MEISA sat down with Anchors (facebook.com/anchorsma) before their show with Foxy Shazam and Murder By Death on March 28th, check out the interview below!
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MEISA:
How has the Northeastern community helped in your band’s progress?
Brian:
Northeastern’s actually been really, really cool. The program that Rob and I are in, the Music Industry program--Kyle was a graduate of the Music Industry program as well--we’ve been able to do what are called experiential co-ops, which is basically where you can create your own learning experience. For us, it’s been really valuable because we’ve sort of taken that opportunity and sort of parlayed it into our bands because that’s what we’re really passionate about. For Northeastern to give us that time to do it during our school career, to pretty much take time off of school to go do that, has been really, really helpful for us. We’re doing it again this year.
MEISA:
What’s your favorite part about writing and recording?
Brian:
The part when it’s done, when you get to listen to what you did. Writing for us can get stressful because there are a lot of moving parts. We have three guitarists, a bassist, and on some parts of the songs, I play piano, so to coordinate all of that is a little hectic.
Rob:
It’s tough to get the voicing right sometimes because there’s so much going on. Also, added the fact that Brian and I both sing, plus backup vocals. Adding ten, twelve voicings over each other gets a little hectic sometimes.
Colin:
I think it’s kind of cool sometimes that we were just recording acoustic tracks over the weekend. One of the fun things I enjoy when we have the framework for it is when we kind of do improv, where we find something while we’re there, we’re able to manipulate it however you want to.
MEISA:
How long does it usually take you to write a song?
Brian:
It depends on how hard we’re working. We’re going to be performing a new song tonight. From start to finish, it’s probably been about three weeks. We take longer than most bands to write songs.
Robert:
The framework was pretty much done in an afternoon. I basically just sat behind a computer. I had Brian and Colin come in to give ideas and we brought it back and forth. Then, we practiced and started changing different things. I feel like, a lot of times, one of us will bring in an idea and build off of it, and there will be ideas from everyone else in the band. If we have the time and we’re feeling motivated, I’ll say a few days. But with our schedules, all of us work full time and go to school, it’s tough to find that extra space in our schedule. It also helps that we live together too.
MEISA:
Do you plan on hitting the road outside of Boston soon?
Colin:
Absolutely.
Brian:
Our next show is in southern Mass, and after that, we’re heading to Poughkeepsie in April. At this point, we’re just doing laps around the Northeast. We’re trying to build a fan base around here, and hopefully that will spread slowly outside because you don’t want to just jump on the road and have absolutely nobody know about you and be out in the middle of nowhere and have nobody.
Robert:
We’re in talks with a few bands from Indiana. There’s a band called Remember Paris. They’re a pop-rock group who’s releasing their album the same time as us, and we’ve been talking back and forth about doing a two-week tour around August, September. So that’s our biggest push right now.
MEISA:
Have you been working on any new material?
Brian:
Yes, we have. We’re in the middle of writing our next release, which should be out sometime in the summer. July is the tentative release date. It will have somewhere between six and eight songs on it, one of which we’re playing tonight.
MEISA:
Who are your biggest inspirations musically?
Brian:
Do you want the silly answer or the serious answer?
Pat:
Weird Al Yankovich.
Brian:
That’s the silly one from Pat.
Colin:
For me, it’s kind of funny. What I listen to and what I like to play cannot be more different. I grew up listening to every kind of hip-hop or rap under the sun, and when I was a kid, my mom played motown, but what I like to play is rock music because I love it. It’s tough to say. Inspiration for me is just life. Anything you hear at any point. I’ve always thought that you were meant to hear certain things at certain times because it will inspire you a certain way. What I’m listening to now, which is kind of funny, is the hardcore band Every Time I Die. I love them. And very heavily cocaine-influenced rap, Pusha T. I have no background in that, for the record (laughs). I just really enjoy listening to it. It’s an adrenaline rush, but that’s what I’m on right now.
Robert:
Basically off what Colin’s saying, from our childhood, what we grew up listening to. I grew up in a house listening to a lot of progressive art rock, like Pink Floyd. Yes, Genesis. I branched off to different things as I grew up, going towards metal and hardcore, grindcore, jazz. We try to listen to as much as we can. We all come from a very vast background of music.
Brian:
I grew up listening to pop music and show tunes. When I was in high school, I had family who worked on Broadway, and I did for a little while as well. When you listen to our music, it’s sort of a strange combination. We don’t set out to sound like this band or that band.
Robert:
I think a lot of bands try to do that and put themselves in a corner and are not able to push out of those boundaries.
Brian:
We had done that before in previous bands, and I think Rob and I when we originally sat down and formulated the band, we said that we were going to make whatever we felt like making. Before we got here, someone saw us loading our stuff into the van and asked what kind of music we play, and Rob and I looked at each other, and answered, “Rock music, I guess.” And they said, “Yeah, but what kind?” I said, “I don’t know, man!” But I kind of like having to stutter and not knowing how to describe it.
