Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: What type of artist are you?
A: Anfang is a Rock band based in Chicago. With all members coming from different musical backgrounds, and sometimes different eras, our style has evolved into a grunge/garage/alt combination to assault your senses from across generations.
PD: Tell us the brief history of yourself.
A: Three of Anfang’s current members, Andie Zaragoza (vocals/rhythm guitar), Mark Tonal, (lead guitar), and Christian Newman (bass/rhythm guitar) met while working on another project. In mid 2018 that project imploded in spectacular fashion. Nonetheless, Andie, Mark, and Christian wanted to continue making music together. Andie had been introduced to Nick Rissler through a mutual friend and invited him to try for the vacant drum spot. One jam session later and Anfang was born.
PD: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
A: Queens of the Stone Age is a band that we find ourselves most often being influenced by. They have the riffs, the lyrics, the mood, the aura. That’s the sort of cohesiveness and identity we are constantly aiming for as a band. As for outside of music, I think the films of Denis Villeneuve are especially influential. Specifically in Dune, Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, his world-building and his use of color and texture to tell a story is moving. Nothing in is toolbox goes to waste. Not to mention the score! The music is a character in and of itself. The idea of music having its own soul is something any musician can get behind.
PD: What are your dreams and goals?
A: We would love to go on tour! Covid obviously put a damper on a lot of our plans and momentum, but that’s the place we want to get back to. We want to play festivals as well; Riot Fest is right here in our backyard! Long-term, one of our biggest dreams is playing a European tour. In the immediate future we’d like to record and release as much of our unreleased catalog as possible to get our music out there for everyone to hear… and also for our sanity. There are only so many killer songs we can sit on before we start losing our collective mind. We also cannot wait to start playing live regularly again (pandemic willing) since it’s one of our favorite parts of being in a band together and is a fantastic way to continue building our fan base. We’ve talked about recording an album and touring further in the future, but we’re taking things one step at a time. For now.
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?
A: We all contribute to the writing process. We all have brought in songs at different times at various stages of completion, and then we hammer it out in the room. We all input on riffs, structure, melody, etc, but Andie does 95% of the lyrics. When a person is as talented a lyricist as she is, there’s no need for second opinions! As for wat we are always writing about, there’s a great quote by William Faulkner where he says the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself. That is what we aim for with every song whether its a face-melter or more atmospheric.
PD: How do you promote your band and shows?
A: We do the majority of our promotional work on Instagram (@anfangmusic). In the before-times, pre-pandemic, we used to do more open mics and posters / sticker dumps around Chicago. These days its all on social media.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
A: The internet is literally the only way our music gets to new ears. Radio stations here don’t play new music, and with Covid taking away live performance for 2+ years, the internet has been our life-blood. The more ears that we can get in front of, the better, so we are all for people finding us any way they can!
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
A: Daedalus by Thrice. It’s a beautiful retelling of the Icarus fable from Greek mythology but from his father Daedalus’ perspective. Its a song that communicates so much hope, and then the abject horror of having hope ripped away. The music makes you feel like your floating, until it makes you feel like you very much aren’t floating anymore. It is conceptually brilliant. It also SLAPS. Highly recommend, 10 out of 10.
PD: What are some of your pet peeves?
Pandemics are pretty high on the list! Some people, too, may have pre-determined feelings or opinions about rock bands with female leads, like we somehow aren’t as hard, or serious, or what have you. We are here to disavow people of that notion, and melt as many faces as we can while we are doing it.
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
A: Hearing our EP Tunneller for the first time was a pretty awesome moment. It was the first time we were able to re-create our live sound in the studio, and it was a big moment for the band. It also opened the door for our current partnership with Animal Farm, which has been an absolutely huge for us!
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
A: We just released two new singles, Guerrilla Mitts and Legs which are both streaming now! We are always writing new songs and have a healthy backlog of songs ready to be recorded. We plan on hitting the studio to start recording one of these songs,
(In) Circles, in mid February, and plan on recording and releasing singles on a fairly regular schedule throughout all of 2022. We also just recorded some live stuff that will be hitting YouTube in February!
PD: What music have you available online and where can we buy it from?
A: You can listen to us on all major streaming services! Here are some links you can use to check us out;
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Cru2hmOpqR8bB6YWm7zcH?si=CPyqgUCERd-vGckATw-Vdg
Apple Music – https://music.apple.com/us/artist/anfang/1464471165
Amazon Music – https://music.amazon.com/artists/B07S51FFTD/anfang?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_QjHD9RZhjdKRtABm0dyvB7n2X
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIYu8koC9kisA5E-4_d-elQ
– https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBrZMNnzM5RIF8f4MsauiMw
We’re working on getting merch available on our website, anfang-music.com but until then the best way to buy our stuff is to come out and see us play! We always have merch available at shows and are very pleasant people to talk to.
Anfang links:
Band/Artist location – Chicago Illinois
Website – You Tube – Instagram –
Apple – Spotify – Amazon – LinkTree –
Check our page for Anfang
Post Views:
25
