After a year and a few months at it, nine-piece local band Antenna Inn’s sleek, smart and superbly constructed suites of jazzy prog rock are starting to draw a large crowd. They’ve been headlining shows more frequently and are about to release their solid new album, Do/Work, with a party at Tipitina’s. Their’s is the sound of a band working through ideas together for the first time, as they realize their talent and range. As good as Do/Work is, you get the feeling that their next album is going be the one—it’s going to be crazy. For now, though, Do/Work and its highlights: the angelic and Beach Boys-ish back-up vocals and the jazz dirge breakdown at the end of “Ernest Borgnine,” the high frequency bass and bright keyboard on “Ink,” the disorienting horns on “Stockholm Syndrome,” and the swingin’ verses in “Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition.” Though the choruses are pretty catchy, there’s something sublime about each song’s instrumental stretches. The lyrics are dark, anxious, and purging, sometimes malevolent and sometimes self-help-like: “If you’re looking for love, stop, because you will never be happy, even when you are. You will always be lonely…c’mon, people, fall back out of love. Call your mother. Mothers, call your sons.” There’s also a rolling confidence throughout the band—one that could easily be perceived as arrogant, except that confidence is tempered with a clear love of not only New Orleans and its rock scene but the city’s traditional music, as well as a want, almost a need, to create a unifying force that makes it all more successful.
ANTIGRAVITY recently sat down with drummer Eric Rogers and talked about Do/Work, the band’s fan base, and his good, old-fashioned sibling interaction with brother Ryan.
ANTIGRAVITY: When I saw the band for the first time it seemed like you all came out of nowhere, yet were fully formed and already on your second album. When did the band form, and whose idea was it?
Eric Rogers: Antenna Inn was around years ago and actually broke up a year and a half before Katrina. It was me, my brother Ryan Rogers, Blandon Helgason (who’s still in the band), and Matthew Glynn from Silent Cinema. We didn’t know anything about booking shows. We didn’t know anything about the scene. We were just kind of getting into it. We were a cover band before that, but we started writing our own stuff. Eventually Joe Bourgeois, who’s now our bass player, joined and Matt would just sing. When the band broke up, we weren’t going to get back together—my brother and I weren’t getting along. Right before Katrina, I was playing with Brian Adler and we were doing this dual drumming bullshit. It was really fun. As a drummer—have you ever tried playing with another drummer in the same room? It’s awesome.
AG: It’s great. [Laughs]
ER: You’d think it would be, “It’s my chance to solo,” but it was awesome. We just fed off each other. Cory (Schultz) had just bought a Fender Rhodes, so he came to the practice room. Bourgeois came up there to jam with his bass, and we started forming these tunes that would become modern Antenna Inn songs. My brother even came up a couple times but nothing ever really got set. Then we evacuated to Lafayette and putting the project together was the last thing on my mind. When I moved back, we bought a vibraphone, and it became me, Ryan, Blandon, Joe, Cory, and then I called Sam (Craft) after Matt didn’t want to do it anymore, since I was in Glasgow. Cory was playing trumpet. It was cool, but I wanted to do the double drumming thing, so I kind of went behind everyone’s back and called Chris to drum with me, and it came together organically.
AG: Did you know how to play the vibraphone before the band?
ER: Not at all. I’d never even taken piano lessons. I just learned on the fly. Now it’s my second instrument. I knew a little bit about the piano, as did everyone in the band. That’s what makes writing songs in this band so easy—because everybody plays either the piano or guitar, and you can write a lot easier with nine motherfuckers. On the surface it would look like, “Nine people? How do you guys function?” But it works. My brother’s the main songwriter. He’ll come up with the initial ideas, and it just goes from there.
AG: You must be pretty open to each other’s ideas for it to be able to work.
ER: Absolutely. Lately, we started recording some tunes, and Stephen and Michael from Fay Wray—they came in late, after the seven piece show you saw at One Eyed Jacks, our first show, with Rotary Downs—and we decided to get them in full time so we could do whatever we wanted. That was the whole goal. No boundaries. Live and on the record, and on the record it’s even more because Sam is talking about doing some strings—it could get crazy.
AG: So, if Cory wants to play guitar you have someone, Michael, who can play trumpet. You have someone who can do anything.
ER: Touring’s going to be a bitch.
