It is I, Maris The Great! I shall begin this interview with Brandon only, the rest of the group shall now remain quiet! (Turns to Brandon and lowers his voice into a provocative growl) So…Brandon…you are the sexy bitch-mortal of the group. For all the girls and gay
zombies reading this…well, let’s just forget about the girls for the time being, please describe your wee wee in detail

BRANDON: (Laughs) Some things have to be left to the imagination Maris!

I have NO imagination, mortal!…Ahem!…Well then…let me ask you this – if your wee wee were a well known desert or type of candy, what kind would it be?

BRANDON: hmmmm…a cherry Icee!

How alluring… Would you pose nude for a gay magazine if it helped the
band move forward?

BRANDON: If a record deal was riding on it, I’d do just about
anything!

Really?…how sizzling, indeed. So, while I find it pathetic that you are so committed to becoming successful in a business suited more for my gay, undead, greatness, I am curious what type of toys you would have once you became such. Vibrating toys, perhaps?

Brandon: Cars, clothes, houses. I’d like to manufacture my one of a kind guitar that I use, (a
custom roland g707 from the 80’s) so many people have been buying them
recently that its insane! I get emails daily asking to sell mine, or
how I made them, or what paint I used etc. One day……

Yes…one day…you might all meet an untimely end! (Growls) So…I shall now address the entire group. How did this pathetic, mortal project come together?

OSCAR: Brandon, Bryan and myself were in a band together prior to The Anix. We liked the music, but didn’t care much for the singer (laughs). The music was similar, but the singer was like Steve Perry. It had started to get old. So Brandon started working on some new material, on the side, that required him to sing – something he had not done before. But he really stepped up to the plate and started to sing.

BRYAN: We had several line changes, played out in Hollywood for awhile and then had Chris come out and start playing bass for us the first of this year (2004). We’ve put out this album and things are going good. The core has always been the three of us (Brandon, Bryan and Oscar), but we’ve had to do a lot of line changes, do all sorts of different shows and promotions in Hollywood to get us where we are now.

What kind of mortal personalities does it take in order for a band to move forward?

BRANDON: We’ve learned that to actually make it to success, there can be zero ego – none at all. We get along with each other and accept constructive criticism. You can’t take anything personally. When we practice and someone says “you suck,” it’s just to better the band. With our band, the way we look is a big part of the whole thing as well, so we all make sure each other is keeping up with their appearance. For us, It’s the same thing as the music; it’s all meant to better the band.

BRYAN: I’ve been told several times I had to change my hairstyle (laughs). I’ve had to go through many image changes, definitely. I went from having the sides of my head shaved, to really long, fucking horns, to where I am now. We’ve all evolved from the way we look to the way we play.

Has anyone ever called you faggots before?

BRANDON: Im sure of it, especially since we wear make up occasionally, play with keyboards and
of course, don’t scream our asses off like every other band out
there.

How do you handle such bad audiences?

BRANDON: Ignore them!

What are the keys to becoming a success in the music business?

BRYAN: I think a lot of it has to do with pushing it, being driven and wanting it bad enough. This is all we want to do, all we ever talk about. To make it, the whole core has to be working at it and doing there own part.

The whole 80’s thing seems to be blowing up again. Your sound very unapologetically celebrates that era’s sound. Was that by accident or design?

BRANDON: When we started out, we heard all the music that was on the radio and on MTV and got sick of it. We just wanted to do something new. We’ve noticed all the bands that make it huge start out as outcasts and always have problems initially getting fans. They play shows for like, 5 people in the beginning. You see it with the bands that stick out and that’s the way it always starts. We’ve always loved this kind of music, having high tech equipment – stuff that no one else had. Ultimately, we didn’t care what anyone else thought when we did the CD. We were doing what we wanted to do and honestly didn’t care if anyone didn’t like it.

Yes, but people are liking it.

BRANDON: Yes.

How does it differ in L.A. as opposed to other towns you might tour to?

BRANDON: In L.A. it’s hard, only because there are so many bands. I mean, there is a band every other house. The thing we have going for us is that we are new and we stand out, so when we play, people listen. Whereas most other bands are either Punk, Metal or Emo, we stand out. At times, it make us nervous too, because we don’t know if we are going to get up on stage and have bottles thrown at us (laughs), but we always get a good response. When we come to places like Denver and play with ION (a Denver based band similar in sound and on the rise) we get a great response. I mean, the last time we were here we had cowboys coming up and buying our CD’s (laughs), metalheads…It was great.

