise LA-based duo Toyko just released their third single "Like What I Like" earlier this month in advance of their debut EP. To celebrate the new song about relentlessly staying true to yourself and being into what you're into, regardless of what other people think, the duo have put together a guide to their favorite local spots. Whether you're based in Los Angeles, planning a trip there soon, or need something to add to a vision board, check out Toyko's guide to what they like in LA.

"Like What I Like" artwork

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Rooftop Bars

Rooftop bars are always amazing! Perfect for day drinking with friends in the sun. Some of our favorites are:

• The Onyx Bar at Shangri-La Hotel in Santa Monica
• High Rooftop at Hotel Erwin in Venice Beach
• E.P. & L.P. in West Hollywood
• The rooftop at Mama Shelter in Hollywood
• The Rooftop at The Standard Hotel in Downtown L.A.

Japanese Cuisine

We absolutely love Japanese cuisine, especially sushi and ramen.  Some of these places don’t take reservations, and the line will go out the door.  Pro tip: Try visiting for off-hour meals to avoid the wait.  Some of our favorite Japanese Restaurants are:

• Sugarfish. Locations all around Los Angeles…(trust me)
• Tatsu Ramen on Sawtelle and Melrose
• Daikokuya on Sawtelle and in Little Tokyo
• Chibiscus (ramen) located in Hollywood...this is one of the most underrated ramen joints in the city
• Izaka-ya on 3rd St. in West Hollywood.  Try the honey hand rolls and seared albacore & truffle roll. 

Museums

The Broad Museum in Downtown L.A.  This place has an absolutely amazing contemporary art collection.  Plus, it’s free to the public! Lines can get crazy though so reserve a spot in advance, or try and go on a week day if you can.  The Takashi Murakami room is a favorite exhibit of ours. 

Health and Fitness

Aroma Spa & Sports is a great place to go in Koreatown. We usually skip the spas because they have an amazing multi-story driving range for when you just need to crush some golf balls.

More Eats

Farmers Markets are an awesome place to try out on random weekends. A great benefit is that you can find one no matter where in LA you’re waking up. Our favorites are the Larchmont Market and the Original Market on 3rd and Fairfax.

La Poubelle is a great little bistro/ restaurant in Franklin Village. It’s a great spot for a spring date on the patio, however the night life is even better. We’ve enjoyed many nights hanging and drinking the house lager with no shortage of great company.

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There you have it! Toyko's springtime guide to the city of stars. Get ready for their upcoming debut EP by listening to their first two singles here. 

Get To Know: Stef Chura

Detroit-based musician Stef Chura stands out with her distinctive, quirky vocal style and personal lyrics. Chura released her debut album Messes on January 27th, and has spent her time since touring around the country, including a stop at SXSW. Before her one-off show at The Empty Bottle in Chicago on May 4th, Chura chatted candidly with me about life since the release of her first album. The singer exuded her eager and authentic energy as she talked about her influences, accidentally seeing her friends' bands at SXSW, podcasts, and cover songs. Get to know more about Stef Chura now!

Photo Credit: Zak Bratto 

Her influences include Buffy Sainte Marie and Kristin Hersh

Talking about her influences specifically for Messes, Stef says, "I’d never made a record before, and it wasn’t very derivative for me. I hadn’t thought out song arrangements at all, and I didn’t say like 'I want it to sound like this, I want it to sound like that.'" She continues on to reveal she has mixed feelings about it and that she wants to be more precise with her references for the next album.  Elaborating on her general influences, Chura says, "More vaguely, I’ve been really into Buffy Sainte Marie...I love PJ Harvey and Kristin Hersch. There’s a lot a stuff that I feel like melds together to sound like what the record sounds like." 

As far as her favorite songs on the record, Chura says she really likes playing "Thin." She pauses for a second before excitedly recalling another favorite, saying "You know what? This is something we didn’t used to play, 'Human Being.' Cause it’s all feel, and we didn’t have a bass player, so it wasn’t working. Now we have a bass player, and that has become my favorite one to play again. I used to like playing that when I was playing solo."  

She appreciates fan art

I asked Stef about some of her favorite fan reactions to her music since the release of Messes, and she recalled some amazing art that one of her fans sent her. "Someone sculpted a picture of my face and painted it pink. That probably tops all. Then they sent it to me. I was like I don’t know what I’m going to do with this, but it’s actually amazing. So that was a good one."

Although she loves the fan art, Stef is just appreciative for her enthusiastic listeners. Continuing, she says, "I don’t know how many people have really heard the album, but I’m really glad that it seems like the people I do get response from are like wow, I really love this album. Like you know, they’re pretty into it, which is a compliment to hear that they like the whole thing."

She supported her friends at SXSW

A common theme when recalling SXSW experiences with artists seems to be that any and all plans completely change and shift throughout the festival. Stef recalled a similar experience, saying, "Ok, I was on tour with Sad13, and I ended up seeing them again a few times on accident. I feel like I ended up seeing my friends' bands again over and over on accident." She also says she was originally bummed she thought she couldn't fit Girlpool into her schedule, but it ended up working out that she saw them three times. Continuing her story about impromptu SXSW shows, Stef says, "We ended up playing a couple shows with Downtown Boys, and I ended up seeing them four times at SXSW. And playing with them once. And Sneaks. We played a couple shows with them. We saw them at South By. I really wanted to see Weaves, and they were amazing. I was really really into their set." Stef also mentioned Jay Som, Allison Crutchfield, and PWR BTTM as SXSW highlights. 

True crime podcasts keep her entertained on the road

Throughout the entire interview, Stef's tone remained very friendly and laid back, especially when we chatted about how she spends her downtime on tour. "I’m very into like, murder podcasts," Stef revealed about how she entertains herself on tour. "Actually I’ve gotten into this real nasty one, called 'Serial Killers'. Have you listened to that? It’s really gross," She continued.  Elaborating more on 'Serial Killers,' Stef said, "It’s definitely NC-17 at times. Wait, is that the porn rating? It’s not pornographic. I would definitely recommend it. It’s just really gruesome. I have this issue where if I turn on a podcast, I have to hear the end of it, even if they’re talking about something super messed up, like rape. They talk about some kind of insane murders that went down that I didn’t know anything about. That’s the one I’ve been the most loyal to going on. I got really into 'Serial', that first story on 'Serial.'" 

Next up on the podcast agenda for Stef? She says she's started 'S-Town,' but still needs to fully commit to it. 

Her biggest lesson learned is...

Stef started out learning firsthand about playing music by setting up a lot of her own DIY shows. As far as trade secrets for the Detroit DIY scene, she says, "Detroit is totally a dive bar scene as far as DIY stuff goes. In Chicago there is a huge house show scene that is always sustained. Michigan has a hard time. Cool dive bars to see shows at would be like Donovan’s. UFO Factory is a really... it’s a venue, but it’s great to see shows. They have a karaoke night on Sundays. It’s bigger, but El Club, I think they’re bringing a lot of really good stuff in now. I think if you’re in Detroit, you probably know about El Club."

After talking about learning the ins and outs of the Detroit music scene, I asked Stef about other life lessons she's learned from mistakes or from trial and error by doing something the wrong way at first. "Maybe there’s something about that just like...realizes your selfishness in a certain way. It’s kind of like not being able to help yourself when you have a really bad idea. I worked at a strip club, and I was like 'don’t do that'... then I was like I’m kind of curious about that, I’m gonna do it. Or my boyfriend’s roommate was into me and I was like, I probably shouldn’t sleep with him, and I did anyway. That was a long time ago, don’t judge me...Little things like that. Like maybe you wouldn’t even tell someone you did that, but you were kind of learning that maybe you should trust your intuition."

She used to be in a Liz Phair cover band

A little known fact about Stef is that she used to be in a Liz Phair cover band. While we know the Stef can play covers herself, I asked about some of her favorite covers by other artists. 

Stef is stumped by the the on-the-spot question, saying "That’s a hard one! I feel like there are some covers I really like. There is something that I prefer. What is it? I like deep cuts...Oh! This is really corny. The White Stripes do a cover of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” that I actually do prefer. That’s a good one!"

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Chicago, you can grab tickets to Stef's show at The Empty Bottle here. She'll also be playing the Detroit festival Mo Pop with lots of other great artists this summer, or as Stef says, she's opening for Solange, since she plays earlier on the same day. Keep up with future tour announcements from Stef on her Facebook page, and listen to Messes here:

A Chat With: Moon Duo

Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada (AKA Moon Duo) released Volume 1 of their fourth studio album Occult Architecture earlier this year, and they're on the brink of releasing the second, lighter part of the album, Occult Architecture Vol. 2. After the release of the first part, the Portland-hailing pair toured around Europe playing the new songs live, and they're gearing up to do the same in America. Kicking off at the Chicago at The Empty Bottle this Friday, April 21st, Johnson says their set will feature more new songs than any of their past tours. Read on to find out more about the recording process, the purpose behind the two part album, their live show, and the Portland music scene in our chat with Moon Duo!

Photo Credit: Eleonora Collini

ANCHR Magazine: So I wanted to start off by talking about Occult Architecture Vo1. 1, which you just released in February. Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to split up the songs into two volumes, and what is it about the songs that keeps them connected, yet separated?

Ripley Johnson: Basically, when we started out recording we had a lot of material. Usually we just end up pulling stuff that doesn’t work out or stuff that doesn’t fit right. Either we don’t use it or it ends up as a single...but when we were doing this record, a lot of the material just naturally started bunching up in two different parts. Some of it was lighter and some of it was darker, so that’s where we came up with the idea of separating them thematically, based on tone. We came up with the idea of releasing one in the winter and one in the spring or summer. That came about really early on in the process, so once we realized we were going to do that, we just started naturally pushing the songs in those directions when we were recording.

AM: Very cool. And you recording in Berlin and in Portland for the two parts?

RJ:  We recorded everything in Portland, but we mixed one in Berlin and one in Portland.

AM: Cool. So do you think that mixing one in a completely different location like Berlin kind of trickled into the vibe and sonically affected the album?

RJ: Yeah. We’ve mixed all of our records in Berlin before this...although we have done some mixing in California, but then ended up remixing it in Berlin. So we knew what the vibe was like there. Part of it was just to separate the sessions, so we mixed one of them in spring and then we mixed the lighter one in the summer in Portland, where we knew it was going to be really sunny and hot. We used the same engineer. The setting was important, but primarily it was just separating the sessions, so that they could have their own identity. But we’ve worked in Berlin before and Berlin has a pretty heavy vibe. It’s a fun city, but there’s a darkness to it. It’s a night time city. It could be cold there, it can be sort of uncomfortable sometimes. It’s very urban...everyone smokes all the time there. So we knew what that was like and the engineer we like to use lives in Berlin. We’d never mixed with him outside of Berlin so it ended up sort of an experiment, but it worked really well.