AG: [Laughs]
ER: We know we have something really special to offer, something this scene has never seen. We have something that is going bring this scene together. You’re always competing with the Rebirth Brass Band, and with Antenna Inn I think people who like Rebirth and people who like indie rock will go to Antenna Inn shows. It brings it all together, and I think that’s what we want to do in the future. We want to bring this scene together. You have so many great bands right now—you have The City Life, Metronome The City, The Bally Who, A Living Soundtrack, Rotary Downs. If I’m leaving anyone out, I’m sorry. You have some great bands that have recently put out great records or soon will. We need to start this coalition, this band of bands. Among all the bands, we have so many resources. If we pooled the resources and got everyone involved, we could start something really creative—the next Saddle Creek Records. To some extent, it’s still every man for himself, and that’s the worst situation.
AG: I enjoy how college bands naturally support each other, because they’re in that natural college community, even if they don’t sound the same. So, how do we engender this in the older rock bands?
ER: One of our first gigs as the new Antenna Inn was at The Howlin’ Wolf with Fay Wray and Metronome The City. We were kind of a middle ground in that show. You can’t force a pop band to play a punk rock show. Or vice versa. Or have a heavily experimental band like Metronome The City, where you don’t even know what time signature they’re playing most of the time, which I love. I love watching them and being as confused as fuck. And they’re all really super cool dudes.
AG: Really super nice.
ER: Yeah, they’re the most easygoing band offstage, and then they get onstage and it’s the most crazy shit you’ve ever heard. They’re one of my favorite bands around. Anyway, back to your question. Let the audience make the decision. The Long Tail is a good example. It’s an article, and now it’s a book, and basically it says, “Instead of releasing just the hits, release everything, and make the audience make the decision.” Like when you buy a record on iTunes, it says, “If you like this band, you’ll like this band.” Continuing down the line, you’re going to find some obscure stuff that you never thought you would have liked. If I’m going to see band A and band B is opening up, and I’ve never really heard of them or cared to check out their music, but I see band B and say, “Wow, band B is really good. I had no idea.” Even if traditionally I don’t like band B or their type of music, I might go check them out again and buy their record…
AG: And you might find another band…
ER: Exactly. Like, I didn’t specifically go to see the band that opened up for Baroness (Young Widows), but I enjoyed them even more than Baroness. Like that. You give the audience the choice or the chance to experience more music. Instead of playing with the same bands or playing by yourself.
AG: You have to trust the audience to have wide taste.
ER: Older bands are going to see how well it’s working for the younger bands and follow suit, or I don’t know, jump on the bandwagon early. What do you think they should do?
AG: What you said. Don’t preach to the choir. Don’t be afraid to get a band on your bill that doesn’t sound like you. If they’re good, why not?
ER: Awhile back, USAD and Glasgow played together. USAD is a metal band and Glasgow’s a Brit pop band, or whatever you want to call it, but people enjoyed the fuck out of that show. Plus, we were making fun of each other. It was hilarious. The audience had a great time, and that’s all they’re going to remember.
AG: Was that the one with the video challenges, where Sam was wearing an ascot, and USAD was shirtless and talking like wrestlers?
ER: Yeah. Sam just ripped ‘em a new asshole. He had a fake cat in front of a fireplace…
AG: [Laughs]
ER: …and some cheesy classical music playing in the background. “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi, or something. I think it might still be on YouTube.
AG: How did you develop your sound? Was it a direction you were going for or was it organic?
ER: I don’t think it was necessarily a direction we were going for. One thing we stipulated when we got back together was, “Okay, we want to be accessible, but we’re not going to let that hold us back from writing whatever we want.” We said, “We have all these instruments,” and we started writing these tunes before we had horns in the band. We found what moved us and we went there. We love so many different styles of music. We love Steely Dan, Tortoise, Aloha, Tristessa, and a lot of instrumental fusion bands like Mercury Program, too. We took all that and we said, “Those guys have done that already. Let’s do something new and create the band New Orleans has been waiting for.” Steely Dan on PCP is the last thing I heard.
AG: Seems like you went down a different road than most college bands. Your band seems like less of an approximation of famous bands than other college bands you find.
ER: The thing with us is…half of us are in college. Blandon’s almost done, and after this semester Chris and I will be the only ones in college.
AG: So, why am I grouping you all with the college bands (because even though half of the band may not be in college, they still associate and pull from the college or recently post-college set)?
ER: Because we have that City Life, Glasgow, Fay Wray-type of fan base as well. When we played the Blue Nile, they called us a couple weeks before the show and said, “By the way, it’s going to be 21+ now.” We said, “We booked an 18+ show, and that’s what we’re going to have.” We said, “How ‘bout this: we charge $5 under 21 and over 21 is free.” We still made a ton of money that night. We packed the place. There were 350 people in there. It’s insane.
AG: I didn’t know you had that kind of draw.
