|
| Hint: Have a band you'd like to see interviewed? Tell us. | Inside AP.net
| An Angle (Kris Anaya) - 02.06.07 | First of all, state who you are and what you do in the band.
Kris - My name is Kris Cortella Anaya and I am the singer/songwriter of the band.
(Background talking)
Kris - Oh, and I have baby-smooth skin
(laughs)
Since the beginning of the band, the one thing I've heard more then anything is "he sounds like Conor Oberst". To put that to rest (although this probably won't), how do you feel about that comparison?
I think it's awesome. I have total respect for Conor Oberst's music, I enjoy it. I think out of all the albums, I think Fevers and Mirrors is one of my favorites. But yeah, I can understand the comparisons. People always try to find comparisons to all kinds of bands and artists, especially Bright Eyes. I'm sure he gets compared to Bob Dylan and David Dondero a lot, comparisons are fine. Some people take it just a little bit too far; it’s just a young thing to do. When I was fifteen, I used to compare all these bands to my favorite bands. That's just the run of the mill life, I guess? But I still feel I have some of my own kind of musical techniques that don't sound like Conor Oberst and things like that.
How did you originally come up with the name An Angle?
I actually was seeing this girl named Meghan in Seattle, at the time I started trying to take this music thing seriously. I used to just write songs in my room and I would just think like "whatever", because they were just terrible. I originally wanted to call the band An Angel, and Meghan was like "Oh, that’s just so emo." You know, "whiney and bastard music". This one time I was drinking wine with her and I mispronounced Angel to Angle, which everyone fucking does all the time. You see this in typing, they'll type in "they have the Lips of an Angle" but they'll mean "Lips of an Angel". But she was just looking at the thing and she was like "Hey! That's a lot better, that names a lot better, An Angle", and I was just like "All Right", because I really liked her. So I kind of just stuck with the name because I thought that she would like me more. So there was like no really crazy way of how I got the name. I should've came up with a different answer like "I was actually in a desert island, and I saw this water, you know, coming off at an angle. That's how I got the band name."
Well I'll tell you what, that's a better way of coming up with a name then some of the other ones I've heard. So I give you credit with that one.
Really? Well I just really wanted to impress this girl. I ended actually getting to make out with her. So it was pretty sweet (Laughs).
Nowadays, who is the solid lineup of An Angle?
I actually wanted to have an official band because I was doing these rock songs. I was just trying to do this rock and roll thing for the next record. So we have Matt Sergent, Trevor Church, and then we have Aram Deradoorian, and then my really good friend, Steve Taylor, who is actually an awesome singer/songwriter. I wanted this other singer/songwriter guy that can sing, play keyboards, and guitar; just this crazy guy that can do all these instruments. Plus, he knows the capabilities of a song structure and stuff like that. It really makes a cool balance. But yeah, that would be like the solid lineup now hopefully for as long as they want to play. I'm pretty excited. I Aram played drums on And Take It With a Grain of Salt a long time ago and I've always wanted to play with him, but he was always in different bands and now he's playing with us. Matt, he's just always played with me.
I felt like the EP was your best work to date. Are there any plans to release it on a wider scale?
I did this deal, the reason we got to do the EP is we did this cool deal where Drive-Thru let us release it on our little label, and they get to have like four-hundred copies that they could sell themselves. I mean, I thought they were going to do a bigger push for the four-hundred copies, but they didn't even push it at all, which was weird. They just had these four-hundred copies that you could buy in the merch store. I think what I would like to do is put out a B-Sides record and I'd like to put all of them on there. I really like the EP because we did it in five days and we were fucking scrambling around for it and a lot of cool shit came out of it because in spur of the moment all this mind charging shit just comes out real fast. I'm really glad you liked the EP because I felt like it was the best one we've done. Especially like Blind, Deaf, and Dumb. I think we really fucking brought it on that one. (Laughs) But thank you!
Will you be making any videos out of the songs off the EP? Or are you going to just wait until the full length?
We're going to wait until the full length. I think a fan did a video, it was kind cute. It was this little claymation thing she made. I think it was just something for her art class or something. But I don't think we're going to do any music videos for the EP. I think I Promise You would be cool but we're not including any of the songs off the EP on the record so we're just going to focus on the album because we worked our asses on it. I hope you really enjoy it because I think we came out with a lot of cool songs.
I always enjoyed the videos you had. Like the one you had for Green Water with the fish.