AM: Cool! How did you end up working with that engineer?

RJ: It started with our record Mazes, where we mixed it and then wanted to start over again. We record a lot of our stuff at home, and we don’t really know what we’re doing. A lot of it needs to be fixed and massaged in the studio. We’ve gotten better as we’ve gone along, but we met this guy through a friend of ours in Berlin who also does all of our tour managing in Europe. We just started back then working with him and we have a really good working relationship so we just keep going back to him. He does a lot of pop, and there’s a real sort of electronic bend to everything in Europe. So he has more of that perspective, whereas our natural inclination is more rock’n’roll...American rock...garage. We don’t have a lot of experience with electronic music, but we like to experiment with it. He can just enhance things in a way because he’s worked on a lot of polished electro-pop kind of stuff. So it’s a good balance because he pushes it in one direction and we just pull him back. It creates a unique working relationship.

AM: So then did you pull influence or inspiration from any other bands for this record, or was it mostly personal experience that influenced the new songs?

R: I think thematically, part of the reason we called it Occult Architecture is that I was reading this biography of Aleister Crowley when I was writing the songs. And it was winter in Portland and I started reading all this occult stuff after that, and that just started feeding into the themes of the songs. Again, the dark and the light, once that became a thing we were working with...just the seasons in Portland are so strong. I’m sure it’s the same in Chicago. So you feel it. You feel nature, even in a city. It pulls you down in the winter. So we were exploring the whole idea of darkness and light.

AM: So then talking about playing these songs in the live setting, are there any particularly you’re looking forward to playing when you start tour?

RJ: We just came back from a month in Europe and we’ve been playing a lot of the stuff. Whenever we release a record, we always think let’s play all of the songs, cause we’re excited to play new material. Then you realize that some of it works and some of it doesn’t, in the live setting or just as far as the flow of the set. But for this tour, we’re actually playing more new songs than we ever have. From volume 1, we’re playing every song except for two, and that’s mostly because we want to play a few old songs for people who want to hear something older. I feel like there’s a tone to the set that works really well.

AM: Nice! Are there any cities that you’re particularly excited to play in?

RJ: All of them...we always look forward to going to Chicago, because Chicago is always great to us and we have some family there. Detroit is amazing, always. New York. All of it’s really great. We’re looking forward to doing the tour with Jackie Lynn. She’s from Chicago and her band is from Chicago, and we don’t often get to do a tour with another band and we’re huge fans, so we’re really looking forward to that.

AM: So talking more about where you’re from, you mentioned the seasons in Portland, but can you talk about the local scene in Portland? Are there any other bands that you’re really into or venues that you’d recommend?

RJ: We really like a place called The Know. It just closed and reopened in a new neighborhood, so we’re looking forward to that. Unfortunately we’re on the road so much that we don’t get to see that many shows here, but there’s a great music scene. It’s such a small city, but we get so many touring bands that come through. We’re kind of spoiled. People here get to see so much music for such a tiny city, it’s kind of unusual.

AM: Any other bands that you’re really into at the moment or albums that you’re listening to a lot?

RJ: The new Jackie Lynn record. There’s a band called Nest Egg that we’re really into. Kikagaku Moyo are friends of ours from Tokyo.

AM: Very cool. So circling back to when you first got into music, do you have a first musical memory of when you first picked up an instrument or first wrote your first song?

RJ: The first instrument I picked up was my mom’s classical guitar, which was probably the worst thing to learn on. When I was a kid me and my friends would pretend we were playing. We had these pretend guitars that someone’s dad made out of plywood and we painted them. We would just pretend to play, so my sort of musical aspirations started before I even knew what a guitar was. We just wanted to get up on stage and dance around, which is really weird to me.

AM: Nice! I always like to hear how people first got into music. So anything else for you guys this year besides Volume 2 and more touring?

RJ: That’s pretty much it. Lots of touring. New record, that’s about it.

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You can grab tickets to Moon Duo's show with Jackie Lynn in Chicago tomorrow, April 21st, here. Get ready for the show by listening to Vol. 1 of Occult Architecture here:

A Chat With: White Reaper

Louisville, Kentucky based band White Reaper are back with a new album and a massive tour to go along with it. With lyrics that get lodged in your brain and riffs that are perfect for rocking out with the windows down, White Reaper's The World's Best American Band puts a refreshing spin on some old school punk vibes. The must-listen rock album is available to pick up on tape, vinyl, CD and digitally here. While we've been listening to it nonstop since the release, we can't wait to see the songs performed live. Before White Reaper's tour swings through Chicago on May 5th, we chatted with the band about their recording process, summer festivals, and some other great American bands.  Get to know more about the world's best American band now...

White Reaper is Tony Esposito, Ryan Hater, Nick Wilkerson, and Sam Wilkerson.

Photo Credit: Jesse DeFlorio

ANCHR Magazine: Congratulations on the release of The World’s Best American Band! What was the writing and recording process like for the album, and how does it differ from your past work? 

White Reaper: I only had a few little recordings on my phone before we went in, they weren't finished songs, just little ideas. We basically wrote the record in the studio, which we had never done before.

ANCHR Magazine: Who do you consider your influences, both generally and specifically on the new music? 

White Reaper: Lately we've been listening to a lot of Deep Purple, The Monks, Todd Rundgren, and Bob Seger. We've always been listening to a lot of old school rock bands like that.

ANCHR Magazine: Which songs are your favorite from the album, and which ones are you most looking forward to playing at your upcoming shows?

White Reaper:  I'm really excited to play "Daisies" live. Also, "Judy French" is another favorite of mine.

ANCHR Magazine: Are there any cities in particular that you’re looking forward to playing on tour? 

White Reaper: Chicago and Nashville are always wonderful for us. We have tons of friends in both of those places.

ANCHR Magazine:What’s your favorite way to entertain yourself on long drives during tour? Any good podcast, book, or movie recommendations? 

White Reaper: Just recently we got a great big book of mad libs.

ANCHR Magazine: You’re also on The Bonnaroo and Hangout Fest lineups, which is awesome! What are some of your festival do’s and don’ts?

 White Reaper: Do drink water. Don't get dehydrated. Find some other way to party so you don't have to pay $8 for a god damned Miller Lite.

ANCHR Magazine: On the same subject of festivals, do you have any crazy festival stories, either from fests you’ve attended or played?

White Reaper: We had a pretty wild time at Primavera last year. We were up all night and we left the festival carrying all our gear and we just walked along the beach right as the sun came up around 6 in the morning. There was a really nice Spanish guy following us and talking to us but he was so wasted it was hard to understand. He was really cool though.

ANCHR Magazine: So clearly, based on your album name, you’re the World’s Best American band, but who would you consider to be runner ups in that category? Also, what some of your favorite bands from around the world? 

White Reaper: Sheer Mag is really good. Tom Petty is too.

ANCHR Magazine: It's no secret that you guys are great musicians, but what are some of your hidden talents? 

White Reaper: We're all pretty useless outside of our bands. We're a bunch of one trick ponies. I can't even blow a bubble with bubblegum.

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Chicago, White Reaper will be at Beat Kitchen May 5th with No Parents. Grab your tickets here, and get ready for the show by blasting the new record:

You can check out all of White Reaper's upcoming gigs here. 

A Chat With: Coast Modern

Los Angeles duo Coleman Trapp and Luke Atlas, better known as Coast Modern, have been turning a lot of heads the past year with their feel-good indie-pop tracks, perfect for cruising with the windows down on a sunny day or dancing along to at a gig. They've been steadily picking up fans by touring with everyone from The Wombats to The Temper Trap, and they've even got Smash Mouth tweeting them compliments. With a new single "Pocket Full Of No" released recently and a debut album on the horizon, the pair are currently touring the country with other buzz bands Missio, 888, and Sundara Karma, as part of Alt Nation's Alternative Placement Tour. Before the tour hits Chicago next week, we chatted with Luke about everything from the aforementioned Smash Mouth compliment, Swiss Army Man, "Trojan Piñatas," and more. Get to know what's next for Coast Modern now!

Photo Credit: Maeghan Donohue

ANCHR Magazine: How’s your day going?

Luke Atlas: Wonderful, hanging out in the Big Apple!

AM: Nice! So I wanted to start off by finding out what first got you interested in music, and what inspired you to start writing and playing an instrument. Do you have a first musical memory?

LA: Yeah, I got like a little keyboard drum machine when I was a kid. I just started messing around with it in my room, just realizing you can make full tracks yourself, you don’t need anybody else. That’s kind of still what I’m doing to this day. And Coleman as well. Just messing around on computers and trying to emulate stuff on the radio. We thought our first beats were amazing and could be on the radio, but we found out they were definitely garbage. It’s a long process getting to now.

AM: You have a debut album coming out at some point this year, but no exact date yet, right?

LA:  It’s a bit loose, but soon though!

AM: What can you tell me about the album as far as where you recorded it and where your headspace was when you guys were writing the songs? Any sort of inside knowledge you can let us in on?

LA: Yeah, it was all recorded in my little home studio, which is a literal studio apartment in Los Angeles. Just very minimal set up. It’s kind of a reflection of personal exploration that Coleman and I were going through. Just things we’re thinking about, existential questions and just trying to fit those in like a fun, pop format that feels real and feels exciting. It’s not heavy, even if some of the things we’re thinking about are a bit heavy. I think the album as a whole is a very wild ride. Very different. Different moods. Like wandering through a maze...landing upon different creatures.

AM: Very cool. So are there any artists, or even other art forms, like films, that you kind of took to as influences? Like, oh I kind of like how that band or that movie took kind of a heavy concept and kind of polished it off in a not-so-scary package?

LA: Yeah, we’re really inspired by everything. A lot more than just specific bands. We saw this movie called Swiss Army Man-

AM: Oh, I love that movie!

LA: It’s an interesting thing, cause it’s like very crude on one level and kind of very heartfelt on another level. That’s kind of something you haven’t really seen before. So that’s inspiring for us. It’s like, you can be kind of silly, but still deal with real topics. Discuss them, or slap them in where it’s more than it is on surface. We like to call it a Trojan Piñata.

