ANCHORITE - Take No Shit ! (HardCore/Punk - Interview with Chris)

- How it all began ?
I’m Chris, I do vocals for Anchorite. Anchorite is from Austin, Texas, but the band members are from all over. I am British and have been living in Texas for 9 years now. Robbie, guitarist, is from Florida, Sam, bassist, is from Michigan and Matt, our drummer, is the only native Texan.
I’ve known Sam for around 6/7 years, we met through an ex, we clicked pretty quickly due to our shared musical tastes and we’ve been going to shows and hanging out since then, I met Matt during the pandemic, and again, had lots of shared interests. I have worked with Robbie for 2 years.
Last Summer I decided I wanted to start a new band. I posted on my social media that I was looking for people to play with and had Sam (who I thought would respond) hit me up first. The 2 bands I was playing had stopped playing together and the guitarist from that band expressed interest, but after a few months of stopping and starting with him, he wasn’t able to commit, so I asked Robbie if he wanted to jump in. I reached out to Matt to see if he was interested knowing his current band was going through some lineup turmoil, and all agreed. So we started playing together in the solidified lineup last September. Initially I wanted to start a powerviolence band, but after we got all the people in a room and playing realized that maybe that wasn’t what we were equipped to do, so we settled on the sound we have currently.
We’ve all got experience in other bands, Matt and myself have been playing in Austin bands for years, his old band playing with my old band before I joined. When Sam moved to Austin he had just left a band back in Michigan, and Robbie had played in bands back in Florida, but for him and Sam this was the first time in a few years of being in a band and getting back into that kind of mindset. The last show I played was back in May of 2023, so this was one of the longest periods of not playing music for me in years.
I’ve played in punk rock bands, post-hardcore, noise rock and emo bands over the last 20 + years, but I’ve always been the one person in those bands who likes heavier, harder music, but because I enjoy playing music with friends and people more talented than me, I’ve usually played music that, while I like it and enjoy performing, hasn’t always been my ideal band. Now, as I approach 40 years old, it seemed like my last chance to start a band that I’ve wanted to start for 20 years! Playing music with friends is above all the main goal; have fun, take opportunities, record some songs, hope people dig it and appreciate what we’re putting out into the world. We’re not trying to be too smart about it, just make music for the love of hardcore.

- Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
We’re aiming for pretty straight up hardcore that leans more to the punk side of things. We’re trying to not include too much metal in our sound. We’re pissed off, we’re fast, we slow it down so people can dance. The guitars are punk in the way Robbie is playing kinda choppy riffs, that with a different drum beat and vocals could be on a punk record, Sam’s bringing some NYHC groove with his bass parts and Matt is keeping things nice and tight with his precise drumming, no clean vocals, all angry bellowed shouting, its all I can do these days, hah!

- Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
My biggest influences for forming this band were The Rival Mob, Boston Strangler and No Tolerance, but everyone in the band is bringing their own thing to our sound. This band is about being confrontational and there’s no ambiguity to what is being said lyrically. The lyrics I’m writing are usually calling someone out for stupid mindsets, backwards mentalities; see Noose and Smooth Brain. The lyrics are definitely a big part of the identity of the band, I’ll always let the rest of the band know what I’m singing about so they have buy-in to the messages or tell me if it’s stupid.
The songs are all 2 minutes or less so fitting in any deep or introspective lyrics is kinda hard, so the messaging is pretty direct and I’m trying to convey my anger at the world that doesn’t leave room for reinterpretation or misunderstanding. We are all firmly anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, so I just want my messages to be clear and unable to be misconstrued. The music can be ignorant, but what we saying shouldn’t be.

- About your latest release ?
So, we booked the recording back at the end of March and it coincided with playing our first show the week before. We recorded with Stuart Sikes, who I’ve worked with a bunch here in Austin, he has a small studio next to his house, he’s great and his resume is super diverse and he always has fun stories to tell when we’re working. We recorded everything in one day, and, as it’s our first time recording as a band we wanted to follow the great hardcore tradition of the demo cassette. So we recorded 4 songs, no overdubs, 3 or 4 takes for each one and kept it as raw as possible. He mixed the songs and then we sent it off to Will Killingsworth (Orchid/Ampere, hundreds of other bands) to master it. We have it available to listen to on all the streaming platforms and we’re having some tapes made that will be limited to 50 copies. Our bandcamp page is where you can order it, and listen, download is pay what you can, we just want people to listen.
I did the layout and logo and Sam drew the illustration for the artwork. We’ve been trying to do all of our own artwork, Sam’s got a really cool drawing style and we’re always throwing ideas back and forth, and honestly the visual aspect of band is a big deal for us to; I want people to see a shirt or our cassette or our logo and know what they’re in for, so it's fun creating a visual identity for the band alongside a musical identity.

- Future plans ?
We’re currently writing more songs, and looking to play more shows, our drummer and his partner are about to have a baby, so we’ll be chill for a month or two and then we’ll hopefully putting out more music, play some fun shows and trying to get out of Texas to play.

- Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
Craziest thing for this band would be to have a label we respect and support want to put out our music, and help expand our audience, play with bands we admire, maybe do some touring, we’re all adults with real jobs so extensive touring unless it was opening for someone huge isn’t really an option. I think we just want to play, keep writing and have fun, not particularly insane, but that’s the real dream.

- Your BEST & WORST concert and why ?
This band, at the time of writing, has only played 2 shows, so my best shows are with my previous bands, my old band Easy Prey played with Converge and Cave-In on the street a couple of years back and it was crazy, a once in a lifetime show. And last spring, my other band Mall Walker played with Dinosaur Jr, a sold out venue, so many faces, it was a show I will never forget.

- Next live-appearance(s) ?
We don’t have anything booked right now, but have a few things in the works. More show will be happening soon, so keep an eye on our instagram page for shows.

- Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ?
Austin has a really cool scene at the moment, lots of diverse things happening. I can say the following are all either homies or just fucking great bands; Mugger, Just Sayin', Dewormer, Saintpeeler, Bosh, Nerve, Portrayal of Guilt, Virtue, Drip-Fed, Slow Pulse, Votive, Tied Up, Porcelain, Fawn, Feed Your Body To The Void, Glassing.

- Last word is yours..
Go to shows, buy merch from bands, buy records, support people putting on shows, don’t just watch your friend’s band, keep your scene clean.
Thank you for reading and thank you for listening.

(Live Photos by Dan Perry and Cameron Armand)

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