Arts and Entertainment

Indie oasis

This is probably way too premature, and let's not jinx anything, but there are inklings of an indie scene in Anchorage.

In the early days, "indie" was short for "independent," signifying something that was usually made with limited funding on the fringes of the record industry system. In the world of music, this typically meant an album being recorded and released without the help of a record company.

In more recent years, indie has gone beyond this limited definition and come to encompass an entire genre of music. It doesn't necessarily suggest a certain type of music -- there's indie electronic, indie rock, indie pop, indie folk -- but rather an aesthetic. At the core of that aesthetic is still a sense of being outside of the mainstream system, and a focus on singing and songwriting without the marketability of the more traditional rock, pop, or hip-hop labeling.

But where indie used to imply a kind of underdoggedness -- Wilco famously had to leave Reprise Records and independently release their album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" after the label refused to release it, only to eventually see the album get third on Rolling Stone's list of best albums of the 2000s -- we now have indie darlings Arcade Fire winning Album of the Year Grammys.

It's a testament to the increasing marketability of the indie brand that more and more artists are willing to call themselves indie, a tendency that Steven Van Zandt -- former guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band -- has called the "new indie mainstream."

Indie has always gravitated toward itself, in the form of geographical scenes. In the latter part of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, Omaha, Neb., was a hotspot for the burgeoning indie music industry. Saddle Creek Records signed artists like Bright Eyes, The Faint and Rilo Kiley, who would go on to become indie mainstays.

Portland, Ore., has also been a recent hotbed of indie musicianship, with bands like The Shins, The Decemberists and the Alaskan transplant Portugal. The Man -- originally from Wasilla and now an established indie act on tour in Europe -- using "Portlandia" as the base of their operations.

ADVERTISEMENT

It has long been a tradition for Alaska bands to travel Outside to seek their fame and fortune; the market here has long been perceived as too closed off, with limited touring and recording opportunities and only a small pool of potential collaborators to draw from. If an artist was gonna make it, they were gonna make it somewhere that wasn't Alaska.

But something is happening in Anchorage, something strange and never-before-seen in the Alaska music scene: artists are trying to make it here. While the small pool of musicians has grown with the population, the close-knit nature of Anchorage and surrounds has suddenly proven to be more help than harm -- with an intertwining and camaraderie among Anchorage groups like never before.

One example of this was last Sunday's A&R Showcase at Chilkoot Charlie's, a collaborative, first-of-its-kind effort between 10 Alaska bands, who got to show off for record label and publishing reps from Atlantic and Fearless records. Bands included several artists classifying themselves as indie, including Wasilla's LaVoy, Anchorage's The Hoons, and Chugiak's Wolf Electric.

John Smithson, the lead singer of Wolf Electric and writer of the band's songs, said several groups were asked for more press kits from the representatives, including those three bands.

For further evidence of this increased collaboration amongst Anchorage musicians, Smithson is in a relationship with Jenni May, lead singer for The Audio, a band featuring bassist Winston Montecillo -- who also happens to be a member of local acts Turquoise Boy and T.I.A. -- and guitarist Bill Tango, also of Kill Tango.

Smithson fits the profile of an indie musician, in skinny jeans, tousled hair and a black-and-blue plaid shirt. He drums his fingers on the table and talks at a fast clip -- declining a cup of coffee because he's "really caffeine sensitive" -- excited to share his own insights into the blossoming Anchorage indie collaborative.

"The indie music scene is really beginning to blossom for the first time -- I believe ever -- in Anchorage," Smithson said. "I've never seen Koot's that packed for local music, ever," as it was for the A&R show.

Smithson formed Wolf Electric late in 2010, after returning to Alaska following a long hiatus from the state for college and pursuing music in Seattle with his former band Mon Marie. He was playing solo shows at Chilkoot's when Fatguy, a DJ for KZND-FM, encouraged him to find a band and record some tracks. In December of last year, two months after the band had formed, they played their first show.

Smithson has obviously spent a lot of time contemplating music, and he says he spent months figuring out the band's "sound," or what kind of influences they wanted to tap and what they wanted to do on their own. He peppers in references to the musical stylings and philosophies of The Beatles, The Cure, and Death Cab for Cutie -- another artist with indie roots that has gone on to enjoy mainstream success.

When discussing what constitutes indie, Smithson, like many others, can't offer an exact definition.

"Just not sounding like top 40," Smithson defines it, "although top 40 is changing too."

That qualifier, that top 40 is changing, is key to realizing the increasing marketability of indie. With bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Arcade Fire and Phoenix -- hints of the latter can be heard in Wolf Electric -- "indie" is no longer a bad word in the music industry, be it at the local or the national level.

Longtime Anchorage act The Hoons list "indie rock" as their only genre on their Facebook page, although in years past they likely would have been called simply rock or alternative rock. Tyrell Tompkins, a member of LaVoy, has unabashedly referred to his band as "indie."

This reporter would consider it a stretch to call LaVoy indie, but perhaps as a testament to the ambiguous nature of the indie label -- and also to the resulting flexibility of the term for bands wishing to apply it to themselves -- Smithson refers to LaVoy as "the most indie band in Alaska."

"Listen again," he tells me when I say I don't consider LaVoy pure indie. "They're not even indie rock, they're art rock," Smithson said, then referring to Tompkins as a "purist."

But what is perhaps most unique about Smithson and Wolf Electric, outside of their sound, is Smithson's expression of desire to succeed from Alaska. He mentions that he's thought of traveling to California to tap into resources he has there (Smithson's sister is Universal Republic recording artist Kate Earl), but emphasizes that he would much rather succeed on his own, from Alaska if at all possible.