AM: That’s a really good phrase! I’m gonna have to steal that! So generally, how are you feeling about releasing the record? Nervous…Excited…all of that?

LA: We’re super excited. We have six singles out right now and the feedback has just been incredible. People are latching on to something it feels like we’re…we have a lot of people that share similar feelings as us. They’re really understanding what we’re doing, which is super cool. We’re excited to release the whole package finally and it’s been a long time coming. We’re ready to keep doing tons of new music and videos.

AM: So speaking of responses, I saw a couple weeks back that Smash Mouth tweeted about your song “Comb My Hair,” so what was your reaction to that? Were you like "Hey now, I’m an all star?"

LA: Yes, I mean that was super surreal! I remember being a kid like hearing that song and like flipping out. I went and bought it immediately. Even now they’re DM-ing us on Twitter.

AM: Really? You guys going to tour together?

LA: Yeah, who knows! Those are the things you just can’t expect. It’s too weird. It does seem like a dream.

AM: So then speaking of tour, I know you’re in New York and then you’re doing the East Coast this week. So what have been some highlights, whether that be crowd responses being amazing, or even touristy things you’ve gotten to do?

LA: We started in New Orleans, which is cool. I’ve never been there, but it’s such a big music town that people were surprisingly excited and crazy. All of the responses so far down the south...people go off. Even in New York last night, it was popping. We try to like, in New Orleans we got the classic Beignets. We try to get out and do the classics in all the cities. We love to explore.

AM: Yeah and you guys have toured around a little bit so you have some of that under your belt! I saw you guys with The Wombats at The Metro so you’ve been here. Anything else you’re looking forward to hitting up this tour?

LA: Ah man...everywhere! You’re Chicago, right?

AM: Yeah!

LA: Have you had Ipsento, the coffee? 

AM: I have not, actually. I’m more of a tea person.

LA: It’s this crazy thing we had there, and we always have like certain foods we latch on to in certain cities and we’re like oh, we have to go back! So that’ll be cool! We’re just excited to keep meeting different people. Every city is different and has got a different vibe, and it’s fun to push people’s buttons.

AM: Yeah for sure! So I’m bummed that I’m missing this show, it should be a good one! I’m flying out tonight to go to LA, and since you’re based in LA, are there any bands in the LA scene that you guys are big fans of?

LA: Oh yea, there’s a band that we’re really into called Dessert! They’re kind of a mysterious LA band, but their music is sort of future-pop...very inserting song structures. It’s very cool stuff, really inspiring. 

AM: Nice! So coming from LA, that’s obviously a big music industry capital. Do you find it beneficial to be there with all the opportunities, or do you kind of find it a bit of a struggle with it being oversaturated with bands and artists?

LA: No, we love it. And there’s just like endless opportunity for collaboration, which is really cool. Like we’ll hit someone up on Instagram that we really like and be like hey do you wanna just come over, come to the studio and jam out? It just seems like everybody’s there and you can have chance encounters like that. That’s kind of where magic comes from. Like things you didn’t expect happen. We love it. It’s a really creative energy, if you can tap into it.

AM: Any other bands that you want to shout out that you might be listening to on the long drives during tour?

LA: Oh man, I don’t know. We try to listen to podcasts in the van--

AM: Oh have you listened to S-Town?

LA: Yeah we just did all of S-Town

AM: Yeah, it’s crazy right?

LA: Very insane, yeah!

AM: Any other podcasts?

LA: We’re into this one called Duncan Trussell Family Hour. It’s kind of a— he’s like a cosmonaut. He explores the mind and wacky, psychedelic stuff.

AM: Nice, I’ll have to check it out. So the next question actually came from a fan on Twitter. They wanted to know what your favorite childhood movie was.

LA: Ooh man, that’s tough! One that comes to mind, I think now cause we’re in New York, is the second Home Alone…Lost in New York. We’ve done some videos on our Instagram with that movie cause it’s amazing. Finding Nemo also. Wait-- Little Nemo, not Finding Nemo. The one where’s riding his bed around!

AM: Finding Nemo is still a good one! Lastly, anything else you’re looking forward to this year?

LA: Yeah, we have a video coming soon. We’re really excited about it. It’s with a guy we found on Instagram, and we’ve got some drones shots. And Dancing. 

AM: Nice, I’ll look forward to that!

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Chicago, join in on the dance party by catching Coast Modern at the SubT on 4/18! Grab tickets for the show here. For all tour dates, head here. 

Catching Up With Stonefield

It’s Saturday night at a completely packed Metro, and Australian band Stonefield are set to play their final night on tour with fellow Melbourne musicians King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Orb. Prior to their last performance, the four Findlay sisters of Stonefield filled me on all the happenings on tour and what’s next for them in 2017.

Stonefield is Amy, Hannah, Sarah, and Holly Findlay.

Photo Credit: Sheva Kafai

Our conversation starts with the sisters telling me they’d been to Chicago before, but never as tourists. This tour so far sounds like it’s been pretty relentless, with not much time off, and on top of that, the schedule for this last day of tour is already running late for everyone. While I chat with Stonefield, King Gizzard’s crew are doing a makeshift soundcheck, since the band members themselves have skipped in order to do a signing at Shuga Records.

The conversation progresses through the haphazard soundcheck, and we shift back to how the four sisters got started as musicians. Although they’ve been playing together since 2006, the Findlay sisters are still quite young, and surprisingly, the music gene doesn’t run direct through their family. “Our parents don’t play music, but they love listening to it,” guitarist Hannah says. She continues on to say that their love of playing music stemmed from growing up around the music their parents listens to, while the eldest sister, Amy, adds, “Mum and dad have this really weird connection where both of their brothers played in a band together, so that’s how they met. So we’ve got the music on both sides, but it’s actually kind of strange that mum and dad don’t play themselves.” Elaborating on the music they grew up with, Holly chimes in, “Dad is obsessed with Frank Zappa. So that’s obviously an influence. But like all of the classics, like Fleetwood Mac, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Pink Floyd. All of that.”

Circling back to their young age and picking up instruments as kids, Holly says the bass was like a toy for her. She's the baby of the family, and started playing as young as age 7. The girls say they’ve all learned a lot since they started, but Amy reckons the biggest lesson involves staying true to themselves. “Because we were so young, when we started, and we’ve been doing it for so long, I think our experience in the music industry has been quite different because we have kind of grown up with it. I think starting young, you’re also sort of--” Amy pauses, and Hannah jumps in with “easily influenced” to finish her sister’s thought. “You’re influenced by people’s opinions and I guess, advice. I think at the end of the day the biggest thing we’ve learned is that at the end of the day, music is a really personal thing,” Amy continued. “You don’t always have to take people’s advice. Like sometimes it’s great, but sometimes it’s better to leave it. It’s all about what you think. Trusting your instincts,” Hannah added. As the sisters bounce their concurring thoughts off one another, Amy concludes this topic by saying, “Music is kind of like a selfish thing. Like at the end of the day, what works best is doing it for yourself and not worrying about anything else. Which sound super corny. But it does kind of, when you’re so young, take a while to realize that you know what’s best for you.”

The Findlays also admit that they’ve learned valuable lessons as musicians just on their current tour with Orb and King Gizzard. Discussing the differences between these shows and touring in their home country, Amy says, “You really feel the love, like it’s easier to get a response. There is a slightly different energy. It’s kind of like having a fresh slate. We’re kind of starting from the bottom, which is exciting. It’s an exciting thing to kind of wanna win people over. To get on this tour and to be able to do it to this many people….It’s been really fun,” about playing in America. One of tour highlights, besides doing a “drive-by” of Times Square and The Statue of Liberty, was their two nights at Webster Hall. All four sisters say those shows were their favorite, with Holly recalling, “At one of the New York shows we had a huge...what do they call those? Circle pits!”

“Music is kind of like a selfish thing. Like at the end of the day, what works best is doing it for yourself and not worrying about anything else. Which sound super corny. But it does kind of, when you’re so young, take a while to realize that you know what’s best for you.”

— Amy Findlay on staying true to yourself in the music industry

For most Australian musicians, touring really only happens on the weekend, whereas in America, all three of these Australian bands have been playing a new city every night. The Findlay sisters weigh in on this change too, Holly confessing she prefers touring over here. “Once you get into the swing of things, I reckon it’s better cause it’s cool that you can play every night and drive not too far and be in a whole new city,” she says. Amy adds that they’re fortunate at home to get gigs in country towns, but says for a lot of bands it doesn’t work out and they’ll only play shows on the weekends.

Another big difference between the American and Australian music industry? Album release cycles. Stonefield released their second studio album As Above, So Below in July 2016 back home, but they’ve only just released the first single from that record in The States. “We’re kind of in a weird spot, because we released that album in Australia last year, but it’s kind of fresh here,” Hannah says, while Amy says she hopes that they’ll get everyone on the same page for their third album. As far as new material for the next record, Hannah says they’re constantly writing. “I feel like our music progresses quite quickly, probably because we are still young, I guess. I think our new stuff is a bit... sort of spacey. [We’re] experimenting more with synthy sounds and stuff like that. But not really like 80’s synth. Like good synth...no offense to 80’s synth. It’s definitely developed. We’ve been playing a few new songs on this tour, which has been good,” Amy revealed about the new material.

Before heading off to soundcheck, the Findlay sisters also recommend some other great material coming from Oz, including their tourmates. “They’re the band that we would be like 'they’re the next best thing',” Amy gushed about Orb. The sisters also tipped me off about White Bleaches, who supported them on a recent tour, and Noire, a band from Sydney. “They have some really amazing, really beautiful songs,” Hannah says of the latter. Amy agrees, adding, “Yeah, I don’t get why they’re not bigger. They’re not big in Australia, but they’re really good. They write really good songs and she has a beautiful voice.”  

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Less than two hours later, the sisters completely rocked their dynamic and energetic set in front of a backdrop of psychedelic graphics, once again getting a great response from the crowd. The setlist contained a mix of old and new songs, and Amy managed to deliver powerful lead vocals while completely smashing it on the drums. Check out photos from their epic set below!