Colin:
Another fun thing within this band is that on van rides, everyone kind of rotates what albums they’re listening to, and we’ll tell each other, “Listen to this, listen to that.” What’s really inspiring is how open of an environment it is. Just a couple of days ago we were talking about writing some new stuff, and like I said, I’ve been listening to a lot of Every Time I Die records. And I said, “Hey, can we write something this heavy?” And the answer was immediately yes. That just got me super excited because I discovered that the heavier something is, the more I like it, but it’s just really refreshing and reassuring to know that you’re in such an open environment where something we haven’t tried yet is exciting instead of being afraid of it and sticking to what’s comfortable.
MEISA:
What album do you wish you would have written?
Pat:
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, by far. That’s an amazing album. I would’ve loved to have been on that, minus all the drug use.
Colin:
For me, it would definitely be Van Morrison’s Moondance because it’s, to me, one of the few records I would put as a perfect record, where basically that means I would not skip over any tracks at any point. I took a trip to West Virginia and all I had was that cassette tape. I got really familiar with it. It’s a fantastic album front to back.
Brian:
I think if I had to pick a record, it will probably be Frank Turner’s Love Ire & Song. It’s just flawless from top to bottom. I just can’t not listen to any of these tracks.
Rob:
I have to go to with the Yes Album is fucking phenomenal, excuse my language. I mean, Starship Trooper. You can’t get a better progressive song than that.
Kyle:
I can’t choose just one side of the coin, so I’ll just say Radiohead’s OK Computer and Saves the Day’s Stay What You Are. That’s both sides. That’s the side of me in high school learning how to play guitar, and one side when I really got into music.
Colin:
I’d also like throw in Led Zeppelin’s House of the Holy.
Kyle:
So to break the rule of only one album, we both did.
Rob:
Can I get two? I would’ve written Queen’s Greatest Hits.
Brian:
That’s not an album!
MEISA:
If you can make up all-star dream band, who would be in it?
Pat:
I’m pretty sure Fleetwood Mac has already been made.
Colin:
Pat might not have it, but I would put John Bonham in any band ever because I’m obsessed with him.
Pat:
I’ll allow it based solely upon the fact that he is, indeed, a beast.
Brian:
Freddie Mercury. Done.
Colin:
F-Merc!
Rob:
Guitar?
Colin:
Jimmy Page. John Paul Jones plays bass.
Kyle:
Led Zeppelin fronted by F-Merc.
Colin:
There you go.
Q:
What are your music guilty pleasures?
Brian:
The Wicked Soundtrack.
Pat:
I will be honest. Hilary Duff.
Kyle:
I don’t think I feel guilty about anything I listen to.
Rob:
There are a lot of 90s alternative bands that I like, like Three Doors Down.
Colin:
Korn. I’m just going to say the whole genre of nu metal. I think that your universal answer right there.
Kyle:
Nu metal for everyone except for Brian, which would be musicals.
Rob:
He does sing to Christina Aguilera in the shower.
Pat:
We heard Genie in a Bottle last night.
MEISA:
How have you taken advantage of the summer weather this week?
Rob:
It’s no-sleeve weather now.
Kyle:
It’s the summer of exposed arms.
Colin:
Sun roof open, windows down.
Pat:
People can see how much I sweat again.
Colin:
It’s an opportunity to drive around Boston and blast funk music.
Brian:
To blast all music.
Kyle:
I ride my bike around in cutoffs with nothing underneath, rocking an deep V and drinking a mojito because there’s nothing more refreshing. It’s a wonderful summertime beverage.
MEISA:
What’s your favorite sandwich to order at Subway?
Colin:
Sweet onion chicken teriyaki on honey oat.
Brian:
Footlong flatbread Italian BMT. Ryder Hall hooks me up.
Kyle:
I did not get to enjoy Subway when I was at this school. It was a Mondo Subs, which was not bad, but I would’ve killed for a five-dollar footlong.
Rob:
I do a twelve-inch--excuse me, footlong--wheat with turkey and ham. I like to throw in some lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and banana peppers, and some southwest sauce, and mayo. And don’t forget the black olives.
MEISA:
Who is your celebrity crush?
Pat:
Hilary Duff.
Colin:
Fiona Apple, and I have a big-time thing for Rachel McAdams.
Kyle:
Whoever played Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim. Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Brian:
Emma Watson since I was 11.
MEISA:
What would I find it your refrigerator if I looked at today?
Pat:
You will not find a peta and cheese because I ate that earlier.
Brian:
A lot of pulled pork. Meats in general.
Rob:
We inherited a lot of Omaha steaks.
Kyle:
We call our backyard Grillsville.
Rob:
We like to grill a lot. That’s why we’re really happy about the warm weather. There’s kind of just a lot of random crap in our fridge.
Kyle:
Lots of Choco Tacos in the freezer.
Brian:
Do you want to talk about the pantry really quick?
Kyle:
It’s chock-full of Nabisco products. My father works for Nabisco, so he hooks us up with the Triscuits, the Saltines, Oreos, Chips Ahoy.
Pat:
How come you guys haven’t let the big boys in on this?
Colin:
What? Those fat rhythm-section guys can’t know about this?
Kyle:
And the band shortly broke up after that last interview over cookies.
