Interview with the great Anathallo!

When you start off a blog, you really want your post to be a real humdinger. As I'm stuck in the quagmire that is the office, I thought I'd take the easy way and simply post an interview I did with the mighty Anathallo.

1. You guys are fiercely independent. Can you tell us more about why you choose to book your own tours, organise your own merch and recording, etc. as opposed to going the label route? Have you been courted by labels in the past and would you consider a recording contract?

Well! We're sort of a hybrid animal right now. Yes, we're fiercely independent... but perhaps we don't have as much to show for our independence as we did, oh, maybe two years ago. We do have management, we do have a booking agent... we have our own label but the distribution for that comes straight through a company called Nettwerk. What we've learned is... yes, it's important as artists to make sure your vision for your art isn't blurred (by money, by the idea of being "big," etc). But it's also important - if you can find people to help propel you towards that vision, it might be immature to stay independent strictly because you've grown attached to the word. It's still a stretch for us... a lot of our identity, especially early on, revolved around us being (as you called it) "fiercely independent." Now, I would say, it's more of an inward spirit rather than not being associated with anyone. That goes for labels, too... if one were to make sense, we wouldn't be shy. It just has to make sense.

2. Can you tell me more about Artist Friendship and what it's about?

Artist Friendship has two forms. It's humble beginnings were - "we don't have distribution, our friends don't have distribution, we love our friends' music... let's do something together." So ourselves, Javelins, Foxhole, Bunkbed Nights, and Colour Revolt... we pretty much swapped cds and would put each other's music out at shows. That was Artist Friendship! And we had all these ideas... if one of us reached a point where we could look out for each other, put out each other's music, that's what we'd call it. When we signed with our management company, Nettwerk, they encouraged us to do just that. They let us use their company's distribution to put out our own record. We were our own bosses. So we figured, we have to name this something - why not Artist Friendship? The name would be somewhat established and if, down the road, we wanted to branch out we'd already have the name halfway-familiar.

3. How has switching to music full time from juggling it with studies and other commitments changed your approach to the band? Has it been liberating?

Extremely liberating. At times, money can be a little tight... but we still have moments every few weeks where we all look at each other and laugh. Like, "wow - can you believe this happened?" We're paying ourselves to write music every day, we're living off the band while we record. When we tour, our bank accounts aren't down to twenty bucks. That's just the... I don't know why, but it's the funniest thing. It's the nicest thing. To be doing exactly what you want to be doing and to have it support you. Liberating is the exact right word.

4. Your lyrics and music always seem to fit together, not just in their phrasing but also in the content. How do you go about writing and constructing your music?

I think nearly all the credit there has to go to Matt. We work together, generally, in the same room while we hash out the music parts. We might start with - "we want this feeling" or "we want this type of song" - but it invariably takes twists and turns and what we began with sounds nothing like the finished product. Matt's the one who will then craft together the lyrics and the melodies... I'm always very impressed by what he puts together. There are not too many people I can think of that are able to do what he does.

5. Considering how intricate your music is, have any of you studied music formally?

Ha! It seems like we should have, right? But no - a couple of us played in the high school band. That's as formal as it gets for us. Jamie, our trumpet player, knows probably the most music theory of anyone in the band. We definitely rely on him to get us through musical problems... "why does this work? why isn't this fitting?" But I also think there's something very nice of, however the people in Anathallo have learned music... there are some very interesting ears and each person knows what they like. Can I explain exactly why a part really comes together for me? No, not really. But I also know right when it hits.

6. Much of your music has a spontaneity and freedom about it. Is it difficult to capture that in the studio? You must have a lot of fun figuring out how to record Velcro properly!

