A Chat With: Mondo Cozmo

Recently, ANCHR caught up with Josh Ostrander, better known by the moniker Mondo Cozmo, as he and his bandmates kicked off their tour with The Airborne Toxic Event. The tour takes place during the launch of Mondo Cozmo’s third album called This Is For The Barbarians, which was written during the initial stages of the pandemic and lockdown, and follows up 2017’s Plastic Soul and 2020’s New Medicine.

The new record showcases the duality of lightness and darkness, and the importance of still finding human connection during times of isolation. Sonically, the album has tinges of Bob Dylan influence, particularly with Ostrander’s vocal inflections, and it layers intricate, experimental production styles over rock and roll roots. Tune into the conversation with Ostrander below to hear more about his approach to songwriting during lockdown, the heroes that inspired him in the process, and what you can expect from the live show. This Is For The Barbarians dropped on Friday, April 8th, and you can order your own copy here, or pick up a copy on tour. Mondo Cozmo will be playing The Vic on April 14th and 15th, and you can snag tickets here.

Photo by Travis Shinn

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ANCHR Magazine: Kicking things off, I actually interviewed you at Hangout music festival way back in June—

Josh Ostrander: Oh wow…2017?

Yeah, so it was like peak “Plastic Soul Era” and you were on all the festival circuits! So I’m sure it was all a blur, but just wanted to say it’s nice to chat with you again.

It’s nice to talk to you again!

Well since then, a lot has changed. You put out your second Mondo Cozmo record, and now you’re gearing up for the third record. Just in general, how have the past couple of years been for you?

Well it was tough when the tour got canned. New Medicine came out and we were gearing up to tour in support of it for as long as we could. I think we were one week into the tour and that’s when the world kind of went crazy. We canceled the tour, flew the band home…it was a scary time you know? I got back to LA and my wife and I decided to get out of LA, and we moved to a town called Twin Peaks up near Lake Arrowhead. We didn’t know what was happening, and we thought this was a good move for us. It turned out to be great, and I didn’t know what to do cause we couldn’t tour, so I just started recording. What would follow would be the record that’s coming out in two weeks.

I heard you dubbed the cabin you moved to and recorded in “Chateau Mondo,” which is very fitting. Is that where you wrote all the songs on the album?

Yeah everything was recorded during the pandemic and it was therapeutic for me to write that during that time. A lot of the lyrics have a lot of stuff dealing with [the pandemic]. It shows where my head was at.

Yeah totally. Do you have any favorite memories from your time retreating to the cabin?

I was always bumming that we put out the New Medicine record in the middle of the pandemic. I was bumming about that because I wrote and recorded that album to be a live record. I wanted it to translate really well to live shows, songs like “Black Cadillac” and “Come On” and then suddenly we weren’t able to tour, and I was like “Why did we put this record out?” essentially. Then one night, it all made sense to me because my phone started blowing up on a Sunday night. I was watching TV and all my friends were like “go to Twitter!” so I go on there and it was Bruce Springsteen talking about Mondo Cozmo. He did an article for the New York Times.

Oh wow, that’s amazing! 

Yeah they were like “who are you listening to?” and he said he listened to Mondo Cozmo. I was like, holy fuck. I grew up in Philly….

Yeah, he’s the Boss!

I know everything about the guy, and suddenly I was like oh my god, and I got in touch with his day to day person. I wrote her a letter and said I know you probably get a ton of these a day, but if you could forward this to Bruce, I would be so thankful. It was a really heartfelt letter to him saying sometimes with what I do, it feels like I’m screaming into the night air, but he gave me a validation that I needed.

That is like THE validation.

Yeah, it shook me, it really did. I used that excitement to craft the next record, but constantly thinking “But the boss is over my shoulder!” Like constantly thinking, is this good enough? No, it’s not…make it better. It was a healthy challenge for me I think.

Just a smidge of pressure…

Yeah, just a smidge!

I was actually listening to an interview you did where you mentioned when you were working on New Medicine that Butch Vig had mentioned he was listening to you back then.

Yeah, Rachel, it was the same thing– “go to Twitter” and I go and see that Butch Vig is saying he listens to Mondo Cozmo!

Wow, so you go from Butch Vig to Bruce Springsteen, who’s next?! You’ve gotta get Keith Richards on the next one.

That’d be amazing. The new Grammy I think is getting on Barack Obama’s playlist. That would be a big one.

That would be incredible! Well speaking of your new music, I really like both the singles you put out, “Electrify My Love” and “Meant For Livin’” and with the latter, I feel like there’s this cadence to it that’s almost like you took spoken word poetry or rap lyrics and slapped it over a rock anthem. 