Stonefield at Metro 4/8/2017

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The Setlist

1. Sister
2. Dream
3. Far From
4. Earth
5. Delusion
6. Changes
7. In the Eve
8. Eyes

Keep up with all the Stonefield news on their Facebook page, and listen to their single "Stranger" from their sophomore album here:

Get To Know: Two Feet

It's been quite the year for Bill Dess, AKA Two Feet. His breakout single "Go Fuck Yourself" has stacked up close to 20 million Spotify plays in less than a year since its release, he's currently nearing the tail end of his first tour, he's just played SXSW and has been announced on the Bonnaroo Lineup. Oh, and he's got new music on the horizon. While there's quite a lot of buzz and a lot going on for Dess, there's still a lot of mystery surrounding the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and producer.  Lucky for you, we chatted with Dess earlier this week, after he played his first show in Chicago in support of Jain. Get to know more about Two Feet now!

First Steps EP Artwork

He got his start in music working as a producer for other artists

Talking about his life prior to becoming Two Feet, Bill says, "I had a normal day job, and I was just kind of producing for random people. [I'd] produce a beat. Then that lead into doing actual pop production for people. One of my friends works at Atlantic [Records], so I started getting into more of the pop production level and that started going really well."

Although things went well at first, Bill does reveal that it sometimes got frustrating working for other people. Continuing his narrative, he says, "So I just kind of made my own project. [I] didn’t really think too much about it and just uploaded it online. 10 months later I’m doing this now. It’s kinda crazy what the internet can do. If you make something that strikes a nerve."

He'd like to collaborate with...

Speaking of striking a nerve, the song "Go Fuck Yourself" did just that with producer and musician Martin Garrix, who tipped off his fans about the Two Feet track in a video interview. Dess says Garrix's shout out gained him listeners and added traction to the song. 

If given the opportunity, Dess would love to work with Garrix too. "I’d like to collab with him. We'll see if we can set something up. He has his own label, but it’s under Republic too. My A&R is over there, [and] trying to set that up. Other than that, I’m sort of slowly setting up my collaboration list for the album. I’m definitely saving those collaborations for the album."

Dess also mentions other artists he admires while talking about his influences. "I really like the Bob Moses guys...they’re really cool. I like the XX or Chet Faker...Chet Baker, even. My dad showed me him when I was a kid. Other than that, a lot of it comes from electronic producers, like Mura Masa. It’s kind of like a mix of everything, and I kind of try to forget about other producers and other people and just kind of do my own thing." While we wait patiently for the Two Feet record and possible future collaborations, check out this collaboration with Melvv...

Lots of new music is on the way

During the set this tour, Dess and his bandmate Huff played a few unreleased tracks from the upcoming EP. Talking about the difference between the new music and the debut EP First Steps, Dess says, "I guess the first EP was a little more beat oriented. I was more focused on more of the production. This one is more songwritery and developed. So it’s a transition in that sense. It’s more flushed out. More information in all of [the songs]...They’re just a little wider is a good way to put it." 

As far as how he'll release the diverse EP (which should be coming in a couple of weeks), he says, "I think I’m doing double singles at a time. Instead of just one song, it’s gonna be two songs and then another couple of songs a few weeks later. To mix up the EP a bit more."

So we've got a new EP on the horizon, but what about a debut album?  "I signed with Republic Records," Dess revealed. Continuing, he says, "This EP is still going to be released basically independently, through Majestic Casual, which is like an Indie Label. The next four songs will be through them. Then after that, I officially start working with Republic Records. I’ll have a 10 track album and that will be released with them in either late 2017 or early 2018. But there’ll be singles leading up to it. I’ll probably have my first single released with them some time in the summer. I’m just really excited for the next 10, 12 months." 

He's a taco enthusiast 

While Dess and his bandmate were at SXSW, he admits they dedicated a lot of time to learning and just playing their own shows, saying, "On the days we had shows, it felt like the whole day was dedicated to just getting that show done, and then packing everything up and taking notes. We figured out what went wrong with the live set. I didn’t really have time to go out and see too many people." Luckily, the experience of playing multiple showcases in odd places gave them some pointers for the current tour. 

However, when there was any free time at SXSW, Dess says, "I just kinda would walk around and eat tacos and go to bars," adding that he did manage to catch a few sets from his friends playing the festival. 

This tour has turned him into a traveler

Much like SXSW, Dess says that most of this first tour has been dedicated to the shows with minimal sight seeing. However, they did get up to some additional fun in Austin and on the west coast. "We went to the river [in Austin]. Which was really cool. Honestly that’s kind of the only touristy thing we did," Dess says. "Oh--right. My tour manager just reminded me when we were driving up the coast of California we saw the Redwoods, which was really cool. We took a route that drove up next to the ocean. Which was really cool, really beautiful. That was probably the most beautiful drive I’ve been on my whole life. It felt like a dream, you know," he continued.

Although so much of the tour is spent driving and setting up for shows, Dess says he's really grateful for this opportunity in general. "I’d never really traveled much before this. So either way, it’s still like I’m seeing a whole bunch of the country that I never thought I’d have the chance to see," he admits. 

In addition to a summer tour in the works and his upcoming appearance at festivals like Bonnaroo and Lightning in a Bottle, Dess says, "I’d really like to play some shows in Europe and go to Japan. My band member is Japanese and he’ll show me around!"

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Keep your eyes out for the upcoming show announcements by checking on Two Feet's Facebook page, and listen to the fill First Steps EP below...

Get To Know: Condor & Jaybird

While I was out at Daytrotter Downs earlier this month, I caught an incredible, impromptu set by The Golden Jaybird, who filled in for Kississippi at the last minute. The Golden Jaybird is actually a hybrid, collaborative project, comprised of The Golden Fleece and Condor & Jaybird. About a week later, the latter of the two groups headed out on the road for a month-long tour. When Condor & Jaybird rolled through Chicago, we met up to chat about everything from strange sleeping arrangements on tour, Hanson, and which company they'd want to sponsor them. Get to know this psych rock group from Rock Island, Condor & Jaybird now!

Condor & Jaybird is Jeramie Anderson, Connor Lyle, Jake Lyle, and Bryson Foster.

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Their songwriting process is evolving and collaborative

Talking about the undefined and unrestricted songwriting process of Condor & Jaybird, Jeramie says, "The best part about being in a band where we’re all kind of writing, is that we’re all allowed to develop our own style. There’s never a point where we’re like, 'Oh that’s not indie rock enough..that’s not psychedelia enough, we need more break downy metal parts...'  We’re just feeling out our own style."

Bryson chimes in that they don't have any sort of super formula, with Jake adding, "It’s easy to get stale when you stick to a formula."  (See, they're even collaborative in their interviewing process).  

Speaking of working together, in addition to their hybrid band with The Golden Fleece, which Bryson describes as another project with cool goals, the guys in Condor & Jaybird are all super supportive of other local bands. One of the bands they're closest to is Mountain Swallower, (who also gave a shout out to Condor & Jaybird in our interview from Daytrotter Downs). Besides being friends and having a mutual love for each other's music, Jake shared that the connection between Condor & Jaybird and Mountain Swallower runs even deeper, saying, "Connor plays drums sometimes in the drummer of Mountain Swallower’s other band, called Grandfather Confusion." Jeramie added, "Our scene is pretty cohesive. We just kind of jam around and kinda do weird stuff together. It’s all pretty tight knit." 

Their influences range from metal to The Beatles

Part of the band's ever-changing and evolving songwriting process comes back to their wide array of influences. Jake shares some of his inspiration and influences, saying, "I was really into MxPx when I was 12. I was like I wanna play bass, and I got a bass. Connor and I are brothers, and in our immediate family, our mom plays music, and our grandma plays music. So it was kind of just a natural occurrence for us. [Connor and Jeramie] went to high school together and played in bands together back then." 

Jeramie elaborates on how the band met and started working together, chiming in, "We’ve been playing together since we were 15. It just kind of all worked out. Like Bryson had moved away to California for a year or two, then he was down in Nashville for a while. We had been cycling through drummers, and he had moved back when we were just starting to look for somebody else. It just worked out perfectly." Continuing on the subject on influences, Jeramie says, "Our sound kind of comes from a place of fogginess with our individual interests. We like The Beatles, we like Queen. We all come from metal. We were playing metal before this band, and when this band started...you can definitely hear it in some of the first records."

For his influences, Bryson says, "Inspiration comes from so many different areas for me. When I started playing music, it just kind of started as oh, cool, how do I play this instrument? Then it turned into how do I draw inspiration to find out how to play this instrument. So early inspiration for me were like metal music, hardcore music. That was just like what the music scene was to me at the time. That was my immediate inspiration. Then I moved away and I started to look at all of music. So I went from primary colors to all the colors, and I was just overwhelmed. Then I came back and joined up with these guys and it was awesome. I was like, now I can focus everything I’ve learned and have been listening to, have been drawing inspiration from, and focal it into the band."

The highlight of their SXSW experience was meeting Hanson

Although Jeramie admits their time at SXSW was a bit challenging, saying, "Being kind of an unknown band at South By trying to jump on showcases is pretty hard," he also says they got the chance to see some great performances from other bands. Jake mentioned a set from Meat Bodies, and the entire band all agreed on loving the set they saw from Mastodon. Jeramie also added, "Chastity Belt opened for Mastodon and they were so great....so amazing!" 

However, the real highlight of their first time at SXSW was meeting the supergroup of brothers, Hanson. Describing the experience, Bryson says, "It brought one part of my life to a full circle," and Jeramie recalled the experience as being a pivotable "made it" moment in life. The lucky meeting happened while the band were hanging out at Daytrotter's base camp at SXSW, and Hanson happened to be in to record a session. Jake confirmed they still play "MMMBop," and Jeramie chimed in, "And still loving it! [Daytrotter] said are you tired of playing that song and they said 'No, you know, you’re not tired of it, you just. It takes on a different flavor.'"  

They've survived sleeping in Fear Factor-esque environments

It turns out that meeting Hanson isn't the only crazy story from this tour. Jeramie tells the tale of an interesting venue in Houston, saying, "I thought about writing a story/song-esque thing about the Super Happy Fun experience. This venue in Houston, called Super Happy Fun Land....Man, it was crazy." Jake jumps in to say the venue is indescribable and ambiguous, adding that they couldn't tell if it was a business or a commune. 

Picking back up with the story, Jeramie says, "We walked in and it looked like pop culture apocalypse. There was like a big mountain of Raggedy Ann dolls and psychedelic graffiti. And there was always like ambient like flashes of light in this dark warehouse!"

Jake continued the story, "You know Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where like- I can’t remember the terminology, but like where all the kids who worked for The Foot Clan?" Connor jumps in to say the place is called Shredder's Hangout. "So basically that place was like Shredder’s Hangout, but like after it go busted. After the cops cleared it out," Jake continued. 

