Air For Ants

Air For Ants is a rock band you’ll be keeping your eyes peeled for! Merging sounds that recall Radiohead, and chilling vocals one is not likely to forget, we sit down with them at their recording session in Williamsburg for a quick chat.

Where are you guys from? How did this all start?

Dom: I was born in San Francisco, and went to school in Boston. I love New York. I can never see myself going back to San Francisco. It’s filled with Silicon Valley fakeys now and there’s no real music scene. However, I don’t think there’s one in New York either.

Air For Ants was initially my solo project. It started around 2007 after my best friend died—out of nowhere. When that happened, I started writing a lot. In the last 4 years, I’ve written 47 songs. It started off as electronic music. I was playing in San Francisco and New York. I didn’t even think of a live drummer until I started playing with Adam in Bushwick. At this point, we’ve been playing together for years but we also had a little hiatus. You just heard us play the newest song, that no one has heard yet. It’s called “I Know It Was You Fredo, You Broke My Heart.”

Adam: I’m originally from Spokane, Washington. I went to The New School and studied Jazz and contemporary music. By the time I graduated, it was tough playing, and eating as a Jazz musician. Based on that, I wanted to see if I could branch out, so I started exploring other alternatives. That was all before I met Dom. I started playing at the rock venues, but my touch on the drums was very jazzy and weak. I’d play these venues where the sound guys would check the mics, because no one could hear the drums. I had to re-train myself to adjust.

And how did you two meet?

Both: Missed Connections.

Dom: Adam was the first drummer we played with. He remembers the story differently but this is what happened: My best friend died and I was writing a lot. Then, out of nowhere I went through a really dark period where I had writer’s block for a year and a half. It was during that time that I met Adam. I remember he kept emailing me but I didn’t want to play music, or do anything really. I just wanted to lie down and watch the Discovery Channel or something. I got another email, and said to Brian: “Who is this?”

Where did the name Air For Ants come from?

Dom: It’s a really dumb story. Many years ago, I was hanging out with my girlfriend. She was reading. I was watching TV, and they were talking about the Air France plane. And I go to her: “Hey, have you heard about the Air France plane crash?” She looks up from her book, and goes: “What? Air for ants?” We couldn’t stop laughing for ten minutes. We both concluded it was a good name for a band.

What are your musical inspirations? You guys have an interesting “Radiohead” vibe…

Dom: We played at The Bitter End the other night. I was hanging out at the bar afterwards, and someone came up to me, and said that “we’re a mix of Neil Young and Radiohead.” It was the greatest compliment I’ve ever gotten because, those guys are like gods to me. It meant a lot to hear someone say that.

Adam: I have a very different approach. Contemporary music is always going to be derived from some kind of inspiration, and I have nothing against that. That said, I try my best not to directly pull from it.

In a city as expensive as New York, are you guys able to dedicate yourselves to your musical career or are you forced into having day jobs?

Dom: I teach music during the day. Of course, I didn’t come to New York for that, but I found that there’s something really rewarding about teaching a kid music, and watching him or her grow from that.

Adam: I play for a couple of different bands, and I have some students on the side. I eat less and I don’t have an expensive lifestyle. That’s how I am able to survive in New York.

You mentioned earlier that there wasn’t much of a music scene around here, which is surprising considering that this is the city that had venues like CBGB’s. Not only that, but some of the biggest music legends sojourned in the Chelsea Hotel…

Dom: Yeah, those days are long gone. The music industry is a complete joke now.

Adam: I don’t think it’s a joke, despite the fact that there have definitely been a lot of changes in the industry that don’t really benefit musicians.

Dom: … Rockwood Music Hall and Pianos are probably the only venues in Manhattan that I can think of where people specifically go to listen to music, as opposed to just get hammered, and pick up chicks. The fact that those are the only two spots that I can think of in Manhattan is sad. It makes sense though. The Internet has completely screwed music. In my opinion, now that everything is free, and people are no longer buying music, nothing is worth anything anymore.

Adam: Yeah but is that the Internet’s fault? The history of musicians getting hosed by the industry goes back way before the Internet. I mean, granted there was a pseudo-golden age where things seemed to be going alright. I agree that the industry is musically speaking backwards, but I don’t think it is from a business perspective. If you choose to go into this field, there’s clearly a game that —to a degree— needs to be learned and played. I find New York to still be saturated with enough venues and outlets where I can play every night.

Dom: I think it’s an issue that really needs to be addressed by someone soon. For about two years, I was going out every night to see different bands play. In all that time, there were probably two bands that were great and the rest were not great at all. We played at CMJ and got passes to see all the other bands performing. The ones that I thought to be really cool all turned out to be from somewhere else: Philadelphia, New Zealand, LA… That, to me, is a huge indicator of the current state of the music world in New York City. There needs to be a huge change to make music worth something again. The ideas need to come from either one really smart person or a group of smart people who can figure out how to monetize music again.

What ends up happening most of the time, is that you get a great bass player who lives in Greenpoint. He makes most of his money from his bartending job because music isn’t exactly paying anyone’s bills these days. After a while, that guy who’s making two hundred dollars a night bartending ends up sticking to just that. He could be the greatest bass player of the twenty-first century, but no one would ever know that. If someone could figure out how to monetize music again, there will be Princes and Beatles’ again. At this rate, the only people who will be able to achieve this status are Trust Fund babies with a lot of talent.

What inspires you about New York?

Adam: For me it’s the same thing that people complain about sometimes. It’s too crowded, but I find that it creates good opportunities to play. I think there’s a type of energy that some people are repelled by, but others are okay with.

Dom: I came to New York for the first time in 2000. I got out of Penn Station, looked up and said “Wow I’m going to be here forever.” I just knew. The city’s got a je ne sais quoi. - Lara Atallah