Yeah that one was the first song I wrote during the pandemic. I was really proud, the lyrics came really quickly. I wrote it in about an hour and a half— I was missing one verse, but I woke up and I had it in my head and just recorded it. It’s very Dylan-y and I was like, fuck it, just go with it. The lyric “here’s to hoping that you get out alive”—In the band, we almost joke about it, but it was a pretty honest statement at that time in the pandemic. I didn’t know if my dad was going to get sick…we’re wiping down groceries…It was crazy times. It’s been nice seeing people’s reactions to that one.

Yeah. You mentioned Dylan, I definitely picked up on that. Were there any other particular influences that inspired you with that song?

When I started that one I was like I would love to make this feel like a Johnny Cash song. Whenever we go through New Orleans, I always try to see the big brass bands and stuff. I was like man if I could combine those worlds and add a little Mondo into it, I think it will come across very original.

Yeah it’s definitely its own but it sounds like you had some good influences behind it! 

That’s awesome, thank you. It’s been going over really well live too, it’s been fun. 

I’m excited to hopefully see it in Chicago! So generally with the whole album This Is For The Barbarians ,I know the title was influenced by David Lerner and the Barbarian poets of the 1980s. What was it about their work that spoke to you most?

I was reading a lot of this poetry book that’s called The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. It’s awesome, it’s just like a selection of amazing writers and this one guy, every time I’d read it, I’d be like holy fuck…and it was always this guy David Lerner. This guy, I’m just really dialed into this guy, so I order more of his poetry books. There’s one called I Want a New Gun and it came in the mail, it’s a little poetry book. I opened it up and the preface is this blank page and in very small font, it said “This is for the Barbarians.” I was like wow, this is powerful. Whatever follows this, I’m in. It really resonated with me and I think it’s the perfect title for what I’m working on. 

That’s awesome. And the fact that you read that book and didn’t even necessarily know the poems you had a pull to were all by David Lerner seems like it was meant to be.

Exactly, yeah. He’s been a nice influence on me. I wish there was more work of his that I could find.

With the album, there’s an underlying theme that death and life can be celebrated synchronically, and lightness existing in dark times too. I think that’s been something heavily prevalent during the pandemic, and just trying to find the silver linings during these devastating times. Is that something that drove your writing on the record?

Yeah during 2020, my uncle was diagnosed with cancer and he was a huge influence on me, he was the best. He was dying of cancer and I would drive up to see him and spend time with him in Northern California. When I would go up and see him, I would always take along demos of songs and I’d work on lyrics going up and back, driving back and forth. It was heavy but it was beautiful and it was just part of the process for me. But it was beautiful to be there with him when he went. It was powerful, and it really impacted the lyrics for me. 

I’m really sorry for your loss. There’s a duality of that loss and pain and then creating art from a tragedy. I’d say that’s more productive than a lot of people who experience loss!

I also heard that “Electrify My Love” was written last for the record, but you wrote it with the intention of being the first song on the album right?

I had a record that was very much I wanted it to be fun sequencing with the songs. Everybody put a lot of work with the mixing and the guy who mastered it. The flow of the record was super important, where certain songs run into other songs…it was a wonderful task to undertake. But I wanted something, harking back to Springsteen, he always comes out one,two swinging on his albums. So I knew I wanted a big, big track to open the record. I wanted it to be a long intro with a calming sense to it, and the opening lyric to be “good evening everyone, I hope this finds you well.” Like a sincere check in on everyone after the two years we just had.

Yeah totally, well talking more about the process of bringing the record together, you recorded everything at home. Did you produce everything, or did you work with anyone else on that part?

I always record myself. Whenever I record with anyone else…it just doesn’t work for me. I’m very much best when I’m left on my own. With this one, it was cool because I could ask people to send me stems or they could record at their home and send it to me, and I could just load it in. That was beautiful and that was fun. My friend Peter Hayes helped a lot on the record, like he did with New Medicine. He’s in a band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, he’s been just a great wall for me to bounce things off of. 

That’s awesome! I feel like that’s one of the silver linings that came out of the pandemic as well, it’s easier to connect more remotely with people. I heard of a lot of bands recording that way during lock down. If you always prefer working alone, that’s probably your dream to just record at home rather than going into the studio!

Yeah I’m excited because we’re starting to get albums coming out that were written during the pandemic, and I think we’re going to be flooded with a bunch of great music and really powerful stuff. I’m really excited.

Yeah me too! Well as you mentioned, there’s still a pandemic, but the world is obviously opening up a bit more and there’s been more tours going on. You’re in the midst of tour with The Airborne Toxic Event now.

Yeah our third show was last night and we just started getting good! The first show I was like I don’t even know how to do this. I haven’t talked in…how long? But finally last night I was like ok, I’m good to go!

Yeah you had to dust yourself off and get back in the groove! How has it been going besides getting back into it? Any cities you’re looking forward to visiting?

