Born Anchors

Song of the Day: Born Anchors -
In Disguise

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Every Friday the Song of the Day podcast spotlights local musicians. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Morning Show host John Richards, is “In Disguise” by Born Anchors from their upcoming debut self-released album Sprezzatura.

Born Anchors - In Disguise (MP3)

Today’s Song of the Day gives you a sneak peek at an upcoming release from Born Anchors. This Seattle band is following up 2007’s self-titled EP with a full-length album chock full of upbeat power pop songs that will have you rocking along from start to finish. Born Anchors’ primary songwriter, Jason Parker, talked with me about the band and today’s Song of the Day:

Leigh: How did you all meet and where’d the name “Born Anchors” come from?

Jason: I was playing with ideas of names for a couple months, but I need to have some kind of meaning behind everything I do, so I just couldn’t put a couple words together and call it good. Music has been the focus of all my attention since I was 8 yrs old, when I got my 1st RUN DMC tape, and over the last couple of years, I’ve become more aware of how much I have missed because of my obsession with playing music. The band always comes first, and it has taken its toll for the last 11 years. The music has definitely kept me anchored to one spot, but I have never been able to move past it. So … the name came out of that feeling. WAY too much information, I know.

Did you work with Johnny Sangster again on this album?

We worked with Johnny on the EP in 2007. This LP was recorded and mixed by Chris Common. He is the drummer in These Arms Are Snakes and co-owner of Red Room studios with Matt Bayles. Chris recorded Tiny Vipers, TAAS, and a bunch of other great stuff.

Chris is a great engineer and has an awesome ear for drums. We wanted a really open-room sound for the record, and he did a great job

So a quick Google search on “sprezzatura” leads me to a Wiki page on a Renaissance work about a courtesan’s ability to hide or mask what she truly feels. Is that an overall theme to the album?

I was reading up on some different art periods and I came across sprezzatura, and it really stood out as a word to define not only how I act, but also what we constantly strive for in our music.

All the bands I’ve ever really admired have this aura about them that they are amazing without even trying — it’s just natural. I think it’s safe to say people and art suffer the most when you can see them trying too hard, and what they are trying to accomplish isn’t natural.

What other themes are on the album? What about today’s Song of the Day, “In Disguise”?

I just recently learned that age-old rule, write what you know. All the songs are highly personal and about my life at the time we were writing. That’s not to say that the experiences are exclusive to me, though — nothing in my life that has happened hasn’t happened to a million others. So it’s just my view on losing friends to diseases, relationships ending, starting new & exciting relationships, feeling nostalgic for old times and missing family.

“In Disguise” is about a relationship between two people written as a protagonist vs. antagonist narrative. As I try to get closer to the person, I am constantly pushed away, resulting in a role reversal where I become the villain.

Born Anchors will be quite busy in the next few weeks and are providing lots of opportunities for you to check them out live. Their CD release party is April 5th at the Cha Cha and they will be live on KEXP during their Audioasis remote broadcast from The Sunset Tavern on Saturday May 2nd at 6pm. For more info and dates, check out their MySpace page or website.

- 90.3 KEXP

By Jonathan Cunningham
published: March 25, 2009

Jason Parker is tired of playing in bands where egos ruin the group's goals. The 33-year-old bassist says he's dealt with the issue too many times in previous bands—like his most noted, Lure of the Animal—to want to go through it again. Over beers at the Elysian Brewing Company on Capitol Hill, his two current bandmates, drummer Justin Martinez and guitarist Gregory Scott, admit to having had similar experiences (in bands like Wizards of War and Joe Don Baker for Martinez and Hollis Brown for Scott), and want no part of that again either. That's perhaps why this Seattle-based trio, which performs under the name Born Anchors, currently sounds so grounded. They're secure in their approach to making hard-driving new-wave pop—and know they need each other to pull it off. Although Parker admits this conversely means that each of them knows he's not replaceable, the trade-off is worth it.

"We wanted it to be a band thing, and not just a single-ego thing," Parker says during drinks on St. Patrick's Day. "One of the biggest things I've learned over the past 11 years playing in bands is that it truly has to be the sum of its parts. Everyone has to be on the same page or it'll be a constant push-and-pull on what people want to do. We've all gone through that before, so we were really adamant about putting a group together that was proud of what we did [collectively] rather than just as individuals."