Bryson interjects to say that they had very good vegan chili at the venue, but after the band recalled there were cats, rats, and roaches running around the venue at night, he added, "It felt like Fear Factor at one point. Like ah, a briefcase of 50,000 dollars will be at the end of this sleep...Joe Rogan’s like 'YOU DID IT!'"  

Despite those strange sleeping conditions, the band say this actually isn't the worst place they've had to sleep. The actual worst? The van, which Bryson says they can all sleep uncomfortably in once you factor in all their gear. Give them a couch, and they won't complain!

They want to be sponsored by Taco Bell and Hanes

In addition to the sometimes strange and uncomfortable sleeping conditions on tour, the band admit there's not a lot of showering options while touring in their van. While Jake gives a shout out to Good Wipes, Jeramie says if they could be sponsored by anyone, he'd love to be sponsored by Axe Body Spray.  

"We’re sponsored by a pizza company called Mama Bosso Pizza Company," Jake says, as the rest of the band endorse the fresh crust and Connor showed off his Mama Bosso Pizza t-shirt. Although they seem more than content with the pizza sponsorship, Connor also says he'd love to be sponsored by Pepsi because "they own so many things. Shampoo companies...Taco Bell." 

Jake says he'd also be thrilled to be sponsored by Hanes to be hooked up with some Hanes Basics. (So...if you're reading this, Pepsi and Hanes, help a band out?)

Their 2017 goals include another new album and more tour

As far as new music and touring this year, Jeramie says, "We put out a full length on New Years Eve and a full length in September, and we’re gonna write another one this year. The pace is kind of picking up for everything. This year we still wanna do another two month tour and have another record at least written."

Elaborating on balancing touring and writing new material, Bryson says, "We haven’t been [touring] too much. This is only our second tour. But I am drawing inspiration from every band we see, every place we go. There’s just so many different things going on and stimulating us that we don’t get in the Quad Cities. Even though the Quad Cities is super accommodating and inspiring...going out and playing with other bands and meeting new people just inspires me to keep doing it." 

Jeramie added, "We just had our show last night in Rock Island, [that] was our stopping point like half way through the tour, and all I really wanted to do was write music when I was home. It's really something to be around that much talent at SXSW, " continuing to say he couldn't wait to get back and get started on new material. 

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Stay tuned for some festival announcements from Condor & Jaybird, as well as a potential extended tour in the winter. Stay up to date on all upcoming tour dates and other news here. For now, listen to their latest album God Wants Us To Do What God Wants Us To Do:

A Chat With: Little Cub

Electro-indie pop trio Little Cub are less than a month away from the release of their debut album, Still Life. Band members Dominic Gore, Duncan Tootill, and Ady Acolatse now reside in South London, but they went through a period of time working as a long distance group, when Duncan relocated to New York. Through the years together, they were able to overcome those challenges and produce an 11-track diverse and dynamic album. Before the April 28th release date of said album, we chatted about everything from their influences, their struggles as a long distance band, and what's next for them this year. Get to know the up and coming group Little Cub now! 

Little Cub is Dominic Gore, Duncan Tootill, and Ady Acolatse

Photo Credit: Megan Eagles 

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ANCHR Magazine: What first got each of you inspired to pick up an instrument and start making music?

Dominic Gore: I grew up in a musical family, both my parents were classical musicians and, even after they broke up, so much of my youth was spent listening to them. It was always the part of their lives where they best expressed themselves and even though their struggles should have been enough to put me off I was too young to appreciate how difficult their lives must have been until I'd been hooked myself. We always had good records around and even before I could really play, my friends and I used to collect and listen to CDs so it was kind of inevitable. 

Combined with good teachers and lots of opportunities to play, I was pretty lucky... Though I didn't really feel any desire to write songs until my Mum passed away, and then it became the sort of central focus of my life after that. 

Duncan Tootill: When I was little, I apparently used to appropriate my toys to use as musical instruments, no matter what it was; so after that (age 6) my Grandad brought a trumpet ‘round and I was instantly obsessed.

Ady Acolatse: I started on cello in primary school. There was this government scheme where everyone in my year at school could play an instrument if they wanted to and get a free instrument loan and lessons. Cello was the only instrument on the list I didn’t know and I remember asking my friend who was sat next to me in class what it was. He told it was a big wooden thing with a spike in it so I was instantly sold. I then moved on to double bass and piano. Bass guitar actually came a lot later for me.

AM: How are you feeling now that you’ve finished a debut album that will be heard by the world soon? 

DG:  Just excited really. These songs are very much snapshots of moments from the last few years of our lives and because a lot of the subject matter deals with our experiences of issues that are going on right now, it'll be interesting to see how people connect with them. We've been lucky so far that people who've heard the album seem to have a lot to say on it.

AM: In your bio, it’s stated: “Too Much Love", and much of the album is loosely thematically based on the Oscar Wilde quote "I represent all the sins you will never have the courage to commit.” What was it about that quote that inspired you, and where else did you pull inspiration from for the album’s theme?

DG: Yes definitely. I like the Dorian thing (and Will Self's retelling of a few years ago) because I think that feeling of seeing your emotional response corrupted as Dorian's is very much correlates to our experience of going through your twenties...particularly living in London. Be it through relationships, bereavement, partying, politics, pop culture or religion. A lot of pop music is by its nature self aggrandizing, but we're not really like that as people. I like the idea that Dorian is constantly trying to be outrageous and devoid of emotion, but at the same time he is sad and kind of ridiculous, so that seemed sort of fitting. That film The Comedy pretty much sums up the idea of seeing the absurd and grotesque elements of the whole thing, but still not being able to totally separate yourself from it. As the themes on the record all link to us dealing with real life situations, there are obviously references to people who helped us deal with those situations. We've commented a bit on poets and writers (Auden, Larkin, Ballard, Greene, Fisher) that influenced us, but one of the things I loved about being into bands when I was younger was all the influences [like] books, films, and artists, that you could discover just by being fans of a band. So a lot of our influences come from other musicians in that sense. 

AM: When you were working as a long-distance band with Duncan being in New York, what were some of the biggest challenges?

DG: Not being able to play live and having to wait on the time difference. We learned a lot about Ableton, production, and recording over the course of the process, and as we're all quite thoughtful and like to really put something through the mill before we sign off on it. Perhaps it's better that sometimes things took a bit longer. That being said, now that we're discovering how great playing live is, I can't believe we weren't doing this sooner.

AM: What are some of your favorite songs on the album, or the songs that you’re most excited to share with your fans?

DG: "October" and "Snow." "Snow" is the most personal thing we've written and we're hugely proud of that one. ‘October’ reminds me of a lot of the pop music that I loved as a kid and it's a very thinly veiled jab at the previous leader of the UK Conservative party so it works on both levels for me.

AA: I think for me, at the moment it might be "Mulberry". I think maybe because of how it's been connecting people when we play the song live has given it a whole new meaning to me and changed how I hear it. We wrote the song to start almost as a ballad that draws you in and then let the song build towards a way more upbeat, emotional and hopefully satisfying chorus at the end. All the shows we've being doing recently we've managed to get the whole room dancing by the end which when you're playing to people who have never heard our music before is a great feeling.

“A lot of pop music is by its nature self aggrandizing, but we’re not really like that as people. I like the idea that Dorian is constantly trying to be outrageous and devoid of emotion, but at the same time he is sad and kind of ridiculous, so that seemed sort of fitting. ”

— Dominic Gore on the theme of "Still Life"

AM: I saw you recently released a remix for Wild Beasts, how did that opportunity come up? Are there any other bands or artists you’d really like to either work with or remix?

DG: Well, they're on the same label and we know their managers a bit. We've actually met them a few times, but I'm a big fan so I've probably embarrassed myself to the point of erasing it from my memory. As we make a lot of more club friendly music too, we really enjoy and believe in the remix as an art form so any opportunity to remix an artist always appeals. We really like Dan Snaith’s remixes even though they often end up sounding more like new caribou songs than remixes. Working on John Grant,Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Jon Hopkins, Pepe Braddock or Leon Vynehall would be pretty special.

AM: You’ve got an album release show in the books, but are there any plans to tour more when the record comes out? Anywhere in the world particularly that you’d really like to play?

DT: Absolutely, we're hoping to sort out a tour with Rhythm Method soon as we love those guys. The album's out on April 28th so we'll definitely be out on the road round then. Right now, I think playing Berlin is on the top of our list.

AM: If you could curate a music festival, who are 3-5 acts (dead or alive) that you would you pick to headline?

Little Cub: Kraftwerk, Nick Cave, Peter Gabriel's Genesis....Would probably be a pretty fitting selection

AM: What other bands are you listening to at the moment?

LC: Hudson Scott, Leon Vynehall, [and] Boxed In. Sam and Oli are both good friends and artists we've worked with a lot so they definitely make the list. Leon Vynehall is a hero so....

AM: What are some of your favorite venues in London?

LC: Electrowerkz & the Lexington are favorites. Then Rye Wax, The Nines and all that Peckham's got to offer!

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Little Cub have their newest single “Hypnotise” out today. Check out the video and get hyped for Still Life, which you can preorder here. 

Get To Know: The Pinkerton Raid

Last week, I chatted with Jesse James DeConto of the Durham, NC indie rock band The Pinkerton Raid, while they stopped in Chicago during a short Midwest tour. We're only a few months into the year, but it's already been a busy one for The Pinkerton Raid, who released their third studio album called Tolerance Ends, Love Begins on February 7th. While catching up with Jesse, I found out the highlights since the record's release, which classic rock band he used to cover with his family, the best spots in North Carolina for live music, and much more. Tune in and get to know The Pinkerton Raid now...

The DeConto siblings of The Pinkerton Raid

Daytrotter and Dayton have been tour highlights

Right before our chat, Jesse and the band had been out in Davenport, IA, recording a session with our friends at Daytrotter. Jesse mentioned the session went really well, adding, "It was great. It’s something that we’ve been wanting to do for a while, so I was really excited. I’m looking forward to hearing the mix when it comes back!" 

As far as other highlights, Jesse brought up an epic night in Dayton, OH.  "We had a great time the other night in Dayton. There’s a place called South Park Tavern. They have this weekly open mic night, and the guys who kind of curate that, they met up just going there to play their own stuff, and eventually formed a band called Old News....Based on just jamming with each other at this open mic. So they’ve been doing that for years, and now they’ve built this great community of people coming out weekly to hear what’s going on. So, they basically booked us as a featured artist for what’s normally an open mic night, and it was just fantastic. The people were really so hospitable and we sold a ton of records and t-shirts. Just a lot more than on your average show, so that’s always encouraging," Jesse recalled. 