I’m excited for this tour—we were going to push the record back to be honest because we wanted to be able to tour. I was like I’m not gonna be the guy who puts out two records during a pandemic, so we were going to push it because we didn’t have any tours or shows. I was scared to go out, and then Airborne invited us to do this run. So we decided to stick to the plan! The record comes out on April 8th, which is my birthday. I’m going to be in my hometown of Philly on that night, at the TLA where I used to go as a kid. So I’m really looking forward to it. 

That’ll be a highlight! Your birthday and hometown show in one night.

Oh my god there’s gonna be a grown man crying on stage, it’s going to be excellent!

You had to take that tour then! So for fans coming out to the show, will you be playing a mix of New Medicine and the third record?

Yeah it’s been challenging because I remember in 2017 when you saw us, we had ten songs, they’d be like we want you to play for 75 minutes, and we’d have had to play the set twice. Now we have forty songs and it’s fun. I would like to play longer but we are filling every second of that set up with every song that we can. We did “Come On” and “Black Cadillac” from New Medicine and then “Shine” and “Plastic Soul” from Plastic Soul and then “Electrify My Love” and “Meant For Livin’” from the new one. We have like an 8-song set and it’s something to see I think.

That’s got to be hard once you have more songs in the catalog and you only have a certain time slot. I’m glad to hear you’re fitting in a mix! Are you planning on a headline run after this one?

We’re hoping to do an East Coast run this fall, maybe another support run as well! I definitely want to go back to Philly. The phone’s starting to ring again, it’s nice to hear the phone ring. 

Yeah totally, it’s been very touch and go with touring but it seems like we’re in a good spot for it now. I’m happy to see you’re getting back out there.

Absolutely!

Anything else you’d like to mention before we wrap up?

I think just the main thing is I hope people sit down and listen to the record from front to back. That’s my goal. I guess that’s it though! 

Yes totally, I think people are barbaric (pun intended) when they don’t listen to an album in order for at least the first time!

Self-Reflecting With Harvey Fox

In any circumstances, but especially within the creative industry, it’s often too easy to ignore the signs of your own body and mind telling you that you need a break; You’re conditioned to keep going, to continue pushing out content and keep performing. There was a point in time when Colin Fox of Chicago band Harvey Fox came face to face with this exact struggle, and he ultimately decided to trust his intuition and be honest with those around him about taking some time off from his passion project. “I realized that I just wasn’t enjoying anything about the band. I wasn’t enjoying anything about making music or performing or going out and talking to people. It was all like a chore for me,” Fox recalls, telling me about about his change of heart and battle with social anxiety over a cup of coffee last month. The epiphany occurred right after the band played a packed Lincoln Hall show last year, and it led Fox to post on social media about his current struggles with certain aspects of being a musician. “I just made a post about this and was like I’m mentally not in a good space, I’m not having a good time, and I need a break from this to reassess and find a way that I can make a more sustainable life. You have to be careful how much energy you invest and you have to be mindful of your state and when you’re working on something that hard.”

As it turns out, Fox says his break from the band allowed for him to approach their sophomore effort with a refreshed outlook and clean slate, but he does also admit that the whole process had its ups and downs. “The album gets a little meta… There’s a lot of songs about the struggles that [I’m experiencing] and then I’m struggling to finish the record. So it’s real cyclical,” he says. Most importantly though, the second album from Harvey Fox, called Lullabies for the Restless, signifies growth and introspection for the band, and Fox’s ability to call out his own struggles in a self-reflecting manner is maybe one of the biggest changes between this record and the band’s debut.

Photo By Edgar J. Lomeli

Harvey Fox’s current-day, four-man lineup consists of friends that Fox made as far back as middle school— 14 years ago. The first being the band’s keyboard and synth player, Drake Morey. “We met in middle school. I transferred to a new school. It was a private Christian school and I was not so into it. Drake was into Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and he was one of my first friends at the new school. I went over to his house and he just had like hundreds of recordings of electronic music that he made,” Fox recalls. In a way, Morey served as Fox’s musical guru, introducing him to classic rock music and the recording arts. After dabbling in making music with Morey, Fox eventually met bassist Tom Garvey at a White Elephant party, where Garvey received Fox’s gift of a monkey carved out of a coconut. “Then I found out that he liked Radiohead and we’ve been friends ever since,” Fox added. Eventually, Fox also connected with drummer Dario Velazquez in high school when they both joined the lacrosse team. “ I saw him play drums in the school band and he was amazing,” Fox says. “We started playing garage rock in Dario’s garage ten years ago. Just Tom, Dario and I. Then it grew larger, Drake joined. We had a ten piece band in high school...we were just trying to be Arcade Fire. We wanted to make the kind of music that inspired us to make music in the first place.”

