Crystal Antlers Interview: SXSW 2010

From biker festivals to weddings, the Los Angeles-based band Crystal Antlers understands the importance of relating to a crowd. The group of five will be heading to the SXSW festival, showcased on Saturday, March 20, with an open mind about some new music in the making. Spinner recently spoke with singer and bassist Jonny Bell about the band's return trip to the SXSW, their recent reprieve to Mexico and their plans for an upcoming European Tour.

How would you describe you sound in your own words?

Maybe like Stevie Wonder mixed with Black Randy and the Metrosquad.

How did your band form?

Half of us met in high school and the other half met playing in a band with H.R. from Bad Brains. But we all kind of grew up in the same area. And then, through encounters, like playing music around town. We just started playing together, adding more and more people to the band.

When did the band first realize that they had something special that would bring them to the big stage?

I think that from the first time Errol and Kevin and I played together that we knew there was something special and that has changed a lot and has developed in a lot of different ways.

What are your musical influences?

We all grew up playing in punk bands. Like 70's San Francisco scene punk-bands. The Sleepers is one of my favorite bands. Dead Kennedys and Bad Brains, bands like that.

Can you tell me how your band came up with your name?

Sure, if I can remember exactly. I remember it was on New Year's Eve, at some New Year's Eve party where we kind of decided on it. I'm not sure. I'm not really sure what it means either. That always changes. Somebody that interviewed me in Belgium once said that he was reading a dream analysis book and if you were dreaming of crystal antlers it meant you were dreaming about the fragility of the male species [laughs].

Does the band have a primary writer, or does everyone contribute together?

Yeah, we were just in Mexico for a month writing and we were writing all together. We went down there to work on songs and get away for a while.

How do you think that the reprieve to Mexico helped your band?

It helped us a lot just being back to playing, back to the fundamentals of why we're doing this to begin with: because we enjoy writing music and playing for people who are there to see music. We house-banded at this bar that was there. It was a fluke thing, we played and they kept asking us to come back. It was really nice getting back and playing for people aged 80 to babies. They'd never heard of us before, they don't go the internet and read blogs about bands. It was a very honest experience playing for them.

If you could meet one musician, who would it be and why?

Probably Don Van Vliet from Captain Beefheart; He's probably been the most influential throughout my entire time of playing music.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

I guess I sort of like some cheesy, funk stuff every once in a while. But only for like 10 seconds at a time.

Do you have a new album in the works?

We're working on songs right now. We definitely have a lot of material; we were waiting until we got back from the upcoming European tour before we started working on a recording. Hopefully at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year, we'll have a new record out. We have a 7" that we just self-released that's coming out next week. The song can be downloaded for free on our website.

Tell me about the European Tour.

We're leaving right after South by Southwest. It's about six weeks long. We're going to pretty much every major city in Europe on this trip. We're touring with another band, Times New Viking, and a band from the UK called TEETH. We play pretty much every night for the most part.

What's in your festival survival kit?

Water and hopefully a cell phone of some kind -- some way to find the rest of the people that you're with.

What is the craziest thing you've ever seen or experienced while on tour?

We did a tour about a year and a half ago in a vegetable oil-powered school bus with five or six other bands. That entire experience was the craziest experience I've ever had. There were so many things that happened it's almost impossible to zero in on one. The bus broke down on a major Canadian Highway. It actually ran out of gas right in the middle of the freeway while we were about three hours from a show. We had to hitchhike to get fuel. Everybody else on the bus had to stand on the freeway and try to direct traffic around the bus.


Renee Holmes is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.