While Dayton might have been one of the most special shows this tour, it seems like the band have genuinely enjoyed the whole tour. "Last night we got out and played with our friends, The Sharrows. We played with them on our first Midwestern tour four years ago. One of the guys in that band has this old farmhouse about half hour outside of Madison. We crashed with him when we played that show back then. They’ve got a studio out in the barn, and it’s always good to see them. He and his cousin, Phil Sharrow, whose last name is the name of the band, they’ve become friends and we always have a good time with them. It’s been fun hanging out with friends," Jesse added. 

Jesse's dad was performing Simon and Garfunkel when his mom went into labor

A lot of musicians come from musical families, but few have this exciting of a birth story..."We kind of grew up watching our dad play. He actually supported my mom and me when I was just a baby," Jesse says, starting the story. "On the night I was born, he was playing at a bar in Somerville, Massachusetts. He was in the middle of playing Simon and Garfunkel "Cecilia,” and the bartender got a call and told the waitress. So she comes up and kind of whispered to him while he’s playing and singing, you know, that my mom had gone to the hospital...So he stands up and knocks the microphone over and the whole bar fills with feedback. He picks it up and says 'I gotta go, my wife is having a baby,'" he continued. 

The whole family is musical, and used to play in cover bands together

While it's clear music has been instilled in the DeConto family blood since birth, Jesse revealed he hadn't always been into writing original music. Talking about his start with playing music, he says, "I came home from college after my freshman year, and [my dad] and my other brother were playing a lot together. My younger brother. They were playing a lot of Led Zeppelin and Beatles stuff from the 60’s and 70’s. My brother was learning guitar. Nobody was playing bass. So I picked up bass. I had been singing for quite a while and touring with that in high school and college, but I kind of picked up that bass the summer after my freshman year of college. Started playing bass and played with my family. My uncle played drums so we had a full band. Mainly just playing those cover songs, and we’d just play for weddings or parties."

While he enjoyed playing other people's music, he also admits that it was challenging at times. "[Zeppelin] stuff is really intense. I was doing a lot of the singing. I really had to work at it. So I felt like I’d enjoy it more if I was actually writing my own songs. And so, that’s kind of when it started. I was probably 23...then it just went from there." Jesse also talks about how pretty much the whole family ended up following him and his daughters from New Hampshire to North Carolina, which is where they formed their first original band. Eventually, The Pinkerton Raid formed, and the rest is history...

Jesse's job as a crime reporter had an impact on the third record

As the story goes, Jesse began writing down lyrics for the third album while he was working as a crime reporter. When I asked about some of most intense stories he covered, Jesse says, "There are a lot of intense stories. The student body president of UNC Chapel Hill in the area where I was working, got murdered. It was like a robbery, they kidnapped her and took her to an ATM to get money out, and then ended up shooting her. Eve Carson. That was a really rough story to cover," he recalled. "Then I covered a trial of a young kid, a teenager, he'd graduated. I think he was 18 or 19, but he went back to his high school in Orange County, NC, and shot up the building. Nobody died, but a couple people got injured. There’s a couple of stories like that. Another guy drove an SUV into the campus at UNC Chapel Hill and injured a bunch of people. So you know, it’s just like, people sort of losing touch with reality and doing some really harmful stuff to other people. When you cover those trials, you get a window into human psychology. It can get pretty intense," Jesse continued. 

As far as how much those stories affected the album, Jesse says, "It’s interesting. I don’t know that it inspired the album, so much as that I was going through my own stuff personally, and kind of like watching other people deal with the worst stuff they might have to deal with in their entire lives. That just kind of got me thinking about what was going on for myself. The album title actually comes from this commute that I would have to do, going up there to cover these cases at the courthouse. There’s a traffic sign that says 'Tolerence Ends,' and it just means that truckers are supposed to get off the back roads and drive on the highway, but I found it so provocative, that language. I just started thinking about how it applied to my own life." 

They come from a budding music community 

"Our area is really great, we have a really great scene," Jesse says, mentioning some of their favorite local acts include The Old Ceremony, Mount Moriah, His Golden Messenger, The Dead Tongues, Brett Harris, and Skylar Gudasz. (Their producer for the third record, Mark Simonsen, also plays in The Dead Tounges.)

Although their list of local recommendations already seems endless, Jesse added, "People probably know about Sylvan Esso, they’re a pretty big deal. There’s a lot of connection with Bon Iver and some of his old friends...like Phil and Brad Cook. He formed Megafaun. They’re involved now with His Golden Messenger. So there’s kind of  a big community around those guys." 

As far as local venues, Jesse also mentions a fair share. Elaborating on the best places to play, he says, "We play at Motorco a lot in Durham, so that’s been kind of our home venue. There’s a lot of good ones. We love the Pinhook. Cat’s Cradle, of course, in Carrborro. That’s probably the best known. That’s 20 minutes away, and they opened a back room with a smaller space a couple years ago. Which has been really good because The Cat’s Cradle main room is 700-800 capacity, which most bands can’t fill. The backroom is good for us locals to play in."  Jesse also shouts out Local 506, The Station, The Cave, and The ArtsCenter, to name a few, confirming that there's lots of awesome venues in their area. 

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It might be a while until The Pinkerton Raid make their way back to the Midwest, but if you're in North Carolina, it sounds like the band have plenty of gigs lined up! While talking about what's next for the band this year, Jesse mentions, "We’ve got some festival stuff we’re starting to line up. We’re gonna open up this photography festival called Eyes on Main Street in Wilson, which is like an hour east of where we live. We always like to be involved in something that’s celebrating another art form. We've played the past 5 years at a festival called Wild Goose, which is in western North Carolina, and that’s always a highlight. We love that and we end up making really cool connections. A couple of the places we’re stopping on this tour are because of people that we’ve met at this festival. So that’s always good."  He also mentioned Shakori Hills Grass Roots Music Festival, saying "It’s really well-curated and draws a lot of great bands from all over the country. They put it on twice a year. It’s kind of one of the highlights of the central North Carolina scene. That will be our first time doing that." Make sure you stay in the loop by signing up for the band's mailing list here. 

In the meantime, you can listen to Tolerance Ends, Love Begins below, or buy a physical copy here. 

Get to Know: Joe Bordenaro

After his support slot last week for the Orwells at the legendary Metro, we chatted with the Chicago singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joe Bordenaro, who is probably best known for playing around town with his band The Late Bloomers. Joe and his band recently tested out some new songs at The Virgin Hotel, and they've got a show at Schuba's coming up next month with The Evening Attraction that you don't want to miss! Before that show, find out five things you need to know about Joe, including how he got his start in music, what we can expect from his album, and which local band he thinks everyone needs to look out for (we'll give you a hint...it's one that we've interviewed). 

He started playing music on a forgotten drum set

Talking about the first time he ever picked up an instrument, Joe says, "One of my parents’ friends left a drum set at my house when I was really little. I just started playing it, that was pretty much the first time I remember getting into playing an instrument. I think that happened when I was like 7 or 8."

From there, Joe recalls venturing into songwriting when he was in high school. "I was in a band, but I was playing drums. Then that band ended up ending and I started writing my own songs," he continued. 

He plans on releasing new music for the first time since 2015

Last month, Joe and The Late Bloomers performed at The Virgin Hotel with American Grizzly and Lucille Furs. Before playing some of his new material at that show, Joe mentioned the next song was new, but joked that all of his songs were probably "new" to this particular crowd. 

Elaborating on the new songs, Joe says, "We just started working on recording for an album. The next thing we put out is gonna be a [full length] album." As far as how many songs the record will be, that's still up in the air, but Joe continued to say, "I just have a lot of music since the last thing I put out was in 2015. I’ve been writing the whole time."  Talking more about his songwriting process, Joe adds, "It’s pretty random. Usually I’ll just listen to a lot of music and learn how they structure it. [With] songs I like, I’ll pay attention to how they’re structured and the keys, and all that, and then try to learn from that." Joe also says he's worked on writing longer songs, but the theme still tends to come back to love. "I write a lot about love. I tend to not have a set theme before I write. I’ll think of a line and base it off that. It’s really like I come up with the theme after the lyrics are written," Joe revealed. 

His influences include Electric Light Orchestra and Fleetwood Mac

Joe says he can pinpoint Fleetwood Mac and Electric Light Orchestra as influences, but he also mentions a couple of other legends while talking about what he listens to. "I listen to Jackson Brown, Tom Petty...I really listen to Chicago bands and Tom Petty. And Electric Light Orchestra. I’ve been getting into the Eagles a lot. I love them," Joe says. 

His love for ELO also includes a love for their production style. At the moment, Joe is working on the record as his own producer, but as far as producers he admires, he says, "I’m super into Jeff Lynne, and 70’s super dry drums," emphasizing he's really into the dry drums sound. He's learned to record his own music through trial and error, but Joe says his advice to other musicians would be to not overthink. "I tend to overthink a lot when it comes to making music. You just gotta do it and it will flesh itself out. I spend half the time thinking about how I want it to go instead of doing it and seeing how it goes. Don’t overthink, just do it," he added. 

A deli platter is the way to his heart

Earlier this year, Joe played Schubas with Wand as part of Tomorrow Never Knows Festival. Talking more about the TNK experience, Joe says, "Yeah, that was the first 'festival' we played. It was really cool, the other bands that were playing. Wand was like, nuts. It’s all people who play with Ty Segall, and they had crazy fuzz pedals. As far as show experiences, every time we’ve played Schubas it’s been amazing, and they’re really nice to us." 

So while Joe loves Schubas, he also shouted out Metro and Chop Shop, both of which he's played in support of The Orwells. "We opened for the Orwells when they played at Chop Shop. That was like the other big show...these are the two biggest we've played. Chop Shop is super nice, they gave us a deli platter," he recalled. There you have it...an easy way to win over a band: a deli platter. 

The local band he thinks you should look out for is....

While we were on the subject of the best local venues, I asked Joe about his favorite local bands, and noticed that he had a Post Animal button on his jacket. "Oh, I love Post Animal. They’re my favorite band. I mean, I love all the bands we’re playing with tonight. But I think everyone needs to look out for Post Animal because they’re like the best musicians," Joe said.