The long-term friendship between all four band members meant they definitely had a similar goal in mind and connected through their influences, but Fox says, “When I listen back to the [first] record today, it sounds like two different records, there’s side A and side B. Side A is definitely more of the reckless side, like garage party music stuff we were doing before. Whereas the second half is much more self reflective and contemplative side. I think when you work on something long enough you just have to take a serious look at yourself. It seemed like a lot of that first record was done as a joke. They’re silly songs, joking songs.”

Nowadays, in addition to the more direct, cohesive theme of introspection Fox wanted their sophomore album to have, he also approached some of the songwriting with very specific intentions. For example, the lead single “Pictures of Herself” stemmed from one of Fox’s personal relationships, as well as his self-proclaimed love/hate relationship with Lana Del Rey. When he started to work on the debut single for Lullabies for the Restless, Fox said he had just listened to a Lana Del Rey B-side called “Never Let Me Know.” “I kind of dig her, but also it’s hard not to scoff at everything she does. That song ‘Never Let Me Go,’ I just felt like so irritated by it, so the first line of [‘Pictures of Herself’] is ‘She never says don’t let me go because she thinks I won’t.’ The idea of this was to make like an antithesis of a Lana Del Rey song. It was me responding to a Lana Del Rey Tumblr singer.” Fox says after the initial idea fell into place, the song took a very long time to piece together, mostly because it involved a storyline about current events in his life— sometimes events that hadn’t fully played out yet. “I wrote the first verse and then I didn’t know what to do, then I wrote the second verse, then once I had those two pieces I was like how do I merge these together? Part of this album is it’s written in the moment… it’s all very in the moment. A lot of these songs are hard to finish because I don’t know the end of the story. I’m living this story.” For the second part of the single, Fox says he was scrolling through Facebook and saw a picture of his ex-girlfriend. "I saw a picture of her and that feeling of seeing somebody moved on with their life, while you’re just kind of stuck in your own anxiety and depression, that’s the feeling that I was capturing. With this song it’s like the first verse is attacking and antagonizing, then the second verse turns the mirror back on myself. Like you’re judging someone for taking pictures of themselves while you’re looking at the pictures and being annoyed and angry. It’s like you obviously have some of your own ego and headspace that you need to work on.” As for the final verse of the song, Fox leaves that one open-ended, saying that he prefers to keep a little bit to the imagination and allow listeners to have their own interpretations.

Along with a more thorough approach to the songwriting for this record, the band also stepped up their game with their recording process. “We met with a couple of different producers and there was one guy Caleb Harris, he runs SonWaves Studio out of his basement. I was at a party and I had heard one of the songs that he produced. I was like wow this sounds amazing, and I was telling him I wanted to make a lo-fi garage album. He was like ‘Well, go do it yourself then. If you want to make a lo-fi album, you’re not gonna do it with me. If you want to make something sound good, then record it with me.’ So he just like instantly started fighting with me,” Fox says, adding “That’s how I like to work with people. I like to butt heads!” Working with a seasoned producer with a strong vision not only allowed the band to challenge themselves as artists, but it also allowed for the band to take their time and work at a natural pace. In order to even afford recording in the studio, the band had to space out their sessions, and that lent to a more natural, fleshed out recording process that lasted for more than a year. “We recorded everything live initially with [Harris] in the basement studio, then did overdubs with him,” Fox says. “Then Drake and I recorded a lot of the synths and guitars and everything outside of the studio.” As a day job, Fox happens to work in the recording studio inside Hanover Park Library, which turned out to be very handy when recording the finishing touches on their own. “I recorded a bunch of cello and flute with one of the guys from our high school band. I also recorded our vocals in the library because there’s a soundproof booth.I work in the library all week and then on my days off I would come into the library and record.” Other finishing touches include sounds of trains, whispers, and random synth sounds Morey recorded on his phone. “We just combined that in a bunch of ways to make it sound cohesive. It was a very slow, organic process which I was very happy with,” Fox says.

Overall, Fox says that his hiatus and the steady pace of this record completely made the project more enjoyable, and produced something that he can be proud of. “After that [Lincoln Hall] show, I took a four month break from playing music. I didn’t even touch a guitar, and when I came back to it, I had a whole new life. I was able to finish the record, I was able to finish the title track of the album, the very last track on the record. It sort of serves as an epilogue to everything, and I had enough gear and experience from working as an audio engineer at that point to be able to not have to go to the studio, but to record it myself. The direction of the record after that time took a much more organic feel, and I think that if I would have stuck to my previous headspace and mindset, not only would I have totally burnt out, it would have been a much more angry and rigid record. As opposed to blossoming into this more much more positive and organic thing.”

