I've been in touch with you guys almost from the beginning of SA Rocks when I believe I hit you up for an mp3 for my jukebox. At that time you were already up at Dog Bone Studios in Burbank starting work on your upcoming album. I've been anxious for you to get back so I could see you live and I'll finally get my chance this Friday at Rock City Bar, so I'm pretty excited about that! But let's go back to the past for a minute.
As I understand it, the members of Archer Avenue don't share a hometown, but are spread out between San Antonio, El Paso and Houston. How did you guys meet up and end up forming a band together?
DAVE: (drums) We met in the SA bar scene, Jack (vocals, guitar) and I knew each other from Trinity University. I had known Marc (lead guitar) for years and we been playing around town with our band at the time Face Down, and Stephan (Bass) sort of appeared later, but Marc and I had been going every now and again to watch bands he played with. I remember seeing Stephan play the Rabbit my first week in SA with Psycho Plague. The four of us first played together in Summer 2003; the purpose being to record a song for a compilation while on break from school in San Antonio. One song turned into an EP a few months later, and the band was born.
How do you make it work being so far apart from each other, writing music, rehearsing, etc.?
DAVE: This is probably the most common question people have. Luckily we have a strong songwriter in Jack, and the rest of us focus on the parts and the arrangements. We have almost no rehearsal time, but Jack records demos on his own to spark the creative process. By the time we get together to rehearse, the rest of us will have heard the songs in demo tape form for months. We do a lot of the arranging when we re-record demos in full band form at Monster Music Studios, with Keith Krouse engineering.
The name Archer Avenue is taken from a street name in The Royal Tenenbaums. Is there any significance to that or is it just random?
MARC: We had originally been called the Radio One, and we had to change it, so amongst the almost hundreds of possible names Archer Avenue was the one that kept coming up. It really doesn’t mean anything to us, well at least not me.
Your music is pretty much straight-up rock-n-roll, but I think I hear a lot of late 90's alternative rock influence in there. One band that came immediately to mind was Fuel, in the days of "Shimmer" and "Jesus or a Gun." Am I correct in thinking that 90's rock was a big influence for you?
MARC: In the end it comes out sounding that way, but I think we are all going for different sounds and styles, and for some reason it comes out sounding like late 90's pop. as far as my role, I wanted the band to be very song oriented and me fit in like Mike Campell with the Heartbreakers, along with some Brit pop and country thrown in there, the other guys probably have totally different sonic goals, but if it results in late 90's pop, then that’s cool.
I also hear some distinctly Texas sound creeping in, in the lyrics and some country-influenced guitar licks, for instance at the beginning of "Cars and Airplanes." What Texas or country bands have influenced your music?
MARC: For me, the licks and tones that sound "country" in our songs come directly from British stuff like the Stones and the Faces, but as far as feel and arrangements, Dwight (Yoakam), Pete (Anderson), and the Flying Burrito Brothers are an influence on me.
OK, Dog Bone Studios. You just recorded your first full-length album there and got to work with some pretty big names, including Grammy Award winner Pete Anderson. How did that come about?
DAVE: Marc met Pete in El Paso TX, I remember him waking me up in Phoenix saying, "Dude I just fuckin met Pete Anderson!!"
MARC: I have been a fan of his playing for a while, and went to see him perform with Moot Davis, needless to say there wasn’t many people there for him to talk to, so he and I had about a 3 hour conversation and hit it off on a buddy level with little or no music talk. As I was leaving, it dawned on me to give him a copy of our song "Greyhound" that was on a compilation released by Bordertown Records a couple of years ago. We talked about playing some shows together, and after some failed attempts it happened. The talk of making a record came about really casually, just something to do. We had the tunes and the time, ya know?
DAVE: I met up with Pete the next night in Phoenix, got to the bar where him and Moot were playing at around 6 PM, it was just Pete and I and the bartender for like an hour, but truthfully I was a fan and just wanted to meet the guy, and I did have a demo with me but I never thought it'd amount to anything but just casual talking that day.
The next call came like 8 months and 4 demo submissions later from his label Little Dog Records asking if we wanted to open for Moot and Pete in El Paso, TX in Aug 2005. We had just come off a brief tour for Left of the Dial (our EP) so we were like “hell ya!” We played and Pete watched the whole show to my amazement; actually we draw pretty well in El Paso, and maybe the crowd got Pete's interest. He's a really cool dude.
Tell me about the experience of recording there. What was the coolest moment? The worst moment? The weirdest moment?
MARC: The coolest moment was basically the whole time, we weren’t there for any other reason besides making the record, no school or work to have to go to, just wake up and go play music every day (well, at least talk about music for 8 hours, then play music) I could do that every day and be happy. Plus every word that came out of Tony Rambo's mouth was confusing and enlightening.
Worst: battling with harmonies and arrangements, and being able to determine what’s right and wrong
Weirdest: The drum lesson that Pete gave Dave and I, (Jack) Bonner’s bacon, and the earthquake.
DAVE:
The best moment: Watching Bob "Boo" Bernstein record dobro on "Breakdown on N. St Mary's". He was the guy who originally introduced Pete Anderson to Dwight Yoakam in the early days. He played with Freddy Fender when he was in college. That and drinking beer and eating donuts for like weeks. And, hanging out with Tony Rambo the whole time we recorded. He's the best producer I've ever met.
The worst: Day 7 or 8 or so, we had trouble with the harmonies. Pete, Tony, and Sally (Browder) wanted a ton of harmonies that we weren't used to doing, and it took major Jack and Marc chops on the creative end to come up with them, and the end result was exactly what the producers and we were going for.
Weirdest: The earthquake during the drum tracking, day 2.
OK, pimp your upcoming CD to me in 50 words or less. Make me want to buy it.
We Watched the Headlights, We Watched the Stars, a record by Archer Avenue. Influences from the Stones, the Kinks, to contemporaries Jimmy Eat World and alt. country twang of the Old 97's. With knob twiddlers Pete Anderson, Tony Rambo, and Sally Browder behind the board, the end result is just a tight, straight-up rock record.
I understand you're also in the process of organizing a Southwest tour. If you could only take 5 CD's to listen to on those long bus rides, what would be your must-haves?
MARC: Stones’ Exile on Main Street, Tom Petty’s Greatest hits, Gram Parson’s Grievous Angel, Aerosmith’s Rocks, Dwight Yoakam’s A Long Way Home, Oasis’ What’s the Story Morning Glory.
DAVE: H.I.M.'s Love Metal, Amorphis' Tuneola, Dwight Yoakam’s Population Me, and I’m really into Megadeth’s The System Has Failed and Moot Davis’ self-titled debut at the moment.
Anything else you'd like to say to the readers of SA Rocks?
Come check us out sometime, we're going to be playing SA a lot in the next year or so, at sort of random spurts. And also, drink a beer! stay in touch.
Thanks for your time and I'm looking forward to catching you live at Rock City Bar on Friday (Nov 4)!
DAVE: Thanks SA Rocks!!