Yes, mortals throughout Denver are still talking about you.

BRANDON: It’s really been great for us on tour. We’re getting a great response where ever we go.

Who was the musical frame of reference you used in creating your sound?

CHRIS: We all just grew up listening to stuff like Duran Duran. Most of us are inspired by groups by Depeche Mode. As we got older, we all listened to what everyone else was listening to: Bush, Nirvana and stuff like that. I guess it was just destined to come back to what we all enjoyed in the beginning.

Tell me about label response to The Anix

OSCAR: The response has been great. As soon as the CD came out, a month hadn’t gone by before major labels were contacting us. I’m talking about RCA, Columbia and Epic. We actually did a private show for Epic.

BRANDON: Some bands don’t like to do such showcases because they cost a lot of money to rent the studio. But for us, Epic set it all up. They contacted us, they paid for everything. It wasn’t in a club, it was in a private, rehearsal facility that huge bands rent out when they come into town. It was just us and a black leather couch for Epic. They were very cool to us and it was a lot of fun.

So let’s talk about the CD. Tell me what went into creating it

BRANDON: It was all recorded at my house. We have a Rolland, VS 1824
virtual studio that we just used as a mixer to run into a computer. I
think it’s so much easier doing it on your own. You’re not on anyone
else’s time; you can redo the tracks as many times as you like, until you get
it right. With our CD, it’s not the best it could be, but it’s definitely
what we had in mind. We got to mix it the way we wanted it to sound.

What criticisms have you received?

BRANDON: We’ve been told some of the vocals are too low, but we wanted them
that way. One band we look up to is 30 Seconds to Mars. We wanted our songs
to be mixed like theirs. The vocals on their songs are a little bit
back in the mix. We are all big on the musical part of the band. We’re not
big, “vocal” kind of people.

Speaking of such, how has the evolution of your presence as a vocalist come about?

BRANDON: I started off absolutely horrible. I kept finding vocalists I
looked up to and kept working at it. Martin Gore from Depeche Mode is an
influence as well as Gavin Rossdale and Jared Leto. I like the 80’s
sound, and of course Robert Smith.

What other influences?

CHRIS: Like I said before, I’ve always looked up to Depeche Mode. I think Martin Gore is a genius on keyboards. It’s what got me started. I also like The Birthday Massacre.

BRYAN: We’ve always liked a band like us called the faint. Also,
we’re really big into ION. The Killers came out and they are doing really
well. I like a lot of Synth music and I like a lot of the older stuff like
Tears For Fears and Duran Duran.

Any heavier bands?

BRYAN: Motley Crue had a big influence on how I play, as did Korn. I really like bands that have their own, unique style. Anybody that stands out is someone I usually like.

OSCAR: I really look up to Tommy Lee, just because of his showmanship and attitude. He just has a presence when he’s up on stage. One of my other favorite drummers is Phil Collins. He’s a great drummer and a great singer.

BRANDON: You know, I don’t have that many influences. We try to not let people influence us when we are making our songs so that we have our own sound. Of course, certain things will come along that we hear that spark an interest to incorporate it into our sound.

Every band evolves. What sound do you see The Anix evolving into?

BRANDON: I’ve talked to the guys before about doing a couple of songs that are pure keyboards – just really 80’s and cheesy. I’ve wanted to take a song, like maybe a Pop Punk song – something really catchy, and translating it into pure keyboards. We might then add a really cheesy drum sound. I think it would be cool

Where do would you like to see yourself six months from now?

BRYAN: Six months from now I really want to see this band grow in our live performance. I just want to see us get closer and closer to perfecting our sound.

BRANDON: The only thing I care about right now is going on the road
with ION. Of all the bands we’ve played with, they are the ones that we
have the greatest connection with. Noe, their lead singer, wants to do some
remixes of our songs. So many people have been great to us. We want to thank
our clothing sponsor Macht Apparel and In Tune Guitar Pics, for our custom Anix logo guitar picks.

And what about you, mortal Oscar?

OSCAR: Six months from now I want The Anix to be on a poster in Maris The Great’s bedroom wall (everybody laughs)