Sentiment like this is growing in Anchorage, with well-known Alaskan artist Marian Call having adopted Anchorage as her hometown, and now working to enhance the arts scene here.

ADVERTISEMENT

During Call's 2010 tour of shows in all 50 U.S. states, "I came to appreciate what we have in Anchorage, and what we could be," she said. "I'm really impressed by what we have in Anchorage, period."

Call also doesn't shy away from being referred to as partly, or even solely, indie. The label may be even more appropriate for her because acoustic singer-songwriters -- a relatively apt description of Call -- have long been associated with indie. She even goes a step further, calling herself "indie alternative never-gonna-get-signed-by-a-label."

Beyond just the local indie music scene, Call also said she's impressed with the shows that Anchorage has gotten in her time here.

"We get great traveling shows," Call said, "I'm always astounded by the caliber."

Several just-outside-the-mainstream indie acts figure into those high-caliber traveling shows over the next several months. St. Vincent -- whose album "Actor" was named among the best albums of 2009 by the mockably fickle (and notoriously indie) music news and review website Pitchfork -- plays April 15 at UAA's Wendy Williamson auditorium. Wolf Electric opens for both shows of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on June 8 and 9 at the Bear Tooth Theatre Pub. The Bear Tooth also just announced their May First Tap concert, featuring Portland indie-folk act The Builders and the Butchers, with LaVoy opening. And another Portland band, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside -- perhaps the most indie of the indie acts coming up -- are playing two Alaska shows in late May.

Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside have Alaska ties: Both drummer Ford Tennis and bass player Tyler Tornfelt are from the 49th state. Riding high after an acclaimed run at the popular alternative music festival South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, they play their first Alaska show at the Snow Goose Theatre two days after the release of their album, "Dirty Radio," on May 24.

"I have always told Jeff and Sallie about Alaska, so the adventure and sightseeing is incentive enough to go," Tornfelt said via email. "Since Ford and I are from Anchorage I think it is important to show your family some reasons for not going to college or having steady work. It's only when you're at the stage to fly all the way up to Alaska that my parents would hopefully feel a little better about the life path I've chosen. Plus the way people love music up there is so exciting and makes for great shows."

Similarly, the Builders and the Butchers feature several members of the Alaska diaspora, who just happened to meet up after traveling to Portland separately, form a band with their homestate companions, only to return to play a show following the recent release of their album "Dead Reckoning."

ADVERTISEMENT

There have been occasional indie acts playing Alaska shows over the years, among them the California-based Cold War Kids and solo artist Josh Ritter. But never has there been such a glut of indie acts, especially ones of near-mainstream caliber, set to play so close together. The reason for this confluence is partly coincidence (three of the four were booked by different production companies), but it seems to indicate an increased interest from indie acts in coming North for shows.

Mike McCormick, co-founder of Whistling Swan Productions -- responsible for bringing up Ritter in the past and for the upcoming Sallie Ford shows, among many others -- has a thick East Coast accent and a huge working knowledge of music. "I have a long, long relationship with music," he said.

McCormick said that in his decades of producing shows, indie has presented a unique challenge. It used to be a point of pride for a band to say "We don't do it the corporate way, we do it our own way" McCormick said. "But now, there's almost no choice to do it any other way." He noted the proliferation of home recording equipment: No longer does an artist have to tour and refine their sound to raise funds to produce an album; now they can produce an album and then begin to tour.

"What happens is as soon as you record an album," McCormick said, "the question becomes how do you market that album? All of a sudden, (the musician) has five or six jobs. It's hard to do those jobs. Sometimes you're holding down a day job. You have to build a structure to handle the things. Get someone to handle the business end, focus on the music."

Perhaps not surprisingly, both Smithson and Call, as musicians promoting themselves, share a similar sentiment.

"My job is basically secretarial," Call said. "I spend 90 percent of my time in front of a computer. 90 percent of the work right now for an indie musician is not music." She adds that just because an artist may burn out in this new model of the local music industry, that doesn't mean they didn't have what it takes as a musician.

"There are lots of amazing musicians with no business sense," she said. "And there are lots of people with business sense without much musical talent."

Smithson seems of a similar mind. He arrived late to our interview because he was coming from his day job (no hard feelings, John -- just making a point) and lamented that he couldn't afford to buy a synthesizer even though he had specifics in mind for one. He talks frequently about an artist's marketability, noting that just because someone has talent doesn't mean they'll succeed. He also talks about longevity, about making an act last, pointing out popular indie group The National, whose lead singer is 40 years old.

"How hard are you willing to work?" Smithson asked. "How wise are you willing to be with the choices that you make with the stylistic stuff you do? Every Anchorage band has the capability of being something more. The choices they make define everything."

"A long as the Anchorage music scene keeps developing more structure, as long as it compares itself on a national rather than a local level, the Anchorage music scene can absolutely strive and keep up with any (city)," Smithson said.

McCormick, with the benefit of years in Anchorage's local music scene, agrees. "We have the most robust indie scene I've ever seen in Anchorage," he said.

Omaha, steeped in Rust Belt disillusionment, spawned a brand of pensive indie rock that evolved into something broader when it hit the dreary gray forests of the Northwest and the indie scenes in Portland and Seattle.

ADVERTISEMENT

Alaska seems well suited to an indie scene, where hipsters would be out of place in a way worthy of culture shock, in an environment where it's dark and cold half the year and conducive to morose self-reflection. With artists like Call and Wolf Electric making footholds for themselves in Anchorage, and seemingly willing to put in the extra work that goes with being an indie musician, it appears that the Anchorage indie music scene is in good shape. With the benefit of continued momentum, it could indeed be world-class.

Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Ben Anderson

Ben Anderson is a former writer and editor for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

ADVERTISEMENT