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The record Lullabies for the Restless will be released in October via Midwest Action, along with a record release show at Sleeping Village on Sunday, October 20th. Get your tickets here and keep up with Harvey Fox on Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

A Chat With: Strange Foliage

The brainchild of Joey Cantacessi, Strange Foliage, released its debut track "Take Care" in April 2017. In the year following the initial single release, Cantacessi and his bandmates have been on a roll; playing shows around the city and recording a debut album. Called Settle, the record releases via Dark Matter's record label in just a few short days. To celebrate the record release, Strange Foliage headlines the Subterranean on Thursday night, accompanied by fellow up and comers in the Chicago scene: Easy Habits, Town Criers, and Rookie. Ahead of the show, I met up with Cantacessi and his bandmate Stuart MacFadyen at Treehouse Records to chat all about the band's beginning and the album process.  

Joey Cantacessi at Treehouse Records

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What was your first musical memory growing up?

Joey Cantacessi: Honestly, it was probably something lame like Blink 182. Watching music videos growing up, I was always like it’d be so cool to be in a rock band. I feel like I used to tell people I played guitar, even though I didn’t play guitar when I was growing up. Then I was like, I gotta do it to live up to what I’ve been saying.

Stuart MacFadyen: Our high school variety show always had a band at the end. I would see that and wanna do that. It was just our high school local band, but then I did it. I made it!

Do you have anybody specifically that you feel influenced your sound?

JC:  We’ve been in multiple different bands, so we had a phase of like jam bandy stuff. Our last band Marmaletta was more jammy, so I was kind of listening to a lot of Tame Impala, Temples kind of stuff. With Strange Foliage, I feel like we were influenced a lot by Fidlar, Queens of the Stone Age, The Misfits...kind of bands like that. I feel like I got into heavier rock in the past year or so. Just more of a punk sound. Also, it kind of blew up in Chicago. So it was easy to find people to play that kind of stuff with.

Strange Foliage has only been around about a year right?

JC: Yeah, we were just saying we recorded our first song in October of 2016, but we didn’t do anything until June of this past year, 2017. I basically just started Strange Foliage as my music. Once our past band broke up, I was like I’m just gonna do this solo thing and have people play with me. I was kind of trying to have all these different musicians on all the tracks. Then we got asked to open for Meat Bodies at the Empty Bottle, and I was like I should probably get a band going. Stu has always been with me, I went to high school with Justin so I kind of just cherry picked him. And I worked at Music Garage with Goose [Andrew "Goose" Giese], he’s our drummer. I just picked a little all star line up, and they enjoyed it, so they’ve kind of just stuck around.

So as far as the songwriting, it’s pretty much just you, and the band comes in to collaborate on the live show?

JC: I write all the songs for sure, then usually go to Stuart and we almost rewrite it. Then we go to practice and we show them the songs and [Justin and Goose] make their own parts.

As far as the songwriting on the record, is there a common theme? 

JC: Yeah, I guess it’s like discontent. It’s kind of heavier, more aggressive sounds. I think the original idea with every band I’ve been in the past, we’re always fighting or stressing and I just wanted to have this outlet that I kind of had control of and can kind of do whatever I wanted with and have all these songs already written. So it was kind of just an outlet for my own music.  To not have to be arguing with band members, it was more of a personal kind of journey that shaped into its own band. It wasn’t really planned.

Then you recorded it all here at Treehouse?

JC: Yeah. Everything was recorded here. This is the last day we’re gonna be at Treehouse.

Any interesting recording stories? Like Blue Dream told me they threw a toilet off a balcony....

JC: Nothing too wild, just...it helped getting closer to Barrett [The engineer]. I feel like it was a more friendly process than the past recording I’ve done.

SM: Yeah, it was smooth.

JC: It was really smooth. It took a long time. We were here a lot, and it’s only like 6, 7 songs. But nothing crazy or wild stories, just a lot of beers, joints… I don’t want to name any names or anything, but we did have one weird experience. We had a friend come in that really wanted to play on the record, and it was at the time when I didn’t have these guys. It was just us bringing in people to record. He wouldn’t play anything we told him to, and it was just a waste of hours of our time and money.

Any song or two that particularly stand out as favorites?

JC:I’m really excited for the song called “Well Kept," that is my favorite song on the record. It’s literally only two lyrics, but I think it bangs. I like it...that would be the one I’m most excited about.

How did the relationship with Dark Matter come into play?

JC: That’s been pretty cool. I was just happy that someone was interested. [Stu] works there so that was the first point of contact, but that wasn’t why it happened. That’s just kind of how they heard of us--

SM: They came to me actually. It wasn’t like us asking them to put it out. They were like get an album and we’ll put it out. They’re super excited too. 

JC: They were just like we’re trying to integrate more of a music aspect into what they do. They started this label called Press Pot Recordings. The whole process has been cool cause they’re not like telling us what to do. They’re promoting us, they’re gonna put out the record, and they’ve helped us a lot along the way. 

SM: They’ve had some other releases... they’ve been around for like a year or so.

JC: They’ve done a couple cool ones. You know that show Metalocalypse on Adult Swim? It’s this weird animated show about stereotypes in metal. The producer of that just did a record for Dark Matter. So we’re just excited. They also do a coffee release with every release...it comes out on 4/20 so it’s their yearly April blend.

