Pre-Pre-Production: Anarbor

Arizona pop unit ANARBOR are pretty much booked solid through the fall. They’ve got a batch of dates with the Almost and This Providence followed by a tour with Straylight Run through the end of October-when Anarbor plan to record their full-length Hopeless Records debut. Luckily, the band have been writing for the album through the summer. Vocalist/bassist SLADE ECHEVERRIA spoke with LUCY ALBERS to tell us what the foursome have planned.



Where are you guys at in the writing process?

We’ve written most of our songs and done some pre-production with Mike Green. Basically we have a basic outline for every song on the record.



Will the whole album be produced by Mike Green?

Yeah, as of now. We worked with him on The Natural Way which was like our first demo for Hopeless Records, and then the Free Your Mind EP. He’s just really awesome and we get along really well. I don’t know, we just have really good chemistry. It’s awesome.



How has the music you’ve been writing compare to your older stuff?

This stuff is definitely more mature since we’re growing up, you know? And we’re all learning a little bit more about our instruments. But, yeah, this record’s going to be a little more mature. It’s going to give us a style.



What kind of style do you think it’s going to give you?

I want say a rock style, but more, I dunno, alternative rock. Yeah, let’s just say an alternative rock right now.



So how many songs have you written so far?

I think we have 10. We hope to have around 13 on the album.



Do you have a name for it yet?

No, we’re still in the process of coming up with a name.



When do you guys actually go in to record?

Like October and November. We haven’t really worked anything out, but I would guess we’ll be in there about three weeks or so. Then we’ll hopefully have the album out in about six months-maybe less than that.



Is there anything you’re doing different with your writing process?

Definitely. Since we’ve been on the tour a lot, it’s kind of hard to write songs. You don’t really have time to go in with a full band and do whatever you want to do. On the road, we basically get our guitars and come up with a cool riff and all sit down and talk about it. Then we’ll just get ideas and the idea will grow and we’ll go to a garage and jam with it. It’s definitely a group effort. We all write stuff. That’s one of the good things about this band.



What kind of music have you been listening to lately that has been influencing you while writing?

We’ve been listening to a lot of ’90s music. We’re definitely not really into the scene that’s “in” right now. I mean we have friends in the music scene and all that, but we’re into the more like Tom Petty- influenced type stuff.



Lyrically, what are the main subjects of the songs?

Basically it’s about growing up. We’re young, so all the songs I write tend to be about just growing up and stuff that’s going on with us and the world right now.



Is there anything you guys are changing with this album?

I wouldn’t say we’re really changing anything. I feel like we haven’t really put enough music out so that people would really know what kind of music we play or what category we’re in. But I feel like with this record, people are going to recognize what is Anarbor and what our band is. I dunno. We’re basically going to develop our own sound.



Do you consider yourselves a band that writes to record or a band that writes to play live?

We definitely write to play live. We’ve been a garage band for forever, so it’s where we started. We just play high-energy and rock ‘n’ roll. We don’t care what people think about us or what we wear or whatever. We basically just want to be ourselves and people are liking that. It’s really awesome. alt