Yes, very difficult! It will be interesting to hear what you think of the new record. If there's one consistent complaint towards our band - and it usually comes in the form of a compliment - but people will come up after shows... "you all sounded wonderful! I had no idea! it sounds nothing like the record!" And then they'll backtrack once they've realized what they've said - ha! - but I think what they mean is... we've never really captured the sense of energy of what we do live on an album. The project we're working on right now... we'll have spent six weeks in a real honest-to-goodness studio. Wonderful mics, an extremely intelligent engineer. The songs - at least how they are now - are the "best sounding" pieces we've ever put together.

7. To me it seems like passion is one of the biggest ingredients fuelling your music. How do you go about keeping that passion alive when you tour relentlessly and have to deal with broken vans, cancelled shows, hungry bellies and stiff legs?

Let's see if I can make this make sense. I've never been married, so I'm not sure if this analogy works... but it's what popped into my head first. You're with this person you're insanely in love with. You dated for years and now you're finally together just as you dreamed it. Is it hard to keep that spark everyday? Do routines rob you of the magic you started with? I think they can, I think it can be pretty hard. Marriage sounds like the one of the hardest things you could put yourself through (and I have an absolutely wonderful girlfriend). I think, in somewhat the same way, we're in this band... we've always dreamed about doing this together. It took years and now we're finally living it, it happened, it's magic. And now that we're here... you try not to take each other for granted, try to keep the sense of adventure going, always have some sort of movement (where are we going? what are we working towards?), remember how things used to be... all those things. Go out of your way for your bandmates and do the little things. And of course, that goes right out the window on week five of your tour because you're going completely out of your mind. It's a challenge! But it's one we're all going through together... and in a way, that's nice because we have these moments of clarity... like, we don't mean to hurt each other. We don't mean to be thoughtless. But we all are and there can be sweet times when we realize those things happen and we love each other anyway. And maybe that just helped out my marriage analogy a little bit!

8. Considering how many band members you have, and all your instrumentation, how challenging is it getting everything into one vehicle, or dealing with difficult sound guys? And considering each member is a completely different individual, is it tough to get along sometimes when you've been cramped in a van for a month?

Hmm... it sounds like I killed two birds with one stone! For us, the state of the relationships inside the band dictate the passion we bring towards our shows and projects. When we're all getting along, understanding each other, making sure to do fun things together (and not just band stuff - a different kind of fun)... that's when everything clicks. The band can become a chore when we're feeling disconnected. I don't know if that's how it is for every band... but at least for us, that's how we work.

9. You have your roots in punk and hardcore – how were you received as a band when you first started playing? Was there a willingness to embrace how different you are?

Kind of! We've been a band seven years now... and I would say, universally, we've always been the "weird" band. Whether it was playing a church basement with seven other hardcore bands or spending summers with The Format or Brand New, we've always kind of come on stage knowing it would take some trust on the audience's part to give us a listen. For the most part, people have been really kind! It kind of puts a chip on your shoulder, for sure... but it also means, when you feel embraced by a crowd, you REALLY feel that embrace.

10. The 'post-rock' (whatever that means!) / folk / indie genre is one which has many bands experimenting and doing new things, but, at least to me, there is an enormous distinction between honest and passionate experimentation and a sort of "I'm more arty than the next guy" attitude. How do you keep your music so fresh and so different? Where do you draw your inspiration from?

I hope this doesn't sound lame... but we focus a lot more on sounds than on instruments. There are seven of us - fourteen hands - so someone is generally available to fill a song with whatever we think it needs. Someone in the room will say as we're writing, I think there should be a _______ kind of sound. Or we need something that will make us feel like ________. And then we go about experimenting until we can fill the song with what we want. And that's how you end up with velcro and wood blocks on your record.

11. In terms of your experimentation using otherwise ordinary objects (in a non-gimmicky way) to create beautiful music, is it a happy surprise finding that something has a particular sound and you then work that into your music, or do you have an idea of a particular pop or bang and go about hitting things around the house until one works?

Look at this, I keep getting ahead of myself! Maybe that's the sign of a good interviewer? When the questions work together so well? There are probably less "happy surprises" compared to the amount of "try this... no, try this" experiments until we can get something to work.