As far as the release show, do you have anything special you’re planning? Any special guests?

JC: We have some things planned for sure, I don’t know about any special guests yet. If there are, I don’t wanna say, but we’re just really excited for that. We picked the lineup by hand, we picked the venue….We haven’t--as Strange Foliage--we haven’t headlined any shows yet. We really like all the bands that are opening. I’m excited to have Easy Habits. They’re a good band, they’re in their own kind of scene. I feel like there’s such over saturation in Chicago with similar line ups.

Who are some of your favorite other bands in the Chicago music scene that you want to shout out?

SM: We don’t know them, but Meat Wave.

JC: They’re one of our favorite bands, so good. All the bands that are playing with us at the release show [Town Criers, Easy Habits, Rookie]... Post Animal...they’re pretty tight. They’re putting out a record the next day. Pretty sweet! Who else? Blue Dream! Justin plays in that band. Goose Corp. Our drummer plays in another band called Goose Corp., they’re really tight. There’s so many bands in Chicago right now, it’s hard to choose.

You mentioned the over-saturation of similar lineups, what are some of the pros and cons to having a buzzing scene like ours?

JC: I think Chicago is just booming right now. It’s fun to be a part of it, and all of our friends are--while there is that over saturation, it’s also kind of fun to be able to go to a show and see everyone you know kind of thing. I’m a really big fan of the DIY scene in Chicago. In terms of venues, I love the Empty Bottle. It’s my favorite venue. I used to work there. SubT is cool. I’m not a huge venue goer. I like DIY spots. I was just at Observatory the other day, I like that place a lot.

One other thing I wanted to touch on, do you ever notice yourself pulling from non musical influences...like movies or visual artists?

JC: I don’t know about directly, but I’m really into Twin Peaks the show. A lot. I feel like I love the dark aspect of it. That’s kind of a tough question. I think just living in Chicago...the general vibe of like the scene is an influence. 

Do you have any other hobbies as a band?

SM: Skateboarding!

JC: I feel like that’s had a big influence on [my sound]. Just the skateboarding scene.

SM: Going back to one of the last questions...speaking of skateboarding, there’s this place in Pilsen called The Fallout. It’s a DIY venue/space/skate park. 

Any plans for summer tour?

JC: I'd like to! It’s one of those things that we’ll probably do like multiple 3 or 4-day tours, locally. For the time being, just cause we’ve done longer tours in the past and it’s a ton of work if you’re not at the point where you can bring people out in like, Nashville. I don’t know if anyone knows us across the border. We’re probably gonna be opening for some touring bands, like some local bands from Chicago that are touring. 

Any closing remarks?

JC: Just listen to the record, you’re gonna hate it

SM: Drink water.

JC: Support local music, drink water. Shop local. 

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Grab your advance tickets to the Strange Foliage release show on April 19th here. 

A Chicago City Guide by Ganser

From our very own city of Chicago, post-punk outfit Ganser is set to release their debut album Odd Talk in just a few short days on April 20th. To celebrate the release, Ganser will hit the Empty Bottle stage tonight, April 16th to perform songs from the new album in one of the city's most legendary music venues. Ahead of the show, the band took some time to put together a guide of some of the other best spots in town. The best bars, resturaunts, venues, record shops...even the best car repair shops; you name it, Ganser didn't miss it on their guide. Get the scoop on Ganser's free show tonight here, and tune into their Chicago guide below to get to know the band a bit better!

Photo by Samantha Lare

Bars

If there’s one thing we know how to do in Chicago, it’s drink. From high end cocktails to neighborhood dives, we’ve got you covered.

Charlie Landsman: One of the best places to drink in the city is probably Longman and Eagle. You can drop $50 bucks on scotch or $1 on PBR, also they play sweet tunes.

Brian Cundiff: Rainbo Club is one of our favorites for sure. They have some of the cheapest drinks around, play top tunes and they have a vintage photo booth to commemorate your debauchery. They also regularly feature the work of local artists on their walls. 

Nadia Garofalo: I’m not a big drinker, so I’m a fan of Logan Arcade. Barcades have popped up around the city in the last few years and Logan Arcade is by far my favorite. They have three rooms of vintage (and some newer) games, along with a full bar serving fair priced drinks. Bonus, they also have an awesome record store down the block called Logan Hardware. 

Alicia Gaines: We also wanted to mention Late Bar, a great late night spot with a darker ethos. You can dance to your favorite goth/post punk/ new wave etc. tunes until 4am! 

Food

Food is a big part of culture in Chicago, here are a few of our favorite places. 