Yeah, I really like that one. My friend Mike and I wrote that whole video idea, and they didn't push that video. They pushed that fucking terrible White Horse video. I didn't really like it that much, but that's just my opinion. I thought it was kind of this stupid Bob Dylan weird thing. I mean the Green Water one was just fun and I just wanted to show that we write serious depression songs. But it's not just all depressing and you can enjoy it. You don't have to be a sad bastard all the time. You can have fun with you music.
What is your relationship with Drive-Thru nowadays? You never hear about you and the label together anymore. The only thing I've heard lately is that you’re playing the Drive-Thru showcase at SXSW.
Yeah, I think it's just that they've broken away from us for a while until the album comes out. When that happens, I think we'll rejoin together. We're working on a bunch of stuff. I know they're trying to get marketing because we just finished the record. They put us on the SXSW show and I think that they'll put us on something else and try to make us involved with Drive-Thru. What you have to remember is that the label is really small; they only have like four or five main people that work at the label. So when they put out like two albums a month, I think they just have to focus on those bands. Then the bands that aren't putting out anything, you know, we just have to do our own thing Once our record comes out soon I think we'll be more in touch with Drive-Thru. I sent them the cd like a week ago so I hope they like it. (Laughs) That'd be awesome if they were like "This is terrible!" (Laughs)
It seems like Drive-Thru's always been known for a certain kind of sound for at least the last ten years, but in the last like three or four years, it seems like they're starting to split the roster down the middle. For example, there's the typical Drive-Thru band and now there's you guys, Socratic, Steel Train, House of Fools etc. Do you think they actually intended to do that?
Well I think that Steph really likes the whole folk thing like Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and stuff like that. So I think those bands like House of Fools and all of them, this is my opinion, so I don't really can't talk for Stephanie, but I really think that those are like her bands. I think that those are like her babies. Then more like Self Against City and those other pop-rock bands I think those are more Richards style of bands. I think Stephanie started this new label called, I don't know, Love Minus Zero, and I think she's doing more of an acoustic singer/songwriter thing on there. I think she leans towards more of that sound. I feel like those bands and my band, these are the bands that need work to make it big, or sell records, you know those bands require more work other then those pop-punk pop rock bands because they have the radio play and have something that's catchy and people are able to listen to it easier. So more people can enjoy it, and they can put it on like Nickelodeon or Disney Channel. I think that now that they've been a substantial amount of record sales, with most of the bands like Something Corporate or New Found Glory, that they were able to take a chance on a band like us. They were able to be like "well now that we have enough money, we can start signing artists that are different and that we can work with so maybe in the future they can sell records. I think that’s why, this is my opinion, but I think that's kind of the nature of why they sign bands like An Angle and House of Fools and stuff like that, you know, because they have the means to do it. I don't know, I think I’m just rambling now (Laughs).
From what I hear, the recording process is done. Do you have any idea of when the album will be released?
I think the news on the street was May, but I mean we don't have a marketing plan or anything, so I don't know, maybe June? But I'm really hoping for May, because that’s like the megatime for all the records to come out. The Wilco record comes out in May, and a lot of good albums will be coming out around that same time. It would be a nice time to release. I think we released We Can Breathe around the same time. Maybe it was in March. The two M's and the two records, it's going to be exciting!
What should we expect with the new album? Should we expect any surprises? Or is it just good old An Angle?
Yeah! I wrote this cool thing. I wanted to do this crazy 1920's string kind of thing. So I wrote this crazy song, that's supposed to be the first song on the record. It's just strings, but like a quartet and vocals and a girl choir, like a quartet choir. That's the whole song. It's like this crazy string ballad which I think it kind of fun. It's got this cool arrangement that Melody did for it, it's really sweet. There's like really cool powerful rock songs. There's a lot of solos on this record, these like shred solos that Trevor does. Then there are these really dark acoustic songs that are really short. I wanted to do something different, because you know the last album had songs like Angry Drunk, which was seven minutes long, fucking terrible. It was like this long, crazy ballad. No one wants to hear a seven minute long song so every song is pretty short, like three minutes. I think the maximum amount of a song is four minutes, but the acoustic songs are just like two minutes straight ahead, you know, just really simple and I'm looking really forward to everyone listening to it. It feels like there's this really cool Marvin Gaye Rock 'N' Roll thing. I'm really looking forward to it, we spent a lot of time on it, and we spent a lot of time to make it sound good.
