Half-way through another week and here we are with a Meet The Band from , The Anti-Corn League. Very cool music, has a nice VU vibe going on, very chill. The second Album “Womb 11” takes it up a few notches, bit more of the garagepunk side of things. The Anti-Corn League has a pretty cool range, dig the Buddy Holly vocals, that’s not easy, I’ve tried doing that for years with little success. If you didn’t read that they were from Western Pa, you might think that The Anti-Corn League is a part of The Burger/Lolipop gang from out there in sunny California. So grab a cup of coffee, put on some headphones and get lost in some kicking tunes….
Hi our name is….Anti-Corn League
People say we sound like….Buddy Holly if he smoked weed and drank forties. We have also been compared to The Brain Jonestown Massacre.
We are…..Chris Kupchella, Derek Gresh, and Nicole Eicher
We are from…….Two very small towns in western Pennsylvania, USA. Vintondale and Ebensburg, PA.
Who are some that have an influence on you?
We’re heavily influenced by a lot of music mainly from the 1960s and 1990s. Bands from the 60s that influence us are Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, Neil Young and, Jimi Hendrix, because of the sounds, timbre, instrumentation, writing structure, and style. Then a lot of weird 60s psychedelic nuggets like the 13th Floor Elevators, The Seeds, and Roky Erikson. Also things like Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and those kinds of sounds. We were children of the 90s so stuff like REM, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Pixies, Pavement, and whatever else we heard because it was a cool new different kind of rock and roll. But tons of other things too like Iggy Pop and the Stooges, the Ramones, T-Rex, the Kinks, the Doors, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bowie, Dylan, and all those assorted hits we heard over the years that stuck with us in some way. We even draw inspiration from non-musical artists like actors, directors, painters, and comedians. We get influenced by the feelings of things more than the surface sounds and try to mimic more of the feelings and overall essence of whatever it is we like or are into at the time.
How old were all of you when you started to play and who plays what in the band? Chris started playing guitar when he was 10, Derek started guitar at 12, and Nicole started playing drums at age 14.
Can you tell us about the process you use, from writing the songs all the way through getting the songs out?
Sometimes parts of the songs are already written, the structure, the lyrics, or something. We play it and just jam on the song a lot from there until we are ready to record it. We used to play the songs live a lot more before we recorded them, but now we try to record the songs as soon we create them and have played them through a few times. Then we record it all ourselves, we are a very DIY band. We set up a room to record and make sure we can capture the kind of sound we want, from there we might record a few takes of the song and then move on to another song. We try to get at least a few songs together before we actually start recording. We also mix and master our music, Chris does most of that, and we all listen in and try to get every little thing sounding right in that aspect of the music making process. We try to give a bit of time while mixing so we can have a different perspective on the song and get it sounding just right. After recording and perfecting our songs, Derek creates the album artwork, and we upload our completed album to Kunaki to have it made into CDs so as to have a physical form to distribute to people. However all of our music can be found on the web through soundcloud, bandcamp, youtube, and other web sources.
what are some of the challenges you face as musicians and how have you overcome those challenge?
These days it’s just getting people to come out, hear you play live, and just getting to play at places around our area. It seems like no one wants to listen to original music at bars or clubs or anything like that. If anything there will be a cover group or a solo man playing acoustic guitar quietly, but not a lot of room for an original rock band. There aren’t many musical venues in the area we live in that promote original bands and their music. Another big challenge would be staying creative and keeping our music true and good. At times it’s difficult and things might not sound right or go right, but it’s always important to keep going and try to have a positive outlook on the whole thing no matter what.
If you could pick any time to travel back to for music, where would you go and what year would it …. probably 1967 or 1968 because that was when everything we loved was out or coming out and it would’ve just be cool to have been part of that era.
Who are all of you currently listening to? We’re literally listening to Creedance Clearwater Revival’s Greatest Hits as we type this.
If you could open for any Band right now who would that be and why? Maybe Ariel Pink because the after-party would be interesting and entertaining. He has a very progressive sound that has a nostalgic feeling compared to new music today.
My youngest son is 13 and in a Band, what advice would you offer him… To just stick with it if that’s what you love, but you definitely have to love it. Don’t let anyone tell you who or what you are or are supposed to be, just keep at it and stay true to yourself. Be original.
Your thoughts on the state of rock ‘n’ roll in 2015….. Pretty much dead, though we’re sure there are people out there playing rock’n’roll. As far as being mainstream or a movement or even being a social event it seems like no one is really interested in true rock’n’roll much anymore, at least where we live. It seems as though people are only interested in the facade or popularity and not in the actual music. We came up at a time when rock’n’roll was still around but on its way out but people were still forming bands and playing guitars and things but now that’s becoming less common to find young kids doing that sort of thing. We’re not sure if it’s the abundance of the internet or just the digital age taking over but it feels like people have less time for rock’n’roll and don’t find it fulfilling or fun anymore. We’re just ghost playing dead music.
Our plans for 2015….. record other album, play more live shows, and possibly tour parts of the US.
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