Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Three 20-year-olds and a high school teacher make up the local band The Afterhours. Matt Falkenstien, Lawrence junior and lead vocalist, is joined by guitarists Kenny Nall and Bryan Anderson and drummer Anthony Birchfield. Nall is also a junior from Lawrence and Anderson is a 2001 KU graduate and high school English teacher. The Afterhours played The Jackpot Music Hall last week, and have played at several other local venues, such as The Replay Lounge and the Gaslight Tavern. The Kansan sat down with the quartet to get a glimpse of the band life.
Kansan: Describe your fan base.
Matt: I’d say it’s a fairly good mix. Because we go to school, we advertise at KU. We also throw flyers up downtown.
Kansan: Any groupies?
Anthony: Unfortunately, no.
Matt: I think you have to be at a higher level. He’s married (pointing to Bryan) so he can’t get too wild, or at least we’re not supposed to tell anyone about it.
Kansan: What do you think of the Lawrence music scene?
Bryan: Being a college town, there’s a lot of competition because everybody and their grandma decide to go to college and then form a band.
Matt: It’s important to have your own niche because you’re always going to sound like somebody or people are going to compare you to this or that.
Kansan: How do you classify your music?
Bryan: We want to sound like the soundtrack to a good time. I’d say garage rock is as good as any.
Matt: We actually play in a basement.
Bryan: Basement rock.
Kansan: How did you come up with the band’s name?
Matt: I really don’t know. You pick a name that you all agree on and then you go online and Google it and there’ll be like 10 other bands all over the world.
Kansan: So there are other bands called The Afterhours?
Matt: I think there’s an Italian one.
Bryan: Yeah, but it’s not “The” Afterhours, it’s just Afterhours.
Matt: And I think there’s a girl group, like a Spice Girls sort of group. I guess if worlds collide we’ll just have to see who plays better.
Kansan: Where would you like the band to be in five years?
Matt: It’d be nice to be together for that long. I think our most realistic and our main goal is to just get big in Lawrence and to be able to play at will where we want.
Bryan: I think we’re ready for whatever happens.
Anthony: Ride the wave.
Kansan: Do you guys expect to get signed?
Bryan: There’s interest in releasing a single, so we’re getting some local label interest and that’s cool. If that opportunity happens we’ll definitely do that.
—Edited by Ben Smith
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