You all seemed to have a really good time in the studio this time around. (This can be seen with your websites video studio shenanigans, which I must say you do a really good impersonation of Tom Petty). How was this whole experience?
(Laughs) Thanks. Well, it was fun. We did some other questions where we'll probably put up more videos that are kind of a little bit crazier. It was really fun, I'm really glad that Matt brought the camera and I’m glad that you say that I do a good impersonation of Tom Petty. I can do some other impressions, I can do a Tom Waits impression pretty well, and I can definitely do the Robert Smith impression pretty well. (Laughs) So we had a great time doing it, I just wish we had more time to record it because it was just so little amount of time that we did it in. We did it in like two and a half weeks. I wish we had a little more time to do it, but I mean it was fun. I didn't drink at all, which was weird. Matt got pretty fucked up though most of the time. And Matt brought in his computer, and he has like all these old Nintendo games on there. We played Burger Time a lot. I don't know if you've ever played that game but it's pretty sweet. And we played this game called Soloman’s Keys and it's the fucking best game ever, it's super hard. You have to play it (laughs).
(laughs) What's that about?
It's like this stupid game where you have to get the key in each room, it's really weird, and you have to go and find the door but it gets kind of trickier and trickier, and it's fucking impossible to beat. It's seriously super impossible. You know how when you get the computer emulator, you can save it? You can like freeze-frame or something? Yeah, but if you play it on regular Nintendo, it's fucking impossible because you only get three lives, and there's no continues. So if you get to like level thirty, because there's like eighty levels, and you die on level thirty, you have to start from the beginning. It's fucked. You should play it; you're going to be like "Fuck this game".
That's how all Nintendo games are.
Yeah, like Dane Cook style. "Fuck This Game, Nanna, you win!" (Laughs)
Yeah. (Laughs) What's the most ridiculous thing to ever happen to you in the studio or on the road?
The most ridiculous thing to ever happen to me on the road was probably when I got really, really drunk. (Laughs) I can't believe I’m saying this, but I got really drunk at South By Southwest, like overly fucked up. We played two shows on that day, and the first show was awesome because I was buzzed and I was on stage and was just like, "YEAH!!! Fuckin' we're in a band and blah blah blah." some stupid thing like that. Then I just kept drinking. By the time we played the night show, I was so fucking gone that when we played, I don't remember playing on stage. (Laughs) But apparently at one point, I was talking crap to Self Against City. They're our friends but I guess I was like pissed at them at something, and you know when you get drunk, you say the stupidest shit. But I was like putting our lyrics like into Self Against City but just like changing them to like "Self Against City they don't even play very well." You know, like into the fucking song? Then Jessica Brown was singing with us, and I was telling the crowd "Isn't Jessica Brown so hot?" Blah Blah Blah just super hot, and she was just like "What the fuck are you doing, Kris?" And at the end of the fucking song, I fucking threw my guitar down like super hard, and I just jumped into the drumset and I was just like "FUCK YOU ALL!" And then, after the show I proceeded to yell at my friend Patrick telling him that he sucked, even though I like hang out with him all the time. I was like "Fuck You! You're not my friend anymore" and then proceeded to yell at this girl and tell her that she sucked, then I went on this vicious rant right afterwards about how the moon is not honest and like all this stupid bullshit poetic crap that I was doing, you know, I was wasted. I don't remember any of this; this is just what they told me. The next day, I woke up in the van, and I was like "What the fuck happened?" And Matt’s like "dude, you were the biggest fucking asshole." (Laughs) And I felt so bad. I'm sure you've had an occasion like that before where you get so wasted that you don't even realize how much of a prick you are.
Wow. (laughs)
Yeah. That's probably the worst moment I’ve ever had in my life. I felt really bad. But I think that everyone understood, like no one was mad at me. I had to call a lot of people and apologize to them, but everyone was just like "awe, dude you were just fucking wasted, it's cool." And that was nice, so I probably haven't been that drunk since then, because I won't forgive myself for what I did. It was just terrible. I'm a better person then that, and I just felt really bad about it. It's a good story to tell, though.
You've been in with a batch of bands that have recently gotten robbed, or gotten their entire trailer stolen. Is there a message you would like to send out to all those thieves?
Not really, but I’m just sad that we got our stuff stolen. (Laughs) "I'm going to send a message out to all you thieves out there, if you read Alternative Press Magazine, fuck you man!" (Laughs) Nah, I don't know, it was just like so surreal because we've never been robbed. We've toured everywhere, you know, we're played Detroit, and all these high class crime areas.
