Q&A: Anarbor Reflects on Their Past Albums, Being Independent Artists & What They Learned While on Hiatus
Words & Interview by Ally Fisher
July 17th, 2003: The day Arizona pop-punk band Anarbor performed for the first time at a local skating rink. Fast-forward 13 years, the guys, now in their 20s, have released their third studio album as a band and lived for a myriad of triumphs. We had the chance to catch up with lead singer Slade Echeverria and guitarist Adam Juwig to talk about the successful new, self-titled album, not being signed to a label and what happened during their mini-hiatus. Check it out below!
Catch us up on what you’ve guys have been up to. You guys took a short 2-year hiatus after the release of Burnout but were really only apart for a year before you started writing and recording again. Can you fill us in on what took place during that gap year? And what was it like being in the studio again?
It was more or less a growing up period for us. We were all burnt out from just everything that was going on. We did a lot of hanging out at home and just reconnecting with family. And we’re not signed to a label anymore, so we had full control over this record and what we wanted it to sound like, how fast we wanted to push it, stuff like that. So that was awesome!
This album is definitely a bit more pop-heavy (seen on tracks “Dopamine” and “Josie”) as compared to your older stuff, can you go into a bit of that reasoning and perhaps influence for the change in sound?
Past records, we were forced to write with other people [and]what came out of that came onto the records. I think it’s just us growing up and listening to new music. We have a lot of hard songs, but we also have pop songs such as “18” and “You & I,” that’s just who we are. We took so much time away from [being a band]so we could focus on our own things. We could focus on our own personal things like family and relationships and just life. I sent the record to our first manager and he said, “You guys sound less angry!” We weren’t in high school writing this album, we were less angsty about everything. As we’ve grown up, we’ve realized a lot about ourselves and that shows on the album. It is definitely a more laid back, more straight-forward album than our previous stuff.
Did you guys take any inspiration from your previously released material such as Burnout or The Words You Don’t Swallow?
I don’t think so honestly. Like I said, it’s us taking a step back, doing things for ourselves. You know things happen in our lives. We’ve lived normal lives. Good and bad things happen. In the past, we’ve always said we always write about the daily life, but this one is the most relatable and most personal because we actually got to live for ourselves and experience it and then, you know, write about it.
How does this album compare to your older stuff? To me it really seems like a new era of Anarbor. Is that kind of what you guys were going for with this album?
On the first album, The Words You Don’t Swallow, we wrote all our songs with [producer/friend] Mike Green and with [the follow-up]Burnout, we wrote around with a bunch of other people. That really made the record not as personal for us. Coming into this third record, we had all creative control. We were literally working with our best friend in his home studio. It was awesome. What’s different is before, the label would be like, “We’ll fly you out to LA for three weeks, then you’ll have the record done.” This one, back in September, that’s when we started recording it. There was no rush, there were no time constraints. The whole idea to do another record goes back 2.5 years. Probably 6 months after Burnout came out, as the band was going on hiatus. It took two years before we finally got around to it. We worked from September to April, and we weren’t working on it everyday. Sometimes we’d go in individually and work or sometimes we’d go in all together. It was awesome.
Any plans on doing a tour for the album?
We definitely have a tour coming up. It’s getting finalized right now so we can’t say anything too specific! (Editor’s Note: Since the interview, the band has announced a fall tour with Emarosa. You can find tickets here.)
How has the fan response been for the album? I’ve been a fan of you guys since 2009 and I was ecstatic to hear the new stuff and I was not at all disappointed!
It’s been great. It’s been so good. We didn’t really have any expectations. It was, ‘release the record see what happens.’ But so far it’s been fantastic. I haven’t really heard any bad comments other than that it’s a bit more poppy. Everybody’s been really digging it. We’re not 20 anymore, we’re not singing about parties or chicks. We’ve grown up. We wanted to make it relatable, and the fans are really relating.
For being a band for over a decade, what would you say has been the ‘highlight’ of your career?
It’s weird, you know, being in a band for that long. I always remember that day, July 17th. That was the date we played our first show. We played at a local skating rink and got paid $20 and we bought pizza afterwards. We were still in high school [Laughs.]. Now 13 years later, we just released our third studio album. It’s like everything coming full circle. But that’s not just the only major highlight we’ve had. That’s just something that always sticks out to me. Like it was really cool to do the whole Cartoon Network thing. Warped Tour was also a huge thing, going to Australia. We’ve been to Japan twice. To take it all in, everything’s great. It’s crazy. There’s been a bunch of highlights for us. Coming off this record is also another highlight.
What would you say is the next step for Anarbor?
We’re gonna see what happens. We never really had a plan, whether that’s a good or bad thing. We’ve had some good opportunities hit us up, so we’ll see what happens!