ER: I didn’t either. We played that first show on January 12, 2007, and I told everybody, “Give us a year and we’ll be headlining.” And it happened. We played The Blue Nile a year to the day after that. Not only did we headline, we brought a shitload of people.
AG: Since you’re using the repeating patterns on the vibraphone, it seems like it’d be obvious if you all screwed up, but you don’t.
ER: Every band screws up live. I saw The Mars Volta, and they screwed up a ton.
AG: It seems like that whoever’s playing the vibraphone is playing it slower than you would a guitar, and the notes mean more. Everyone’s ears are up.
ER: People are captivated by the vibraphone, especially when there are two of us on it at the same time.
AG: I don’t know why I’m amazed when someone gets on the vibraphone and is able to pull off a melody without screwing up.
ER: It’s basically a piano with drumsticks. The bars are bigger. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had on an instrument. When Blandon bought that thing, we told him we were going to all put up for it, but no one has yet. He’s in credit card debt for that thing. It’s so cool. I can finally learn how to play piano but still play percussion. Chris is probably the most talented vibraphonist in the band, but he plays it the least. Cory took the vibraphonist and ran with it. Cory is our vibraphonist. If Cory wanted to play the harp, he probably could. He could pick up any instrument and figure it out in a couple minutes.
AG: Do you ever think it’s self-indulgent what you’re doing? Is that a worry?
ER: That’s a good question. Yes and no, I guess. Sometimes we’re playing and thinking, “Wow, this sounds awesome,” but other people are going to like it, too. I don’t think it’s ever self-indulgent. We write music we want to hear, but also music that everyone wants to hear. At least I hope everyone wants to hear us. That’s our goal. We want to break the mold between people that rigidly go to see certain bands. Fuck that. Go see local music. What’s up with this Grey Ghost guy, tearing down fliers and painting over fliers? Get a life, dude. I don’t know who he is. I’ve seen his picture. He probably has no soul, at least not a musical one. Go out and enjoy yourself and have a gin and tonic and sit down and watch a rock and roll band. Stop being a dumb ass. Tell me this—about the self-indulgence question…
AG: I don’t think it’s self-indulgent, personally.
ER: Has anybody said that? I want to know.
AG: No. It’s just—you know—two drummers, two keyboardists, two vibraphonists. Some people could say it’s self-indulgent. I wasn’t trying to imply it’s been said. I just wanted to know if it’s ever crossed your mind.
ER: Definitely. Is this going overboard? I don’t think we ever do anything for the sake of having an extra instrument. If we have a double vibraphone part, it was written that way. Ryan Rogers is the main songwriter. Without Ryan Rogers, Antenna Inn wouldn’t exist. I love my brother. I just don’t like him.
AG: Is it an Oasis, Black Crowes kind of thing, where you’ve got this inescapable acrimony because you’re brothers in a band?
ER: Yeah. I’ve been in two bands with brothers: Antenna Inn and Glasgow. There are always sibling rivalries. There’s always younger brother or older brother envy. “I need to be the center of attention.” “No, I need to be the center of attention.” From the moment Ryan and I were ideas in our parents heads—I remember when we were younger—I’m about three years younger than him—I always got fucked over by Ryan. As soon as I got older, I started fucking him over. I remember when we were younger and I didn’t have teeth yet. Ryan was eating cheese puffs, and he put a bunch of them in my mouth. I couldn’t even chew them or swallow them. My mom came downstairs—I was like that for a good twenty or thirty minutes, and Ryan was chillin’, like nothing was happening. My mom’s like, “What’s wrong with Eric?” Ryan’s like, “I don’t know.”
AG: [Laughs]
ER: That’s the epitome of my brother. At the end of the day, the sibling rivalry and how much we argue doesn’t matter—we write killer tunes together, and that’s what brings us together. We both have a lot of respect for each other as musicians and people.
AG: Was there a point where you had to say to Sam, “Hey, we need to make Antenna Inn a priority over Glasgow”?
ER: No. Glasgow has been on a hiatus for a while. We did that Throwback show at Republic, but we didn’t really have any new material. When Sam’s not doing Antenna Inn, he’s writing for Glasgow. Glasgow will officially come back. It’s a volcano ready to erupt. Sam just wrote an eleven song Glasgow record and we’ll probably record this summer. I’ve heard some of the tunes, and it’s going to be awesome. That’s his main focus, but as long as Antenna Inn is doing their thing, he’s on board, and you have to be. You need all nine members to function properly. People might disagree with that, but I think without all nine you wouldn’t have the same band.
Interview by Jason Songe; Photos by Zack Smith. Special Thanks to the Music Shed for allowing us to use their facilities for this photo shoot.
To find out more about Antenna Inn, head over to their MySpace page.