(Laughs) I'm from Detroit.
Oh really?
Yeah
There's a lot of crime there, right?
Yeah, but I mean we're tied with St. Louis for crime.
Oh that's good; at least you have a tie. I know people get most of their stuff stolen in Texas. I think that's like the hot spot, but I mean we've only gotten robbed in our hometown. So we got robbed in Sacramento twice which is just totally terrible, it's like our fucking town. It should be safe. It's kind of a small town; it doesn't really have a high crime rate. Apparently it has a high car theft rate; there are a lot of thieves in the Stockton/Modesto area. We had this 1964 Epiphone Coronette. It's really expensive, like ten thousand dollar guitar, and it got stolen. Trevor got it from his parents, it was passed down. It was like this priceless thing for him. That was sad. Then Matt got all his gear stolen and that sucked, but I mean I guess you just have to keep pressin' on, you know?
What can we expect to see out of the upcoming summer? Maybe a full US tour?
Yeah, we just recently got picked up by this agency called High Road Touring, and Annabelle Johnson; she books us, her and Zack. They just booked us for South By Southwest and they did a great job. This is an awesome agency, I’ve always wanted to be a part of this agency because they have so many good bands on it. I'm just really stoked, you know? They have Ryan Adams and Wilco and all these other great artists. So we're planning on doing a whole US tour. We're hopefully trying to get on a better tour instead of just touring by ourselves. (Laughs) Every time we tour by ourselves, it's just so depressing. I don't know if you don't know this, but we're not the biggest record selling buzz band ever. (Laughs) So it's really hard to tour alone. Hopefully we'll get on some tours with some bands so it can boost our morale, if you will. But yeah, we'll definitely do a US tour. I'm fucking ready, man. We've been on a break for like four months because I had to write the record, but we're doing a tour in March and I’m excited. We're trying to do this cool stage thing now. We'll make it all artsy and fun I guess.
Like you said, you have the imprint, UnderACloud Records, are you ever going to put out any other records on there other then An Angle?
Yeah, we also put out the Two Sheds album and this Bridges album. Bridges is moving to Seattle so they're not recording, but I hope that they will soon. Robert just got done with our record, so he'll probably just move to Seattle after that. Then Two Sheds, they're recording a new record right now. If they don't go on a different label, I know that we'll put it out. I really want to put out the Two Sheds record. They're one of my favorite bands, especially this new shit; it's fucking awesome. I'm almost kind of jealous because when I hear their record, I was just like "Wow, this is way better then anything I'm doing." (Laughs) So yeah, we're going to try to put out a lot more stuff. I want to do a lot of cool stuff on there. I'm trying to put out more 7 inches because there are a lot of songs that we didn't end up recording on our record that I would definitely like everyone to hear. I'm trying to write as much as possible, I want to write like thirty songs this year, it's like my New Years Resolution. I really like Ani Difranco's idea; she has this cool idea where every year she puts out a record. I really like that, I was like "Wow, that's really cool" The people to enjoy the music, and it’s nice to have new music floating around there. I always want to record constantly so we can always put out something for everyone to listen to so they're not bored. So yeah, plans for the future are to put out some more stuff on UnderACloud.
What would you say your biggest influences are?
My biggest influences, I would have to say, there is like a ton of influences, but I guess I always have to go back to my roots. I can't speak for Aram or Steve; but me, Trevor, and Matt; we're real punk rock kids. I really liked the Bad Religion albums, Suffer and No Control. Then there's Stranger Than Fiction which is a great album. Then I started getting into more folk stuff like Neutral Milk Hotel. Then there's Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, he's a really big influence. Then there's Conor Oberst and David Dondero, they were doing something different. They we're doing like this cool avant-garde rock fusion. It was crazy, in your face, especially Neutral Milk Hotel, and Bright Eyes, and Kind Of Like Spitting, all those guys that were doing that crazy Lo-Fi totally different sound. I was just like "Wow, that music's really cool, I’m going to try and do something like that." I was trying to do something that wasn't so punk rock, but I was a punk rock kid. So I tried to do this kind of Neutral Milk Hotel kind of feel. I did this EP in Seattle, and I've never released it, only Matt's heard it. It's pretty funny, it's like so punk rock, the drums are super fast, and I’m trying to do this Neutral Milk Hotel kind of folk thing at the same time. So it's like this crazy weird EP idea. I don't know, maybe someday I’ll put it out and you can just laugh when you hear it, it's really weird. But I guess it's like any other influence I had, I really liked Pavement, Robert Smith is awesome. But the people who probably have changed my life musically, would probably be like punk rock, Fat Wreck, and Fat Mike, and all those people; the whole "Fuck You!" movement. On Epitaph, the whole DIY stuff, that's what really got me into playing music. It was just like "Shit, these people don't give a fuck, they're going touring in their fucking cars, playing in garages, and just rocking out. They'd just show up and just go crazy. That's what music was to me when I was growing up. Then, I got old, and now I listen to Leonard Cohen. I sit there with my wine and act like I know how to play chords. But, yeah I'm not speaking for Matt or Trevor or any of them, but what inspired me to play music was definitely the whole punk rock movement; the whole Northern California/Southern California punk rock movement like the Descendents and all those great bands.