12. Being a band of Christians, how do you stay focused on God on the road?

This is always a hard question to answer, because I think you'd get seven different answers if you asked each of us. It's a personal thing... for me, what refreshes and inspires are the people around. Reading a good book, having a good conversation, people being genuinely interested in how I'm doing (and being genuinely interesting themselves!). Those are the reminders... God is here. There's something bigger at work. A point of clarification - and it's always strange to address - but Anathallo as it is right now isn't comprised entirely of Christians. It's something we've grown into, it's something we're comfortable with now (whereas, maybe three years ago the idea would have freaked us out). Maybe that's too vague, but it's kind of hard to address in a paragraph.

13. One thing I love about your band is that not only is the music refreshing, but your message is as well. It's hard to feel disillusioned when listening to Anathallo and the creativity of your music makes me wonder at the intricacy of creation (as cheesy as that sounds). Can you sum up your message as a band in a few words?

I think this is another case of... there are probably seven different answers floating around out there! For me, I think the message of Anathallo still lies in it's name. In greek, "to cause to grow, to renew, to bloom again." We've been doing this for seven years. I'm not sure I could count how many view shifts, new ways of understanding that have occured throughout our time as a band. How many different ways our faith has been transformed, our ways at making sense of the world. There is a constant... hopefully... growing. A sense of renewal, not trying to be stagnant. And that even in those times where do you feel stuck... knowing that people bloom again. That we get through the places that keep us stuck, that spring always follows winter. Without that sounding cheesy, of course.

14. What can you tell us about the new album? Is there a theme as in Floating World? What can we expect from the album?

The album - still unnamed at this point! - has ten songs and we're about 2/3rds of the way through recording. We started writing this past February and the record will be finished by mid-October. By Anathallo standards, this is a quick strike. Floating World took nearly three years... Holiday at the Sea was only a half album response to Sparrows. So, what we have... we thought it'd be fun, after experimenting for so long at connecting themes in Floating World... let's just try to write some songs. Let's see what keeps reoccuring in the lyrics. Let's just do whatever interests us and make sense of it afterwards. And that's been fun! The songs are shorter... perhaps a little brighter, slightly dancier. It will be interesting to see how the album is received. We like it! Of course! But every band in the studio loves their record and imagines the rest of the world coming along. Every band. So who knows what the reaction will be?

15. Will you really play shows for candy?

Haha. Not really? I mean, yes! I know that's Anathallo folklore. A guarantee wasn't met one night and the promoter wasn't able to give us as much as he had hoped. Which was fine! We understood. But the venue decided to make it up to us by giving the band two HUGE (I mean, these things were gigantic) boxes of M&M's and Skittles. Which was wonderful, but probably had something to do with us being cranky (too much sugar?) for the next three weeks. You would just sit in the van... get bored... and eat M&M's. And that would repeat every twenty of minutes.

So no, would we care to repeat that? No. Would we still accept candy from promoters? OF COURSE. Especially Mike & Ikes... and ESPECIALLY if the Mike & Ike's are "Tangy Twister." Pretty much the best candy ever.

So maybe I ought to say yes. Or maybe. Who knows?!

16. Do you have any ambitions to tour overseas? Is there anything in particular you want to achieve as a band?

I would say it's our number one ambition. That's still the main thing that... we started out playing as teenagers. Eighteen, seventeen and sixteen year olds. We've pretty much done nearly everything we would have hoped to accomplish... except for getting to Europe. Or Japan. Or South Africa. Or South America. Or anywhere. And really, if we can knock that out... of course there's more to do. There's always room to grow as artists and room to grow as far as achievements. There's always something to do... it's not like we'd get bored after touring overseas. But it would be, in a lot of ways, they final checkmarks on our list. If the band can make it to other countries across the sea, I think Anathallo will have done everything we ever hoped for. And I think it will happen. I hope it will happen.