That type of cohesion is more easily talked about than achieved, but Born Anchors have spent nearly two years turning that ambition into a reality. The band formed in mid-2007 and released a valiant self-titled EP several months later. Though it consists of only four songs, the EP is full of tightly-wound pop-punk ballads that announced to local audiophiles that this group was ready to be taken seriously. Interestingly, the first show they played together was their own EP release party, a somewhat risky move that was intended as a grand, buzz-worthy introduction.

"You almost need a reason for people to come see you play now," Parker says. "There are so many local bands out right now. So we figured why not come out full-tilt and hit people with new music for them to leave the show with."

Positive press ensued, as did local radio play, and as the group's notoriety increased, it seemed that 2008 was poised to be the band's year to shine. But instead of rushing into things half-cocked, the band spent the bulk of last year crafting their well-toned debut album, Sprezzatura, which was self-released and hits stores this week. It's a major step up from the EP; the band's unified sound and rhythm-heavy songs with post-hardcore sensibilities are on full display throughout the disc. Although it touches on various indie-rock subgenres, it's undeniably rough-edged pop that makes people groove.

"That's really the aesthetic we were going for," Martinez says. "As long as it makes people dance and not just stand around, we're cool with it."

"We wanted something [that] guys can be into because of the heavy guitar, but girls are into it for the beat and the bass line," Parker adds. "We wanted that middle ground...like the old '80s new-wave punk stuff where it was really dancy."

The band undoubtedly hits that mark on songs like "In Disguise," already on rotation at KEXP and as catchy as any local release this year. One thing the group stresses is the time they took to learn how to write pop songs, which they describe as a lot harder than it seems. Longtime friend Chris Common of These Arms Are Snakes produced and engineered the entire album, and the band says his help was invaluable. Although Martinez blatantly admits he wasn't a fan of Common before they went into the studio together, Common's experience as a drummer and producer helped steer the band in the right direction. "Those guys are really easy to work with," Common says via phone. "The biggest thing we worked on was vocals, but everything else was there."

"At the time we went into the studio, we really were trying to figure out what we wanted to sound like," Scott says. "We had a good road map, but there was a lot more we had to learn."

Certain songs on the album are intensely personal. The album's title track was written while Parker's close friend, the late Seattle musician John Spalding, was succumbing to cancer. He didn't intend to write "Sprezzatura" about losing his friend, but one day in the studio, the lyrics just came.

"I've learned that I shouldn't write anything I don't directly know about," Parker says, "and the only thing on my mind when we were rewriting that song was [Spalding]."

Born Anchors say they've got an entire follow-up album to Sprezzatura written already, and are prepared to record if things go well. "I think we're all the happiest with this band out of any we've been in," Parker says. "Everything is really coming together."

- Seattle Weekly

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/fucking-in-the-streets/Content?oid=1220725


About Born Anchors, a few of the bands brought up by folks at the show attempting to pin down the trio's sound: Killing Joke, Fugazi, U2, the Cult, Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Some of these are probably more apt than others, but all of them help point toward a certain era of post-punk/hardcore indie rock and power pop from which Born Anchors do draw heavily. Live, the band demonstrate a knack for combining disparate momentums—frontman Jason Parker's rumbling bass grooves, Gregory Scott's shimmering, echoing guitar lines, Justin Martinez's hard-pounding drumming—into a unified whole. Martinez, especially, is a pleasure to watch, a perfectly tight and heavy-hitting drummer with a wicked mustache, but the whole band is energetic and on-point (on one song, the group dropped everything except a looped guitar line and all jumped back in with a great, breaking crescendo). Parker's vocals were slightly drowned out by the band's muscular sound, a problem Born Anchors don't have on the cleanly produced Sprezzatura.

At nine songs in 27 minutes, Sprezzatura is a concise blast of an album, easily played in a single set. "In Disguise" and "Cascading" are its most immediately catchy songs; the former is tense and new wavey, the latter buoyant and rocking, both powerfully propulsive. It's not a flawless record—Parker's vocals can veer into bombast at times, as on "Casualty," and the lyrics aren't always as memorable or as moving as the band's instrumentals—but after a few listens, Sprezzatura is starting to seem like a pretty promising debut. recommended - The Stranger

This Seattle trio follows up their promising 2007 EP with a blazing debut album of soaring, anthemic indie-rock powered by ringing guitars and a limber rhythm section, striking a balance between post-hardcore aggression and bright pop hooks. - Don Yates - KEXP

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-07-01/music/the-10-best-local-albums-of-2009-so-far/2

What's the Buzz? This trio focuses on the harder-edged drums/bass/guitar arrangement that's made many a pop-punk band famous. For these gents, the dynamic works because they know how to write a good pop song. Local radio is giving the band's lead single, "Cascading," a lot of love due to its infectious appeal, and their debut album is full of rhythm-heavy songs with post-hardcore sensibilities that easily impress.