Are there any bands or musicians that you think people should know about; or anything that you've been listening to?
I don't know, most of the bands I listen to now are really big. I mean, the band that I would probably want everyone to listen to is Two Sheds. I mean that's the band that I really enjoy and I listen to all the time. I don't think they get as much play as they should, I think they’re a good band. I think everyone would enjoy them. I really like that My Morning Jacket record, but they're already big, so no one needs to know about them. But yeah, I really think everyone should check out Two Sheds.
If you weren't a musician right now, what do you think you'd be doing?
Probably be in school trying to live a normal life. I don't know; find a nice flat in some suburban area. I'd play Final Fantasy all day. Smoke hella weed, and get Comcast On Demand, because my friend has that shit, and it's fucking awesome. (Laughs)
The thing with all the movie channels?
Yeah, and then watch Man vs. Wild on discovery channel. But I would probably just go to school, and I mean, what else would I fucking do? Work at a tire shop or something? I'd probably end up becoming a teacher or something. That's probably what’s going to end up happening anyways. I'll end up going to school and become a teacher and having two kids, and they'll cry and I’ll have to change their fucking diapers. (Laughs) You know the normal life. Living the dream, baby.
That's pretty much all I have, is there anything else you'd like to say to everyone reading this?
No, just announce that the record is coming out. It's called The Truth Is That You Are Alive. We'll be
touring in March, and thanks so much for giving us an interview, it really means a lot to us. Hopefully we can get more people to check us out. But thanks so much, we really appreciate it. We hope you come out to our shows. |
|
|
Displaying posts 1 - 15 of 27. |
01:22 PM on 02/22/07 | ha good interview nice job | | |
|
01:23 PM on 02/22/07 | hahah that was one excellent interview | | |
|
01:38 PM on 02/22/07 | this dude is amazing. good interview. | | |
|
02:05 PM on 02/22/07 | that was a really good interview. i never heard an angle's music and only heard things about him on this webstie but I am now inspired to give him a listen. He answered those questions really well/in full detail. | | |
|
02:12 PM on 02/22/07 | hahaha that was really funny | | |
|
02:31 PM on 02/22/07 | Don't start no shit wont be no shit Originally Posted by bassguy Then more like Self Against City and those other pop-rock bands I think those are more Richards style of bands. |
more like his style of boys...sicko | | |
|
02:35 PM on 02/22/07 | This will definitely help An Angle. | | |
|
02:44 PM on 02/22/07 | this is one of the better reviews i have read here, nice job.
none of this cut to the chase answer shit some bands lay down.
i like that he was willing to talk and it was interesting. | | |
|
02:54 PM on 02/22/07 | current addiction: rock band hahahaha nice. i wonder who would win in a fight between an angle and self against city. maybe there will be a rematch at this years sxsw. | | |
|
03:24 PM on 02/22/07 | This was a fantastic interview.
Not gonna lie, I've always written An Angle off as Bright Eyes wannabes. He seems cool enough that I'm going to give them another, more serious, chance. | | |
|
01:39 PM on 02/23/07 | That was a great interview! Thanks
An Angle Woo Hoo! | | |
|
02:04 PM on 02/23/07 | Kris Anaya is a cool dude. | | |
|
|
| Interview Tools
|
Browse Interviews
Alphabetized Listing
Most Popular Interviews
View Artist Profile
View News Articles
Buy the Album or MP3s
View Blog
View Signature
Posts: 1,208
View Profile Picture
Share This Interview
Print This Interview
Subscribe to Interview