Antennas Up Interview: SXSW 2010

Antennas Up is ready to soar, and Spinner spoke with the band's lead vocalist and lyricist, Kyle Akers, about their inspired musical adventure and their first trip to the SXSW Festival.

How would you describe your musical style?

We would say it's dancey, funky, pop music with a little bit of electronics thrown in.

And who are the members of the band?

Bo McCall is our guitarist/vocalist. The Ryantist is our drummer and programmer, and I play bass and sing lead vocals.

You met each other in college, but just when did you know you were a band?

Bo and the Ryantist were in marching band together, then Bo and I ended up taking voice lessons from the same college friend, and he introduced us. We'd all been playing in a bunch of different groups up to that point, and we just started playing together and found that we were becoming more and more confident in the sound we were producing. Plus we had a pretty cool songwriting style going on. One day we just said, "let's go for it."

How did you choose the name Antennas Up?

Actually we'd been to SXSW before to listen and support other friends who were playing, and one year we saw the great guitarist, Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, speaking. Somebody had asked him how he writes songs or gets creative, and he was talking about how he just sits down with his instrument and lets everything else just kind of go away. He puts his antennas up and just lets the ideas come to him, and he just picks them up from the outside. So when we were naming the band, we each wrote a list of ten names and had a democratic vote, and that's the one that stood out at the top. It was just a really cool quote from a really creative guy about how he creates music. And it happened at SXSW, so for us going there now to perform, it's kind of full circle.

Who are your musical influences?

For me personally, it may sound cliche, but Michael Jackson. I was always a huge fan of his. I loved all of his music and still do. There's Jamie Lidell from the UK. He's got a killer, soulful voice. There's Radiohead, the Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley; they're all big influences of mine.

And what are you doing to set yourself apart at the SXSW Festival?

We'll be down there the day before it opens, and we'll be hitting the streets with business cards and invites to the show. We want to meet as many people and see as many shows as we can. And we will be debuting at least one, if not two, new songs, so anyone who sees our show will be treated to a new world debut that no one has before seen or heard. We'll also have our full light show package with us. It should be a pretty great experience.

Why do you take such a huge multimedia production on the road with you?

We'd each been in other bands before we created Antennas Up, so we realized what it means to create a live show. You have to be able to connect with the audience on so many different levels. They buy the record, and they hear the song that way, then they come to a live show and they want something different. They don't want to just hear what is essentially a CD playing, so we thought about other ways we could enhance the live shows so that we're not just another band. We bring our whole lighting rig, and it's all synchronized with the music, and there's video and other things that set us apart. For example, we have one song where we all play drums against an instrumental track. It's what you have to do because there are so many great bands out there. You have to make yourself distinct and fun and exciting. You have to distinguish yourself.

The band is only a couple of years old, but your fan base is rapidly multiplying and your press is overwhelmingly positive. What do you attribute that to?

Well, honestly I'd say that a lot of it is from doing all the miles in all those other bands and all the musical projects we've done individually since 2001. When you do that you can refine the way you write music, the way you perform on stage, and the way you present yourself, until eventually, you can shed all of the failed experiments and come up with something that works. So for us as Antennas Up, we know who we are and who we want to present to the world. We are able to create a cohesive group, on all levels, and put that out there wherever we go.

What's in your SXSW survival kit?

Emergen-C, granola bars, water, gum, good socks and walking shoes because you're on your feet all the time, and phone numbers of good friends. There are so many parties and catered events that, if you plan it right, you can manage to eat and drink while you are at SXSW without ever paying a dime.

Do you have any surprises in store for SXSW?

We are just finishing up writing another song. It doesn't have a title yet, but we will be debuting it along with the one we wrote for the festival called, 'This Way.' And we will be releasing a new music video to one of our older songs. And of course, we'll wear fresh ties.

Is there anything you would like the world to know?

Well, the only thing that we really want to say is come out to the show, see us, meet us, and have a good time. Also, people can download or stream all of our music for free from our website. We want people to get to know us, so we make all of our music easily available. The truth? We love our fans.


Tricia Spencer is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.