Interview with Neanderthals at Anchor Rock Club
Natalie Hogan as Nardwaur the Human Serviette with Neanderthals’ Glenn as Walter White, Kerr as himself, Ryan as Jesse Pinkman, and Adam as himself in the basement of Anchor Rock Club.
This interview took place on October 19, 2024
Hello! I’m Natalie, by the way. I’m here with Neanderthals, so if you guys want to introduce yourselves.
[Glenn] Hey, I’m Heisenberg. No, I am Glenn, I play the guitar and synthesizer.
[Kerr] My name is Kerr, I play guitar, and I do some singing too.
[Ryan] My name’s Ryan, I play bass.
[Adam] I’m Adam. I hit things.
So, I just wanted to ask, as a band, kind of, what does music mean to you guys? And why does it matter enough for you guys to play shows and be out here doing stuff like this?
[Kerr] I didn’t know it was going to get so philosophical right off the bat.
Sorry, sorry.
[Kerr] I mean for me, I don’t know. I like the creative process of it, and I like sharing things. So, it’s like, a big part of it, the perception people have of it – I know some people don’t like that. They like it to be only about creativity, but I like the creativity aspect and like how people perceive it, and how they can perceive it differently. I kind of like that aspect of it.
[Glenn] I feel like music also just tends to dig emotions out of you that you don’t normally get to express. You know, I guess I could just sum it up to expression but yeah. That’s how I feel.
[Ryan] Performing live has always been pretty important to me. I don’t know it’s just always been, you know, very satisfying.
[Adam] I mean music’s been a part of my life for like, the majority of it actually, so it just feels good to be able to, you know, play and do what I love, and you know share it with whoever wants to hear it.
BE HERE NOW poster by Manny (@burnout_050)
Yeah, definitely. Thank you guys. So obviously, we’re at a Halloween show. Is there any Halloween song that is like your dream cover to do?
[Glenn] “Rock Lobster!”
That’s a good one. No one has said that yet, and I think that’s my favorite answer actually.
[Glenn] Really?!
[Kerr] Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it, but I like the song that’s like, “Spooky, scary, skeletons.” I don’t know how you’d cover that.
[Ryan] I’d say, “Thriller.”
[Glenn] Yeah, “Thriller” is a good one.
[Adam] I mean this is pretty basic but, “The Monster Mash.”
Yes! I think only one other person said that, and I feel like that is like the Halloween song. As a band, where do you guys kind of grab inspiration from? Whether that be musically, like from other bands, other artists, or just things you encounter in your life.
[Kerr] Yeah uh, definitely artists like – I mean Tame Impala, and like Mac Demarco, and The Beatles are all like that kind of genre, which has always interested me. Being able to produce a song that gives you that tingling down your spine, it’s like you did something chemically there. Like you’re affecting someone on a physical level by it, so that’s pretty cool. Yeah, wait what was the question again?
Just where you guys grab inspiration from.
[Kerr] Inspiration, yeah.
And it can be stuff that you just encounter in life that gets you inspired.
[Kerr] Yeah sometimes it’ll be like for me - I mean right now I’m writing a lot of the songs for us. And sometimes it can be like something in the environment, just like an item or something will remind me of a feeling, and I’ll like try to make a song based off the feeling. It’s like all abstract. It’s like, you know. One thing I always like, a quote, it’s a quote that Steve Jobs liked as well, but uh it was a Picasso quote where it’s like, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” I think that’s like super important. I think people are always worried about like, “Oh this might sound like this other song,” but that’s like, every music. So it’s like, you need that. If you never heard a song, you probably wouldn’t be able to make a song. It’s coming from other people.
[Glenn] YouTube recommended. YouTube recommended can dig up some old like – I haven’t written, I’m a relatively new member to the band, so I haven’t written anything yet, but I do want to write and join Kerr in the process. YouTube recommended digs up so many old songs that I swear were locked away, and I feel like I get a lot of inspiration from that.
Do you guys have a favorite show that you’ve played yet as a band?
[Glenn] I like this one. I had a few mishaps, but I think it was definitely really fun. People liked the costume, you know, so yeah.
[Kerr] We played a show at Anchor Rock, it was actually a year ago. It was a Halloween show, last year. Yeah Manny knows. He knows, he’s smiling over there. That one was really good. That one I tried to be a little bit more like, have some presentation with it, so I had a little speech I had that was relevant to a song. I just thought it was like - I prepared the most for that one, and it felt like it paid off the most, for me, but I like all of them. All of them are different, and they all have different like, it’s like a different child, you know?
[Ryan] I would say Greenbrier. We played at the Greenbrier in August. I don’t know if you guys are familiar. That was a fun one. That was a good one.
Xavier worked that show, shout out Xavier. (This is a lie, sorry. He did not work that show, but he still gets a shout out.)
[Kerr] Not as sweaty as the Rats Den, though.
[Adam] Speaking of the Rats Den, my favorite show is probably that one day we played the Rats Den. We had to scramble to relearn parts because one of our members couldn’t make it, and like 2 hours before the show started.
[Kerr] Shout out to Richie. We are missing Richie right now. He’s our other guitarist and he’s in med school and was swamped with work so he couldn’t make it. Me and Glenn had to pick up his parts. That was kind of fun.
[Adam] The Rats Den was really cool, and I just – it was very hot, and there was no space, and it was awesome.
[Kerr] Dude, it was a dirt floor. There was no floor. It was pretty fun. It felt like every breath for singing I was doing was like breathing in a kilogram of asbestos. Every time, and it was amazing.
It brings out your primal energy. It makes you feel like evolution is happening again.
[Kerr] It gave my vocal cords something special.
So as a band, my last question is just – Do you guys have any upcoming music or just news in general with your band that you can share with us?
[Kerr] Yes. We’re hoping to release the last song we did, “Ancient Times,” in a couple weeks. We’re going to do in a couple weeks, maybe.
[Adam] Not maybe, it’s going to happen.
[Kerr] It’s going to happen.
Speak it into existence.
[Kerr] And then we’re hoping to get a whole album out by the summer, so that’s going to be cool. And uh, yeah, we’re going to try and stick to that. And maybe some music videos too. We have a lot of plans for this year. We only have one song out now, and everyone is always just like, “Yo! When are you releasing the other stuff?”
[Glenn] “Tokyo Express.” Look it up everywhere.
[Kerr] Yeah, it’s just like, we’re like, “Oh, it’s coming out soon!” And it never does. But we’re determined now. We’re going to get it done this year.
Okay, nice! Well yeah that’s everything I have. You guys played a great set, so thank you for speaking with me.
Thank you so much.
Doot Doola Doot Do…
Doot Do!
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