Anthill Annihilator – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

Anthill Annihilator – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: Every artist’s first song is a milestone. But so is the latest song. Describe the first song/album you recorded, and also the latest song/album you recorded; what are the differences?

Taran: Well, I’ve been working on recording Anthill Annihilator stuff for nearly ten years now, and those real early drafts ended up being more like practice for me than anything else. Some of the demos I made during AA version Alpha did end up going on to be the templates when we recorded Bic Dolls(our first LP release), but it’s such a night-and-day contrast that I really can’t even begin.

The biggest difference now would be that AA is currently in version Epsilon (the 5^th iteration) and recording with the lineup we have now as compared to just me building tracks from nothing but metronome is worlds easier. I’m fortunate to have a group of the most creative, talented people I could ever work with that take the slogging doldrums out of composing.

RRX: Like songs, every artist has a unique feeling about their first show. What was your first show like? Was it your best show? If not, what was your best show like?

Taran: I’ve been playing shows since I was 12 or 13. Being raised in part by my grandmother, Deb Cavanaugh, I never really stoop a chance of not performing from the very first moment I asked her to teach me guitar.

Anthill Annihilator Epsilon played our first show back in early 2023, and it was kind of clunky trying to figure out arrangements around everyone’s schedules. Since then, each show we have played has been the best show ever, and I pride myself for managing to keep my bandmates feeling like shows are for fun more than they are work.

RRX: It’s a lot of fun living in the present, but we all collect memories and give birth to dreams. We’re talking dreams here. Where you see yourself next year? In the next five years?

Taran: Anthill is just a vessel to get the sounds out of my head. I have about 8 unrecorded finished albums that I’ve been cooking since high school (16+ years) just knocking around my brain. I used to joke that I’d dissolve the band once the work was done and they were all released, but at this rate we just keep writing new ones and having a blast doing it. I think I’ll start pushing record labels to help with release costs in 2025, maybe it’ll take off from there. Or maybe society will collapse in the next 4 years and all our unwritten songs can become folklore. Either way, I’m happy with how far we’ve come and the fun we’re currently having

RRX: We all get a little support from those around us. And we also can be impressed by our fellow performers. Who do you admire in your community, and why?First of all, I really think Troy NY is experiencing a cultural renaissance right now. Super Dark Collective, Jive Hive Live, Tummy Rub Records; all of those people have given us wonderful opportunities that I would be remiss not to mention. Gabe Stallman of Ampevene  has been Doing The Dang Thing for as long as I’ve been playing music and has been an awesome supporter and friend the whole time. Zeke from CZR is a lovely human whom I see at every show. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t stop moving ever. She really took us under her wing when we lost our good friend Ben Rowe

Taran: Ian from Mayheaven, Seth from Headless Relatives and Matt & Kiefer from Sunbloc are all fantastic people who deserve love and recognition as well. There are truly too many to list.

RRX: Our style comes from the extension of our influences. It’s like an evolution. We’re influenced, and it inspires us to influence. What can you say about your influences, and what you feel you’ve done with their influence as a musician or band? Have you extended their work?

Taran: When I was in high school. I always wrote with a sub-text of “what if all my favorite bands were one band?”

Now, I have a personalized style and I write with a sub-text of “Okay, don’t be derivative of yourself.”, kind of removing me from my influences, but expanding on the melting pot where it all started. This is why I like collaborations so much. That separation from influences tends to make something very interesting.

RRX: In the musical world, there are many supporting players. Recording engineers, sound techs, cover art designers. Who are three people that support the craft that you would like to shine a spotlight on?

Taran: Conor Grocki recorded, mixed and mastered Bic Dolls all by himself in exchange for some speakers and a few bags of coffee. He’s a local audio producer making films with518 Film Network. He’s going to be our engineer when we record our new EP at Tummy Rub Records in January 2025.

Lakota Ruby-Eck is a friend of mine since high school, he is also a local film person. His cinematography work is absolutely stunning, you can see this in the music video he did for our song An Endless Room Of Infinite Watching Eyeballs and everything else he does as Tomb Pictures.