Charlie Landsman: My favorite place to eat is a tiny 10 seater in Rogers Park called Noon Hour Grill. It's super far north, so I don't get there very often anymore but I've probably been there (and this is no exaggeration) upwards of 200 times. I grew up pretty close to it and have been going since high school. I've had probably everything on the menu and now just usually get bulgogi, bee bim bop, or kimchee bulgogi fried rice. Miss you Susie.

Nadia Garofalo: For my vegan folk, you can’t beat Chicago Diner, offering comfort classics as well as contemporary dishes at both their Boystown and Logan Square locations. They carry gluten-free options too, which I’m pretty excited about. If you go, be sure to save room for one of the best vegan milkshakes around. 

Record stores

Brian Cundiff: Slightly outside the city proper, Hip Cat Records in Wilmette is a favorite of mine. They’ve had the same owner since the 80's, he's right on in his grading of used vinyl and the prices are the best around.

Alicia Gaines: I’m a fan of Bric-A-Brac Records, it’s a really cool little shop that has a good selection of local and hard to find music as well as the basics. They also have a ton of vintage/nostalgic toys and memorabilia to peruse. 

Live Music

Charlie Landsman: The Empty Bottle is probably my favorite place. I've seen some of my favorite shows there for cheap and it always sounds at the very least decent no matter where you stand. They keep their intimate rock venue atmosphere with a low stage and no barrier which is great, and they let people go pretty nuts within reason).

Alicia Gaines: I always look forward to seeing shows at Thalia Hall. It's equally great seeing shows from the floor or sitting in the balcony. It's a great stage to play, too. Charlie and I saw Xiu Xiu perform their Twin Peaks cover album there recently, my favorite show of the year so far.

Other

Brian Cundiff: Favorite Car Repair- Warren's Shell, Evanston. Warren is a straight shooter who does fantastic work and will do whatever he can to save you money.

Nadia Garofalo: Favorite coffee shop-Star Lounge, serving delicious local coffee from Dark Matter. Local art on the walls, good vibes, good music and a patio in the summer. Chicago is home to a lot of local gems, my favorite is Space Oddities, a book store/ oddities/ local handmade shop and more. Just an all-around cool place to browse. It's also near some good vintage stores.

Alicia Gaines: The Music Box theater deserves a shout-out for consistently wonderful programming in one of the most beautiful places in the city. We've always been a group that's really interested in film, so it's a frequent haunt. 

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There you have it! Check out Ganser's upcoming tour dates and follow them on social media below!

4/16 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (Record Release Show) 

4/25 - Detroit, MI - Outer Limits Lounge %

4/26 - Pittsburgh, PA - Howlers %

4/27 - Brooklyn, NY - Alphaville %

4/28 - Philadelphia, PA - Mothership %

4/29 - Providence, RI - Alchemy %

5/01 - Brooklyn, NY - St. Vitus

5/02 - Baltimore, MD - Sidebar

5/03 - Richmond, VA - Flora

5/04 - Raleigh, NC - Slim's

5/05 - Atlanta, GA - 529

5/06 - Memphis, TN - Bar DKDC

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A Chat With: Little Cub

Electro-indie pop trio Little Cub are less than a month away from the release of their debut album, Still Life. Band members Dominic Gore, Duncan Tootill, and Ady Acolatse now reside in South London, but they went through a period of time working as a long distance group, when Duncan relocated to New York. Through the years together, they were able to overcome those challenges and produce an 11-track diverse and dynamic album. Before the April 28th release date of said album, we chatted about everything from their influences, their struggles as a long distance band, and what's next for them this year. Get to know the up and coming group Little Cub now! 

Little Cub is Dominic Gore, Duncan Tootill, and Ady Acolatse

Photo Credit: Megan Eagles 

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ANCHR Magazine: What first got each of you inspired to pick up an instrument and start making music?

Dominic Gore: I grew up in a musical family, both my parents were classical musicians and, even after they broke up, so much of my youth was spent listening to them. It was always the part of their lives where they best expressed themselves and even though their struggles should have been enough to put me off I was too young to appreciate how difficult their lives must have been until I'd been hooked myself. We always had good records around and even before I could really play, my friends and I used to collect and listen to CDs so it was kind of inevitable. 

Combined with good teachers and lots of opportunities to play, I was pretty lucky... Though I didn't really feel any desire to write songs until my Mum passed away, and then it became the sort of central focus of my life after that. 

Duncan Tootill: When I was little, I apparently used to appropriate my toys to use as musical instruments, no matter what it was; so after that (age 6) my Grandad brought a trumpet ‘round and I was instantly obsessed.

Ady Acolatse: I started on cello in primary school. There was this government scheme where everyone in my year at school could play an instrument if they wanted to and get a free instrument loan and lessons. Cello was the only instrument on the list I didn’t know and I remember asking my friend who was sat next to me in class what it was. He told it was a big wooden thing with a spike in it so I was instantly sold. I then moved on to double bass and piano. Bass guitar actually came a lot later for me.