Joe also recommends Max and The Mild Ones, saying "[Max is] a really, really good songwriter. Everyone should listen to him!" When he's not playing with his own band, Joe also plays with The Max and The Mild Ones. 

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In addition to the upcoming show at Schubas with The Evening Attraction, it's rumored that Joe Bordenaro will be performing at a Sofar Sounds show in April as well. Grab your tickets to the Treehouse Studio sponsored Schubas show here for only $5, and keep up with everything else new with Joe on his Facebook page. Keep your eyes (and ears) out for new music before the end of the year, and a tour to follow!

 

A Chat With: Molly Burch

Austin-based (via Los Angeles) singer songwriter Molly Burch has been out on the road this past month, in support of her debut album Please Be Mine. Recorded live in just one day, the album really showcases Molly's retro-inspired, alluring vocals.  Prior to her show at The Empty Bottle this Thursday with Tim Darcy, we chatted with Molly about everything from her recording process to playing SXSW to her thoughts on The Backstreet Boys. Get to know all that and more in our chat with Molly Burch...

Photo Credit: Dailey Toliver

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ANCHR Magazine: Congratulations on releasing your debut album Please Be Mine last month! How does it feel to have your first album out into the world, and what have been some highlights since the release?

Molly Burch: Thank you so much! It feels like a dream come true. Some of the highlights have been touring with my band and having a record release show in both my hometown of Austin and also my label's home, Brooklyn.

Please Be Mine Album Artwork

AM: Where did you pull influence from for your songwriting on the record?

MB: My main influence has always been women vocalists. I've been singing all my life and when I started to write songs I would focus on the voice first above all else. Billie Holiday, Nancy Sinatra, Peggy Lee are all women I've been listening to since I was a kid. 

AM: Do you think that moving from LA to Austin had an effect on your writing and your sound?

MB: I think the act of moving to a new place and having the independence and solitary time had a big impact on my songwriting. 

AM: As far as recording, I know you recorded a lot of your album in a live setting in one day. What were some of the biggest challenges with recording in such a high-pressure scenario?

MB: I don't recall any challenges. It was a pretty simple and relaxed process. I wanted the recordings to reflect how we sounded live and my and I felt comfortable with the songs enough to track live. It was a really fun and relaxed day!

AM: I recently talked to Tim Darcy and he mentioned the tour has been going great. What have been some of your favorite shows and cities to play in while touring with Tim?

MB: Are you trying to make me blush? Ha! I adore him and his band. We're having such a great time. Every city has been super wonderful. I think we all really enjoyed playing D.C. 

AM: What’s your favorite way to stay entertained on the long drives during tour? Any new music, podcast, or book recommendations?

MB: We've been listening to a lot of music. To name a few, Hand Habits, John Andrew & The Yawns, lots of jazz, a couple podcasts here and there. This leg of tour I brought to read "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield and "The Girls" by Emma Cline. Also, my dear planner will keep my mind occupied. Couldn't live without my planner.

AM: You just played SXSW last week.  As an Austin resident, what are some of your tips for first time SXSW festival goers?

MB: Yes, we just played SXSW. Not sure I have any tips! Haha. As a performer it can be extremely overwhelming on the brain. I like to rest us much as possible between shows and not over do it. It is hard to stay sane with all of the stimulation. 

AM: On the same subject of SXSW, what are some of your other favorite bands that played the festival this year?

MB: Tim Darcy! WAND, Living Hour, Jay Som, Jess Williamson, Hand Habits and Mega Bog. Also, saw Kevin Morby play an acoustic set and was very happy about that!

AM: Since your bio mentions that you grew up with Hollywood musicals, what is your all-time favorite musical?

MB: Gypsy!

AM: So, this is kind of cheesy, but since your album is called Please Be Mine, I thought it might be cool to do a lightning round of “Please Be Mine or Decline” of some kind of polarizing things to get to know you better. 

MB: So fun! Would be happy to.

AM: Coffee?

MB: BE MINE

AM: Scary movies?

MB: DECLINE

AM: Snowy days?

MB: BE MINE

AM: Nutella?

MB:DECLINE

AM: Spicy food?

MB: BE MINE

AM: Country music?

MB: BE MINE

AM: Pineapple on pizza?

MB: BE MINE

AM: The Backstreet Boys?

MB: DECLINE

AM: Cilantro?

MB: BE MINE 

AM: Rom Coms?

MB: BE MINE

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Make sure you grab a copy of the beautiful album Please Be Mine here. If you're in Chicago, you have two chances to see Molly in the upcoming weeks. She'll be playing with the equally awesome Jude Shuma and Tim Darcy this Thursday at the The Empty Bottle. Grab tickets, starting at just $10, here. You can also see her at Schubas on April 7th! 

A Chat With: Tim Darcy

Last week, we chatted with the Montreal based singer-songwriter Tim Darcy, who has just released his debut solo album in February. After previously releasing two albums with his band Ought, Tim is currently on tour in support of his new album, called Saturday Night. Tim took some time to chat with us prior to his show in Richmond, Virginia. Before the tour stops at The Empty Bottle on March 23rd, get to know Tim Darcy as we chat about his departure towards solo music, his nomadic lifestyle, his favorite poets, SXSW, and more! 

Photo Credit: Shawn Brackbill

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ANCHR Magazine: Your debut solo album just got released last month. First of all, congrats! Second, how has the response and reception been?

Tim Darcy: It’s been great. I’m really stoked about it. It’s really amazing to me still...some of these songs I’ve been carrying with me for quite a while. The record’s pretty different from Ought. All the way up to the friends I made it with, to [Jagjaguwar] wanting to put it out, and then now hearing from people who really like the record has been really special and awesome.

AM: So what are some of the main differences between working now on your solo music and being in your band Ought?

TD: In the band we do everything collaboratively.  Pretty much all the songs come out of long jams that we do together. Writing solo is utterly different, and it’s just me composing alone. There’s a lot more freedom in that to sort of follow a really intimate moment. Also freedom to play directly to my influences. I had a really great opportunity making this record, working really closely with two friends who produced the record. To experiment and sort of follow each moment as far down the rabbit hole as we wanted to go. So those were some of the differences.

AM: You just mentioned that you had the freedom now to follow your influences, so who would you consider your influences?

TD: The year leading up to making this record, the most immediate stuff, I was listening to pretty exclusively folk and ambient music. So that was kind of interesting. I was listening to lots of ambient music in the van, and that was an interesting moment to feel those come out on the two instrumental pieces on the record, which isn’t something I had prior to this. I’d been writing solo music for a long time, pretty much since I got my first guitar. I never had done ambient stuff. [My] influences really pull from a lot of different areas. I love...when I was first starting out, I was into really kind of big names in folk stuff, like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell...As time goes on I love other artists who are very lyrical, but kind of more adventurous with their sonic pallet.

AM: Nice, so then talking a little more about the tour that you’re on with the record, have there been any highlights, like favorite shows that you’ve played or maybe something that you got to see while you’re in a city for the first time?

TD: Totally, last night was actually amazing. That was one of my favorite shows in DC. This great venue, Black Cat. It was really just a great show. I’m out with this three piece, two good friends, and great musicians.. Charlotte, who plays on the record, is drumming, and then a friend Rachel is playing bass and viola. So she’s doing like the guitar stuff on the record on viola. It works really awesome live. Part of what’s been awesome is we had a few weeks in Toronto to kind of put the show together, but even when we first had those release shows...We had shows in New York and Toronto then we flew to Europe for a week, all those shows were great. Now we’re doing this run down to South By [SXSW] and back, and everything’s really leveling out and clicking...great musical chemistry. It’s partly because of that and partly because the crowd was awesome [last night], it was really dope. A highlight? Right now I’m loving the fact that I’m in a t-shirt. The first show of this tour was in Montreal and it was like -3 Fahrenheit and we were just freezing our faces off. Then 5 days later and I’m in a t-shirt.

AM: So you just mentioned SXSW, you’re going down there then?

TD: Yeah, so that’s the midway point [of this tour]. We’re actually doing these whole three weeks with this artist Molly Burch. She’s based in Austin so that’s pretty cool.

AM: Are there any other bands showcasing that you’re hoping to see out there?

TD: Yeah, we’re playing like 5 shows so I don’t know how much time there’ll be, but there’s a couple of other friends who are playing. I toured with a band LVL UP. I haven’t seen them since their new record came out, and I really like that record. Our friends Priests are gonna be down there. I gotta look at the sched and see who’s playing. Do you have any hot tips?

AM: There’s so many people...I just interview Alex Lahey last week, she’s really good. She’s from Australia, singer-songwriter...really cool lyrics, relatable lyrics. There’s a couple bands from Chicago playing...Post Animal is really good, NE-HI...Rag’N’Bone Man, he’s from Brighton, England. This is his first time over in the states. Sorry for that tangent of SXSW artists!

TD: No, I’m stoked to have some names to look up!

AM:So are there any other cities that you’re looking forward to on the rest of the tour?

TD: I’m so stoked to go to Savannah, Georgia. I’ve never been. I really feel like I’m gonna really dig it. I’ve heard from a lot of people that it’s an amazing place. I just watched Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It’s really good, it’s got Kevin Spacey and John Cusack. It’s based on the book, which is based on a true story. The movie is awesome and it just seems like a kind of freaky, southern, cool, mysterious little place. I’m excited to check it out.

AM: Nice, I haven’t been either so that sounds awesome, and I’ll check that movie out too. So while we’re talking about traveling and all that...you were born in Arizona, and you’ve lived in Colorado and New Hampshire. Now you’re based in Montreal, so do you think moving around a lot has kind of influenced your songwriting?

TD: Yeah, I think so. I was actually talking about this with the band last night. We’ve all...3 out of the 4 of us are American so we were talking about having moved around a lot. It’s funny, like also the internet is such a kind of stir-stick. Those things are still really significant, but I feel like I, and so many people, consume so much media and so much art. But in an amazing way, like even you just recommended me an artist who’s from Brighton, who now I’m gonna see in Texas. So the world feels very mobile in a way that I think is really awesome. As far as the southwest influence, my mom really brought a lot of that with us to New Hampshire. That filtered into my consciousness much more strongly, in a really significant way.

AM: What made you settle in Montreal then?

TD: I went to school there, and that’s where I met the guys in Ought. The band got signed, so we stayed there. It is a really great city...it’s cold, but it’s an awesome city and rent is cheap. So that’s been the zone.

AM: I haven’t been, but it’s towards the top of my list. Do you have any recommendations of things to do and good spots for music?