Top-10 Chances? At least 75 percent. Despite a few snoozers, Sprezzatura is a strong debut album, and the band's sentiment comes through clearly. - Seattle Weekly

Today’s Song of the Day gives you a sneak peek at an upcoming release from Born Anchors. This Seattle band is following up 2007’s self-titled EP with a full-length album chock full of upbeat power pop songs that will have you rocking along from start to finish. Born Anchors’ primary songwriter, Jason Parker, talked with me about the band and today’s Song of the Day:

Leigh: How did you all meet and where’d the name “Born Anchors” come from?

Jason: I was playing with ideas of names for a couple months, but I need to have some kind of meaning behind everything I do, so I just couldn’t put a couple words together and call it good. Music has been the focus of all my attention since I was 8 yrs old, when I got my 1st RUN DMC tape, and over the last couple of years, I’ve become more aware of how much I have missed because of my obsession with playing music. The band always comes first, and it has taken its toll for the last 11 years. The music has definitely kept me anchored to one spot, but I have never been able to move past it. So … the name came out of that feeling. WAY too much information, I know.

Did you work with Johnny Sangster again on this album?

We worked with Johnny on the EP in 2007. This LP was recorded and mixed by Chris Common. He is the drummer in These Arms Are Snakes and co-owner of Red Room studios with Matt Bayles. Chris recorded Tiny Vipers, TAAS, and a bunch of other great stuff.

Chris is a great engineer and has an awesome ear for drums. We wanted a really open-room sound for the record, and he did a great job

So a quick Google search on “sprezzatura” leads me to a Wiki page on a Renaissance work about a courtesan’s ability to hide or mask what she truly feels. Is that an overall theme to the album?

I was reading up on some different art periods and I came across sprezzatura, and it really stood out as a word to define not only how I act, but also what we constantly strive for in our music.

All the bands I’ve ever really admired have this aura about them that they are amazing without even trying — it’s just natural. I think it’s safe to say people and art suffer the most when you can see them trying too hard, and what they are trying to accomplish isn’t natural.

What other themes are on the album? What about today’s Song of the Day, “In Disguise”?

I just recently learned that age-old rule, write what you know. All the songs are highly personal and about my life at the time we were writing. That’s not to say that the experiences are exclusive to me, though — nothing in my life that has happened hasn’t happened to a million others. So it’s just my view on losing friends to diseases, relationships ending, starting new & exciting relationships, feeling nostalgic for old times and missing family.

“In Disguise” is about a relationship between two people written as a protagonist vs. antagonist narrative. As I try to get closer to the person, I am constantly pushed away, resulting in a role reversal where I become the villain. - KEXP

7.8

Seattle three piece, Born Anchors, are set to release their first album in April. Titled Sprezzatura, meaning studied nonchalance, the word gives insight into the sound that the band creates on their debut full-length. Comprised of the standard guitar, bass and drums, Born Anchors somehow manage to boil up a sound that is booming and voluminous. Their live set is said to be rather impressive as well. Seattle Weekly's Jonathan Cunningham recently called their performance at El Corazon a "singular version of pop-punk mayhem."

Most of the songs on Sprezzatura are around two to three minutes in length, pushing the group to power pop status, but they have more of a post-punk sound highlighted by some blazing guitar work that could give contemporary bands such as The Editors and Interpol a run for their money. In fact, Born Anchors are creating quite a buzz around Seattle. "In Disguise," from the upcoming disc, was featured as song of the day on KEXP on March 13th, and it is no surprise why. The track resonates with a succinct melody that is both gritty and catchy. Anyone familiar with The Comsat Angels will be able to draw comparisons in musical sound and vocal performance.

"Blinding Light" is another standout from Sprezzatura. The garage guitar sound falls somewhere in between Killing Joke and The Stooges and the rhythm section is given the opportunity to really shine on this track. This material will sound great live; If the band is half as tight live as it is on record, the crowd will be treated to something special. - Three Imaginary Girls