AM: How are you feeling now that you’ve finished a debut album that will be heard by the world soon? 

DG:  Just excited really. These songs are very much snapshots of moments from the last few years of our lives and because a lot of the subject matter deals with our experiences of issues that are going on right now, it'll be interesting to see how people connect with them. We've been lucky so far that people who've heard the album seem to have a lot to say on it.

AM: In your bio, it’s stated: “Too Much Love", and much of the album is loosely thematically based on the Oscar Wilde quote "I represent all the sins you will never have the courage to commit.” What was it about that quote that inspired you, and where else did you pull inspiration from for the album’s theme?

DG: Yes definitely. I like the Dorian thing (and Will Self's retelling of a few years ago) because I think that feeling of seeing your emotional response corrupted as Dorian's is very much correlates to our experience of going through your twenties...particularly living in London. Be it through relationships, bereavement, partying, politics, pop culture or religion. A lot of pop music is by its nature self aggrandizing, but we're not really like that as people. I like the idea that Dorian is constantly trying to be outrageous and devoid of emotion, but at the same time he is sad and kind of ridiculous, so that seemed sort of fitting. That film The Comedy pretty much sums up the idea of seeing the absurd and grotesque elements of the whole thing, but still not being able to totally separate yourself from it. As the themes on the record all link to us dealing with real life situations, there are obviously references to people who helped us deal with those situations. We've commented a bit on poets and writers (Auden, Larkin, Ballard, Greene, Fisher) that influenced us, but one of the things I loved about being into bands when I was younger was all the influences [like] books, films, and artists, that you could discover just by being fans of a band. So a lot of our influences come from other musicians in that sense. 

AM: When you were working as a long-distance band with Duncan being in New York, what were some of the biggest challenges?

DG: Not being able to play live and having to wait on the time difference. We learned a lot about Ableton, production, and recording over the course of the process, and as we're all quite thoughtful and like to really put something through the mill before we sign off on it. Perhaps it's better that sometimes things took a bit longer. That being said, now that we're discovering how great playing live is, I can't believe we weren't doing this sooner.

AM: What are some of your favorite songs on the album, or the songs that you’re most excited to share with your fans?

DG: "October" and "Snow." "Snow" is the most personal thing we've written and we're hugely proud of that one. ‘October’ reminds me of a lot of the pop music that I loved as a kid and it's a very thinly veiled jab at the previous leader of the UK Conservative party so it works on both levels for me.

AA: I think for me, at the moment it might be "Mulberry". I think maybe because of how it's been connecting people when we play the song live has given it a whole new meaning to me and changed how I hear it. We wrote the song to start almost as a ballad that draws you in and then let the song build towards a way more upbeat, emotional and hopefully satisfying chorus at the end. All the shows we've being doing recently we've managed to get the whole room dancing by the end which when you're playing to people who have never heard our music before is a great feeling.

“A lot of pop music is by its nature self aggrandizing, but we’re not really like that as people. I like the idea that Dorian is constantly trying to be outrageous and devoid of emotion, but at the same time he is sad and kind of ridiculous, so that seemed sort of fitting. ”

— Dominic Gore on the theme of "Still Life"

AM: I saw you recently released a remix for Wild Beasts, how did that opportunity come up? Are there any other bands or artists you’d really like to either work with or remix?

DG: Well, they're on the same label and we know their managers a bit. We've actually met them a few times, but I'm a big fan so I've probably embarrassed myself to the point of erasing it from my memory. As we make a lot of more club friendly music too, we really enjoy and believe in the remix as an art form so any opportunity to remix an artist always appeals. We really like Dan Snaith’s remixes even though they often end up sounding more like new caribou songs than remixes. Working on John Grant,Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Jon Hopkins, Pepe Braddock or Leon Vynehall would be pretty special.

AM: You’ve got an album release show in the books, but are there any plans to tour more when the record comes out? Anywhere in the world particularly that you’d really like to play?

DT: Absolutely, we're hoping to sort out a tour with Rhythm Method soon as we love those guys. The album's out on April 28th so we'll definitely be out on the road round then. Right now, I think playing Berlin is on the top of our list.

AM: If you could curate a music festival, who are 3-5 acts (dead or alive) that you would you pick to headline?

Little Cub: Kraftwerk, Nick Cave, Peter Gabriel's Genesis....Would probably be a pretty fitting selection

AM: What other bands are you listening to at the moment?

LC: Hudson Scott, Leon Vynehall, [and] Boxed In. Sam and Oli are both good friends and artists we've worked with a lot so they definitely make the list. Leon Vynehall is a hero so....

AM: What are some of your favorite venues in London?

LC: Electrowerkz & the Lexington are favorites. Then Rye Wax, The Nines and all that Peckham's got to offer!

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Little Cub have their newest single “Hypnotise” out today. Check out the video and get hyped for Still Life, which you can preorder here.