TD: Definitely go in the summer. It’s amazing in the summer. Casa De Popolo is my favorite small venue. There’s always really great stuff happening there. As far as bars and stuff, go to Little Italy and Jean Talon Market. You can get like the best fruit and vegetables and a bottle of wine and go sit in the park. That’s kind of an essential Montreal experience. You can get like a baguette and cheese and it’s legal to drink in most of the parks. It’s so beautiful...go to Park De La Fontaine. You gotta try poutine if you haven’t. 

AM: You’re like a Montreal expert now! So talking more about your songwriting, you’ve been writing poetry since the third grade. Do you have any certain poets or favorite poems that got you into writing?

TD: Totally, I love poetry. It’s such a long standing art for me. I kind of still enjoy it in a really organic way. There’s never been a period in my life where I’ve really like put it down. I definitely would recommend...I really love poetry that sort of has almost like a cosmic depth to it. Where it feels like it’s reflecting on something large, like through little moments. I was describing this in an interview a couple weeks ago and they said that kind of sounds like your whole vibe, and I said I guess you’re right, I’m really into that. So there’s this Polish poet, Wisława Szymborska, check her out. She won the Pulitzer Prize. There’s this poet Charles Simic, who’s Yugoslavian. I really love his stuff. I think a poet who has consistently almost made me come to tears is Emily Dickinson. I think she has a kind of like, the way she writes can be a little dense, but once you get into the flow...you know how when you’re reading a novel, and the first couple of pages, you’re not totally in the flow of the way the person writes. Then you get a chapter in, and you get it down? I think with her poetry, once you get down with it, there’s almost a surrealism about life and the human spirit and stuff.

AM: Very cool. I think the fact that you’re so into poetry makes you a better songwriter. It’s cool how poetry can be so wide ranging as far as the different styles. So last question, any other bands you’re really into at the moment? Anyone you’ve been rocking out to on tour?

TD: We just bumped that band Bitchin’ Bajas from Chicago. That is the best driving music. It’s so good. We’ve been listening to the Molly Burch record, that’s really good. Just such beautiful songs. I guess the most recent thing is the Luke Temple album, the new one. The first couple songs I was like yeah this is cool, then sort of half way through it got super heavy and like, adventurous and deep in fear in a couple of those tracks.

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Chicago, get your tickets to Tim's show on March 23rd now. In addition to Molly Burch, he's playing with ANCHR Interview Alumni Jude Shuma, so you don't want to miss out! You can see all of Tim's other tour dates here. You can also grab Saturday Night here. 

A Chat With: Blonder

We recently chatted with Constantine Anastasakis, the man behind the new Brooklyn based act Blonder. Mixing 80's inspired synths and sticky melodies, Blonder have created an irresistible sound that's perfect for driving with the windows down on a sunny day. Speaking of driving, Blonder will be out on the road next month trying out their live show on new crowds, and they've also got a debut EP on the cusp of release. Prior to the tour, we talked to Constantine about his start in music, how an ex-girlfriend inspired his band name, his collaborative songwriting methods, the best spots to eat in NYC, and more. Get to know Blonder now...

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ANCHR Magazine: What inspired you to pick up an instrument and start writing songs?

Constantine: Well, the very first thing was this guy who lived on my block who I always thought was really cool when I was a kid. He used to skateboard, and he was into indie music. He used to skate with a bunch of guys from Supreme in the early 90's. He’s kind of like this cool, older figure. He ended up being a school teacher, and he had like a small skate company that he ran out of his basement. He had a bunch of gear and stuff. He showed me some rock’n’roll and then some jazz. I was more into nerdy music when I was younger, like jazz.

AM: Do you have any musical influences, like other acts that inspired you to keep creating music yourself?

Constantine: I feel like I have really weird listening habits with music. I get into like different time periods way later. Like I only really got into the Strokes and Interpol and that stuff like literally four years ago. Like so long after it happened. I just wasn’t even in that mindset when it was going on in 2000. I was pretty young too so I didn’t really get it. I guess, my friend Aaron Maine from Porches, we’ve been friends for the last 5 or 6 years. We just kind of remained consistent friends, like hanging out a few times a week when he wasn’t on tour. We were just talking the other night about how crazy it was that we’re still friends after so much has changed around us. His band had always been pretty inspiring to me.

AM: I was actually going to ask about your residency that you had with Aaron, alongside Dev Hynes too. How did that opportunity come up, and how was the experience?

Constantine: The residency was also along Frankie Cosmos as well. It was the three of them. Basically, I had been working on a record for like a really long time, but didn’t even have an Instagram account, or a Twitter. I actually didn’t even have a band name. It was pretty crazy, I actually mixed and mastered my entire album without a band name. It was really nuts, but I had been working on something for a really long time, and I would play it for Aaron and Greta [Frankie Cosmos], and even Dev sometimes. I see him less, but I still see him a bunch, and they were just always super supportive. Like “you have to release this, this is so sick.” I finally figured out what I wanted it to be, then I got a band together. I wanted to play some shows to bring attention to the band, and I said hey, I’m gonna play this residency at Elvis, do you guys wanna play? They were like “definitely!” It’s pretty much just on a super friend-level. Greta actually guested with me that night on my song “Lean.” It was so beautiful. We rehearsed a harmony for it.

AM: So when did you finally settle on the name Blonder then?

Constantine: I was actually dating a girl and the relationship was falling apart, as the story goes. We were getting older, and we’d known each other since childhood. There was a lot of pressure to have it be like the end all, be all type of relationship. It kind of just wasn’t working anymore. Anyway, while we were breaking up, we were still kind of seeing each other every once in awhile. It was not that much of a clean break. My whole record is kind of about that time in my life, and the romance and breakup. Basically all the songs were about this one relationship, and this girl knew that I didn’t have a band name. She called me really late one night and she was like ‘I’m with my friends, and I think you need to name your band ‘Blonder’.” I think her and her friends were having a few drinks, and she’s blonde, I feel like it was maybe some kind of joke. I just felt like the record was kind of about her and she’s an important person in my life, but it was super apt with the whole clubby, 80's sound of the record too.

AM: So it sounds like you have the whole album done then? Any plans to release it this year?

Constantine: I’m technically in the middle of my roll out. I recorded 10 songs at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys. And then cut 5 of them because I wanted the EP to be super like, every song was really, really good. I go back and forth with my record label a lot trying to figure out what the best way to go about it is. It’s kind of hectic sometimes. The next song is supposed to come out in April.

AM: So definitely new music soon then?

Constantine: Definitely, yes!

AM: So what is your songwriting process like then?

Constantine: The way I work is pretty...I would say a little collage-y. I’ll sit on a song and I’m not afraid to change a song way after the point of it being written. I also like to work with songwriters. I like to have sessions with people and work on music, like trading ideas. Rather than staying in my room alone. Some people are really amazing at making stuff alone. I found that it winds up being really counterproductive to do it all myself, so I would work with a bunch of people. I wrote a bunch of songs on the record with Aaron [Maine].  I also wrote a bunch of songs with some dudes out in California that I’m friends with, that kind of do that type of thing for a living. They have publishing deals and they basically write songs all day. I was kind of on the left-leaning indie side of it cause they’re my friends and we weren’t ever doing it for more than “let’s make some music together.”

AM: So talking more about your live show, I know you’re doing some dates in April. Is that your first tour with Blonder?

Constantine: Yeah, it’s the first tour for Blonder. There’s a 3 day stint with WET, and then an 8 day run with Methyl Ethel.

AM: Are there any cities you’re particularly excited for?

Constantine: Honestly, all of the dates are really cool. I’m really excited that we’re doing 7th Street in Minneapolis and The Empty Bottle in Chicago. We’re playing in Toronto. Randomly, a couple people in Toronto have hit me up like “I really like your music,” so I think it will be really cool to play there. Then the rest of the Methyl thing is basically Boston, DC, and Philly, so back home-ish.

AM: What are some of your favorite spots in Brooklyn for music, or just for going out? Any recommendations?

Constantine: Yeah, I usually I tend to hang out in Manhattan more because that’s where a lot of my friends are basically. I just kind of live in Brooklyn. My girlfriend lives like 5 blocks away from me in Brooklyn, so I’ll see her there, and everyone else is basically in the city. I’ve been eating this crazy, super cheap Chinese food for dinner called Spicy Village, it’s in Chinatown and it’s crazy good. Spots in New York, there are a few that are kind of always going to be there. Like that bar Sophie’s in East Village. That’s a good spot to just go an have a drink, it’s unpretentious and easy. I also go to this restaurant called The Smile a lot because my guitarist is the manager there. So I like to go there, they have good drinks and really good food and I basically know every single person that works there.

AM: So talking more about the tour again, how would you describe the live show? I’m sure you’re rehearsing now, so are there any songs you’re particularly excited to test out on the road?

Constantine: Yeah, we’ve been rehearsing. We were just in there til really late last night and it’s sounding amazing. I’m really excited. There’s this song that I don’t think is even going to come out on the EP. It was a b-side from the recordings and we last minute wanted to throw that one in. So we’re playing a 7 song set. It’s at like 30 minutes flat. It’s called “Just Because”, and it’s the first song that we open the set with, and it just feels really good. It feels really like punky, and wirey. They’re all feeling really amazing. We’re gonna close with “Lean” every night because that’s everyone’s favorite song right now.

AM: Cool! So last question, are there any other newer bands that you’re really into at the moment?

Constantine:I have a Spotify playlist, called $5 Playlist, which is actually the name of my EP. I kind of update it every once 2-3 weeks with songs that I’m super into. I’m trying to think of what might be a new band that I’m genuinely listening to. Let’s do two songs...one, the newest Methyl Ethyl single, I actually really love. You know, it’s crazy because I feel like bands are pressured to like other bands because they’re going on tour with them. They released this song and I was like oh my god, and I listened to it on my own free will. It’s amazing. It’s got a French title, it’s like the something something of sorcery in French. It’s so amazing, and then I really got obsessed with this one song called “The Woman That Loves You” by Japanese Breakfast. It’s such a great song, it’s off their record that came out last year. There’s that. Alex G just dropped two new songs today, I just listened to those before this interview and they’re really beautiful. Also Lorde! I’m such a huge Lorde fan. I thought Heroine was just the smartest pop record.

Blonder's $5 Playlist

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Make sure you go check out Blonder's set on tour with Methyl Ethyl (dates below), and follow up with all other news on Blonder's Facebook page.