I also have to shout out Sage, he’s the person I started the band with, who helped me move from AA-alpha to AA-beta. He’s currently living in the outskirts of town. Watching. Waiting. He doesn’t want you looking at him. Look away!

RRX: Every band has a song that they really thought was going to be popular, but it wasn’t. What was that song for you? Did you have a song become popular that you didn’t expect?

Taran: When we play our song The Monotony Of It All and I say the line “does anybody mind if I take my shirt off?”, people always cheer. Which is funny to me, because the next written line in the song is “fuck you, I’m doing it anyway”.

I did not expect the rambly song with the lyrics written from the perspective of a creepy exhibitionist-type person was going to be so popular, but people always tell me they like it. That one isn’t recorded either, we only play it live.

RRX: We let it out differently when we play music. The happy, sad, good and back; it can all be put out musically. Overall, do you feel better when you sing about the better times, or the worser times? Is there a difference you can describe?

Taran: Singing is absolutely my #1 therapy technique. I find no matter what I’m singing, singing it loud and meaning it always helps me work through stuff. In my AA-alpha era of writing, a lot of feedback I got was that my writing felt very negative. I believe it’s important to embody your writing, or at least acknowledge that it will always reflect some part of you. Now days I try to be honest, optimistic or silly with my lyrics. It feels better than writing AA-alpha felt.

RRX: What instrument would you add to the band if you could? Is there anything you are trying to do musically that would be helped with one or more additional players?

Taran: Oh, I have plans. The next iteration of AA, zeta, is going to be Anthill Orcheltralnator. I had a dream about it recently. I am already in the process of writing an opera for a wide array of instruments.

AA also has a long a rich history of using clever instruments. 420 Is The New 69 from Bic Dolls features Legos rolling around in a tin cup. Gargles Barbecue, also from Bic Dolls features a cup of silverware, coins and marbles being thrown down the stairs. In January, I have designs to include a theramin among other instruments into the mix. I think my ideal band size would be an octet. I would love to work with a horn section.

RRX: Is there a song you wrote that really died on the vine? Something you all like but somehow just couldn’t make it work. You swear never to play it live, that sort of thing?

Taran: I always hated doing that with my old band in High School.We’d spend countless hours writing something that I thought was really cool, only for someone else to give up on it. All of my unused riffs go into “The Pile”. I record everything we practice on my phone and painstakingly edit it into a size that fits the memory space. It is all duplicated and stored in my Google drive. I believed that everything can be recycled. So if we’re trying to shoehorn a riff into a place that it doesn’t fit, we store it and come back to it later. I’ve donated riffs from The Pile to mine and other friends other projects (my other band is Galene). It’s a good way to write. There are also jams we’ll come back to and relearn to turn into new songs. Nothing is lost, no waste. Endless resource to draw from.

RRX: Let’s talk about your next project, your next few. Just not the ones you’re working on now. The ones you have your eyes on for the future. What’s coming to us?

Taran: Well, I hate business but we should probably do a tour. Recording in January, so hitting the ground running playing shows is probably a good idea from us until we have the means to work on the next record. Making records is what I’m most excited for, I genuinely have over 8 rattling in my brain and Google Drive just waiting to go.

RRX: How does practice go? Is the road practice enough, or do you have a practice shack? If so, how does it look? What’s on the walls? What cool sh*t is in there?

Taran: If we aren’t actively putting our heads down working on a project, then practice is more like a hang in the jam room than anything else. We have a shared space at Gabe’s house with all the equipment and the painting of a sailor that I bought at a garage sale back in high school. I like to invite different friends and guests to practice if we’re not working on something in particular. I have a lot of really wacky and fun instruments so it’s fun to have different groups meeting up to have fun and see what happens. I’m convinced we actually have been able to consistently do Thursdays because of the fun factor.

You can find Anthill Annihilator’s music here.

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